Melon-pult

The Melon-pult is a plant that lobs watermelons at incoming hordes of zombies. The melons deal splash damage on impact, hitting zombies within one square of the impact point. Its melons do 4 times the damage of a pea, and it shoots half as often as a Peashooter. The Melon-pult can be used on Roof levels, and it can fire over the shields of Ladder Zombie, Screen Door Zombie, Trash Can Zombie, and Newspaper Zombie, damaging the zombie directly and killing it much faster than a non-lobbed plant. It can also attack submerged Snorkel Zombies.

Both the Melon-pult's shape and projectile are based on Citrullus lanatus, the common watermelon. This is the last plant you gain in Adventure Mode before the final level.

Suburban Almanac Entry
Melon-pult



Melon-pults do heavy damage to groups of zombies.

Damage: heavy

Range: lobbed

Special: melons damage nearby zombies on impact

Firing Speed: 1/2x

There's no false modesty with Melon-pult. "Sun for damage, I deliver the biggest punch on the lawn,"  he says. "I'm not bragging. Run the numbers. You'll see."

Cost: 300

Recharge: fast

Usage
Melon-pults can hit Newspaper Zombies, Screen Door Zombies, and Ladder Zombies over their shields, and Snorkel Zombies while they're underwater (like all Lobbed-shot Plants). When you are planning to use catapults, you might want to start with a cheap lobbed shot plant like the Cabbage-pult, and replace it with the Melon-pult later. It is quite useful on the Roof, as well, since it (like the other lobbed shot plants) can shoot over the angle of the roof, in addition to being the strongest catapult plant not obtained from Crazy Dave. You should also consider upgrading it to a Winter Melon later, if possible, as all the Zombies in range will also be slowed down. Also, supporting Melon-pults with Kernel-pults is very effective, as you can temporarily paralyze zombies with its butter attack while melons smack them in the face plus additional area-of-effect damage.

Comparing two Melon-pults to a Gatling Pea and a Torchwood: A pair of Melon-pults does only four Peas of damage per second. Considering its splash damage, which is two peas per second in ideal conditions, its average damage per second per row would be, given a zombie density of one per square and no other rows, around 7. With a lower zombie density, this is much lower. A Gatling Pea and a Torchwood would do eight peas of damage per second, given a zombie density of 1 per square (and an extra four peas for each zombie on that square) while taking up the same space on the field. Also, the Gatling Pea and Torchwood combination (with the Repeater) takes up three slots in the seed tray. Given one Zombie, with three Melons to die the two Melon-pults will do a meager four peas per second, and the Gatling Pea and Torchwood still does 8 peas per second. However, once upgraded to Winter Melon, it is almost unbeatable with only one Winter Melon necessary to provide essentially double damage for the row and, to some extent, neighboring rows.

Thus, the tradeoff would be two extra slots in the seed tray for around four peas of damage per second per row (given one zombie) and 25 Sun. Note that as more Gatling Peas are added, the damage gap increases and the sun gap decreases (and goes negative). For example, with two Gatling Peas and a Torchwood versus three Melon-pults, the former does 16 peas of damage, and the later does 12 peas per second. However, as the zombie density increase, the Melon-pults quickly do much more damage per second, while the damage per second of the Gatling Peas increases much less. Also, as a Wall-nut, Tall-nut, or Pumpkin comes into play, the Gatling Peas become less effective, relatively speaking, as the Zombies pile up on the same square and neighboring squares as well. Also, due to the roof's angle, the Gatling Pea strategy is useless on the roof unless it is planted on the right side but would still be considered highly dangerous.

On Survival: Endless, the zombie density is very high, so Melon-pults and Winter Melons are the way to go. However, it is generally Gloom-shrooms that are used instead, since they do four damage per second with Area-of-Effect.

You should consider using the Fire 'N' Ice strategy. Plant a Gatling Pea with Torchwood and a Winter Melon for best defenses. The Poisonous Fire 'N' Ice strategy would also earn you zombie heads by planting Gloom-shrooms protected with Pumpkins and Imitater Pumpkins on the next row. It would get you 200 approx. Zombie kills per 30 seconds.

Trivia

 * If a Zombie is in front of the Melon-pult, the zombie will instantly be hit by the melon. This also happens with Cabbage-pult, Winter Melon and Kernel-pult.


 * This is one of the only two plants that does heavy damage, the other being the Winter Melon.


 * It is the last plant you get in Adventure Mode.


 * At some point in the Plants vs. Zombies Music Video, a Melon-pult's projectile is seen hitting a zombie. It is the part where Sunflower says "You're dead so it doesn't matter..."
 * But it only shoots its projectile, the body isn't shown. It is rather odd that in the music video, the melon is shot straight forwards like a pea, but in the game itself, it is shot high up into the air.


 * The Melon-pult's stem is different from the other two Lobbed-shot Plants. The stem between its head and basket is a spiral, while the Cabbage-pult has a bent one and the Kernel-pult has a zigzag one.


 * In the Reviews Page of the official Plants vs. Zombies website, you will see a Melon-pult, but with no eyebrows, no leaves below, no catapult, and no stem. Just a melon with eyes.
 * This also happens in Android version of the game, where the seed package of the Melon-pult has just the Melon part.


 * The Melon-pult has the biggest head among the Lobbed-shot Plants.


 * A Melon-pult's head is the same size as the lobbed melons.
 * In the iPhone and iPod Touch version, Melon-pult is also seen eyebrowless in his seed packet, like the Kernel-pult.
 * The Melon is a fruit while the upgrade's name, the Winter Melon, comes from a vegetable.
 * Technically, the actual winter melon is a fruit, though it's often classified as a vegetable.
 * Along with the Cob Cannon, and Winter Melon, the Melon-pult is the only plant that can do more than one damage with one projectile.
 * Technically, any Peashooting Plant other than Snow Pea shares this property, if shot through a Torchwood.
 * Its recharge speed is slower in Versus Mode, this also happens to the Grave Buster, the Threepeater and the Starfruit. This is Beacause it would make the Plants too hard to beat,


 * Melon-pult, Winter Melon, Cherry Bomb, and Starfruit are the only fruits in the game.


 * Like the Cabbage-pult and the Kernel-pult, the basket of the Melon-pult looks like the top of an acorn.