Gargantuar Prime


 * For the similar zombie in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, see Mech Gargantuar.

Gargantuar Prime is a mechanized variant of Gargantuar that appears in Plants vs. Zombies 2. Despite the fact that it has the same health as the other variations of Gargantuar, it is not just a reskin like most of its variants are, as it has the ability to shoot lasers from its eyes to incinerate a plant or a zombie and is also slower than the average Gargantuar. Since it is a machine, it can temporarily be shut down by the E.M.Peach. It also smashes plants twice, once with each of its arms. This allows it to hit a Spikerock or a Primal Wall-nut twice and destroy a Wall-nut, Tall-nut, Pea-nut, or Endurian even if they have their Plant Food effects active.

Origins
Its name is a based on Optimus Prime, the protagonist of the Transformers series.

Appearance
The Gargantuar Prime, which resembles an actual Gargantuar in mechanized form, has a glass sphere on top of its head with an Imp sitting inside piloting the machine. The head of the Gargantuar Prime is less circular than that of Gargantuar, with yellow lights for eyes which shoot powerful laser beams. When shooting laser beams, they turn purple. Similar to Gargantuar, it has a missing tooth and also wears a dog collar on its neck.

Its main body is brown colored, with a cannon that resembles a trash can on its back from where it shoots out a Bug Bot Imp. Instead of arms, it has two telephone poles attached to its shoulders, as a reference to the telephone pole the Gargantuar holds.

Finally, its legs are colored dark blue, like the pants the Gargantuar wears. These move very stiffly, which explains the robot's slow speed.

Overview
The Gargantuar Prime absorbs 200 normal damage shots, and it does not degrade. It launches its Bug Bot Imp at 100 normal damage shots.

Encounters
Player's House: Piñata Party

Far Future: Days 8, 12, 19, 22, 25, 26, 28, 31, 32, 34, 35, Terror from Tomorrow, and Piñata Party.

Dark Ages: "Epic Quest: Premium Seeds - Hot Date!" Epic Quest - Step 6

Modern Day: Days 3, 10, 16, 19, 33, 41, and "Electrical Boogaloo" Epic Quest - Steps 1 and 8

General
Gargantuar Primes are considerably more dangerous than the other Gargantuar types, possibly except for Sloth Gargantuars, Hair Metal Gargantuars, and Jurassic Gargantuars. One can already be threatening, but five or more of these can destroy all the plants in your lawn. If paired with lots of Mecha-Football Zombies, it can cause lots of havoc on your lawn, emptying everything. When it launches its Bug Bot Imp, quickly use a Blover/Hurrikale to blow it away, since Bug Bot Imps are harder to destroy than a normal Imp.

Unlike other Gargantuars, this variation will utilize a laser to kill plants in the back or in other lanes with a single hit. Therefore, be ready to replant your sun-producing types like Sunflower and offensive plants by keeping a large supply of sun on hand or revive plants using Intensive Carrot. Also, be cautious on planting or replacing high value plants, like Winter Melons, in the presence of Gargantuar Primes to avoid wasting up to 500 sun in the process.

Like any threat, you can put an Iceberg Lettuce in front of it, as long as there are no other zombies to protect it. A boosted Iceberg Lettuce or its Plant Food upgrade makes it more effective if multiple Gargantuar Primes are on-screen. Also, use of an E.M.Peach can disable it both before it first enters your lawn or later on to disable multiple machines in its target area. You should definitely time the use of either of these methods whenever you see their laser eyes start to glow, to help defeat Gargantuar Primes easily before they can use their last resort. In dangerous situations, it's recommended to use Plant Food Refresh on E.M.Peach, so it can be deployed faster.

Citrons with Plant Food or boosted versions will instantly kill a Gargantuar Prime if there are no other machines in front to block it. Avoid using Jalapenos and use Cherry Bombs while they are frozen, as it will thaw them. Snow Pea can slow and halt their progress while damaging them at a low cost to replace, until your disabling plants have a chance to recharge.

Gargantuar Primes are actually threats from afar, as they are too slow to get far in a well-defended lawn, despite their bulk. They still can crush plants, therefore, do not put your defenses too up front. Do not try stalling them with Spikerocks, as they can kill them far faster than other Gargantuars (due to not stopping to smash until the plant is dead) despite the slower animation. Besides the lasers, the Bug Bot Imps are also notable threats. They will still land at the third column, but they get to move a longer distance. The best way to deal with them is Magnifying Grass, as it is the cheapest to plant option and can destroy them as long as there are no machines in the way. Make sure to save room in the first two back columns for any plant to deal with the Bug Bot Imps. However, if you are using Magnifying Grass, you will need to spend 350 sun to fully destroy the Gargantuar.

Terror from Tomorrow
Their lasers are your greatest threat as they can burn your plants instantly from far away. As such, you must be able to defeat Gargantuar Primes immediately, regardless of their numbers, while making sure nothing else is sneaking by. The most effective way is the smart use of Power Tiles. In the beginning, plant Twin Sunflowers on Power Tiles of the same color (minimum of three in almost all games) and use a Plant Food on one of them. This allows you to gain much needed sun in the beginning. Another advantage of Power Tiles is that plants that are using Plant Food are immune to lasers.

You must also establish key defenses like Winter Melons in order to slow them down. Once they start showing up, replace a Twin Sunflower on one Power Tile with an Iceberg Lettuce and another with a Winter Melon. This way, when you power up each time, you get some sun, you freeze every zombie, and you get a deadly Winter Melon power-up all at once. For this strategy to work, though, you need a lot of Plant Food, so you will need a Power Lily and usually an Imitater as well. Imitater with Cherry Bomb can work too.

One method that may quickly and easily get rid of all Gargantuar Primes (and other zombies) is to use a boosted Spring Bean along with Blover. If not boosted, you will also need a lot of Plant Food to feed Spring Bean. Once the Gargantuar Primes are airborne, quickly place a Blover so that everything gets blown away. The recharge rate of these plants and the slots they both take might provide an issue, so make sure you have a strategy to have enough damage producing plants as well. You also must be good at timing.

Above all aforementioned strategies, always have an E.M Peach every level that contains a Gargantuar Prime. The forgetfulness of bringing it will more likely lead you to your loss of the Endless Zone due to the sheer amount of zombies that cannot be stopped. Usage of tons of coins for Power-Ups and Plant Food (unless you have Boosted Kernel-pult or Iceberg Lettuce), may be needed otherwise.

Trivia

 * It is the first Gargantuar to have two special attacks. One is to incinerate a plant, while the other one is to smash a plant twice.
 * It is also the first Gargantuar to have weaknesses, one of which is that it is slower than other Gargantuars, and the other is that it can be disabled by E.M.Peach.
 * Unlike its Garden Warfare 2 counterpart, it does not shoot electricity out of the telephone poles.
 * It is the first Gargantuar to smash plants more than once. This is because it wishes to ensure that plants like Wall-nuts, Tall-nuts, and Infi-nuts, cannot survive another hit. This only works with Plant Food though.
 * However, Spikerocks and Primal Wall-nuts can survive another hit. This is because they take three smashes before dying.
 * It is the first Gargantuar to have multiple Imps, with two of them. One being the pilot of the mech and the other one deployed as a last resort which is Bug Bot Imp.
 * The second is Sloth Gargantuar, with three Imps on his back. The third is Flying Gargantuar, with two Imps.
 * It is the only Gargantuar that is a robot, while in the World map, a statue of a normal Gargantuar is seen.
 * The latter was before the 5.1.1 update.
 * The statue may be a reference to Star Wars, as the Gargantuar is in a carbonite, the same happened with Han Solo, a character.
 * Its arms resemble the telephone pole the Gargantuar carried in the original game.
 * While there was only one telephone pole carried in the original game, the design was implemented to both arms of the Gargantuar Prime. That means it can crush each plant twice.
 * It and Mummified Gargantuar are the only Gargantuars to smash plants with both hands. Mummified Gargantuar uses both hands to hold the sarcophagus while smashing, while the Gargantuar Prime smashes plants once with each arm.
 * It is the first Gargantuar variant to appear in levels other than the World Key battle, the Zombot battle, and Endless Zones. This is because Far Future days were not pre-made before the 1.7 update.
 * Its laser eyes can burn other zombies that touch it. Due to this, this is the first Gargantuar and the second zombie that can kill other zombies, the first being Dr. Zomboss, as he can kill other zombies through his charge attack from his Zombots.
 * Also the laser eyes can destroy gravestones.
 * Despite that its Almanac entry says that its laser eyes burn tiles, it actually only burns plants.
 * This might refer to the fact that it can miss, shooting an empty tile with its laser eyes.
 * Its lasers do not always instantly kill plants, despite saying that it incinerates them.
 * When incinerating a plant, the plant burns up just as it would if it was burned by an Explorer Zombie.
 * However, in the Chinese version, the plant just disappears without the burning animation.
 * It is missing a tooth. It is located on the lower part of the mouth, just like a normal Gargantuar.
 * The only plants that cannot be burned by its laser are Iceberg Lettuce, Cherry Bomb, Blover, E.M.Peach, Jalapeno, Guacodile, and Power Lily.
 * It has the shortest death animation of all Gargantuars.
 * It is the only "fake" Gargantuar, because it is just a robot piloted by an Imp.
 * It is the only Gargantuar not to groan as it is a robot. Instead it makes mechanical sound effects.
 * It and Hair Metal Gargantuar are the only Gargantuar variants that can attack Ghost Pepper.
 * It and Gargantuar Pirate are the only Gargantuars that do not throw Imps physically.
 * Starting with the 3.1 update, Gargantuar Primes can no longer attack while off-screen, and unless stalled, do not fire their lasers until they reach the second column from the right, have a reduced rate of fire, and stop firing their lasers after an Iceberg Lettuce effect ends. This was done in an effort to balance the zombie, as it was considered to be way too powerful before the update.
 * Its color palette is used by the Mechanical Wolf Zombie.
 * Its laser is similar to Turquoise Skull Zombie's beam. One major difference is that the former can fire it anywhere and sometimes does not completely kill plants.
 * It is one of the few zombies who can kill plants in other lanes, the others being MC Zom-B, Jack-in-the-Box Zombie, and Blew Zombie.
 * Unlike other robot zombies, it can be stunned by Stunion, despite the fact that it is a machine and not an actual zombie.
 * Despite the fact that Shrinking Violets shrink Imps into oblivion, the Imp controlling it does not get shrunk into oblivion.
 * In the Travel Log, it is called "Gargantuar Prime Zombie."
 * It slightly resembles the original Zombot from Plants vs. Zombies.

Гаргантюа-премьер