Homing Thistle

Homing Thistle is a premium plant that was released in the 2.9.1 update of Plants vs. Zombies 2. How it attacks is similar to the Cattail; it shoots spikes that home in on the zombie nearest to the Player's House, as the name implies. However, Cattail shoots two spikes at a time, but each spike is only one damage per shot while Homing Thistle shoots one thistle instead, but each thistle deals two normal damage shots. It now costs 109 gems.

In the 3.4.4 update of the game, the accuracy of Homing Thistle's attack was changed. Instead of every needle hitting the leftmost zombie, they are now much more inaccurate and will sometimes hit random zombies or even go off the lawn without hitting anything. Sometimes after it has destroyed a zombie, it will attack somewhere random, perhaps not hitting anything or damaging a gravestone.

Origins
Homing Thistle is based on thistles, a plant group known for their prickly leaves. Its name is a combination of the aforementioned thistle and homing missile, a weapon that is known to target a location or object and adjust its trajectory in order to hit, a quality present in Homing Thistle's projectile.

Almanac entry
Sun cost: 250

DAMAGE: Moderate

RECHARGE: Mediocre

Homing Thistles fire seeking shots at targets that are closest to home.

Range: anywhere on lawn

Don't even think about trying to pull one over on Homing Thistle. He's got a bead on you. He sees right through your facade. It's like he has a laser beam ... aimed at your soul.

Plant Food effect
When given Plant Food, it spins and shoots blue needles that target zombies on the screen, or tombstones or any lawn obstacles, if there are insufficient zombies. The blue projectiles deal 12 normal damage shots each, and they sometimes encircle zombies for a long period of time. If there are no zombies present on the screen, it will fire the projectiles in a spiral shape.

Costumed
It now mixes normal blue projectiles with fire projectiles, which do more damage, and ice projectiles, which slow zombies.

Strategies
Homing Thistle, in groups, can thin out the ranks of lesser zombies very quickly and pile on damage on single targets, making them a good compliment to any offensive. Their flying thistles can target just about any enemy type from anywhere, including Snorkel Zombies while they are swimming, Prospector Zombies after they have jumped, and even Swashbuckler Zombies while they are swinging (the thistles will wait in ambush where they will land). Since they always target the enemy closest to the lawn mowers first, enemies closing in on the Player's House can expect to take additional damage even if their row is unoccupied.

Homing Thistle is also useful when only one or two Gargantuars are on screen, as five or more of them can easily overpower a Gargantuar. However, this is not advised when aside from the Gargantuars, there are other zombies on screen because the other zombies on screen might be closer to home than the Gargantuars are, letting the Gargantuars walk closer to your house.

Homing Thistle, however, requires mass planting for them to be effective by themselves, as groups of enemies with high toughness, such as Buckethead Zombies, can tank through a storm of thistles. This is complicated by their slow recharge time and, ironically, their priority on targets furthest ahead on the lawn, which often causes them to target lesser enemies while ignoring real threats like Buckethead Zombies, or especially high-level enemies such as Gargantuars or Wizard Zombies. If the player is using them exclusively as their only offense, it's best to support them with defensive plants such as Spikerock and Tall-nuts, while using plants such as Cherry Bombs, Chili Beans, Iceberg Lettuce, and similar plants to stall or pick off higher-level enemies.

Avoid using Homing Thistle against Shield Zombie, Jester Zombie, and Excavator Zombie as they will block or deflect its shots, even if were boosted.

Trivia

 * It is the first non-seasonal plant to cost gems.
 * It is the only plant so far to have two different Plant Food effect animations.
 * It is the substitute of Cattail from Plants vs. Zombies.
 * It prioritizes zombies over stationary objects like surfboards and tombstones.
 * In the 3.4.4 update to the game, it was nerfed so that every thistle would not necessarily hit the left-most zombie, but instead possibly target a random zombie or possibly fly off the lawn.
 * If a Swashbuckler Zombie has not yet landed, its needles will circle around the tile it will land on until it touches ground.
 * If the player uses Plant Food on it after all zombies have been defeated, it will shoot normal projectiles instead of the blue glowing ones.
 * It, Spikerock and Apple Mortar are the only plants that have a sun cost of 250. However, Tile Turnip will cost 250 sun after it has been planted once.
 * It, Pea-nut, Pepper-pult, Dandelion, Dusk Lobber and Apple Mortar are the only projectile-shooting plants that do not have a fast recharge speed.
 * Its projectile can be deflected by Jester Zombies. However, they will not home in on plants but rather go in a straight line.
 * If there are no zombies on and Plant Food is used on it, there is a bug where the spikes will loop in a circle.
 * Its idle animation resembles Hurrikale's and Hypno-shroom's.
 * A Valenbrainz advertisement of the Homing Thistle states "Homing Thistle is where the heart is," a pun on the saying "Home is where the heart is."
 * It technically has a "Full Board" area as it can target any zombie on-screen. In this way, it is similar to Blover and Thyme Warp.
 * But unlike them, it can only target zombies one at a time, rather than affecting all of them.
 * Its needles damage Excavator Zombies only when hit from behind.
 * It resembles Flowering Caperticus from Clicker Heroes. However, this is most likely a coincidence.
 * It, Cattail, Banana Launcher, Missile Toe and Cob Cannon are the only projectile-shooting plants that can target any zombie on the screen without Plant Food.
 * It is featured for free in Big Wave Beach - Days 21, 31, and 32.