Melon-pult

Melon-pult is a lobbed-shot plant that lobs melons at incoming hordes of zombies. The melons deal splash damage on impact, hitting zombies within one square of the impact point. A direct hit from one of its melons deals 4 damage and deals 1.5 splash damage in a 2x2 area in Plants vs. Zombies, and 2 damage in a 3x3 area in Plants vs. Zombies 2, but it shoots half as often as a Peashooter. The Melon-pult can fire over the shields of Ladder Zombie, Screen Door Zombie, Trash Can Zombie, Newspaper Zombie, and Barrel Roller Zombie; damaging and killing them directly faster. It can also attack submerged Snorkel Zombies. Winter Melon is the third lobbed-shot plant in both Plants vs. Zombies and Plants vs. Zombies 2.

Both the Melon-pult's shape and projectile are based on Citrullus lanatus, the common watermelon. This is the last non-upgrade plant the player gains in Adventure Mode before the final level.

In Plants vs. Zombies
Melon-pult

Melon-pults do heavy damage to groups of zombies.

Damage: heavy

Range: lobbed

Special: melons damage nearby enemies on impact

Firing Speed: 1/2x

There's no false modesty with Melon-pult. "Sun-for-damage, I deliver the biggest punch on the lawn,"  he says. "I'm not bragging. Run the numbers. You'll see."

Cost: 300

Recharge: fast

In Plants vs. Zombies 2
Sun cost: 325

DAMAGE: Heavy

AREA: 3x3

RECHARGE: Fast

Melon-pults do heavy damage to groups of zombies.

Firing Speed: 1/2x

Range: lobbed

"Everyone says my head looks like a melon," said the middle child of the Pult family, "And they would be right." Don't ask him if he's seedless or not though, it offends him and frankly it's none of your business.

Plants vs. Zombies
In Plants vs. Zombies, Melon-pults can be upgraded into Winter Melons for 200 sun. It is done by placing a Winter Melon over an existing Melon-pult in accordance with player's choice. Winter Melons are effectively the same in terms of health and damage, but they can also freeze any and all zombies with their frozen melons.

Plant Food
When given Plant Food, the Melon-pult launches melons out from the top that deal triple the damage of a normal melon to all zombies and deal splash damage.

Level upgrade

 * Level 2
 * ???: Melon-pult has a 25% chance of lobbing two melons at two zombies each.
 * Combat Training: Melon-pult gains 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
 * Level 3
 * ???: Melon-pult has a 50% chance of lobbing two melons at two zombies each.
 * Cell Activation: Melon-pult gains another 50% attack power and health boost (200% of initial).
 * Level 4
 * Ability Awaken: Melon-pult may be boosted when planted.
 * Fighting Power: Melon-pult gains 150% more attack power and health (250% of initial).

Costumed
Plant Food ability can shoot fire melons that deal quadruple damage than those of normal melons.

Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars
Mortar: Lobs six watermelons at all enemies on the screen, needs Brave Plant Food to activate.

Strategies
Melon-pults can hit Newspaper Zombies, Screen Door Zombies, and Ladder Zombies over their shields, and Snorkel Zombies while they are underwater (like all lobbed-shot plants). When you are planning to use catapults, you might want to start with a cheap lobbed shot plant like the Cabbage-pult, and replace it with the Melon-pult later. It is quite useful on the Roof as well, since it (like the other lobbed shot plants) can shoot over the angle of the roof, in addition to being the strongest catapult plant not obtained from Crazy Dave. You should also consider upgrading it to a Winter Melon later, if possible, as all the zombies in range will also be slowed down. Also, supporting Melon-pults with Kernel-pults is very effective, as you can temporarily paralyze zombies with its butter attack while melons smack them on the face plus additional area-of-effect damage.

Comparing two Melon-pults to a Gatling Pea and a Torchwood: a pair of Melon-pults does only four peas of damage per second (actually it takes 1.4 seconds). Considering its splash damage, which is 1.5 peas per second in ideal conditions, its average damage per second per row would be, given a zombie density of one per square and no other rows, around seven. With a lower zombie density, this is much lower. A Gatling Pea and a Torchwood would do eight peas of damage per second, given a zombie density of one per square (and an extra four peas for each zombie on that square) while taking up the same space on the field. Also, the Gatling Pea and Torchwood combination (with the Repeater) takes up three slots in the seed tray. Given one normal zombie, which takes three melons to die, the two Melon-pults will do a meager four peas per second, and the Gatling Pea and Torchwood still deals eight peas per second. However, once upgraded to Winter Melon, it is almost unbeatable, with only one Winter Melon necessary to provide essentially double damage for the row and, to some extent, neighboring rows.

Thus, the trade off would be two extra slots in the seed slots for around four peas of damage per second per row (given one zombie) and 25 sun. Note that as more Gatling Peas are added, the damage gap increases and the sun gap decreases (and goes negative), though in Survival: Endless, the price of Gatling Peas will increase, while the Melon-pults do not. For example, with two Gatling Peas and a Torchwood versus three Melon-pults, the former does 16 peas of damage, and the later does 12 peas per second. However, as the zombie density increases, the Melon-pults quickly do much more damage per second, while the damage per second of the Gatling Peas increases much less. Also, as a Wall-nut, Tall-nut, or Pumpkin comes into play, the Gatling Peas become less effective, relatively speaking, as the zombies pile up on the same square and neighboring squares as well. Also, due to the roof's angle, the Gatling Pea strategy is useless on the Roof unless it is planted on the right side, but would still be considered highly dangerous.

In Survival: Endless, the zombie density is very high, so Melon-pults and Winter Melons are the way to go. However, it is generally Gloom-shrooms that are used instead, since they do four damage per second with area-of-effect.

You should consider using the Fire and Ice strategy. Plant a Gatling Pea with Torchwood and a Winter Melon for best defenses. The Poisonous Fire and Ice strategy would also earn you zombie heads by planting Gloom-shrooms protected with Pumpkins and Imitater Pumpkins on the next row. It would get you approximately 200 zombie kills per 30 seconds.

General

 * The Melon-pult's stem is different from the other two lobbed-shot plants. The stem between its head and basket is a spiral, while the Cabbage-pult has a bent one and the Kernel-pult has a zig-zag one.
 * The Melon-pult and Winter Melon have the biggest head among the lobbed-shot plants.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies

 * If a zombie is in front of the Melon-pult, the zombie will instantly be hit by the melon.
 * None of the other lobbed-shots do this unless the zombie is insanely close to the plant.
 * This is one of the only two plants that does heavy damage, the other being the Winter Melon.
 * At some point in the Zombies on Your Lawn music video, a melon is seen hitting a zombie. It is the part where Sunflower says "You're dead so it doesn't matter..."
 * But it only shoots its projectile, as the body is not shown. It is rather odd that in the music video, the melon is shot straight forwards like a pea, but in the game itself, it is thrown high up into the air.
 * In the old iPhone and Android versions of the game, Melon-pult is seen with no eyebrows, no leaves below, no catapult, and no stem in his seed packet, just a melon with eyes.
 * The melon is a fruit, while the upgrade's name, the Winter Melon, comes from a vegetable.
 * Technically, the actual winter melon is a fruit, though it is often classified as a vegetable.
 * Along with the Cob Cannon and Winter Melon, the Melon-pult is the only plant that can do more than one damage with one projectile.
 * Its recharge speed is very slow in Versus Mode.
 * Melon-pult, Winter Melon, Cherry Bomb, and Starfruit are the only fruits in the game.
 * Like the Cabbage-pult and the Kernel-pult, the basket of the Melon-pult looks like the top of an acorn.
 * It seems to lob projectiles faster in this game.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies 2

 * The Melon-pult now costs 325 sun, which is more than the original game.
 * The Melon-pult's projectile appears to get much larger after it is launched.
 * Unlike in Plants vs. Zombies, the Melon-pult's basket does not resemble the top of an acorn. Instead, it resembles a hollowed-out melon.
 * If a zombie is in front of the Melon-pult, the zombie will not instantly be hit by the melon, unlike in Plants vs. Zombies. The only time it will be hit by a melon instantly if it was a zombie taller than the Melon-pult itself.
 * When Melon-pult lobs its melons at zombies, they now spin in the air before hitting a zombie.
 * The Melon-pult is one of the 17 plants that can be used before their seed packet is obtained (excluding plants used in Piñata Parties), the others being the Threepeater, the Kernel-pult, the Coconut Cannon, Repeater, Lightning Reed, Sun-shroom, Puff-shroom, Lily Pad, Tangle Kelp, Bowling Bulb, Guacodile, Banana Launcher, Pepper-pult, Chard Guard, Stunion and Rotobaga.
 * The Melon-pult is the middle child of the pult family, as stated in its Almanac entry in Plants vs. Zombies 2. The Kernel-pult's Almanac entry in Plants vs. Zombies states that the Kernel-pult is the oldest brother.
 * Melon-pult's costume resembles a sailor's hat. In the Chinese version, it is like Mario's cap, albeit without the 'M' on the front.
 * Melon-pult appears out to shoot faster in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time rather in Plants vs. Zombies in the trailer of the former and the game itself in the latter. It could be simply a nod about the weakness of this plant and Winter Melon.