Noctarine

*Noctarines are shadow plants that explode and create clouds of damaging gas.*

**For a plant churning with internal gases, Noctarine's opinions are shockingly conventional. "Jaws is a good movie," he says. Like, NO KIDDING, Noctarine!**

**Noctarine** is a plant in *Plants vs. Zombies 2: Reflourished* and the sixth plant obtained in Modern Day. He is unlocked at Modern Day - Day 40.

Noctarine is an instant-use plant that can be planted on any tile that isn't obstructed by an obstacle, including on top of other plants. He explodes upon planting, creating a cloud of gas in a 3x3 area for 13 seconds; the gas multiplies damage dealt by other shadow plants to zombies inside by 1.5, and also deals 40 damage per second to those zombies except for the following:

* Treasure Yeti
* Bandit Zombie
* Egg Stealer Imp
* Rock Carrier Zombie
* Kid Zombie
* Kid Conehead Zombie
* Kid Buckethead Zombie
* Legohead Zombie
* Kid Flag Zombie
* Repairimp
* Reanimator Zombie

Alongside said gas, Noctarine also produces a shadow aura that is able to power shadow plants similarly to Moonflower.

In addition to being able to power shadow plants, Noctarine is a shadow plant himself. When Noctarine is powered by plants such as, Moonflower, Gloom Vine, or even other Noctarines, the gas cloud he creates lasts for 16 seconds, multiplies other shadow plants' damage by 2.1, deals 80 damage per second and causes zombies to have a 25% chance to explode themselves, dealing 10% damage of zombies' max health in a 3x3 area. In addition to the probability, the explosion trigger condition also requires that the zombie's health is equal to or less than twice the damage of the gas cloud.

## Almanac entry

**Noctarine**

Noctarines are shadow plants that explode and create clouds of damaging gas.

Usage: single use, instant
Special: Noctarine gas can power shadow plants
Special: powered Noctarine gas slows zombies
Special: powered Noctarine gas can create exploding zombies

For a plant churning with internal gases, Noctarine's opinions are shockingly conventional. "Jaws is a good movie," he says. Like, NO KIDDING, Noctarine!

## Strategies

Noctarine is a very unique instant-use plant compared to many others. Instead of dishing out incredible damage immediately, he chips down zombies with an ever-lasting shadowy aura, dealing constant damage per second in his gas cloud. Although one Noctarine alone can just barely fail to kill a Conehead Zombie, a majority of special zombies have less health, making him a modest way to filter out weaker zombies from large hordes. High power, single target plants like Citron and Witch Hazel directly benefit from this, exposing high health targets to massive amounts of damage.

However, Noctarine possesses an additional use in his ability to boost the damage of shadow plants. Any zombies in Noctarine's gas cloud receives a 1.5x damage multiplier against shadow plants, greatly empowering them to deal serious damage to the zombies therein. Dusk Lobber and Shadow Peashooter can clean up hordes much more easily, Murkadamia Nut has much more efficient damage reflection, and the melee damage of Nightshade can be powerful enough to fell most mechanised zombies. This synergy is more powerful when more shadow plants are deployed in larger numbers, so keep in mind that Noctarine's true effectiveness will be influenced by the current strength of your main defense. Combined with Noctarine's basic damage as a standalone instant-use plant, he is much more difficult to use as a clutch when compared to more concentrated and instantaneously powerful options like Squash, Ghost Pepper and Cherry Bomb.

Like any other shadow plant, Noctarine can also be powered to upgrade its proficiency as an instant-use plant. With doubled cloud damage and the possibility for effectively turning zombies into bombs, powered Noctarines are much more respectable for clearing out zombie hordes on their own - even a Buckethead Zombie can be almost entirely defeated with a single powered Noctarine. Other shadow plants benefit too, with a 2.1x damage multiplier that can allow a Grimrose or Nightshade to single-handedly destroy a Gargantuar (discounting the additional damage from Noctarine himself). If luck is on Noctarine's side, high health targets like mechanised zombies and Gargantuars can be detonated for a strong burst of damage to other zombies in the gas cloud. However, this circumstance requires a high level of damage to bring these targets to a weak enough state to explode - and even then, the zombies can be easily destroyed before obtaining a lucky payoff.

When it comes to powering Noctarine, there are two recommended options. Gloom Vine can realise Noctarine's powered form for only a fraction of the cost. Meanwhile, Imitater can provide a second copy of Noctarine that can be powered by the first (imitated Noctarine can also be used to provide a lawn-wide effect of multiplied shadow damage). It is generally ill-advised to use Moonflower to power Noctarine, as the cost will be higher than when using Gloom Vine for the same purpose.

One niche use for Noctarine's cloud is to utilize Tar tiles in Jurassic Marsh. If planted on one, the cloud will become permanent, providing power to nearby shadow plants until the end of the level - handy in a hostile world that can quickly overtake the fragile Moonflower. This is at the cost of the cloud not dealing any damage, however.

## Balance changes

### Version 1.1

* ▲ Sun Cost: 150 -> 100
* ▲ Now plantable on top of other plants

### Version 1.1.2

* ▲ Unpowered Gas Duration: 10.5s -> 13s
* ▲ Powered Gas Duration: 15.5s -> 16s
	+ Developer Note: A large amount of Noctarine's jank has been fixed for (hopefully) the time being, and his gas now lingers for just a bit longer overall, to really incentivize using him outside of shadow decks.

## See also

### Shadow plants

* Moonflower
* Nightshade
* Shadow-shroom
* Dusk Lobber
* Grimrose
* Murkadamia Nut
* Shadow Peashooter
* Gloom Vine