Balloon Zombie

Balloon Zombie is a flying zombie in Plants vs. Zombies and Plants vs. Zombies 2 that floats gently above all of the player's plants with a red balloon with an angry face drawn on tying around its waist. The balloon acts as armor and the zombie himself can only be attacked after the balloon is popped and the zombie drops to the ground. He can also be blown away by a Blover or killed by explosive plants besides the Potato Mine, Primal Potato Mine, and Escape Root (unless activated by another zombie it turns into a Cherry Bomb or Grapeshot) while still in the air.

Plants vs. Zombies
Balloon Zombie's balloon can only be targeted by a Cactus or a Cattail. Their spikes will instantly drop the zombie to the ground, where it will become vulnerable to all normal attacks. They can also be blown away by a Blover that instantly kills them.

Plants vs. Zombies 2
Balloon Zombie's balloon can be damaged by any normal attacking plants, except for ground based ones (such as Spikeweed). Spike projectiles no longer instantly pop the balloon, and now simply deal normal damage to it. After taking a certain amount of damage, his balloon pops dropping him on the ground similar to the Bug Zombie.

Plants vs. Zombies
 BALLOON ZOMBIE 

Balloon Zombie floats above the fray, immune to most attacks.

Toughness: low

Special: flying

Weakness: cactus and blover

Balloon Zombie really lucked out. The balloon thing really works and none of the other zombies have picked up on it.

Plants vs. Zombies
Balloon Zombie absorbs 10.5 normal damage shots. His appearance changes upon absorbing 1 normal damage shot (when the balloon is popped and the zombie becomes vulnerable to ground based attacks) and 5.75 normal damage shots before dying at 10.5 normal damage shots. He dies after 1 normal damage shot over the pool.

Plants vs. Zombies 2
Balloon Zombie absorbs 41 normal damage shots. His appearance changes upon absorbing 32.5 normal damage shots when his balloon is popped, before dying at 41 normal damage shots.

Plants vs. Zombies

 * Adventure Mode: 4-3, 4-4, 4-9, 4-10
 * Mini-games: Portal Combat, Air Raid, High Gravity, Dark Stormy Night
 * Puzzle Mode: Dead Zeppelin, Last Stand: Fog, Last Stand Endless
 * Survival Mode: Survival: Fog, Survival: Roof, all Survival (Hard) and Survival (Endless) levels
 * Co-op Mode: Co-op Roof, all Co-op Hard levels, Co-op Endless

Plants vs. Zombies 2

 * Player's House: Piñata Party
 * Pirate Seas: "Rescue the Gold Bloom" Epic Quest - Step 6
 * Modern Day: Days 9, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 35, 38, 39, 44, Highway to the Danger Room and "Rescue the Gold Bloom" Epic Quest - Step 1

Plants vs. Zombies
A Balloon Zombie cannot be stopped by a Tall-nut. The player must use a Cattail or a Cactus to pop his balloon, reducing him to the state of a normal Zombie. If they are popped over a pool lane, they will die immediately, as they will drop into the water and disappear, since he is not equipped for aquatic travel. Alternatively, one could blow them away with a Blover. The player should wait as long as possible before planting a Blover in order to save sun by blowing away multiple instances of them. On pool and fog levels, use Cattails because they can pop balloons and damage zombies in any lane. Since Cattails cannot be used on levels without a pool, use Blovers to blow all Balloon Zombies at the same time and save space for other plants.

Fortunately, they cannot float over the player's Lawn Mowers, Pool Cleaners or Roof Cleaners for a final line of defense.

I, Zombie
The Balloon Zombie is only available in the Dead Zeppelin level. The player should use them in rows without Cactus. The balloons will pop at the end of each row so that the Balloon Zombies can eat the brain, so sending them is not pointless. If the player really wants to send a Balloon Zombie in rows with Cactus, they can be removed by a Bungee Zombie. Note that Balloon Zombies will not eat Sunflowers that they fly over. It is better to send regular Zombies or Buckethead Zombies rather than the Balloon Zombies. Also, the player should gain a surplus of sun before he or she sends a Balloon Zombie, as they cost 150 sun, and one placed early on will bankrupt the player, making him or her lose Dead Zeppelin quickly.

Plants vs. Zombies 2
The Balloon Zombie behaves much like his original counterpart in the first game, except he now has the same behavior like the Bug Zombie, since he is dropped after his balloon is popped. However, his speed is faster.
 * Cactus is not recommended against Balloon Zombies, since it cannot stretch high to pop their balloons with their spikes now.
 * Use a Blover or Hurrikale against Balloon Zombies with their balloons to kill them quickly in large numbers.
 * Tall-nuts and plant-made Force fields can now stall him. A good combination is to use Tall-nut and a powered Nightshade (affected by Moonflower) to deal against a Balloon Zombie.
 * Primal Peashooter can stall Balloon Zombie and make him fly over other plants, which stops Balloon Zombie for a short time when he rises above a plant.
 * Shadow-shroom can be used to defeat Balloon Zombie even with his balloon, since the balloon is an armor.

General

 * Balloon Zombie appears as a cameo in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. He appears on the pile of zombies in Team Vanquish, however he has the hair and goggles of a Scientist, implying that is supposed to be him.
 * Balloon Zombie can be killed by explosives while in the air.
 * Balloon Zombie's balloon has an evil face-like drawing on it.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies

 * While scrolling up where all the zombie the player has killed in the iOS leaderboards section, a lone balloon can be seen floating around the dead zombies. It is unknown why it does not keep flying up.
 * Just like Bungee Zombie, Zombie Bobsled Team, and Zombie Yeti, when a Balloon Zombie with a balloon is hit by an explosive plant, he does not crumble into ash, but turns into a black silhouette and vanishes.
 * He also turns into a black silhouette if he was killed by an explosive plant when his balloon was popped but before he could start walking.
 * An inflating sound is heard before the Balloon Zombie appears. Balloon Zombie, Bungee Zombie, Dolphin Rider Zombie, Zomboni, Jack-in-the-Box Zombie, Digger Zombie, and Pogo Zombie are the only zombies that make noises before entering.
 * Balloon Zombie and Bungee Zombie are the only zombies to appear both on land and in or above the pool.
 * The propeller hat slightly falls off of the Balloon Zombie's head when he takes a step.
 * If a Balloon Zombie is hit by a Lawn Mower while still on his balloon, his balloon will pop and it will turn into smoke, just like a Gargantuar despite the Balloon Zombie being too high to be hit by the Lawn Mower.
 * Balloon Zombie cannot be frozen while still floating if an Ice-shroom is used, but will only be slowed down. This also happens with Pogo Zombies still on their pogo sticks.
 * Balloon Zombie (while on his balloon), Digger Zombie (while digging), Imp (while airborne), Ladder Zombie, Gargantuar, Giga-gargantuar, Zomboni, and Catapult Zombie are the only zombies that can get past a Tall-nut by themselves without eating them.
 * The Suburban Almanac entry for the Balloon Zombie does not list the Cattail as one of its weaknesses, though the Cattail's Suburban Almanac entry does.
 * Balloon Zombie is one of nine zombies not allowed for Versus Mode, possibly due to two reasons: it can pass the player's plants without damage, and it only requires two to eat the brains (unless the Lawn Mower in that row has already been used, in which case it would only need one), which means that the Cactus must always be chosen.
 * Balloon Zombie is the only non-vaulting zombie that can pass almost every type of plant without trying to eat it.
 * Balloon Zombie and Digger Zombie are the only zombies that lack a shoe.
 * A rake cannot kill a Balloon Zombie, due to him floating over the rake.
 * Umbrella Leaves cannot deflect Balloon Zombies when they drop directly at them.
 * Neither catapult plants nor the Squash can damage Balloon Zombies in the air, despite throwing their projectiles in the air and jumping higher than Balloon Zombie respectively.
 * Despite being in the air, he can still scare a Scaredy-shroom.
 * Despite having the propeller hat, the hat does not protect him from damage. The other zombies whose have headwear that does not protect them from damage are Zomboni, Target Zombie, Baseball Zombie, Catapult Baseball Zombie, and Gatling Pea Zombie.
 * Balloon Zombie is the zombie with the second most visible teeth (seven teeth). The zombie with the most visible teeth is Zombie Yeti (eight teeth).
 * Balloon Zombie is one of the only four zombies that cannot damage the player's plants before losing their special item (balloon). The other ones are Pole Vaulting Zombie, Dolphin Rider Zombie, and Pogo Zombie.
 * In I, Zombie, it only appears in Dead Zeppelin.
 * When he reaches the house, his balloon will pop automatically so he can eat the brain.
 * The balloon as depicted in the Nintendo DS version is very large in comparison to the zombie using it. In higher quality versions (PC, Xbox Live Arcade, iPad, etc.) the balloon is not much larger than the zombie's head, but in the Nintendo DS version, it is a little over twice the size of his head.
 * Despite the Cactus being one of Balloon Zombie's weaknesses, a Cactus planted on the slant of the roof cannot pop the balloon until the Balloon Zombie is right above it.
 * He is the only zombie who can be above the pool but not actually swim in it, as he will disappear if his balloon gets popped while over water because he is not meant to swim in it.
 * In the minigame High Gravity, the gravity will cause him to sink lower and lower, until he touches the ground and the balloon automatically pops.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies 2

 * Unlike in the first game, Balloon Zombie now wears two shoes, as opposed to only one.


 * In Balloon Zombie's zapped death animation, it shows that there is a monkey wearing a fez riding a bicycle in his balloon.
 * However, this monkey does not appear when his balloon is popped normally.
 * There used to be a glitch that happened in version 4.4, when zapped by a Electric Blueberry, it leaves a sun instead of its zapped animation, it happens because the sprite needed for the animation was not added in the game, when the game is missing a sprite, it is replaced by a sun instead.
 * Balloon Zombie's balloon is significantly larger than in the first game, and lighter in color.
 * Before the 4.5.1 update, Balloon Zombie had a bone sticking out of his arm. However, this did not appear in his almanac icon.
 * When viewed through the Almanac, Balloon Zombie can appear with or without its balloon.
 * This is the only zombie whose appearance is not consistent in the Almanac.
 * Balloon Zombie's head disappears when he dies, instead of it "popping" off like other zombies.
 * This is a nod to the bug in several versions of the original game, where Balloon Zombie's head disappears rather than falling off.
 * When this zombie is defeated, his head uses the balloon's popping animation, looking like his head is actually "popping."
 * This also applies to Super-Fan Imp.
 * He doesn't lose his arm before his head pops.
 * His head and body structure is the same as a normal zombie's unlike in Plants vs. Zombies.
 * There are two errors in the Almanac:
 * It says the balloon carries zombies, although it only carries one type of zombie.
 * In the description, the z in the word zombie is in lowercase, but it should be capitalized instead.
 * This is the first zombie that uses balloons to bypass the player's defense, the second being Balloon Imp Child.
 * In the Big Brainz Piñata Party event, the big-headed Balloon Zombie doesn't have his hat on.
 * He will temporarily stop moving forward to raise altitude when flying over a plant, a fact which can be used to stall it. This trait also applies to Jetpack Zombie, Bug Zombie and Blastronaut Zombie.