Zombie King

Zombie King is the tenth zombie in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time that appears in Dark Ages. As a king of the zombie army, its main role is to provide support and boost morale of its Peasant Zombies, Conehead, and Buckethead Peasants. The Zombie King will periodically boost a Peasant Zombie's toughness, transforming it into a Knight Zombie. It does not move, rather, an Announcer Imp will appear on a tile in the first row, blow a horn, and the Zombie King will fall down and crush the Announcer Imp, and anything on its tile, then remain on that tile until defeated.

Almanac Entry
TOUGHNESS:  Dense

Grants knight helms to nearby peasant zombies.

As Shakespeare once wrote, "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." And Zombie King couldn't agree more. It is incredibly difficult to get a good night's sleep with a crown on your head. That thing is all kinds of uncomfortable.

Appearances
Dark Ages: Night 16, 17 ,18 ,19 and Arthur's Challenge.

Overview
Zombie King absorbs 50 normal damage shots and its appearance changes at 17 normal damage shots before dying at 50 normal damage shots.

General
When you see this zombie on the lawn, kill all the Peasant Zombies quickly, because it will slowly transform all the zombies nearby into Knight Zombies, which absorb a lot of damage. Though it does not move, close-range plants like Snapdragon, Bonk Choy are useless, as other zombies will quickly overwhelm them. The best strategy to deal with it to put a row of Magnet-shroom, and at the very first row from the left put Magnifying Grass to deal with the Zombie King, the Magnet-shroom can attract any knight helms and is fast. That means if Zombie King has just granted a knight helm, a Magnet-shroom will attract it immediately, making it Zombie King's weakness. Put Spikerocks the rightmost edge of the column but to be safer, double the Spikerocks to slow down upgraded Peasant Zombies. Brute force from your plants will also work if you have enough fire-power. It is also good to use the Hypno-shroom and hypnotize a strong armored zombie. By the time the hypnotized zombie gets to the Zombie King, the hypnotized zombie will start eating the Zombie King and the king will do nothing, since it does not eat plants.

Dark Ages - Night 18
When the first huge wave comes, immediately three Zombie Kings will appear at once. A Kernel-pult should stun it, so you can try planting as many as you can before they appear. Kill it quickly by Fume-shrooms and plant Pea-nuts to protect your plants from the Knight Zombies. However, save the Plant Foods, only use them when the these zombies cannot be killed.

Trivia

 * It is the first zombie that does not have speed in its Almanac Entry because the Zombie King cannot move.
 * It is the second zombie who provides support, with Dr. Zomboss being the first one. Dr. Zomboss' way of providing support is that he will compress all zombies that he summons in one square with the zombie with a least toughness or so will be the leading one. This provides him enough time to evade or to charge forward. A possible third one could be the Zombie hands that put potions on the lawn.
 * William Shakespeare's passage "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown" is a reference to the first scene of the third act of Henry IV.
 * If you look closely, you can see it is crushing another zombie which is the Announcer Imp. The Announcer Imp is present in the Dark Ages trailers. It holds two parts of a coconut and makes a galloping horse sound to pretend that the Knight Zombie was riding a horse. Then they would stop by and visit the Jester Zombie and the Imp Monk Zombies. This is likely a reference to the British comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
 * The Zombie King in its Almanac Picture is seen with a scepter. It uses the scepter to grant zombies knight helmets. Also, it can upgrade Coneheads and Bucketheads and replace damaged knight helmets, as well as regular Peasants.
 * If the player looks closely, he or she can see part of its belly sticking out from its clothes, meaning it is too fat to fit its clothes.
 * This and Treasure Yeti are the only zombies has Dense toughness. But before the 2.4.1 update, Pharaoh Zombie had the same toughness.
 * It can restore helmets to Peasant Zombies again if they lose their helmets.
 * Zombie King will die instantly when there are no more Peasants to transform. This one is a sign of failure to acknowlede defeat in medieval times where kings have no choice but to commit suicide to prevent from being captured. The Prospector Zombie is the same when there are no zombies that target the house.
 * If the player uses Cherry Bomb or instant-kill plant at the time where the Announcer Imp arrives, the player will see that the it is imperishable.
 * Also, Zombie King does not disintergrate when a Cherry Bomb is used. Instead the head falls off as normal. This trait is shared with the Zombie Bull, Robo-Cone Zombie, Disco-tron 3000, Gargantuar Prime, Mecha-Football Zombie, Shield Zombie, Jetpack Zombie, and Disco Jetpack Zombie
 * The death animation of this zombie is unique: its head breaks away of its body and rolls down its belly, and then its throne disappears.
 * This and the Imp Cannon are the only zombies that cannot move.
 * Spikeweed and Spikerock cannot be planted on the Zombie King unlike the Imp Cannon. The only reason why is this is because the fall might have submerged it into the ground, as you can see dirt around the throne.
 * It occasionally coughs on itself, then slurps up the saliva.
 * Zombie King cannot be blown away by Blover when falling. However, it is not too heavy to be tossed away by Citron's Plant Food ability.
 * There can only be one Zombie King per lane, unlike Imp Cannons which can have five to ten per lane.
 * It cannot be moved by Spikeweeds or Spikerocks, or by the Power Toss.
 * If the Zombie King has Plant Food, then the Announcer Imp will have Plant Food too. If the Announcer Imp had to be battled, the player would technically get two Plant Foods from one zombie.
 * Zombie Kings can crush Spikeweeds and Spikerocks upon landing.
 * If the player listens closely, he/she can hear a low pitched voice when it coughs.
 * Zombie King, Gargantuar Prime, hypnotized zombies, and Dr. Zomboss are the only zombies that can kill other zombies. This is due to the fact that the King will crush the Announcer Imp, and Dr. Zomboss has his infamous two-lane charge attack, hypnotized zombies eat other zombies, and Gargantuar Prime can kill zombies with its laser.
 * The Announcer Imp is not generally counted as a zombie, as it does not have any effect on the game. (it does not eat or otherwise eat plants or brains and it does not summon or boost zombies)
 * A tombstone can actually be crushed by the Zombie King if it is summoned on one.
 * Even though its crown is metallic, it cannot be taken by Magnet-shroom.
 * It is not affected by potions in the Dark Alchemy levels.
 * This is the only zombie that makes noise in the Almanac.
 * Only instant-usage plants can be planted on it.
 * Hypnotized zombies can kill the Announcer Imp before the Zombie King falls.
 * Except Peasant Flag Zombie and Announcer Imp, Zombie King is the only Dark Ages zombie that does not appear in Dark Ages - Night 20.
 * Strangely, the player cannot plant on the Announcer Imp, but the plant on the tile it is on still remains until the Zombie King falls.