Winter Melon

The Winter Melon is a lobbed-shot plant and the upgrade of the Melon-pult. It lobs frozen melons that deal four peas worth of damage per melon and freezes a group of zombies at once. It costs $10,000 to buy in the shop and is only available for purchase once the player has completed Adventure Mode for the first time. Its name is based on the Benincasa hispida, although its appearance resembles a watermelon. When hit by a melon, zombies move at half speed.

Plants vs. Zombies
Winter Melon

Winter Melons do heavy damage and slow groups of zombies.

Damage: very heavy

Range: lobbed

Firing Speed: 1/2x

Special: melons damage and freeze nearby enemies on impact

Must be planted on melon-pults

Winter Melon tries to calm his nerves. He hears zombies approach. Will he make it? Will anyone make it?

Cost: 200

Recharge: very slow

Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time
Winter Melon

Sun cost: 500

DAMAGE: Heavy

AREA: 3x3

RECHARGE: Fast

Winter Melons do heavy damage and slow groups of zombies.

Firing Speed: 1/2x

Range: lobbed

Special: damaged enemies are also chilled

You may recognize Winter Melon's voice from such incredible documentaries as "It's Cold Up Here," "Ice Bingo," and "Surfin' Swedes."

Overview
The Winter Melon lobs a large Frozen Melon at the zombies. This melon deals four normal damage shots to the targeted zombie and 1.5 normal damage shots of splash damage to nearby zombies above, below or on the same space. It fires at half the rate of the Peashooter. All zombies affected by the Winter Melon will be slowed to half their speed for a duration of time. The projectiles will also bypass the shields of zombies.

Plants vs. Zombies
The Winter Melon is one of the most powerful plants in the game, in league with plants like the Cob Cannon, Gloom-shroom, and Gatling Pea. The Winter Melon can freeze zombies within a half-square radius and deal significant Area of Effect damage. The Winter Melon is effective against shield zombies. The Melon-pult and Snow Pea combination has a similar effect, but the Snow Pea affects fewer zombies.

Compared to Gatling Peas, Winter Melons are more expensive for the first plant, but after every extra plant, they are less expensive for every plant afterwards. This is because you need only one Winter Melon per lane to freeze zombies in the lane, like a Snow Pea. Gatling Peas have a 450 sun cost (if factoring in the Repeater), but if there is a Torchwood in the lane, it is a total cost of 200+250+175, equaling 625. A Winter Melon with a Melon-pult, is the same power, with improved splash damage, for 300+200+300, or 800. In other words, it is cheaper for a Gatling Pea with Torchwood compared to a Winter Melon and Melon-pult.

The Winter Melon is frequently used in Survival Mode. Because the zombie density increases dramatically over time, the splash and slow effect is critical for survival. Powerful zombies such as Football Zombies or Gargantuars appear frequently in Survival: Endless, but Winter Melons weaken them considerably. Winter Melons strategically placed in the pool rows can slow Buckethead Ducky Tube zombies and Dolphin Rider Zombies.

Melon-y Lane Achievement
The achievement Melon-y Lane is unlocked by planting a Winter Melon in every lane. This can easily be done on any Survival Mode level or Last Stand. Keep in mind that they do not all have to be alive at one given time, or in the same column.

Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time
The Winter Melon is more difficult to use in this game, as the player needs 500 sun to plant it on the lawn without an initial Melon-pult. This can be extremely difficult in the old version but is much easier after version 1.7 as each sun now values 50. However, Twin Sunflowers are still recommended for sun production while Potato Mines are mandatory for holding the zombies back if the player wants to use them.

Locked and Loaded - Wild West (Day 9, Day 22)
Although they might seem expensive, Winter Melons are required in these levels in order to defeat the massive numbers of zombies which swarm the screen, Especially day 9 where both Lightning Reeds and Split Peas cannot reliably take care of Poncho Zombies. In Day 22, It is advised the player places 1 on the hindmost mine cart In order to slow down the zombies but they won't help against Zombie Chickens, so Repeaters are mandatory for taking care of them.

Endless Zone
Winter Melon is a good plant to use in every Endless Zones especially in Pyramid of Doom because as the level goes higher, tombstones are most likely to occupy 80% of the lawn, making it hard to gain advantage. Winter Melons in number are also very good at holding off a massive horde of zombies.

General

 * The Winter Melon's namesake is a vegetable, but its downgrade is based on a fruit.
 * Winter Melon is the only lobbed-shot plant without "pult" in its name.
 * This is the only lobbed-shot plant that can slow down zombies.
 * Winter Melon's tagalog name is "Kundol" and is mentioned in a filipino folk song "Bahay Kubo."

Plants vs. Zombies

 * If the Winter Melon's seed packet is fully recharged, the player has accumulated enough sun to purchase it, and there are no Melon-pults on the lawn, clicking on the Winter Melon seed packet causes a message to appear stating "Plant a Winter Melon first" instead of "Plant a Melon-pult first". This glitch is fixed in current versions of Plants vs. Zombies.
 * It is one of only two upgrade plants that cost less sun than the plants they upgrade, the other plant being the Gold Magnet.
 * According to the Suburban Almanac, the Winter Melon can deal a very heavy amount of damage. However, it deals the same amount of damage per melon as the Melon-pult.
 * This might be because it halves a zombie's speed, dealing twice as much damage over time.
 * On the PlayStation Vita version of Plants vs. Zombies, the Winter Melon's seed packets might have part of the melon erased. It shares this trait with the Coffee Bean.
 * In the iPad version, Winter Melon is a lot lower down on its seed packet than Melon-pult.
 * It is the only upgrade plant to "lob" projectiles.

Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time

 * It can now be planted as a normal plant, instead of having to be planted on a Melon-pult like normal Upgrade Plants. It shares this trait with the Twin Sunflower and Spikerock.
 * It is the second most expensive plant in the game, costing 500 sun. That is because that is the cost to get Winter Melon in the original game, as Melon-pult costs 300 sun, and Winter Melon cost 200 sun in the first game. The first expensive plant is the Tile Turnip, since its sun cost can go over the maximum amount of sun, being 16000 sun cost.
 * Like the Melon-pult, it takes three steps before it starts catapulting frozen melons.
 * Winter Melon's vine that connects its body to its basket and its leaves under it are now completely blue.
 * The Almanac says that it does the same damage as a Melon-pult, even though in the first game, the Almanac said that it does very heavy damage.
 * Its seed packet has its eyes higher than the Melon-pult, similar to how in the iPad version it was lower than the Melon-pult.
 * This may happen for distinguishing the two seed packets, because the seed packets do not show the full body of the plant.
 * It is the only upgrade plant from Plants vs. Zombies to not have its total sun cost changed in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time.
 * Its costume makes a reference to Eric Cartman's hat from South Park.