Jester Zombie

Jester Zombie is the fifth zombie encountered in Dark Ages in Plants vs. Zombies 2. It has the ability to deflect projectiles like peas, lobbed-shots, coconuts, plasma balls, bulbs, and others. To defeat it, the player must use area of effect plants or instant kills.

Description
Jester Zombie wears a red-colored eccentric jester hat with green circles serving as tips. The left portion of the eccentric hat is bent downwards, the right one is slightly bent down, and finally the back one upward. The eccentric hat it wears extends up to its neck. Its attire presents a simultaneous shift of two colors, blue and green to be specific. Jester Zombie is also cross-eyed since the right eye looks at the upper left while the left one looks downward.

The left sleeve of Jester Zombie is colored in blue that extends only up to the left wrist as it is tattered while the right is green and is purely intact. The chest portion presents a vertical placing of colors in a simultaneous manner also with two red buttocks attached to the middle portion of it and a red colored strap is attached to its tummy line.

The pants, much like the sleeves of its torso counterpart also presents the same designing of colors. However, the green color is now on the left side and blue on the right. The pants is torn up since the right leg only extends up to its thigh while on its left leg has only the knee portion of it torn up. Finally, the shoes it wear also present the same color with its eccentric hat especially the circular portion that serves as tips.

Jester Zombie is dressed as a chef in the Food Fight parties. It wears a white toque, white double-breasted jacket, and a gray colored checkered pants. It holds a frying pan with brains on it on its right arm and a dish that contains rice, chicken, and vegetables that is ready to serve on the left arm. For its footwear, it just simply wears a brown leather shoes.

Jester Zombie is dressed to have a cupcake hat and cake in the Birthdayz event.

Jester Zombie can deflect projectiles shot by these plants:


 * Peashooter
 * Cabbage-pult
 * Bloomerang
 * Repeater
 * Snow Pea
 * Kernel-pult
 * Coconut Cannon
 * Threepeater
 * Split Pea (only forward)


 * Pea Pod
 * Melon-pult
 * Winter Melon
 * Citron
 * Starfruit (northeast and southeast)
 * Puff-shroom
 * Pea-nut
 * Magnet-shroom (Plant Food)
 * Bowling Bulb


 * Homing Thistle
 * Sap-fling (Plant Food)
 * Guacodile
 * Pepper-pult
 * Fire Peashooter
 * Rotobaga
 * Red Stinger
 * A.K.E.E.
 * Strawburst

Almanac entry
TOUGHNESS:  Protected

SPEED:  Hungry

Returns projectiles that are shot at him.

Oh sure, everyone loves to laugh at Jester Zombie's clownish routines. But what no one knows is that he has a Master of Fine Arts from the Chewliard Performing Arts School. Heck, he's been on stage with some of the finest classical theatre companies this side of the lawn. But sometimes you just gotta go where the paycheck is.

Appearances
Player's House: Piñata Party

Wild West: Piñata Party

Dark Ages: Nights 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 (pre 2.7), 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and Arthur's Challenge.

Overview
The Jester Zombie absorbs exactly 20.25 normal damage shots. Its appearance changes upon absorbing 10.5 normal damage shots before dying at 20.25 normal damage shots.

General
Jester Zombie's main weakness is Fume-shroom, but it can be damaged by area of effect attacks like the Lightning Reed and the Laser Bean. Snapdragons and Magnifying Grasses work because they do not have projectiles to throw at Jester Zombie. Two Spikerocks adjacent to your plants will also defeat the Jester Zombie. Bonk Choys can be used, but keep a Tall-nut or Wall-nut adjacent to it or you will risk the Bonk Choy getting eaten because of its minimal range. If you are having trouble with Jester Zombie because of the lack of area of effect attacks, you can use instant kills. Beware, however, when the Jester is spinning, it is immune to both Chili Beans and Hypno-shrooms. If combined with at least five to ten Wizard Zombies, Zombie Kings, Knight Zombies, and Dark Ages Gargantuars, they can cause a massive mayhem to your plants, emptying everything. If you did not break all the remaining Graves, these zombies can be spawned during Necromancy, crowding the true threats of Dark Ages.

Because a Ghost Pepper does not shoot projectiles, Jester Zombie will be affected by its screams. Use it, because its explosion can deal some damage. This is also useful against these and the other true threats of Dark Ages. It is best to use Plant Food on it.

Iceberg Lettuce and Stunion can stop the Jester from deflecting the projectiles, so using it with Winter Melon is a good idea, especially its Plant Food upgrade in Arthur's Challenge.

In the Chinese version of the game, Pea-nut can be used against Jesters as its projectiles break upon impact. Oak Archer is another effective choice here.

Guacodile is a good way to damage Jester Zombies as well. Although Jesters can deflect Guacodiles' pits, Guacodiles will rush immediately when the pits hit them, and their rush attack can deal great damage on Jester Zombies, ultimately penetrating their deflection cyclone.

Dandelion is a good option against this Jester Zombie, as its bombs explode on contact and can not be reflected by Jester Zombie.

Lava Guava can be also a good idea against Jester zombie, as it can deal great damage against it. Endurian can be also an effective way.

Do not use Plant Food on the projectile-based plants when Jester Zombie is approaching. It will only compound your problems, as Jester Zombie will deflect them all. Exceptions are Cabbage-pult's big cabbages, Melon-pult and Winter Melon's big melons, Split Pea, Pea Pod's giant pea, Citron's big plasma ball, Coconut Cannon's big bomb, Bowling Bulb's explosive projectile, Pepper-pult's big peppers, and Fire Peashooter's fire trail; in other words, it cannot deflect projectiles exclusive to Plant Food abilities.

Do not use Bowling Bulb in any level with this zombie, as its projectiles, when deflected, can deal damage to multiple plants, especially the orange bulb, making most of your plants die easily. In addition to that, avoid using Torchwoods against Jester Zombie, as the flaming peas (including the napalm ones) can deal so much damage to your plant that even an armored Tall-nut will not be able to absorb all the projectiles. Iceberg Lettuce's effect will be removed by the defrosting, unless the Jester Zombie is constantly hit by butter, the first one while not spinning during the time the Iceberg Lettuce froze it.

Arthur's Challenge
Jester Zombie serves as among the biggest threats due to its constant reflecting projectiles from powerful plants, leaving you no other choices than using others that do not shoot projectiles such as Magnifying Grass to deal it. If this zombie is compared with large numbers of Knight Zombies, Zombie Kings, Dark Ages Gargantuars, Wizard Zombies, and the surprise attacks, these zombies can cause an extremely massive havoc on your lanes. If you see Jester Zombies along with other Dark Ages zombies in large numbers, these combinations will cause you to lose the game, thus, causing you to risk spending money on Power Ups and Plant Food. You will need to have Cherry Bombs, Jalapenos, Iceberg Lettuces, Power Lilies, and their Imitater versions.

If you use Winter Melons, ensure that Winter Melons attack and slow Jester Zombie by splash damage, particularly from stronger zombies, such as Peasant Bucketheads, Knight Zombies, and Dark Ages Gargantuars. Iceberg Lettuce and Stunion will significantly help here, especially with Plant Food. Cherry Bombs and Jalapenos are also effective against Jester Zombies, although Imp Dragon Zombies may minimize the effectiveness of such plants. If dealt with properly, Jester Zombies may be less of a threat than other zombies types, particularly Wizard Zombie and Dark Ages Gargantuar.

Trivia

 * Jester Zombie is the second zombie to throw back plants projectiles in Plants vs. Zombies 2, with the first being Hammer Zombie and the third being Nunchaku Zombie from Kung-Fu World. It could be compared to its Chinese counterparts as Jester Zombie is stronger, as it can deflect lobbed-shots, but Jester Zombie is a little weaker in terms of health since it has 21 HP compared to the Hammer Zombie's 22 HP.
 * He gains a speed boost while spinning, becoming slightly faster.
 * Jester Zombie does not deflect projectiles from behind it.
 * If Jester Zombie deflects a boomerang shot by Bloomerang, it will not return to the Jester Zombie. It will attack whole row of plants but the Bloomerang will grab it, nullifying its damage.
 * If the plants are attacked by Snow Pea or Winter Melon, they will not be chilled (slowed down). However, it can be chilled and damaged by the splash of a Winter Melon. Also, they can be chilled by Snow Pea's Plant Food ability.
 * Jester Zombie cannot deflect giant peas shot by Repeater, Split Pea and Pea Pod's Plant Food ability.
 * In the Almanac, Jester Zombie had a bone sticking out of its hand prior to the 2.5.1 update.
 * If Jester Zombie is damaged enough (after absorbing at least 10.5 normal damage shots), the player can see the bone while it is spinning.
 * When spinning, he is slightly translucent.
 * There is an achievement called "All in Jest" where the player must complete a level without letting a Jester Zombie deflect even a single projectile.
 * Unarmed Potato Mines are unaffected by projectiles deflected from Jester Zombies, but armed Potato Mines get hit.
 * If the Jester Zombie returns one of Citron's projectiles against an Infi-nut, it will go to the next degrade stage although it takes more projectiles to make Wall-nut and Tall-nut to go to the next degrade stage. This proves that the Infi-nut is weaker.
 * While spinning, Jesters can eat a Hypno-shroom without being affected by it. However, it can be hypnotized when it is not spinning. This is also true to Chili Bean and Sun Bean.
 * The Jester Zombie will only spin if there is a projectile approaching it. But while the Jester Zombie is spinning, it will automatically take any projectiles that are fired at it and redirect them back to the player's plants.
 * In the Almanac, it appears to do the backstroke, a swimming move. This makes it the only zombie that has an unusual standing animation and when it moves, it just jumps. Also, when it is not spinning, its eyes appear to be spinning in circles.
 * Like Zombie Bull, Zombie Chicken, and Bug Bot Imp, it cannot be blown away by the Blover while jumping.
 * A bell's sound will be played when just one Jester Zombie enters the lawn.
 * All projectiles deflected by Jester Zombie can damage zombies.
 * If he deflects a projectile to a hypnotized Jester Zombie, the projectile keeps going back and forth between them until they get close enough to damage each other.
 * He can deflect metallic objects thrown by Magnet-shroom's Plant Food upgrade.
 * Jester Zombie and Archer Zombie are currently the only cross-eyed zombies.
 * According to the game files, Jester Zombie's original name was Juggler Zombie.
 * This suggests that the Jester Zombie was originally going to catch the projectiles, juggle them for a second, and then throw them back instead of spinning.
 * He can deflect the Starfruit's and Citron's projectiles, even though they are not solid.
 * Besides the Plant Food upgrades and backward projectiles, Magnifying Grass' and Banana Launcher's projectiles are the only ones that the Jester Zombie cannot deflect.
 * In the 3.2 update, he cannot deflect Pepper-pult's projectiles.
 * Infi-nut is the only plant that can survive Jester Zombie's projectiles, even when the hologram is off. It resets the regenerating time of the Infi-nut.
 * Spring Bean and Chard Guard are the only plants that can cancel all of Jester Zombie's projectiles. They do this when knocking it back.
 * Sometimes, he may not deflect the bulbs shot from Bowling Bulbs correctly, making them not hit any plant.
 * Jester Zombies can use Snowstorms but only during Piñata Parties.
 * So far, he is the third non-variant zombie to have more than one event costume (the first being the Thanksgiving costume and the second being the Birthdayz costume) with Poncho Zombie and Camel Zombies being the 1st and 2nd.