Dr. Zomboss


 * For the version in the Garden Warfare series, see Dr. Zomboss (PvZ: GW).

Dr. Edgar George Zomboss is one of the the main antagonist and the leader of the zombies in the Plants vs. Zombies series. He is battled on the Night Roof during Level 5-10 as the final boss in Plants vs. Zombies and appears multiple times as a themed boss for each world in Plants vs. Zombies 2.

Origins
The name Zomboss is a portmanteau of the words "Zombie" and "Boss", meaning "Zombie Boss", while Zombot is the portmanteau of the words "Zombie" and "Robot", meaning "Zombie Robot". His middle name, George, is the name of the series' creator, George Fan.

Personality
Dr. Zomboss is an intelligent and pure evil being, able to construct a powerful machine and to deploy a mass array of zombies in order to thwart Crazy Dave and his botanical arsenal. He is destructive and ruthless as seen in Plants vs. Zombies where he will send a giant fireball or an iceball to destroy everything in his way. This was heightened in Plants vs. Zombies 2 where it goes beyond the point of killing his own allies.

Dr. Zomboss also shows no concern or remorse towards his enemies per Plants vs. Zombies 2. He sends down many of his henchmen even on lanes where absences of lawn mowers are imminent. He is also arrogant, mocking Crazy Dave most of the time and using profane or vulgar words whenever conversing with him.

Dr. Zomboss is also a smart strategist. He holds a lot of back-up plans to fill in should one of his machines malfunction and should the Gargantuars that he stationed to protect the world key falls.

He has also shown to be deceitful per Plants vs. Zombies 2, able to plague Penny's thoughts when Dr. Zomboss remarked that Crazy Dave constructed Penny from decommissioned parts of Dr. Zomboss' past creation in Pirate Seas - Day 25. Some time later on Wild West - Day 25, he deceives the player, breaking the fourth wall, and as well as Crazy Dave, that the zombies and him are just helping him out as normal residences of the west. Furthermore, he also remarks that the zombie apocalypse that he experiences are just mere illusions. He also broke the fourth wall on Far Future - Day 25 to persuade the player that they are being mislead by Crazy Dave, only to be followed by a hypnosis. This only ended on Dark Ages - Night 20 when he said that Plant Foods are made from zombies. Some time after the battle, he was foiled out by Penny, revealing that there are no organisms or any other substances circulating within Plant Food's nutrition facts.

Overall, his only goal is to persuade Crazy Dave to quit his journey in search for taco, to submit to his will, and to let his brains be consumed.

Plants vs. Zombies
The battles with Dr. Zomboss are set in the Night Roof level, probably so that Coffee Beans would not need to come in order to wake up the Ice-shrooms (which can be troublesome). He is the second-to-last zombie encountered in Adventure Mode.

He sends out other zombies to attack the player, except Flag Zombies, Dancing Zombies, Backup Dancers, Digger Zombies, Balloon Zombies, aquatic zombies, and the Zombie Bobsled Team (despite ice trails from Zombonis). The Zombot also has its own attacks, most importantly fireballs and iceballs which are released from its mouth when it bends down which is the only time when it can be damaged. The boss battle itself is a conveyor-belt level, so seed packets come on the conveyor belt at the top (or left) of the screen. The only seed packets that can appear are Flower Pot, Cabbage-pult, Kernel-pult, Melon-pult, Jalapeno, and Ice-shroom. Jalapenos and Ice-shrooms are the most effective. The Jalapeno can be used to cut-off the effect of the iceball and ice trail from Zomboni, while the Ice-shroom is effective against the fireball.

Plants vs. Zombies 2
Dr. Zomboss returns in Plants vs. Zombies 2. Although the Zombot does not return, he has plenty of other robots to wreak havoc in the game.

Suburban Almanac entry
 DR. ZOMBOSS 

Dr. Zomboss rules them all.

Toughness (in Zombot shell): extreme

Edgar George Zomboss achieved his Doctorate in Thanatology in only two years. Quickly mastering thanatological technology, he built his fearsome Zombot and set about establishing absolute dominance within his local subdivision.

Overview
When playing Adventure Mode for the first time, Dr. Zomboss approximately absorbs 1,583 normal damage shots and his appearance changes upon absorbing 317 normal damage shots and at 769 normal damage shots. Dr. Zomboss suffers an explosion at 1,177 normal damage shots before surrendering at 1,583 normal damage shots.

Every other playthrough of Adventure Mode, and in Dr. Zomboss's Revenge, Dr. Zomboss has double his health, and absorbs 3,165 normal damage shots, and his appearance changes upon absorbing 633 normal damage shots and at 1,537 normal damage shots. Dr. Zomboss suffers an explosion at 2,353 normal damage shots before surrendering at 3,165 normal damage shots.

Attacks
Dr. Zomboss will randomly do one of the following actions:
 * Summons zombies by dropping them down with the Zombot's hand. In all versions, Dr. Zomboss will usually neglect lanes with mowers destroyed by zombies, but not iceballs or fireballs.
 * When the Zombot lowers its head and opens its mouth, its eyes will glow either blue or red.
 * If its eyes glow red, it will launch a fireball. Use an Ice-shroom to put it out.
 * If its eyes glow blue, it will launch an iceball. Use a Jalapeno to defrost it. Make sure the Jalapeno is in the correct lane or the iceball will not be affected.
 * If a plant is on the flat part of the roof, the Zombot may step on it and crush it.
 * The Zombot will occasionally summon down three Bungee Zombies from its hand. The best ways to deal with them are to either freeze them with an Ice-shroom, giving you time to attack them, or to fry them with a Jalapeno.
 * The Zombot will drop a camper van, crushing all plants in a 2x3 area (two tiles tall by three tiles long).

Strategies

 * Always have an Ice-shroom and a Jalapeno starting for the Zombot's iceball and fireball attacks and to freeze Dr. Zomboss to defeat him quicker.
 * Do not plant Melon-pults on the first column and instead, plant Cabbage-pults there. This will prevent you from losing the Melon-pults to the Catapult Zombie's basketballs.
 * Conserve your plants, especially Melon-pults and Kernel-pults. Try not to keep all your Melon-pults and Kernel-pults next to each other/put them in a square position; doing this helps keep plants from the camper dropped by the boss. You will risk losing a last line of defense if this happens. Don't panic planting Cabbage-pults next to each other, as they get killed and to appear a little too often.
 * Only when Dr. Zomboss reaches down to attack you with a fireball should you use the Ice-shroom to freeze Dr. Zomboss and put out the fireball, so that your Ice-shroom is not wasted.
 * You should not use a Jalapeno while the Zombot is frozen. This will unfreeze him and let him give you trouble to complicate matters.
 * It is also possible to keep re-freezing him with multiple Ice-shrooms before he drops providing an opening for your plants.
 * Butter cannot paralyze the Zombot.
 * If you freeze Dr. Zomboss while he sends out his iceball attack, you will have to deal with the snowball with a Jalapeno, thus unfreezing Dr. Zomboss.
 * Leave a column of empty Flower Pots on the first slanted column of the roof as a buffer endless zone and to plant Jalapenos and Ice-shrooms in and keep your plants behind them, but do not plant them farther up the roof or Dr. Zomboss may kill them.
 * Plant the Flower Pots on the flat part of the roof when you plant Jalapenos or Ice-shrooms.
 * If possible, when tough zombies such as Gargantuars, Zombonis, or Catapult Zombies appear, try to wait until they get as close to your most frontal plant before planting a Jalapeno to finish them all. This makes your use of Jalapenos in case Dr. Zomboss wants to put more zombies on the same row.
 * Dr. Zomboss has a set pattern that he follows at the beginning of the fight. He always places four regular Zombies, four or five Conehead Zombies, then lowers down to breath out a snow/fire ball, then he comes back and places four or five Buckethead Zombies (sometimes he places one Conehead Zombie), then lowers down his head again. After that, the Zombies he places are completely random, except he will not send normal zombies again. After his head lowers the third time, he will then release his Bungee Zombies, then after the fourth, he will drop the RV; after that, his attacks are all completely random. However, they do appear to observe patterns that vary with each fight - some times may include more or less of a particular zombie or attack than usual, or placed in different lanes.
 * The first few plants you get on the conveyor belt are Cabbage-pults, followed by Melon-pults; try to save your Melon-pults for the Conehead Zombies.
 * The first four plants on the conveyor-belt come out in the following order: Cabbage-pult, Jalapeno, Cabbage-pult, Ice-shroom. The order of plants coming in afterward is completely random.
 * If you have only one Roof Cleaner left, he will put almost all of the zombies in the row with the last Roof Cleaner left.
 * If he sends zombies on another lane, use Jalapenos to kill it or else it will make you lose.

General

 * Dr. Zomboss is the only zombie that uses proper grammar.
 * Dr. Zomboss has a degree in Thanatology; the study of death and the emotions surrounding it. This further shows his intelligence as opposed to other zombies.
 * In the comic Plants vs. Zombies: Bully For You, it is revealed that Dr. Zomboss has a pet goldfish bowl named "Ziggy". The reason why is because that his pet goldfish kept running away so he now just has a pet goldfish bowl. According to him, it is simpler.
 * In the Garden Warfare comics, he is shown to have a pet hedgehog named Mr. Stubbins.
 * However, Mr. Stubbins' original owner is one of Dr. Zomboss' rivals of Bully for You, though this changed at the end of the comic.
 * Some of the descriptions in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare and its sequel reveal some part of Zomboss's personal life.
 * He once lost a battle against a tennis ball machine according to Tennis Star's Stickerbook description.
 * When the player talks to Grumpy Stumpy, he reveals that Zomboss is a good cook.
 * Zomboss owns a company named Zomboss Inc.
 * In Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, when unlocking Professor Brainstorm, a comic strip shows that he was once a judge in a science fair.
 * According to some Wiz Factz signs in the Seeds of Time map, Dr. Zomboss was born in the Year of The Naked Mole Rat.
 * He is one of the zombies that smile, the others being Imp, Jack-in-the-Box Zombie and Money Bag Zombie.
 * In Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, the original Zombot makes a cameo. In one of the stages, the player can see the Zombot's head lying on the ground.

Plants vs. Zombies

 * In the online Almanac, he is just referred to as Zomboss.
 * His tagline "to rule them all" might be a reference to the One Ring in Lord of the Rings.
 * In the "reanim" folder, Dr. Zomboss is referred to as Zombie Boss.
 * Dr. Zomboss has his own music, that is called Braniac Maniac.
 * In the Xbox 360, PS3, and PS Vita versions, the Utility Pole that marks where the zombies appear is removed to allow the player to see more of the roof and the Zombot's details, unlike other Roof stages where the other parts are blocked.
 * Dr. Zomboss is seen doing experiments on a single Zombie in the Nintendo DS trailer, trying to shrink it and having unlucky results. When this happens, a censored bleep can be heard, hinting profanity.
 * A very serious glitch may occur when you play Dr. Zomboss's Revenge: Dr. Zomboss does not lower his head at all, and crushes all your plants with campers before sending a Gargantuar.
 * On the DS version, Dr. Zomboss is shown in the Zombot on the top screen, with the progress bar on the bottom portion if the screen and will be pulling levers when performing attacks. The only two times he will not be there are right before the level begins and when he gets defeated (where he will fall off the edge of the screen).
 * The progress bar on the DS version will only increase when he receives a specific small percentage of damage (the progress bar is instead shown on the bottom right corner of the touch screen on Air Raid, but Zomboss will still be on the top screen).
 * Every time the fire/ice ball squishes something, a chomping sound from the generic zombie is heard.
 * On the mobile version, if the mobile device has a vibration feature while battling Dr. Zomboss, there will be three occurrences when the vibration is triggered: at the start of the level when he steps on the roof (once per leg), throwing a camper, and the final explosion once Dr. Zomboss is defeated.
 * If Dr. Zomboss has one pea of damage left, and you use an Ice-shroom as the final blow, Dr. Zomboss will start exploding before Ice-shroom explodes.
 * If Dr. Zomboss is defeated and there are zombies remaining, they will disappear.
 * However, when there is a Zomboni, when the above situation happens, he will also disappear but the ice trail will remain, but after an amount of time passed or if the player uses Jalapeno, it will also melt and disappear.

Plants vs. Zombies 2

 * He, Basic Zombie, Shield Zombie, Knight Zombie, Wizard Zombie, Snorkel Zombie, Octo Zombie, Troglobite, Lost Pilot Zombie, Relic Hunter Zombie, Boombox Zombie, and Jurassic Zombie are the only zombies that have represented the game icon.
 * Starting at Lost City, the podium for the Zomboss level in each world was majorly dumbed down, instead of a gigantic platform.
 * However, Modern Day slightly brought the big podiums back, mainly due to being 3 levels long.
 * Above each last level in each world, the icon is a hologram of his head. His holographic head has three forms: one for before the initial playthrough, a defeated form once the level has been completed, and a special animation only playing if the player waits too long.
 * The special animation that can sometimes occur starts with Dr. Zomboss looking to the right of the screen while he's brushing his teeth. Then when he looks forward, he remembers he is on camera, the hologram then reverts to normal. In this animation, he also has a towel wrapped around his head like he's just come out of the shower.
 * As of Dark Ages and the further worlds, Dr. Zomboss now tends to pretend that he is part of the timeline he is in. (For example, in Dark Ages, Dr. Zomboss uses the Old English language, which uses extra words like thy, or thine. In Big Wave Beach, he speaks in "surfer lingo". In Frostbite Caves, Dr. Zomboss speaks in a prehistoric style and in Neon Mixtape Tour he often makes references to popular music at the time, including the popular Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up", better known on the internet as the "Rickroll". In Modern Day, he talks normally.
 * However, in Lost City he just talks normally, possibly hinting that the world is at modern times or very close to modern times. He also talks normally in Jurassic Marsh, probably because human language did not exist at those times.
 * If the player attempts to plant a plant after Dr. Zomboss is defeated, the message about seeds needing time to refresh before being able to plant them again will appear. This also applies for other Special Delivery levels.
 * Before the 3.3 update, the player was allowed to plant on the eighth and nine columns in the first four fights while the Dark Dragon and Sharktronic Sub fights allowed the player to plant on the seventh column.
 * Dr. Zomboss appears to be shorter in this game than he was in the first.
 * Zombies will turn into ashes (or in case of some objects like the barrel) will disappear once one of his creations were defeated.

Доктор Зомбосс