Witch Hazel

*Witch Hazel uses magical sorcery to transform zombies into Puff-shrooms.*

**Witch Hazel paused, unsure how to proceed. Then, all at once, she knew: Use magic, like, ALL THE TIME!**

**Witch Hazel** is a plant in *Plants vs. Zombies 2: Reflourished* and the seventh plant obtained in Dark Ages. She is unlocked at Dark Ages - Night 27.

Witch Hazel zaps the leftmost zombie in front of her along three adjacent lanes, transforming them into a Puff-shroom. Against Gargantuars, Rock Carrier Zombies, Kid Zombies and other magic-immune zombies, the magic bolt instead does 1200 damage and will not spawn a Puff-shroom when successfully defeating the target. Afterwards, she takes 20 seconds to recharge her attack. Witch Hazel always prioritizes Wizard Zombies, regardless of distance.

## Almanac entry

**Witch Hazel**

Witch Hazel uses magical sorcery to transform zombies into Puff-shrooms.

Special: targets Wizard Zombies first

Witch Hazel paused, unsure how to proceed. Then, all at once, she knew: Use magic, like, ALL THE TIME!

## Plant Food effect

When fed with Plant Food, Witch Hazel will transform the closest two zombies from the house into Toadstools, but will deal 2400 damage if the targets are un-transformable. If there are any Wizard Zombies in her range, then she will target them instead. Witch Hazel's attack recharge doesn't get interrupted by the effect.

## Strategies

Witch Hazel's ability to instantly transform and destroy almost any type of zombie makes her incredibly useful for shutting down any high health targets, such as Knight Zombie, Brickhead Zombie and Mecha-Football Zombie. The Puff-shrooms she create can be useful for dealing extra damage while distracting zombies that may eventually eat them. While some zombies such as Gargantuars cannot be transformed, her ability to deal 1200 damage to non-transformable targets allows her to remain a great offensive unit against them, having much greater overall damage output compared to standard attacking plants.

Transforming zombies also allows Witch Hazel to bypass abilities that trigger based on health degradation or on defeat. For example, Chicken Wrangler Zombie and Weasel Hoarder will be transformed without releasing their critters and Imp Porter will not drop his pack.

However, Witch Hazel isn't without weaknesses, the most notable being her tendency to waste attacks on low health targets. This can happen more easily than with other similar single target, instant-kill plants like Chomper and Toadstool due to her range being expanded over three adjacent lanes. She also only targets zombies in front of her, meaning she can't be used to catch zombies like Prospector Zombie when they flank the defense, unless planted in the very first column.

Witch Hazel's reliance on single target attacks also leads to her lacking the ability to deal with larger hordes. This can be dealt with using multi-hit or area-of-effect plants such as Bloomerang and Laser Bean, who may also serve to take out low health zombies that would otherwise waste Witch Hazel's transformation attacks.

Witch Hazel will always prioritise Wizard Zombie over other targets, making her a decent counter if struggling against them in a level. However, this may be undesirable if Witch Hazel is needed to destroy other zombies that either have more health or are otherwise more difficult to deal with. Depending on the level, it may be wise to instead use Dartichoke against Wizard Zombies, as she is able to dispatch them more quickly, at least for as long as her ammo is loaded.

## Balance changes

### Initial launch

* ▼ +50 Sun
	+ Not listed in the changelogs
* ▼ +1 second cooldown between attacks
* ▼ +10 second recharge

### Version 1.1.4

* ▼ Casting Time: 17s -> 20s
* ▼ Recharge: 40s -> 45s
* Target audience: General
	+ Developer note: Witch Hazel and Void Orchid were both fine plants on their own but when compared together, it became clear that Witch Hazel was just a hair overtuned in terms of effectiveness, in particular outshining Void Orchid in terms of recharge and fire rate. We determined it necessary to tune both the recharges and casting speeds for both so they may be on equal footing.

### Version 1.2.1

* ▲ Plant Food Targets: 1 -> 2
	+ Developer note: With four vastly underwhelming Plant Food effects, comes four bountiful buffs to spice up how you defend your lawn.

## Trivia

* The Di$pirited Dam$el costume is a reference to Ashley, a character from the *WarioWare* series.