Sweet Potato

Sweet Potato is a special-edition plant that appeared in the 3.0.1 update of Plants vs. Zombies 2. It attracts zombies from other lanes to its lane when zombies are nearing an 1x3 area in front of it. Like Ghost Pepper, Homing Thistle, Fire Peashooter and Dandelion, it costs 109 gems to purchase it. It has the equivalent health of a Wall-nut. It was removed from the store on December 3, 2014.

Sweet Potato and other special-edition plants came back in the Luck O' The Zombie event. They were available for purchase from March 11, 2015 until March 24, 2015.

Almanac entry
TOUGHNESS: High RECHARGE: Sluggish

Sweet Potatoes attract zombies from other lanes when they are close by.

Sweet Potato really is as sweet as she looks. Her favorite animal is the unicorn. Her favorite color is (and this is a direct quote) "all the colors in the rainbow." When she writes the letter "i", she draws a little heart where the dot belongs. Frankly, if it were anyone else, this amount of syrup would be sickening. But on her, well, it just seems right.

Plant Food
When given Plant Food, it fully heals itself and attracts all zombies in a 4x3 area around it. During this period, love hearts will radiate off it and it will hop up and down while squealing excitedly. In the Chinese version, it will just be invincible for a while.

Level upgrade

 * Level 2
 * ???: Sweet Potato has 20% more health (170% of initial).
 * Combat Training Sweet Potato has 50% more health (150% of initial).
 * Level 3
 * ???: Sweet Potato has another extra 40% health (190% of initial).
 * Cell Activation Sweet Potato has another 50% health (240% of initial).
 * Level 4
 * Ability Awaken: Sweet Potato can be boosted sometimes when planted.
 * Fighting Power: Sweet Potato has 150% more health (250% of initial, 290% if counting special abilities).

Costumed
Sweet Potato's Plant Food ability can fully heal it now.

Strategies
Sweet Potato gives you ample time to set up your defense, as it can attract zombies into a well-guarded lane. It is especially useful for grouping enemies from three lanes together into a position where they are attacked all at once, such as by Banana Launchers, Winter Melons, Spikerocks, or even Potato Mines placed behind it. Snapdragons are also effective as up to eight can be arranged around the Sweet Potato (including two flanking it) to pummel all the zombies amassed together, destroying them quickly.

Since Sweet Potato is also in the same defensive class such as Wall-nuts, they can be healed by Wall-nut First Aid, and their Plant Food ability will fully heal them in addition to drawing in zombies, including some behind it (though Plant Food will not buff their defense, unlike with other defensive plants).

Its main drawback is its high sun cost, which can be problematic when sun is short supply or when around enemies with instanty-killing abilities such as Fisherman Zombies. A mob of zombies brought in from other lanes can also kill a Sweet Potato very quickly if they are not dealt with. A few zombies are also immune to being attracted by it, such as Jetpack Zombies and Zombie Bulls.

Arming your lanes with Homing Thistles may also be a good idea until your sun budget permits them to purchase a Sweet Potato. Placing a Sweet Potato on the second and fourth row would create a effective defense with the least amount of Sweet Potatoes possible.

A good strategy with Sweet Potato is to feed Infi-nut Plant Food to summon a barrier since it can still attract zombies while inside the barrier; this strategy is useful when you want to keep your Sweet Potatoes alive against Fisherman Zombies and other zombies, since the attracted zombies will have to chew through the barrier before getting to the Sweet Potatoes, but be aware of Zombie Parrots, Mecha-Football Zombies, and Surfer Zombies because parrots can steal them even if there is a Force Field, Mecha-Football Zombies push the plants with no problem, and Surfer Zombies can crush them with their Surfboard.

Never use Sweet Potato in attracting Prospector Zombies in Big Bad Butte because it is so slow that it has to be attracted just close enough to Sweet Potato, leaving you susceptible to the rear-most rows and columns. Hence, Blovers are still the best way of sterlizing them. Place Sweet Potatoes instead in either up-middle-down columns where there is one on the top, one on the middle, and one on the bottom though this may buy you some time in doing this at higher levels and instead of placing them on the said positions, you place them at the second and fourth columns rather, leaving you a 300 sun profit. (They can be placed regardless of rows.) It has also been proven that by placing these on the third column can keep the thrown Imps attention diverted to Sweet Potatoes so this tactic makes an efficient delivery in handling risks of being susceptible to horde because as long as Sweet Potatoes are one-square apart in the third column, they can constantly attract all Imps thrown at a certain square where no Sweet Potato is placed and can be used to snare down rapid-pacing of Zombie Chickens (by placing a Spikerock or a Spikeweed adjacent to Sweet Potatoes) and Zombie Bulls.

Sweet Potato is useful in Frostbite Caves levels with slider tiles on the first and fifth columns, or two sliders pointing the same direction on the first and second columns or the fourth and fifth columns. That way you only need one Sweet Potato to group most of the zombies in the center of the lawn. Just be sure to replace and unfreeze the Sweet Potato when necessary.

Trivia

 * This and Threepeater are the only plants in Plants vs. Zombies 2 with a sun cost of 300.
 * It squeaks randomly whenever it is shown, examples being during a level or in the almanac.
 * The brown area on its body appears to be the brown peel of the real life sweet potato.
 * It is the opposite of Garlic, as Garlic repels zombies while Sweet Potato attracts them.
 * However, the zombies do not have to eat Sweet Potato to change lanes, unlike Garlic.
 * It is the third potato based plant in the whole series, the others being Potato Mine, Imitater, and Hot Potato.
 * Sweet Potato is not actually a potato. In New Zealand it is called Kūmara, which is the sister plant to the Potato.
 * Ironically, most sweet potatoes are actually poisonous once it grows the sprout. Furthermore, Sweet Potatoes have a heart shaped leaf on their primary plant, and hearts come off the Sweet Potato when using Plant Food.
 * Jetpack Zombie, Disco Jetpack Zombie, Zombie Bull, Zombie King, Imp Cannon, Fisherman Zombie, and Barrel Roller Zombie cannot be attracted by this plant.
 * Sweet Potato can make a Shield Zombie switch lanes with its shield activated, but it will detach from its shield and the shield will be unable to switch lanes.
 * This is the most expensive premium plant by sun cost, with it being 300.
 * In any situation where a zombie would repeatedly go back and forth between lanes due to more than one Sweet Potato trying to attract a zombie, the zombie will ignore Sweet Potatoes altogether. It will only be attracted to a Sweet Potato once when the other(s) is or are gone.
 * Sweet Potatoes that use their Plant Food upgrade have priority, and therefore, the zombies will ignore the previously said statement and go to the one which was fed Plant Food only if the zombie is in its range.
 * If a zombie is at the back or at the bottom of Sweet Potato while using Plant Food, it will attract the zombie behind and it will make it eat it backwards.
 * There is a glitch after feeding it with Plant Food while planted on a Lily Pad on water: any zombies that move backwards to eat the Sweet Potato will actually eat the Lily Pad, losing the Sweet Potato.
 * If the player places one behind an Infi-nut's barrier then feeds it with Plant Food, zombies will pass through the barrier.
 * Zombies pushed back by Fume-shroom or Chomper's Plant Food abilites or by Hurrikale can get attracted by Sweet Potato.
 * If a zombie is attracted by Sweet Potato onto a slider tile, then the slider tile will take no effect while the zombie is on that tile.
 * Its idle animation resembles that of Marigold.
 * In some Piñata Parties, the player can use Sweet Potato, even though it has been removed from the store.
 * Its background in the almanac is Ancient Egypt in the Chinese version, even though it is not obtained in this world.
 * According to the credits, Sweet Potato is voiced by Becky Allen.