Bungee Zombie

The Bungee Zombie is pretty much an ordinary zombie attached to a bungee cord that steals plants and the twentieth zombie encountered in the game. It is virtually the sneaky thief of the zombies. It drops from the sky to drop a zombie, or steal a random plant from the lawn.

Suburban Almanac Entry
 Bungee Zombie 

Bungee Zombie attacks from above.

Toughness: Medium

Special: Descends from the sky and steals a plant

Bungee Zombie loves to take risks. After all, what's the point of being dead if you don't live a little?

Overview
The Bungee Zombie absorbs 23 normal damage shots but it does not degrade.

Depending on what is planted on the targeted square, a Bungee Zombie will prioritize a plant, followed by a Pumpkin if present, and lastly the Flower Pot or Lily Pad on which the plant was planted.

Before one attacks, an arrow will shoot out of the sky with a bulls-eye attached and fall on the intended target. After a second, a high-pitched "YEEEEE-HAH!" will be heard, and the zombie drops into view on its bungee cord. It hovers over its victim for a few seconds, during which time it can be frozen, paralyzed, attacked, and/or killed. The Bungee Zombie then grabs the plant, and gets pulled back up. During the final wave of any roof defenses, the Bungee Zombie will drop to deliver a zombie, usually between the fourth and seventh rows, in a similar fashion to the zombies that emerge from underwater in the pool levels, and the zombies that come out of graves in the night levels.

Appearances

 * Adventure Mode: 5-1, 5-2, 5-5, 5-7, 5-9, 5-10
 * Mini-games: It's Raining Seeds, Dr. Zomboss's Revenge, Bungee Blitz, Heavy Weapon (drops zombies only)
 * Puzzle Mode: Dead Zeppelin, Three Hit Wonder, All your brainz r belong to us, I, Zombie Endless, Last Stand: Roof, Last Stand: Endless
 * Survival Mode: Survival: Roof (Hard), all Survival (Endless) levels
 * Co-op Mode: Co-op Hard Roof, Co-op Zomboss, Co-op Endless
 * Others: Versus Mode

Strategy
Use Umbrella Leaves to deflect Bungee Zombies by covering any adjacent Plants you cannot afford to lose. This will also repel any air-dropped zombies.

Alternatively, if you use an explosive plant (e.g., a Jalapeno if more than one is on the same row), or pile enough firepower onto them, they will die. Two Gloom-shrooms are sufficient. An Ice-shroom can also freeze the Bungee Zombie during its natural hover time, allowing offensive plants extra time to deal damage.

It is useful to have a Pumpkin available during the final waves in case an air-dropped zombie lands behind the defensive front.

In Survival: Endless, if a plant is covered by two Gloom-shrooms, possibly including itself, any Bungee Zombies that target it will be killed before they manage to fly off with the plant, unless the Gloom-shrooms start firing at another target just before it lands. However, it is usually a good idea to use Ice-shrooms on Bungee Zombies.

Cob Cannons cannot be targeted by Bungee Zombies, as they are too large to be carried by the zombie. Also, it requires two of them, but they never come in pairs.

I, Zombie Puzzle Mode levels
In I, Zombie, you can use Bungee Zombies to remove troublesome plants, such as Magnet-shrooms; but first make sure that they aren't covered by Umbrella Leaves if you're play Endless, so you don't end up wasting 125 sun.

Trivia

 * In night levels, if there is only one sun-producing plant, this zombie will not snatch it.
 * If you dig up a plant a Bungee Zombie is targeting (or the plant gets eaten or otherwise destroyed before it is snatched), the zombie will hang over where it was before grabbing at the air, and pull away nothing.
 * In I, Zombie, you can send Bungee Zombies to snatch plants from empty spaces.
 * You know when a Bungee Zombie is coming by seeing a target with an arrow in the middle.
 * It is unknown why the target disappears after the Bungee Zombie steals the plant.
 * Maybe he takes it up with him.
 * The Bungee Zombie has the second highest physical health of any zombie with 23 HP (behind the Zombie Yeti with 46 HP), excluding ZomBotany Zombies, Gargantuar and Giga-gargantuar.
 * If a Bungee Zombie tries to steal an armed Potato Mine, it will explode when the Bungee Zombie descends onto it. However, if Bungee Zombie tries to steal an unarmed Potato Mine, it will only grab the antenna, not showing the whole Potato Mine.
 * Also, when a hiding Scaredy-shroom is targeted by a Bungee Zombie, it will grab the air, pulling up the Scaredy-shroom, only showing the head.
 * A Bungee Zombie can be paralyzed by Kernel-pult's butter.
 * When a Bungee Zombie dies, it just disappears, similar to a Balloon Zombie, whose balloon had popped over the pool.
 * In the roof levels, Bungee Zombies technically appear in every level because they drop Ambush Zombie in the final wave, but they only appear in the seed selection screen if they would steal your plants in that level.
 * In the Roof levels, Zombonis and Catapult Zombies appear despite their vehicles not able to climb up the ladder, so some people speculate that it's the Bungee Zombies that dropped them onto the roof.Bungeepeater.jpg
 * If timed correctly, the Bungee Zombie can grab an Instant Kill (e.g. Cherry Bomb, Jalapeno, Squash, etc.) just before it explodes.
 * Bungee Zombies and Balloon Zombies are the only zombies that can appear on both the land and pool.
 * A Bungee Zombie abducts Crazy Dave at the beginning of the Level 5-10.
 * The Bungee Zombie, the Zombie Yeti, the Digger Zombie (if he reaches the left side of the lawn by digging), the Catapult Baseball Zombie, the Target Zombie and Dr. Zomboss are the only zombies that don't target your house.
 * Crazy Dave is known to hate these zombies "with a passion and a vengeance" (said before Level 5-5).
 * This could be the reason he gets captured on 5-10.
 * As seen in the concept design for the Bungee Zombie posted on the Plants vs. Zombies Facebook page
 * If you have a Pumpkin on a Cattail, and a Bungee Zombie steals the Cattail, the Cattail will downgrade into a Lily Pad.
 * It's unknown how the Bungee Zombie can steal heavy plants such as the Tall-nut, and plants which technically are the ground, like Spikeweed.
 * He could likely be very strong despite his appearance.
 * If a Bungee Zombie steals a defensive plant like a Wall-nut, Tall-nut, or Pumpkin while a zombie is climbing a ladder on it, the ladder will remain and the zombie will simply climb up as if the ladder is on an "Invisi-nut".
 * Bungee Zombies cannot be hypnotized, because they grab the plant instead of eating it.
 * If a Bungee Zombie tries to steal a Spikeweed or Spikerock, it can still harm the Bungee Zombies, even though they are hanging in the air.
 * The Bungee Zombie is the only zombie that will not degrade after being hit by projectiles. Although, it can turn into a silhouette if hit by an explosive.
 * When a Bungee Zombie is hit by a Lawn Mower, Pool Cleaner, or Roof Cleaner, it will turn into a puff of smoke.
 * It is similar to Gargantuar when is hit by a Lawn Mower or Roof Cleaner.
 * If one slows down a Bungee Zombie, it will only slow down its movement, but it will still steal the plant at a normal rate.
 * When Dr. Zomboss sends out Bungee Zombies, the Bungee Zombies will fly away eventually if they are not killed, even if they are frozen or paralyzed. This is because Dr. Zomboss dangles out Bungee Zombies on his arm and has total control of when to hoist them back up.
 * It's unknown how they drop down from the sky in normal levels.
 * Perhaps Dr. Zomboss is offscreen, dropping them down
 * Bungee Zombie, Balloon Zombie,Pogo Zombie, Dolphin Rider Zombie, Zomboni, Digger Zombie and Jack-in-the-Box Zombie are the only zombies that make noise when entering.
 * A glitch may happen in I, Zombie on some slower computers is that if more than 1 Bungee Zombie attacks a same plant, they will all grab the same plant. It is useful to get more "Sunflowers" from the same one.
 * When the Bungee Zombie grabs your plants, it makes a sound like Beghouled and Beghouled Twist when you make an illegal move.
 * On level 5-10 or in the minigame Dr. Zomboss's Revenge, if you freeze a Bungee Zombie summoned by Dr. Zomboss, he has to wait a longer time to pull back his Bungee Zombie instead of just leaving it.
 * This is despite the Zombot's immunity to freezing while its head is not lowered to the ground.
 * There is a glitch during I, Zombie levels on the DS version; the Bungee Zombie's outline may not match up with where the stylus hits the screen. No amount of recalibrating the screen will fix this problem. It's recommended that the player moves the stylus tip slightly in order to place him in the correct spot.
 * If a Bungee Zombie target hits a plant, but the zombie is deflected by an Umbrella Leaf, the target will just disappear at the same time the Bungee Zombie is deflected.
 * If Bungee Zombie aims for an empty square and the player plants a Umbrella Leaf, the Umbrella Leaf won't deflect the zombie. Instead, it gives a chance for the Bungee to steal the plant.
 * This is probably because Umbrella Leaves expand over the protected plant.
 * Instant-kills will not destroy the target, despite it only being made of paper.
 * When the Bungee Zombie dies, it will disappear. But in the DS version, it will stay in the air for a few seconds then disappear.
 * The Bungee Zombie is one of three Zombies that can die without degrading. The others are Snorkel Zombie (while underwater) and Dolphin Rider Zombie (on the Dolphin).
 * In Survival: Endless, this zombie only appears during huge waves of zombies. However, in Last Stand: Endless, they can appear at anytime, not just during the huge waves of zombies.