Pianist Zombie

The Pianist Zombie is the twelfth zombie found in the Wild West. It rolls over plants and causes all other Cowboy Zombies, Conehead Cowboys, and Buckethead Cowboys to rapidly change lanes. It instantly dies if it encounters Spikeweeds, Bamboo Shoots, or Spikerocks.

Almanac Entry
TOUGHNESS: Hardened

SPEED: Creeper

His rolling piano crushes plants while his music causes dancing zombies to switch lanes.

Damage: crushes plants with piano

Special: summons cowboy dancers who switch lanes

Pianist Zombie only knows two songs, and they're both groaners.

Overview
Pianist Zombie absorbs 41 normal damage shots and its appearance changes upon an absorption of 20.5 normal damage shots before dying at 41 normal damage shots.



Appearances
Player's House: Piñata Party

Wild West: Days 3, 6, 8, 14, 15, 22, 25, Big Bad Butte

Strategies
Try to kill as many Cowboy Zombies as you can before they swap lanes on screen. Otherwise, you will have a hard time if the other zombies shift to eat your plants you have placed (Lightning Reed, Pea Pod, and others). A Pea Pod with five heads will quickly kill it. Wall-nuts and Tall-nuts do not stop it, as it crushes your plants. You can delay a Pianist Zombie with an Iceberg Lettuce to let the zombies stop dancing. A good choice to deal with it is to use any instant kill or the Coconut Cannon which can easily defeat it. Planting a Spikeweed or Spikerock on the tile it is on will also instantly kill it. Do not use Cabbage-pults, as if you do not kill the Pianist Zombie, the catapults will have a hard time shooting at the zombie as the other Cowboy Zombies continue shifting because of their low fire rate.

Using Kernel-pult's butter on a dancing zombie is a good strategy, that way when the zombie switches lanes, when you plant a Squash in front of them, they will get squashed together and also to butter Pianist Zombie will surely stop any dancing zombies on the lawn.

Trivia

 * Even though the projectiles hit the piano, the zombie will still lose its arm and head.
 * Whenever at least one is alive and onscreen, its piano song will replace the stage's current music. This trait is shared with Disco-tron 3000, but each one plays only once.
 * Pianist Zombie moves fast first then slow from the 1.0 update to the 1.6 update, while in the 1.7 update onwards, its animation and speed changes to that of a regular zombie before entering the lawn and then proceeds to its original speed once it plays its music.
 * When the Pianist Zombie is slowed by either the Snow Pea or the Winter Melon, its animation will slow down, but the music will continue at normal speed.
 * If it meets a Tall-nut or a Wall-nut, it will take two seconds to kill them. This trait is shared with Barrel Roller Zombie.
 * Its Almanac entry says that it can summon cowboy dancers, potentially as in "convene" rather than "spawn".
 * As shown in Piñata Parties, the Pianist Zombie only causes cowboy zombies from the Wild West to dance. No zombies from other time periods will dance and change lanes.
 * During its first degrade, the player can see the tip jar slide off the piano. It then disappears during its second degrade.
 * Even though it squashes a Chili Bean and faints, the Barrel Roller Zombie will not die when it squashes the Chili Bean, even though they both squash plants. This no longer applies as of the 2.1 update.
 * When killed by Lightning Reed, the Pianist Zombie dies by electrocution just as a normal zombie does, but the piano disappears. This is also shared when killed by either Cherry Bomb or Jalapeno. In the 1.9 update onwards, the Piano crumbles while the zombie gets burned.
 * Pianist Zombie is one of the six zombies to get a new Christmas look for the 5 Days of Feastivus, along with the Swashbuckler Zombie, the Camel Zombies, the Poncho Zombie, the Gargantuar, and the Imp.
 * Pianist Zombie's costume for Feastivus resembles green Santa Claus.
 * Pianist Zombie's music was written and performed by Korby Sears, as seen in the credits.
 * Pianist Zombie played Christmas music when it appeared in the Feastivus event.
 * This zombie, Dancing Zombie, Disco-tron 3000, Announcer Imp and the Jack-in-the-Box Zombie are the only zombies that play music.
 * Pianist Zombie's toughness is actually Dense while currently it is Hardened because it only absorbs 41 damage shots while Zombie King absorbs 50 normal damage shots.
 * This, Camel Zombies and the Wizard Zombie are the slowest zombies in the game so far.
 * When it is just about to crush a Spring Bean, not only its piano is bounced but both it and its chair is bounced too, despite the fact the piano and the chair are totally separated.