Dartichoke

*Dartichokes fire high-damage darts down the lane, prioritizing especially dangerous zombies such as Wizards, Octo Zombies, and Fishermen.*

### Special

Each shot has a chance to do critical damage

### Usage

Has a limited supply of darts, then must recharge

## In-game statistics

### Average DPS

Normal: 56.216/39.245
Worst luck: 40/28.571
Best luck: 94.118/64

### PDE

Normal: 80.108/55.925
Worst luck: 57/40.714
Best luck: 134.118/91.2

### Codename alias

dartichoke

**“Why waste shots on foot soldiers when you can win the battle with one well-chosen dart to the dome?” wonders Dartichoke. “Why would you do it? Why would ANYONE do it?”**

**Dartichoke** is a premium plant in *Plants vs. Zombies 2: Reflourished*. She costs 75 gems to purchase.

She fires high-damage darts that deal 80 damage at zombies every 1.7-2 seconds, prioritizing certain dangerous targets. She also has a 30% chance to shoot a blue dart that does 160 critical damage. After shooting all 10 darts, she will recharge for 8 seconds to reload another batch of darts.

## Almanac entry

**Dartichoke**

Dartichokes fire high-damage darts down the lane, prioritizing especially dangerous zombies such as Wizards, Octo Zombies, and Fishermen.

Special: each shot has a chance to do critical damage
Usage: has a limited supply of darts, then must recharge
Highest Priority Targets: Turquoise Skull Zombie, Z-Mech, #caketank, Boombox Zombie, Wizard Zombie, Dark Summoner Zombie, Octo Zombie, Fisherman Zombie, ZCorp Consultant, Egg Stealer Imp, Professor Brainstorm, Newspaper Zombie, Barrel Zombie, Jurassic Rockpuncher, Breakdancer Zombie, and MC Zom-B

“Why waste shots on foot soldiers when you can win the battle with one well-chosen dart to the dome?” wonders Dartichoke. “Why would you do it? Why would ANYONE do it?”

## Priority list

1Unless they are grounded, in which case they are tertiary priorities.

2Until they drop the zombie they are carrying. Carried zombie is not prioritized.

3Only until his speaker is destroyed. Will not be prioritized after speaker is destroyed.

4Only when on his chair. Will not be prioritized after being catapulted.

## Plant Food effect

When given Plant Food, Dartichoke will spin and shoot 10 critical blue darts at random zombies in front of her on the lawn. If there aren't any zombies in her said range, she will fire 31 - 32 darts in a spiral pattern, damaging any zombies or obstacles they hit.

## Strategies

Among other single-target plants, Dartichoke is unique in that she specializes in dispatching special zombies over basic zombie types, using her high DPS to help dispatch them before they can leave a dent on your defense; a great asset when unable to use specific plant counters. However, her lack of group damage and her need to periodically reload make Dartichoke difficult to use alone.

Notably, Dartichoke's performance is also heavily hinged on a combination of timing and luck. Critical hits deal significantly more damage than regular hits, making Dartichoke incredibly powerful during lucky streaks with multiple crits. However, it is also possible to get no crits at all, leading to weak overall damage. While her damage is quite efficient when loaded (even when getting no critical hits), having to periodically reload reduces her overall damage output and leaves an opening for special zombies to potentially wreak havoc.

A great strategy involving Dartichoke is to pair her with multi-hit and area-of-effect plants like Bloomerang and Laser Bean. With the latter able to quickly weed out low health zombies, the former can focus on destroying special zombies without worrying about being overrun; afterwards, Dartichoke can also act as single target damage for dealing with standard targets like Buckethead Zombie and Brickhead Zombie. Generally speaking, it also pays to have access to offensive plants that can continue attacking zombies as Dartichoke is reloading.

With Dartichoke working against practically all types of special zombie, she can be especially useful in levels that involve several types of dangerous special zombies that would be difficult to answer with dedicated, counter-picked plants. In situations that only involve a few dangerous special zombies, though, it may sometimes be more convenient to use their specific plant counters, which will also often be a lot cheaper - ranging from Draftodil's lane-wide slowdown, to Magnet-shroom instantly destroying certain targets, to Blover clearing the board for cheap.

If the level's special zombies are already manageable by using plants other than Dartichoke, then consider instead bringing other heavy plants like Dazey Chain and Citron, as they usually have a higher damage output, have other desirable special effects, or can deal with tankier zombies better.

## Balance changes

### Initial launch

* ▲ +4 ammo
* ▼ +75 Sun
* ▼ +1.5 second recharge
* ▼ -5 damage
* ▼ -20 critical damage
* Has new priority list including new Zombies from this mod

#### Not listed in changelog

* ▲ +4 Plant Food darts in initial PF effect
* ▲ Electrocutes defeated zombies

#### Listed but not implemented

* ▲ Normal Damage: 70 -> 80
* ▲ Critical Damage: 80 -> 140

### Version 1.1.2

* ▲ Normal Damage: 70 -> 80
* ▲ Critical Damage: 80 -> 160
	+ Developer Note: Dartichoke's stats were incorrect for the entire game's launch due to an oversight, and this has been fixed as a result, alongside a slight bonus to her crit damage for having to endure the suffering.

## Trivia

* Dartichoke's "Broom-Dancer" costume is based on Amanda O'Neill, one of the main supporting characters of *Little Witch Academia*. The name of the costume is based on Amanda being capable of dancing while riding her broom.