Primal Potato Mine


 * For the present day variant, see Potato Mine.
 * For the Plants vs. Zombies Heroes variant, see Primal Potato Mine (PvZH).

Primal Potato Mine is the fifth and final plant obtained in Jurassic Marsh in Plants vs. Zombies 2. He is the primal version of Potato Mine. He explodes in a 3x3 area, takes 5 seconds to arm himself and deals 120 normal damage shots worth of damage to zombies caught in the explosion, but costs 50 sun instead of 25.

Origins
Like his modern counterpart, Primal Potato Mine is based on the real life potato, the starchy, tuberous root portion of the plant Solanum tuberosum. His name is a combination of "potato" and "land mine", an explosive device concealed under or on the ground designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks.

Unlike Potato Mine's word on the speech bubble, which is "SPUDOW!" when he explodes, Primal Potato Mine's is "SPUD OOP!!", a portmanteau of "spud" and "oop!". But in Chinese version, it still says "SPUDOW!" when he explodes.

Almanac entry
Note: Primal Potato Mine only costs 25 sun in the Chinese version if selected in Jurassic Marsh.

Plant Food effect
When given Plant Food, Primal Potato Mine will instantly arm itself (even if it is not fully armed) and will create two new and fully armed Primal Potato Mines on two random tiles, similar to its modern counterpart's plant food ability.

Costumed
Primal Potato Mine will now create three fully armed Primal Potato Mines on three random tiles instead of two when given Plant Food.

Strategies
Primal Potato Mine is a significantly improved version of its modern counterpart, as its positive attributes can easily outweigh the slightly increased sun cost. Compared to Potato Mine's blast radius, Primal Potato Mine is nine times as large and can cover up to three lanes at once, allowing Primal Potato Mine to control the crowd much more easily as well as destroy obstacles such as tombstones and frozen blocks. In addition, Primal Potato Mine suffers very little from its counterpart's arming time problem, and can be planted one space ahead of the zombies with the help of slowing plants. These factors combined makes Primal Potato Mine a highly useful plant both for offense and defense. Stunion and this plant make a great combo as the Stunion stops the zombies whilst the Primal Potato Mine arms.

In Wild West, Primal Potato Mines can be used to deal with Chicken Wrangler Zombies as their explosion can take out all of the Zombie Chickens when timed perfectly. They can also deal with Pianist Zombies and the crowd of Cowboy Zombies who are switching lanes.

In Far Future, Primal Potato Mines can destroy any mechanized zombies instantly within their damage area. Using this in Terror from Tomorrow levels is recommended for stopping huge waves of mechs. The only zombie to watch out for is Gargantuar Prime as they require 2 hits from the mine to be defeated.

Primal Potato Mines are very useful in Frostbite Caves for dealing with Troglobites. This is because of a beneficial glitch associated with it. If a Troglobite pushes an frozen block on the Primal Potato Mine, it will not be crushed, instead, it will explode as normal, destroying the frozen block and other zombies/objects in a 3x3 area around it.

In Neon Mixtape Tour, the player can pair it with Thyme Warp to defeat a large horde of zombies if used properly. Plant two Primal Potato Mines on the second and fourth column, then pile up the zombies by using a Thyme Warp. Using this strategy can hugely decrease the amount of zombies present on the lawn, it can even defeat Hair Metal Gargantuars. Using this strategy has no problem in terms of sun cost, as both plants have a cheap cost. The thing to worry about is the recharge time of both plants, as both plants do not have fast recharge. Also, take note not to place the Primal Potato Mines too near or too far from the zombies, as putting them too near may end to them being eaten or prematurely activated and putting them too far may decrease the amount of defeated zombies as some zombies are significantly faster than others.

Trivia

 * Defeating seven zombies with a single Primal Potato Mine will give the player the Bash Potato achievement.
 * Its flashing spines on top resembles a stegosaurus'. The light they flash runs from the head spine to the fourth back spine, then the cycle repeats.
 * Its abilities may have been based on the past (but temporary) buff of Potato Mine where it was able to blow up tombstones and surfboards in a 3x3 area around it.
 * It (along with Potato Mine) will not be crushed by frozen blocks and arcade machines, but instead act as if they do not exist. This was coded to prevent said objects from crushing said plants.
 * This can also happen when it is destroyed by the Zombot Dinotronic Mechasaur's missiles and lasers.
 * Regardless of what stage it was in when defeated, Intensive Carrot will always revive it to its on-planting stage. The same applies for Potato Mine, Pea Pod, Sun-shroom, Strawburst, Escape Root, and Kiwibeast.
 * Similar to Gold Bloom, Primal Potato Mine's Level is stuck on Level 6 after an update.

Specific to Chinese version

 * In this version, its arming time is slightly slower and cannot be instant via leveling-up unlike its modern variant (40% for Level 2 and 80% for Level 3).
 * In this version, if you selected it in Jurassic Marsh, it will be costs 25 (which is same exact as its modern counterpart). However, if you selected it outsides Jurassic Marsh, it will be costs 50 as normal.
 * Unlike its modern counterpart, it is able to upgrade to level 4.
 * Prior to 2.0.1. update, it could not able to upgrade to level 4.