Lightning Reed

Lightning Reed is a plant that generates lightning from its body to fire at the closest zombie or tombstone within three lanes from where it is planted, similar to Threepeater. The lightning will also arc to another zombie or tombstone if close enough. A direct hit deals half of a Normal Damage Shot and the electrical arcs deal a quarter of a normal damage shot. The player unlocks Lightning Reed after beating Wild West - Day 9 in the international version, and after obtaining ten puzzle pieces in the Chinese version.

Almanac entry
Sun cost: 125

DAMAGE: Normal

RANGE: Multi-Hit

RECHARGE: Fast

Lightning Reeds shoot lightning at nearest zombie up to one lane away. The bolt will then arc and hit other zombies.

Range: can even hit targets one lane above or below

Special: chain attacks to multiple targets

This may come as a shock, but Lightning Reed has a serious passion for ham radio. His call sign is El3ctric H1ccup. You can tune in every Tuesday to hear him read the classics to elderly plants. This week: Seeds and Sensibility.

Plant Food
When fed Plant Food, it generates a small storm cloud that chases zombies, dealing 8 Normal Damage Shots per second, then will move onto another target after the zombie is defeated and do the same. The cloud lasts for 15 seconds before disappearing.

Level upgrade

 * Level 2
 * Powerful Lightning: Lightning Reed has a 15% chance to release a red, high voltage lightning that can stop zombies for a short while.
 * Combat Training: Lightning Reed has 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
 * Level 3
 * Overdriven Current: The chance of releasing red lightnings is increased to 30%.
 * Cell Activation: Lightning Reed has another 50% more attack power and health (200% of initial).
 * Level 4
 * Ability Awaken: Lighting Reed can be boosted sometimes when planted.

Costumed
Lightning Reed unleashes a huge lightning cloud and instantly electrocutes all zombies on screen.

Strategies
By itself, Lightning Reed is not a very powerful plant. It cannot take down anything with more health than a regular Zombie without the help of other offensive plants and should not be used alone. However when combined with other plants, Lightning Reed can be a very strong plant. Using ten or more Lightning Reeds can cause chaos within zombie groups as of the chain volts. Because of their fast attacks in groups, they can defeat large Ambushes easily, as their attacks cannot fail to attack a zombie.

Because of its high attack speed and chain attacks, Lightning Reed is the best weapon against Zombie Chickens and Ice Weasels, as they can destroy multiple chickens within one strike and can hit a lot of weasels in only one shot. Without Lightning Reeds, Zombie Chickens and Ice Weasels will have a much easier time to wreck the entire lanes quickly within seconds. Spikeweeds are effective too, as any chickens will die walking on top of it; in some levels, Chicken Wrangler Zombies will come quite early on, and it will be troublesome setting them up as the player must set them in the top, bottom and middle row in order to make the plan work. On the other hand, if a Chicken Wrangler Zombie steps on the Spikeweeds with its bailing wire on, some chickens might slip through. Lightning Reed has less of these problems, as two of them on top and on the bottom of the Chicken Wrangler Zombie's lane can kill it and all its chickens without much hassle, this can also occur with the Ice Weasels. It is useful against Zombie Parrots and Swashbuckler Zombies due to their fast movement. In order to take the Zombie Parrot down using this plant, it is recommended to slow it down first or it will either abduct any of your Lightning Reeds or any other supporting plants. Also, Lightning Reed cannot fail an attack against a Swashbuckler Zombie.

If you are planning to take Lightning Reed with you on a level, make sure you bring along at least one other offensive plant. Lightning Reeds are powerful only against groups of zombies, and thus are not as powerful against a single, strong zombie. Unless you plan to just use Lightning Reed, plant them sparingly so there is more room for other, stronger offensive plants.

Lightning Reeds are quite helpful to fight Jester Zombies, especially if they arrive in large hordes. Two or three columns of Lightning Reeds and some Fume-shrooms are enough to win a normal level in Dark Ages.

Lightning Reeds are also helpful in defeating Surfer Zombies in Big Wave Beach, as the Surfer Zombies will not drop their surfboards on the ground if it is defeated by a Lightning Reed, thus preventing any surfboards from blocking the player to plant on the location and prevent any loss of plants due to being crushed by surfboard.

Trivia

 * This, Magnet-shroom, Gold Magnet, Citron (its Plant Food ability), and E.M.Peach are the only plants that generate electricity.
 * However, Lightning Reed is the only one out of these plants that uses plain electricity, as opposed to electromagnetism.
 * El3ctric H1ccup is an improper call sign for ham radio operators. A real one resembles something such as "K7PKRL". El3ctric H1ccup is also leetspeak (1337) for "Electric Hiccup."
 * Lightning Reed is the only plant to have leetspeak in the almanac entry.
 * Lightning Reed's Plant Food immunity time is less than half a second, making it one the only plants which can be eaten while under the effects of Plant Food.
 * Its attack is similar to Power Zap, a Power Up.
 * If it zaps the body of a zombie that has already lost its head, its head comes back for the dying animation.
 * If it zaps any kind of Gargantuar, players will see that the Gargantuar has a skeleton of a dinosaur rather than a ribcage.
 * When a Zombie Bull is zapped, it reveals the mechanical parts used to make up the Zombie Bull instead of a skeleton, unlike all the other zombies. If the Zombie Bull Rider is not yet thrown and the Zombie Bull is zapped, the Zombie Bull Rider will vanish.
 * If Lightning Reed's storm cloud goes after a swinging Swashbuckler Zombie, it will zap the Swashbuckler Zombie's landing spot.
 * If a Lightning Reed electrifies an Imp that was launched from an Imp Cannon over water, the Imp will just disappear.
 * When Lightning Reed attacks, a little bit of R2-D2 (from Star Wars) sound effects can be heard.
 * Lightning Reed's name is a pun on "lightning rod".
 * Lightning Reed is the third plant to turn zombies into ashes, the others being Cherry Bomb and Jalapeno.
 * After the 2.5.1 update, Lightning Reed's electricity immediately fades away.
 * When it zaps a Zombie Chicken, the player gets the Fried Chicken achievement.
 * The Lightning Reed's electricity does not affect the water in Big Wave Beach.
 * It was originally going to cost 150 sun.
 * Lightning Reed's costume disappears for a while when it uses its Plant Food.
 * If Lightning Reed zaps a Dodo Rider Zombie, oddly, a single huge bone appears to connect the two creatures. It is unknown how they survive with that kind of skeleton, but it's likely that this was done only for comedic effect.
 * This, Sun-shroom, Sun Bean, and Hot Potato are the only plants that have a glow around themselves in the seed packet.
 * It is the only plant that can hurt the Announcer Imp in Dark Ages with its Plant Food.