Fisherman Zombie

Fisherman Zombie is the twelfth zombie encountered in Big Wave Beach in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time. It pulls the nearest plant to the left one tile at a time, until it either falls into water or it reaches the Fisherman Zombie itself, after which it will throw its catch from the lawn, destroying it. It cannot hook plants considered "low to the ground", such as Iceberg Lettuce, but they may still be pushed forward from behind by another hooked plant.

Description
The Fisherman Zombie wears a light green colored hat with fishing bait surrounding the middle part of the hat. The bait on it features a white and red colored egg, a blue and red colored egg, and a red colored fish on it. It wears a light red collared shirt with aquamarine colored flowers as designs on it. Plus, it also wears a green colored fishing vest buttoned up with pocket on its lower left and right respectively. The Fisherman Zombie also sports in a black colored lifebuoy with white linings, allowing it to hold its position on the ocean for fishing. Its fishing rod is colored orange.

Almanac Entry
TOUGHNESS:  Dense

Casts line to pull far plants to him.

Special: Pulls plants to the right

Special: Plants next to him will sink in the water

Everyone is tired of Fisherman Zombie's fishing stories. He's always bragging about the size of his catch. Time and time again, he claims to have caught "the big one." But the fact of the matter is, no one has seen him actually catch a fish. Not once. It's more than a little suspicious.

Overview
The Fisherman Zombie absorbs 50 normal damage shots and degrades at 17 normal damage shots when it loses its left arm.

Appearances
Big Wave Beach: Days 22, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, and Tiki Torch-er.

Strategies
Even though the Fisherman Zombie cannot eat your brains by itself, its special ability can easily allow other zombies, who are capable of eating your brains, through your lawn. Because it does not move and stays at the back column of the lawn, it is often safe from close-range plants like Snapdragon, Chomper, and Bonk Choy, while long-range plants will have trouble killing it before it can drag down multiple plants.

Aside from instant-kill plants like Cherry Bomb and Tangle Kelp, the Magnifying Grass can kill it the quickest with two shots at 100 sun. Banana Launcher is a good choice, especially when given Plant Food, as it can send a banana at any tile on the board, bypassing all other zombies. Planting a column of Banana Launchers in the back-most columns, then a row of defensive plants ahead of the row to be pulled forward by the Fisherman is a very effective strategy. That way, if octopi are on top of your defensive plants, you can bombard them with bananas.

The Infi-nut's Plant Food shield is immensely effective as it will block all incoming hooks, rendering all Fisherman Zombies useless as long as the shield lasts and that the plants are behind the shield.

Like the Octo Zombie, the Fisherman Zombie will always target the front-most plant first, so the player can plant literal "bait" to distract it by using sacrificial plants such as Puff-shrooms or extra Sunflowers and Sun-shrooms, forcing the Fisherman Zombie to waste time hooking them instead. Be careful as the Fisherman Zombie will ignore some types of plants even if they are in the front, such as Potato Mines, Iceberg Lettuce, and Lily Pads.

Tiki Torch-er
Fisherman Zombie is one of the hardest zombies to tackle in this Endless Zone. That is due to to the fact that it does not move and can instantly kill your plants by dragging them into ocean. Its position makes it hard for close-range plants (Bonk Choy, Chomper, Snapdragon) to attack it without being attacked themselves, while simultaneously protecting it from long-range plants by letting it hide behind faster, stronger zombies (Surfer Zombie, Octo Zombie, Deep Sea Gargantuar). A combination of Banana Launchers, strong offensive plants (Melon-pult, Winter Melon, Bowling Bulb), and Infi-nut's Plant Food is recommended to stop Fishermen Zombies from dragging plants. Keep a Cherry Bomb, Jalapeno, Squash, Ghost Pepper, Tangle Kelp, or Imitater version ready in case the zombies do break through the Infi-nut's shield.

Trivia

 * It is the third zombie to stay at the back of the screen and provide support for the invasion.
 * This and Zombie King do not have their speed listed in the almanac.
 * This, Zombie King, and Imp Cannon are currently the only zombies in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time that do not move from their tile.
 * They are also the only zombies that spawn in the last column only.
 * It is very similar to Qigong Zombie, a zombie in the Chinese version. However, Qigong Zombie pulls all of the plants in a lane, while this zombie pulls only the plant nearest to it.
 * It is also similar to Mecha-Football Zombie, as it also moves plants, despite in the opposite direction.
 * Its lifebuoy is similar to Pea-nut's costume.
 * It sometimes raises its thumb when it dies. This is a reference to the movie Terminator 2: Judgement Day, where the T-800 raises its thumb as it is killed.
 * When its head falls off, the same sound effect plays as when the Zombie King dies.
 * Like Prospector Zombie and Zombie King, it dies instantly if it is the only left standing on the lawn.
 * It has the same health and degrade as the Zombie King.
 * If its lane has only one plant, when it tries to pull that plant, digging that plant will make its fishing rod move further and suddenly back to its position.
 * Air will leak out from the lifebuoy when it dies.
 * It always dies regularly in many ways. This trait is shared with the Zombie King.
 * It can pull plants into surfboards if they are a tile behind one.
 * It can pull Ghost Peppers if the plant behind the Ghost Pepper is being pulled to the furthest right tile.
 * This, Gargantuar Prime, Zombie King and Surfer Zombie are the only zombies so far that can kill Ghost Pepper.
 * If plants get pulled directly next to it, it will fling the plants off the screen.
 * It does not pull low plants like Lily Pads, Iceberg Lettuces, Spikeweeds, etc.
 * If it tries to pull a Guacodile, the Guacodile will do its rush attack.
 * Although it can pull Guacodiles, if one is placed on water without a Lily Pad it will ignore the Guacodile.
 * There can only be one Fisherman Zombie per lane. This trait is shared with Zombie King.
 * If its lane has no or low plants, it will do nothing.
 * If planting any plant on the tile where this zombie will appear, it will be tossed off the lawn.
 * Ghost Pepper can still be planted on this zombie.
 * If replacing Ghost Pepper by Guacodile in this case, it will not be tossed.
 * Fisherman Zombie is invulnerable in a short time after entering the lawn. This trait is shared with Zombie King.
 * If it failed to hook plants, its fishing rod suddenly came back but after 3.1 update, if failing, the Fisherman Zombie will drag its rod instead.
 * Spring Bean that is about to bounce a zombie can't be pulled by Fisherman Zombie. It's recommended to plant it right at front of it so it will work similar to Infi-nut's force field.