Excavator Zombie

 is a zombie encountered in Lost City in Plants vs. Zombies 2. He can protect himself and all zombies behind him from incoming projectiles shot by straight-shooting plants like Peashooter, Fire Peashooter, or Red Stinger. Additionally, he can shovel up plants when he gets close to them and throw them three spaces back. The shovel cannot be destroyed.

As the almanac suggests, his weakness is lobbed-shot plants, such as A.K.E.E and Melon-pult. Additionally, he can be attacked by projectiles from other directions, such as Rotobaga and Starfruit. You can also use an area of effect plant, like Laser Bean or Fume-shroom, to bypass it as it goes though the shovel. Dandelion sometimes makes his shovel drop, making him move forward into the player's house without eating the plants.

Almanac entry
TOUGHNESS: Protected SPEED: Speedy

Digs up plants and throws them behind him.

Damage: blocks incoming projectiles, but is vulnerable to lobbed shots

Excavator Zombie once heard a song about having a hammer. He liked the idea, but decided it was too mainstream for him - so he got a shovel. Now he's confident that he's clearly the coolest zombie, the others are just too jealous to admit it.

Overview
absorbs 18 normal damage shots and degrades upon an absorption of 9 normal damage shots, before dying at 18 normal damage shots.

Appearance
Lost City: Days 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16.

Strategies
These zombies themselves can reach your house very easily if you ignore them. They enter the lawn with great speed, and after they reach into the 6th column, it is considerably hard defeating them without the help of instant-use plants like Cherry Bomb and Hurrikale. After seeing this zombie entering the lawn, plant a lobbed-shot plant and try to use other plants to keep him busy and stunned for a while. In fact, they are not as dangerous if you act fast.

With Parasol Zombie
A Parasol Zombie and pair can be very hard to defeat, because they move very fast and can stop any projectile. Instant-use plants are still your best choices to kill them, along with two plants with forward projectiles and two lobbed-shot plants in the same lane. Two Red Stingers and two A.K.E.Es can kill them. Laser Bean combined with Lightning Reed are a helpful combo in countering these two zombies at the same time.

Lost City - Day 15
These zombies only come in the first and last lane, where there are endangered A.K.E.Es. They can throw them behind, making them vulnerable. Therefore, you can plant one more A.K.E.E to kill them as soon as possible, so they can't reach your endangered plants. One A.K.E.E cannot handle this zombie if it is protected by other zombies in front of, because the target of A.K.E.E is still limited.

Trivia

 * Excavator Zombie is vulnerable to straight-shooting plants while shoveling up plants.
 * When Excavator Zombie shovels a Potato Mine before it is armed, it will activate.
 * Even though his shovel is metal, Magnet-shroom cannot steal his shovel.
 * This is possibly because gold is not magnetic. However, this would make Gold Magnet illogical.
 * Unless it is planted right underneath him, Excavator Zombie can shovel up Chard Guard before it can hurl him backwards.
 * Similarly, Guacodile will not trigger its rush attack unless it is planted right on Excavator Zombie. If Guacodile gets shoveled up, it won't do its rush attack.
 * does not eat Infi-nut's shield. Instead, he smashes it with his shovel.
 * He also sometimes does this to delayed instant-kill plants, like Lava Guava.
 * Dandelion's bomb's explosion and Coconut Cannon's explosions can sometimes take out his shovel.
 * That could be a glitch, or because the bomb hit a zombie in front of excavator.
 * There is a glitch that if is about to shovel up a plant, and the player uses Hurrikale, it will still shovel up that plant.
 * The phrase "a song about having a hammer" may be a reference to the song "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer. One of the song's lyrics is "Stop: Hammer time!", which became pop culture catchphrases.
 * If the plant Excavator Zombie is digging is in the furthest 3 columns, it will be thrown to the rightmost column instead of being thrown out of the lawn like Mecha-Football Zombie or Fisherman Zombie.