Cob Cannon

The Cob Cannon is an upgrade plant which can be purchased from Crazy Dave and must be planted over two side-by-side Kernel-pults, which must be placed one in front of the other in the same row, not vertically planted. Cob Cannons cost $20,000 to buy.

Suburban Almanac Entry
Cob Cannon

Tap/Click on the Cob Cannon to launch deadly cobs of corn.

Must be planted on 2 side-by-side kernel-pults

What's the deal with Cob Cannon, anyway? He went to Harvard. He practices law in a prestigious New York firm. He can explode whole areas of zombies with a single corn-launch. All this is common knowledge. But deep inside, what really makes him tick?

Cost: 500

Recharge: very slow

Strategy
The Cob Cannon costs 500 sun to place and does not fire automatically. Instead, it has a missile effect and animation. The missile itself is a corn cob which takes 45 seconds for the Cob Cannon to load. Once it is ready, the player can click on the Cob Cannon and then use the crosshair to aim the shot. You can also right click to cancel the launch or you can click on the shovel two times to cancel the launch.The cob has a devastating effect, much like that of a Cherry Bomb, but will still require two hits to kill a Gargantuar, as all explosives do. The missile usually takes about 2-3 seconds between launching and detonating. The Cob Cannon, although highly expensive, is very effective and can dominate entire waves of Zombies very quickly, as the cobs do not use up sun between firings. Think of it as a reusable Cherry Bomb; if you don't plan to use it much, stick with the Cherry Bomb, but if you plan to use an explosive over and over again, use the Cob Cannon. The Cob Cannon is better than the Cherry Bomb in 3 ways. First, it is reusable. Second, its cob recharges faster than a Cherry Bomb. Third, it's cob can be fired on plants (including itself) and ice (without the need of a Jalapeno) or the pool (without the need of a Lily Pad), while a Cherry bomb needs a Lily Pad for pool use and cannot be planted on other plants (besides the Pumpkin) and ice. In a few words, it is a ballistic missile in corn-cob form.

Note that the Cob Cannon can be eaten at the normal rate, despite its size, and cannot be protected with Pumpkins. Thus, they must be placed carefully. Fortunately, however, Bungee Zombies cannot target them. Be careful when clicking on sun that appears or falls over a Cob Cannon, as you may accidentally engage it. If this happens, you can cancel it either by clicking on a seed packet, pressing the Esc button or right-clicking. If you just click at a Cob Cannon thinking it may disengage, be warned as it will only shoot itself, (but not destroy itself) and wastes your patience on waiting for some Cobs that appear 45 seconds after recharging.

Survival: Endless
Although it isn't usually necessary in levels (except on occasion in the Survival: Hard levels) the Cob Cannon is one of the most helpful plants for Survival: Endless. Setups can be classified as either 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8+ Cob builds, the highest being 20 cobs (requiring a macro to play). The 0 and 2 Cob builds require a rotation of instants and/or double Ice-shrooms (Ice-shroom with Imitater Ice-shroom), while the 6 and 8 Cob builds use constant Cob rotations. The 4 Cob build is quite flexible, with more space and more frequent Cob rotation than other builds. Easier builds are 6 cobs and 8 cob builds - 6 cob builds are the somewhat flexible as it can achieve a constant cob rotation or mixed with instants, the average time between cob launches being 12 seconds. The 8 cob build is recommended for newer players who want to achieve a constant rotation without much trouble. The main problem with these builds is that they require a constant barrage of cobs, making the game somewhat tiring.



Despite having many cobs, reducing the space available for other plants, as long as the timing of the player is good, said other plants aren't necessary. Beware, however, that some of the cobs will be quite vulnerable, since there is literally no safe place to put cobs after the first four (barring someone with extremely good timing who can time Imp landings, Digger Zombie surfacing, and/or underwater pool zombie surfacing (the ones that come up from the pool every two waves) apart from the front lines. Although this can be easily solved by using an Ice-shroom 5.5 seconds before the zombies show up, the safest cobs are the four cobs in the back of the pool lanes as there will be no Digger Zombies and Imps (or Balloon Zombies that have made it very far before being popped).

However, arguably the easiest setup is the 4 Cob setup, as it does not require perfect timing as the builds with more cobs do; nor does it require a large amount of instants as the builds with fewer cobs do. Most of the plants aren't very vulnerable to zombies, in addition to the Cob Cannons being completely safe once the setup is complete. In addition to this, the 4 Cob setup is easiest to build due to its relative ability to withstand zombies before it is completed.In fact, they are the safest ways as no zombies can come near them unless they eat the pool's front row plants which is unlikely to happen.



Buttered Popcorn
The Cob Cannon is the only plant you can have in the iPad-exclusive Mini-game Buttered Popcorn. It is a Pool level, so there are only four.Due to the slower cooldown of the cobs and the number of zombies, use butter to stall the zombies, watch out for Pole Vaulting Zombie and Dolphin rider zombie though, since there are no last line of defense weapons and they can eat your brains while leaving no damage to your cobs. if the Gargantuar appears, use butter to stun him first before hitting him with the cobs, or the Imp will eat a cob cannon.

Popcorn Party and Defcorn 5
To unlock the Achievements Popcorn Party and Defcorn 5, you must kill two Gargantuars with Cob Cannons on a single level and have five Cob Cannons on a single level, respectively. It makes sense to do them both on the same level. After you have all five Cob Cannons up and the first corn cob hits a Gargantuar, it will throw the Imp off its back (assuming that two cobs were not fired at once). If the Cob Cannons are in the same row as the Gargantuar, it is wise to put a Squash or a Cherry Bomb right in front of your Cob Cannons to kill any Imps that were thrown at it. Also, because it takes time for the Cob Cannons to load, you should wait for multiple to load before trying to dispatch the Gargantuars.

Trivia

 * If a Bungee Zombie is in the middle of stealing a Kernel-pult and if they are upgraded into a Cob Cannon, the Bungee Zombie will take the Kernel-pult from the Cob Cannon but it won't be downgraded.
 * This is the only plant that cannot activate automatically and has to be used manually.
 * The Cob Cannon is the largest and most expensive plant (as far as sun).
 * The length of a Cob Cannon is the same as the height of the Tall-nut.
 * This is the only non-aquatic plant besides the Grave Buster that can't be be protected by a Pumpkin, excluding the Pumpkin itself; even though the zombies can eat it at the same rate as a plant which takes up 1 space.
 * The Cob Cannon is one of the two instant kills that can be used more than once, the other being the Chomper.
 * The Cob Cannon, the Starfruit and Wall-nut are the only plants with games dedicated to them.
 * The Cob Cannon is one of the two upgrade plants that has a tail, the other being the Cattail.
 * They are also the only plants that can shoot anywhere, although the Cattail does it by itself while the Cob Cannon doesn't.
 * The Cob Cannon's eyes are similar to the Spikeweed's and the Spikerock's.
 * The Corn Cob's explosion is accompanied by a small popcorn explosion.
 * If a Cob Cannon is in a process of shooting Cob missiles at zombies, and it instantly gets eaten, the cob will just disappear.
 * When the Cob Cannon's cob projectile explodes, it looks like it makes a hole in the level image.
 * The Cob Cannon is the only multi-use explosive.
 * The Cob Cannon is one of the plants that has red eye pupils, the other three being the Torchwood, Spikeweed and the Spikerock.
 * This is the only plant that takes up two squares on the lawn.
 * However, Gargantuars and Vehicle Zombies can still squash it like a single square sized plant.
 * There is a glitch that if a Cob Cannon is engaged and you already have a Cob Cannon engaged, you will fire two at the same time.
 * The Cob Cannon, the Starfruit, the Cattail, the Gloom-shroom, explosives and the Threepeater are the only plants that can fire outside the lane it is planted on.
 * Plant projectiles or explosives cannot hurt other plants. Yet the Cob Cannon has to aim up instead of shooting the zombies directly.
 * The Cob Cannon takes the same amount of chomps before it's completely eaten, even though it takes up two spots. One would think it would have more durability.
 * If a Pole Vaulting Zombie tries to jump a Cob Cannon, it slides forward in midair, landing behind the Cob Cannon, because it would not make sense if the zombie lands up in the middle of a plant.
 * If you look closely, it seems that the seed packet of the Cob Cannon doesn't have eyes.
 * The Cob Cannon is the only plant with wheels.
 * The wheels are also made of sliced corn.
 * The almanac entry states that they must be planted on 2 side by side kernel-pults, but they are actualy one in front of the other.