Umbrella Leaf

An Umbrella Leaf can protect nearby plants against Bungee Zombies and Catapult Zombies. They cost 100 Sun and have a fast recharge.

Suburban Almanac Entry
Umbrella Leaf

Umbrella Leaves protect nearby plants from bungees and catapults.

Special: protects adjacent plants from bungees and catapults

"SPROING!" says Umbrella Leaf. "Didja like that? I can do it again. SPROING! Woo! That's me popping up to protect stuff around me. Yeah. Just like that. EXACTLY like that. Believe it."

Adventure Mode
Plant Sunflowers in the back and on the next column put Umbrella Leaves on the 2nd and 4th square. Do the same for every third column after that, except every other time put them in the 1st, 3rd, and 5th squares instead to even out offensive plants. This strategy leaves the most room at the start of the level for offensive plants while leaving ample sun and is therefore best for setups that involve Kernel-pults or Cabbage-pults as starter offensive plants, and later progress onto Melon-pults. There is one extra square in this setup before the three Umbrella Leaves to the right are planted with respect to the other setup, but there is less sun, though there is still more than enough at the end of the level.

Another strategy is to plant Sunflowers in the back in columns 1 and 2 from the back in rows 1, 3, and 5, Place an Umbrella Leaf on column two, rows 2 and 4. Place offensive plants in Column 1, rows 2 and 4, and column 3 and 4 all the way down. Place an umbrella leaf in column 5, rows 2 and 4, and fill the rest of the spaces with offensive plants. Plant Tall-nuts all the way down the next column. This will allow for 6 sunflowers and 3 offensive plants per row, which is plenty. Another column of offensive plants can be used instead of Tall-nuts if you wish to have four offensive plants per row, and place the Tall-nuts immediately afterwards. This is a risk, however, because Bungee Zombies can steal your Tall-nuts and the Tall-nuts will take loads of damage and may be liable to being easily taken out by Gargantuars. This setup is optimal for providing relatively large amounts of sun while leaving ample space for offensive plants and is thus the best one if Potato Mines are used as stallers while saving up to go straight to Melon-pults. This setup has more sun at the beginning relative to the other setup, and will have the same total space at the end of the setup.

Survival
Because Bungee Zombies and Catapult Zombies may appear on other Survival levels, you should plant Umbrella leaves when they make an appearance. Plant them in the second-to-last column (second one counting from your house) in the second row from the top and bottom. You can use pairs of Gloom-shrooms to cover the plants not covered by the Umbrella Leaves, or plant more Umbrella Leaves where necessary; in order to maximize efficiency, only plant them in the second row from the top and bottom, and move your sunflowers around to compensate for lost space in the rows. If you have Digger Zombies, you may want to use a second Gloom-shroom instead, while placing Umbrella Leaf in the back for Catapults. This is ideal if you have a strong enough defense to destroy Bungees, or if you are playing Survival: Endless.


 * Note: Umbrella Leaves aren't a need when neither Bungee Zombies or Catapult Zombies appear.