Strawburst

"Tap the Strawburst to fire. Strawburst's berry grows over time."

- Penny

Strawburst is a special-edition premium lobbed-shot plant in Plants vs. Zombies 2 that could be bought for a limited time during the Summer Nights event (both 2015 and 2016). Strawburst also made a brief return during the Food Fight Piñata Party and was available in stores during the 2016 Valenbrainz event.

As its description states, Strawburst has three types of damage depending on how long the player waits for its berry to grow. Upon contact with zombies, the initial small berry deals 10.05 regular damage to a single zombie, the medium berry deals 20 regular damage to a tile-full of zombies, and the largest berry deals 45 regular damage in a 3x3 area. Another useful thing about Strawburst is the fact that he can damage zombies when they get really close to him.

It takes Strawburst 10 seconds to grow from small to medium, and 15 seconds to grow from medium to big. After firing a berry of any size, it needs 8 seconds to regrow. This means the total time between firing a berry and it growing back to a big berry is 33 seconds. So with some patience, your Strawburst will be a real damage dealer!

Origins
Strawburst is based on the widely cultivated red fruit strawberry, belonging in the Fragaria genus. Its name is a portmanteau of "strawberry" and "burst." Being a verb, burst means "to break from internal pressure"; therefore, it refers to how Strawburst's berries explode, or rather burst on contact with the zombies. Visually, it is presented as an upside-down strawberry. It might also be a reference to starbursts, since it was introduced in a summer-themed event.

Almanac entry
Sun cost: 400

DAMAGE: Huge AREA: 3x3 RECHARGE: Fast

Strawburst grows a berry for small, medium or huge damage!

Usage: tap to fire

"Big is good," says Strawburst. "Though small's pretty choice as well. And you should never discount medium. I just like sizes, really."

Plant Food effect
When fed with Plant Food, Strawburst will instantly grow to full size and laugh as a huge strawberry drops from the sky, which explodes after 5 seconds and deals 20 normal damage shots to all zombies on the lawn while Strawburst grins at the carnage.

Strategies
Strawburst draws potency from both its various modes of firing and its large splash radius: The small strawberries allow the player to neutralize weak threats early on without having to wait for long like other controllable plants; the medium strawberries can quickly destroy large amounts of zombies as long as they are not tougher than Conehead Zombie; and the large strawberries are capable of immense damage capability, rival even Cob Cannon and easily forcing even Gargantuars off the map. This power, however, comes with a massive 400 sun price tag, making Strawburst not the most practical choice in normal level. Strawburst is also particularly vulnerable to ambushes - not even Infi-nut's force field will prevent it from exploding, and Endless Zones with constant ambushes such as Pyramid of Doom, Tiki Torch-er, and Icebound Battleground make it a hard time for Strawburst.

Another thing to note is that of the three berries, only the small one can be deflected or blocked. This makes Strawburst a reasonable choice against threats such as Jester Zombie, Excavator Zombie, and Parasol Zombie as long as the player is patient enough to wait for the medium or large berry.

Strawburst can also be used in conjunction with Power Tiles naturally occurring in Far Future or generated by Tile Turnip. While not as potent as Melon-pult or Winter Melon against many zombies, particularly in higher Endless Zone levels, a group of boosted Strawburst can still deal massive amounts of damage and clear the screen of most threats. The Plant Food will also grow Strawburst instantly to the last stage, so remember to fire it before boosting.

Its Plant Food effect can be used if there is a large swarm of zombies because it does large amounts of damage to every zombie on the screen. This makes it particularly useful in Endless Zones, as previously mentioned because zombies regularly hoard the screen in higher levels. However, Shadow-shroom also has a similar ability that does more damage to every zombie on screen.

Trivia

 * Strawburst's growth stages resemble an unripe, ripening, and ripe strawberry.
 * Strawburst is the only plant with seven different attack methods; three different berry damages, three different self-explosion damages based on which size berry it is, and its Plant Food effect.
 * In Last Stand levels and Piñata Parties with pre-planted Strawbursts, Strawbursts always start with the small berry when the player waits during setup regardless of time, and medium one when the level commences.
 * When placed right behind an undamaged tombstone, the first berry launched will hit the tombstone, even if there is a zombie in its lane.
 * Spore-shroom suffers the same problem.
 * Regardless of what stage it was in when defeated, Intensive Carrot will always revive the Strawburst to its on-planting stage.
 * This is also the same with other plants which have multiple stages such as Sun-shroom.
 * Strawburst was shown in the Food Fight trailer for 2015 but was not available until the end of the Food Fight Piñata Parties.
 * This and Sergeant Strongberry are the only plants based on strawberries.
 * Of these, only Strawburst is from the main series of Plants vs. Zombies games.
 * According to the credits, the Strawburst is voiced by Scott Porterfield.
 * In version 5.0.1, when there are no zombies in its lane, the Strawburst will land on the leftmost tile of the lane instead of flying offscreen like in previous versions.