Turquoise Skull Zombie

Turquoise Skull Zombie is a zombie encountered in Lost City. In a similar manner to Ra Zombie, he steals sun, but can also use his turquoise-colored skull to burn the player's plants up to four tiles in front of him. The zombie does not need sun in order to do the latter. If he manages to steal sun from the player, the beam's range will be increased and the sun will not be returned to the player when the zombie dies, unlike Ra Zombie.

Almanac entry
TOUGHNESS: Solid SPEED: Basic

Uses skull to steal sun, then unleashes energy in a destructive beam.

Unlike the more famous crystal skulls, turquoise skulls are non-mysterious and common as dirt.

Overview
Turquoise Skull Zombie absorbs 12 normal damage shots and degrades upon absorbing 6 normal damage shots before dying at 12 normal damage shots.

Appearances
Player's House: Piñata Party

Lost City: Days 27, 29, 30, 31, 32 and Temple of Bloom

Modern Day: Days 17, 34, and Highway to the Danger Room (portal only)

Strategies
The instant kill abilities of Turquoise Skull Zombie can quickly become a problem, especially in Temple of Bloom, when he is accompanied by a group of Buckethead Adventurer Zombies, Excavator Zombies, Parasol Zombies, or worse, Porter Gargantuars.

The main weakness of this zombie is his own ability to steal sun, as it keeps him from being overpowered. As he will always try to steal sun before burning the plants in front of him, the player should focus on killing him. If more expensive plants are close to Turquoise Skull Zombie and he has not been killed yet, it is perhaps best to dig the plants up. Turquoise Skull Zombie, however, only uses his attack when plants are in close range; therefore, if the player removes plants from its range or he is far away, he cannot use the attack. Also, unlike zombies such as Gargantuar Prime, Wizard Zombie, and Octo Zombie, their attacks do not stack up and can be effectively stalled, akin to Jester Zombie, Hunter Zombie, and Excavator Zombie.

Guacodile can help stop these zombies, as they begin to rush when Turquoise Skull Zombie shoots them with his laser. Ghost Pepper can also be useful to defeat this zombie and a group of Lost City zombies. Kernel-pult may be useful to stop these zombies, but only when you have two or three columns of them. Spikeweed or Spikerock could be useful, as his beams cannot destroy those plants. One attack from Magnifying Grass will instantly kill one of them.

Infi-nut can be useful as a defensive plant against this zombie because, unlike other defensive plants, Infi-nut can recover once shot by the laser of the Turquoise Skull Zombie. It is not recommended to use Infi-nut's Plant Food ability, as its force field can be easily destroyed by this zombie.

Trivia

 * Turquoise Skull Zombie bears a strong resemblance to Archimedes Q. Porter from Tarzan and Dr. John Hammond from Jurassic Park.
 * The skull used by Turquoise Skull Zombie is most likely a reference to the crystal skull in the Indiana Jones movie Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
 * This is further proven by its Almanac entry, which references crystal skulls.
 * Despite stealing sun, Turquoise Skull Zombie still appears in Lost City - Day 32 and certain Special Delivery Piñata Parties. This is because he does not need sun to attack.
 * However, he does need sun to expand the laser beam's attack range, so that it can attack further plants.
 * Sun about to be stolen by this zombie becomes blue instead of red, unlike the color of Ra Zombie's sun.
 * Turquoise Skull Zombie can kill hypnotized Gargantuars in one shot.
 * Unlike when killed by Explorer Zombie's torch, an Infi-nut hologram will be "burned" but the projector will stay if it gets hit by the laser beam.
 * Turquoise Skull Zombie deals the most damage to plants, with over 200, even more than the longer-ranged laser of a Gargantuar Prime. Therefore, he can destroy Infi-nut's shield even at full health.
 * Along with Mecha-Football Zombies, Glitter Zombies, MC Zom-B (when their jam playing) and Dr. Zomboss, Turquoise Skull Zombies are the only zombies able to destroy an Infi-nut's shield in one hit.
 * The beam created by Turquoise Skull Zombie is similar to Gargantuar Prime's laser.
 * He is similar to Explorer Zombie, as they both burn plants and have the same health.
 * However, Turquoise Skull Zombie, along with Gargantuar Primes, do not bring fiery objects with them that needs to come in contact with a plant to burn it. Rather, they both use lasers to incinerate targets from a farther, safer range.
 * His walking animation is the same as Ra Zombie's and Boombox Zombie's.
 * He is slightly smaller in size than regular zombies.
 * The skull loosely resembles the mosaic mask of Quetzalcoatl.
 * Unlike Ra Zombie, Turquoise Skull Zombie's eyes don't turn red from stealing sun.

Зомби с бирюзовым черепом