Primal Potato Mine


 * For the present day variant, see Potato Mine.

 is the fifth and final plant obtained in Jurassic Marsh in Plants vs. Zombies 2. It is the primal version of Potato Mine. It explodes in a 3x3 area, takes 5 seconds to arm itself, and deals 120 normal damage shots to any zombie, but costs 50 sun instead of 25.

Origins
Like its modern counterpart, is based on the real life potato, the starchy, tuberous root portion of the plant Solanum tuberosum. Its name is a combination of "potato" and "land mine", an explosive device concealed under or on the ground designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks.

Unlike Potato Mine's word on the speech bubble, which is "SPUDOW!" when it explodes, 's is "SPUD OOP!!", a portmanteau of "spud" and "oop!".

Almanac entry
Sun cost: 50

s cost more than regular Potato Mines, but they arm more quickly and do damage over a larger area.

DAMAGE: Massive

AREA: Moderate

RECHARGE: Sluggish

Usage: single use, delayed activation

Range: affects area around it

doesn't consider himself to be primal. As far as he's concerned he's state-of-the-art. And who knows? Maybe he is.

Plant Food effect
When given Plant Food, will instantly arm itself (even if it is not fully armed) and will create two new and fully armed s on two random tiles, similar to its modern counterpart's plant food ability.

Strategies
is a significantly improved version of its modern counterpart, as its positive attributes can easily outweigh the slightly increased sun cost. Compared to Potato Mine's blast radius, is nine times as large and can cover up to three lanes at once, allowing  to control the crowd much more easily as well as destroy obstacles such as tombstones and frozen blocks. In addition, suffers very little from its counterpart's arming time problem, and can be planted one space ahead of the zombies with the help of slowing plants. These factors combined makes a highly useful plant both for offense and defense. Stunion and this plant make a great combo as the Stunion stops the zombies whilst the arms.

In Far Future, Primal Potato Mines can destroy any mechanized zombies instantly within their damage area. Using this in Terror from Tomorrow levels is recommended for stopping huge waves of mechs. The only zombie to watch out for is Gargantuar Prime as they require 2 hits from the mine to be defeated.

In Neon Mixtape Tour the player can pair it with Thyme Warp to defeat a large horde of zombies if used properly. Plant two s on the second and fourth column, then pile up the zombies by using a Thyme Warp. Using this strategy can hugely decrease the amount of zombies present on the lawn, it can even defeat Hair Metal Gargantuars. Using this strategy has no problem in terms of sun cost, as both plants have a cheap cost. The thing to worry about is the recharge time of both plants, as both plants do not have fast recharge. Also, take note not to place the s too near or too far from the zombies, as putting them too near may end to them being eaten or prematurely activated and putting them too far may decrease the amount of defeated zombies as some zombies are significantly faster than others.

Trivia

 * Defeating seven zombies with a single Primal Potato Mine will give the player the Bash Potato achievement.
 * Its flashing spines on top resemble a stegosaurus'. The light they flash runs from the head spine to the fourth back spine, then the cycle repeats.
 * Its abilities may have been based on a past glitch of Potato Mine, where it was able to blow up tombstones and surfboards in a 3x3 area around it.
 * It will not be crushed by frozen blocks and arcade machines, but instead will explode when armed due to a glitch.
 * Regardless of what stage it was in when defeated, Intensive Carrot will always revive the Primal Potato Mine to its on-planting stage. The same applies for Potato Mine, Pea Pod, Sun-shroom, Strawburst, Escape Root, and Kiwibeast.