Zomboni

The Zomboni is a zombie riding a Zamboni (according to the old Almanac entry, it's actually closer to a space ogre), an ice resurfacer with a red Z on it that leaves an Ice Trail on which nothing can be planted. It is the 13th zombie to appear in Adventure Mode. Zombie Bobsled Teams will appear after the Zomboni leaves an ice trail behind. The Ice Trail usually disappears after a while. However, a single Jalapeno is enough to both destroy the zombie and machine, and also melt the ice trail.

Original Version
 Zomboni 

The Zomboni applies ice, steam and pressure to your plants.

Toughness:  High

Special:  Crushes plants, leaves an ice trail

Often mistaken for a zombie driving an ice machine, the Zomboni is a totally different life-form more closely related to a space ogre than a zombie.

GOTY version and onwards
 Zomboni 

Toughness:  High

Special:  Crushes plants, leaves an ice trail

Not to be mistaken with a Zamboni brand ice resurfacing machine. Zamboni and the image of the ice-resurfacing machine are registered trademarks of Frank J. Zamboni & Co., Inc., and "Zomboni" is used with permission. For all your non-zombie related ice resurfacing needs, visit www.zamboni.com!

Overview
Absorbs 58 normal damage shots'''. Appearance changes upon absorption of 23, 46, and 58 normal damage shots with heavy shaking at 58 normal damage''' shots before exploding. Crushes plants and leaves a trail of ice that can't be planted on.

Appearances
Adventure Mode: 3-6, 3-7, 3-9, 3-10, 5-10

Mini-games: Invisi-ghoul, Bobsled Bonanza, Dr. Zomboss's Revenge, Heat Wave

Survival Mode: Survival: Fog, Survival: Roof, all Survival (Hard) levels and Survival (Endless) levels except Night

Co-op Mode: Co-op Pool, Co-op Bowling, all Co-op Hard levels except Co-op Hard Night, Co-op Zomboss, Co-op Endless

Others: Vs. Mode

Strategy
An engine sound is audible before the Zomboni enters your lawn. Wall-nuts and Tall-nuts cannot stop the Zomboni. Magnet-shrooms are also useless against the Zomboni. Zombonis are also immune to the movement-inhibiting effect of Snow Peas, Winter Melons, Ice-shrooms, and Kernel-pults. Spikeweed or Spikerock can be used to pop its tires (except on the roof).Any instant kill will destroy it. Since the Zomboni will leave an ice trail which nothing can be planted on, the Jalapeno can be used to melt the Ice Trail and kill the zombie simultaneously. If you kill the Zomboni but do not melt the ice trail, the Zombie Bobsled Team may appear. The Ice Trail will melt by itself eventually, as long as no other Zombonis drive over it. Piling on damage, just like any other Zombie, will destroy a Zomboni, though this can be difficult, due to the Zomboni's immunity to freezing and its high health. Strangely, a Chomper can devour the entire machine.

Bobsled Bonanza
During this level, the Ice Trail left by the Zomboni will not disappear. The Jalapeno is the best weapon against Zombonis. Setting a Potato Mine, Squash, Spikeweed, or Chomper early in anticipation of a Zomboni helps significantly. Once a Jalapeno removes the Zomboni's Ice Trail, then planting Spikerock prevents any more Ice Trails from being set.

Survival: Endless
In Survival: Endless, dozens of Zombonis may spawn stacked on top of each other. Already given the problem of Giga-gargantuars and Gargantuars, using Spikerock might seem tempting, but put it quite far left so it won't die so quickly and most Zombonis and Gargantuars will die, and sometimes Giga-gargantuars. Cob Cannons can help significantly, since they can fire Corn Cob missiles on the Zomboni's Ice Trail. Placing a Spikeweed underneath many Zombonis will pop all of their tires before disappearing. Explosives with a large blast radius, like the Cherry Bomb and Doom-shroom can destroy Zombonis in multiple lanes.

Vs. Mode
These giants are very useful in Vs. Mode when playing as the Zombies for a multitude of reasons. They are 100% immune to being slowed or stopped by any plant. They have a high toughness. They crush plants as they go eliminating the waste of time needed to eat. They leave an Ice Trail on which nothing can be planted. Most importantly, if they get far enough with their Ice Trail, they will automatically summon a Zombie Bobsled Team free of charge. All the qualities above combined, and you wouldn't believe that they only cost 175 Brains. So if your opponent picks slowing or heavy offense plants such as the Melon-pult or Snow Pea, these are a must. Because even if the Zomboni gets destroyed, the Bobsled Team provides backup.

As stated above, these zombies can provide a great help if playing as the Zombies, but supply a great threat when playing as the Plants. One almost can't face them without instant kills. Some ideas: Jalapeno. These will destroy the entire Zomboni and his Ice Trail, and blow up the entire Bobsled Team if they have already appeared. Another idea: Squash. These recharge fast enough that you can overtake 2 or 3 Zombonis in succession using them. Since they can also be placed right by the Zombies' spawning border, they are a very good idea to take them out before they have a chance to do any damage. If worst comes to worst (and it's likely that it may) two Repeaters or the damage equivalent can take them out.

Trivia

 * The Zomboni, the Catapult Zombie and the Catapult Baseball Zombie are the only zombies that ride in vehicles, unless you count Dr. Zomboss and his Zombot.
 * The Zombie Bobsled Team is not technically a vehicle, as a Spikeweed at the end of the Ice Trail will not destroy the bobsled, and the Bobsled dies automatically after another second, when it leaves the ice trail.
 * It is the only pool encountered zombie that appears in the battle with Dr. Zomboss.
 * If a Zomboni appears on roof levels, then it will stop laying an Ice Trail after it reaches the slanted portion of the roof.
 * Also, despite the fact that Zomboni goes lower on the slanted part of the roof in roof levels, the Zomboni is still facing the same angle as if he is moving on the flat portion on the roof, rather than facing lower, which is odd.
 * The Zomboni, Bungee Zombie, Dolphin Rider Zombie, Balloon Zombie, Jack-in-the-Box Zombie, Digger Zombie and Pogo Zombie are the only zombies that make noises before entering the lawn.
 * A small Zomboni can crush plants about half a square away. This is because while the sprite becomes smaller, the hitbox remains the same.
 * So far, the Zomboni is the only zombie except the Dancing Zombie that has a changed description in the Suburban Almanac for some versions.
 * The Zomboni, Dr. Zomboss, Imp, Gargantuar, Giga-gargantuar and the Backup Dancer are the only zombies that don't have the word "zombie" in their names.
 * The Zomboni will not appear in night levels or its harder variant because of the presence of graves; it would not make sense for the Zomboni to leave an ice trail on the grave but have the grave still be standing.
 * In the DS version, the first part of the Zomboni's almanac entry is absent.
 * The Zomboni's Almanac Entry is cut off in the DS Version because of lack of space.
 * Sometimes, when the Zomboni tires are popped by Spikeweed or Spikerock, it will flip backwards and explode.
 * After a while, the ice trail left by a Zomboni can disappear after 30 seconds by itself, except in Bobsled Bonanza.
 * A glitch allows daisies on the lawn to appear on top of the ice trail once the Zomboni has passed (in the GOTY edition).
 * In the HD version, Zombonis are a lot bigger than most other Zombies and Zombonis in other versions.
 * The Zomboni appears in music video Wabby Wabbo behind the fence without a Zamboni and a Beanie along with Snorkel Zombie, regular Zombie, Digger Zombie and Zombie Yeti.
 * Zomboni is the only zombie that cannot be stopped by anything (Except when he is killed).
 * Strangely, Tiny Zombonis (encountered via hacking) can leave a full size ice trails.
 * In normal gameplay, Zomboni will be defeated by any type of instant kill. However, in its appearance at Co-op Bowling, it doesn't get killed instantly by Explode-o-nuts. Instead, it will just get the same damage it would by a Wall-nut.
 * Also, in its appearance at the PC version of Wall-nut Bowling (available just by hacking means or savefile editing) it has the same health as a normal Zombie, instantly killed by even an ordinary Wall-nut. This happens because it doesn't have proper programming for when it collides with a Wall-nut.
 * Zomboni still can move and crush your plants when he is about to explode. (Except killed by Spikeweed and Spikerock).
 * The Zomboni and the Zombie Bobsled Team are the only Zombies encountered in the Pool area that aren't Aquatic Zombies.