Gargantuar

Gargantuars are the third strongest zombies in existence (only the Giga-Gargantuar and Dr. Zomboss are stronger), taking two instant kills to destroy. It is a massive land zombie that carries an Imp on its back. It has a huge amount of health, and takes two instant kills before dying. When a Gargantuar gets down to about half its health, it throws the Imp on its back about half the screen towards the house. It uses its club to crush the player's plants. Because it can crush them, it can destroy every plant in its path, even Spikerocks and Spikeweeds. Unless killed by an explosion, upon dying Gargantuars roar, sway, and fall over, landing with a ground (and sometimes screen)-shaking thud.

Overview
Absorbs 150 Normal Damage Shots. Appearance changes upon after 50 and 75 Normal Damage Shots, and dies after 150 Normal Damage Shots, or 2 instant kills.

Strategy
You can delay a Gargantuar with Spikerocks, which take many smashes before they disappear. It is advised that you blast it with at least one explosive plant, or else it may do a lot of damage to your vital defenses. It works well to slow them with a Winter Melon or Snow Pea. Chompers are almost useless; they continuously bite it, doing minimal damage until crushed. You can also try to slow Gargantuars by planting something cheap to delay it, such as a Sun-shroom or a Puff-shroom. A charged Potato Mine will deal damage to the Gargantuar when it crushes it. Hypno-shrooms do not work against it, because it does not try to eat anything. Rows of Gloom-shrooms adjacent to his path will work as well. In the Survival Mode Pool levels (especially Survival: Endless) you can stagger it a bit so that Gloom-shrooms in the pool kill Gargantuars before they reach ones on dry land. In the I, Zombie level Me Smash!, these are useful in hard rows without multiple Squashes, although occasionally a single Squash and a Kernel-pult with other offensive plants can kill it too. In Vasebreaker, save some Squashes to get rid of these zombies, though Potato Mines work as well.


 * Note: If you attack a Gargantuar with an instant kill, make sure to prepare for the Imp it will throw unless it is halfway through the lawn. The best way to do this is to plant a Pumpkin where it lands, and make sure that an offensive plant can reach it, but instant kills (preferably Jalapenos) can also work. If you're dealing with only one Gargantuar at once, then the easiest way to defeat him and his Imp is to use Squash first, and Jalapeno second. If there are multiple in the same column, a Cherry Bomb works better than that of Squash. It's also possible to kill the Gargantuar before it can throw its imp, if you hit it twice within about 1 second.

Giga-Gargantuars


The Giga-Gargantuar is the second most powerful zombie in the game, only Dr. Zomboss being tougher. Found only in Survival: Endless, it has 50% more health (making 225 Normal Damage Shots) than a regular Gargantuar. To distinguish himself from its lesser brethren, the Giga-Gargantuar has crimson-red eyes. One can take 3 instants, which means the Cob Cannon is a good plant to have in your arsenal. It is also a good idea to pack extra instants such as Squash, Jalapenos, Cherry Bombs. After 2 hits from an instant, a Giga-Gargantuar will hurl an Giga Imp into your defenses, unless it is already half-way into your lawn. Imps thrown by Giga-Gargantuars have 50% more health ( making 9 normal damage shots) than an ordinary Imp. These do not have an Almanac entry.

Trivia

 * For some reason, a Lawn Mower can kill a Gargantuar. When it is killed by one, a Gargantuar turns into a puff of smoke, indicating it might be a mystical creature.
 * In the I, Zombie level Me Smash, the Gargantuar squashes the brain instead of eating it.
 * However, there is a biting sound when this happens. The same sound is also played after it kills a plant.
 * This is also played when a Zomboni, a Catapult Zombie, Dr. Zomboss's Fireball/Snowball attack, or when the Zombot's foot crushes other plants.
 * The Gargantuar is the only zombie whose head (or any other limb, for that matter) does not fall off after dying. However, its head does fall onto the ashes that remain of its body if it is killed by an explosive, just like the other zombies.
 * If the Gargantuar is hit by an explosive Instant Kill after it has lost half of its health but has not been able to throw its Imp due to it being frozen, paralyzed, or hit by two instant kills in a few seconds, the body of the Imp on its back will also disintegrate into ash and its head will fall onto the pile of ash the Gargantuar has turned into.
 * The Gargantuar will not hit other zombies that have been affected by a Hypno-shroom. Instead, the Zombie will just die.
 * This may be because the game does not have animations for squashed zombies.
 * Gargantuars can have one of three different clubs: a telephone pole, a wildlife crossing sign, or another zombie.
 * Gargantuars only use normal zombies as clubs; never Conehead Zombies, Newspaper Zombies, etc.
 * The zombies that the Gargantuars use have cut ties on their clothes.
 * His hand seems to be designed only for the telephone pole, as for other clubs his fingers are partially clipping, not fitting the sprite of the wildlife crossing sign nor a zombie.
 * The name Gargantuar likely comes from its gargantuan size or possibly as a reference to the Toho movie "War of the Gargantuas".
 * The Gargantuar has a slight resemblence to the Super Mutant Behemoth from Fallout 3.
 * Gargantuars can only throw its Imp 4 squares away from the right side of the screen, if a gargantuar loses half of its health at the fifth square, he can't throw an Imp.
 * If a Gargantuar gets killed by Instant kills without throwing an Imp, the Imp will hide in its trash can.
 * The Gargantuar is one of the only zombies that have a giga form. The other is the Giga Football Zombie in the online version.
 * The Gargantuar seems to have a plaster when it is damaged. Also, it's clothes begin to degrade when damaged.