Tangle Kelp

Tangle Kelp is a single-use aquatic instant-kill plant, dragging any zombie down into the pool, but it can only kill one zombie. When it kills a zombie, it disappears.

It is based on kelp, an aquatic algae with long, stringy leaves that have been known to tangle small fish.

Plants vs. Zombies
Tangle Kelp

Tangle Kelp are aquatic plants that pull the first zombie that nears them underwater.

Damage: massive Usage: single use, on contact Must be planted in water

"I'm totally invisible," Tangle Kelp thinks to himself. "I'll hide here just below the surface and nobody will see me." His friends tell him they can see him perfectly well, but he'll never change.

Cost: 25

Recharge:   slow

Plants vs. Zombies 2
Sun cost: 25

AREA: Single

RANGE: Touch

RECHARGE: Sluggish

Tangle Kelp are aquatic plants that pull the first zombie that nears them underwater.

Tangle Kelp likes to go deep. He majored in philosophy. Grab a root beer with him, and he'll go on and on about Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zucchini" or hold forth on Kant's "Critique of Petunia Reason." It's cool and all, but sometimes you just want to keep the conversation light. Sometimes you just want to talk about the temperature of the water.

Overview
Tangle Kelp is an aquatic plant. It kills the first zombie that comes into contact with it. After killing the zombie, it disappears to the water and it never comes out again.

Plant Food
When given Plant Food, the Tangle Kelp will pull up to four random zombies underwater.

Level upgrades

 * Level 2
 * Combat Training: Tangle Kelp has 50% more attack power (150% of initial).
 * ???: Tangle Kelp grabs a zombie, and attacks other zombies in front of it, pushes them back.
 * Level 3
 * ???: Tangle Kelp grabs a zombie, and attacks other zombies in front of it, as well as zombies in front of it at adjacent lanes, and pushes them back.
 * Cell Activation: Tangle Kelp has another 50% attack power (200% of initial).
 * Level 4
 * Ability Awaken: Tangle Kelp can be boosted sometimes when planted.
 * Fighting Power: Tangle Kelp has 150% more attack power and health (250% of initial).

Costumed
It will now pull up to five zombies underwater.

Strategies
With such a low cost, the Tangle Kelp makes an ideal early defense in Pool lanes. Just do not get lulled into failing to build up your pool defenses, because the slow recharge prevents Tangle Kelp from being readily re-used.

They also defeat Dolphin Rider Zombies whole instead of being jumped over, so these may be more useful than just placing a Lily Pad in front of it. Furthermore, they are useful in defeating Snorkel Zombies, as they can drown them without having them come up. However, their slow recharge may prevent them from drowning every Dolphin Rider Zombie or Snorkel Zombie, so it is wise to prepare backup plans for them just in case. The Squash makes a good backup alternative as it can eliminate multiple zombies if they are grouped closely enough.

Tangle Kelp can also be effectively used against Surfer Zombies, Octo Zombies, and Fisherman Zombies in Big Wave Beach as their speed or alignment makes them hard for regular defenses to deal with on early phases of progress and their prolonged presences can ruin your defense lines due to plants getting hooked into the sea, getting wrapped up by octopi or getting crushed by surfboards. It may also be used against Deep Sea Gargantuars since they deal massive damage against them, easing their threat.

Finally, Tangle Kelp is very useful against Zombot Sharktronic Sub, specifically on the third phase. When the Zombot initiates its vacuum attack, if a Tangle Kelp is placed in the range of the vacuum, it will wrap up the Zombot's jet engine, prematurely ending the attack thus stunning Dr. Zomboss for a while.

General

 * The zombie that was pulled underwater by a Tangle Kelp does not die because the Snorkel Zombie's almanac entry states that zombies do not need to breathe.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies

 * Tangle Kelp and Tall-nut are the only plants that Dolphin Rider Zombie cannot jump over.
 * Tangle Kelp, Spikeweed, Spikerock, and Coffee Bean are the only plants that zombies will never attempt to eat.
 * Tangle Kelp, Sea-shroom, Grave Buster, and Cob Cannon are the only plants that cannot have Pumpkins placed around them, excluding the Pumpkin itself.
 * Tangle Kelp, Chomper, Potato Mine, Hypno-shroom, and Squash are the only instant-kill plants that are used on contact with the enemy.
 * Tangle Kelp, Chomper, and Squash are the only instant-kill plants that do not explode.
 * In Plants vs. Zombies website, the Tangle Kelp is seen on land, instead of in the water.
 * In the Almanac entry for the Tangle Kelp, it says the Tangle Kelp thinks zombies and plants cannot see it. This may be true because zombies never attempt to eat Tangle Kelps and Dolphin Rider Zombies will attempt to ride past them instead of jumping over.
 * Tangle Kelp is one of the twelve plants that appear in the seed selection screen after the player gets the Grave Buster in the online version with the others being Ice-shroom, Lily Pad, Potato Mine, Threepeater, Doom-shroom, Jalapeno, Spikeweed, Torchwood, Tall-nut, Cactus, and Blover.
 * Tangle Kelp can be considered the aquatic version of the Potato Mine except it does not need time to arm and is not area of effect. However it costs the same amount of sun and has exactly the same recharge time.
 * In ZomBotany 2, only one Tangle Kelp is needed to kill a Tall-nut Zombie.
 * When tangling a Dolphin Rider Zombie, the player can actually see some leftover space where the zombie is supposed to be tangled, possibly because the Dolphin Rider Zombie is smaller than a normal zombie.
 * When an Imitater imitates a Tangle Kelp, the player can see that the part of the Tangle Kelp where it is on the water seems to be getting transparent, unlike the original Tangle Kelp.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies 2

 * It now has seaweed surrounding itself instead of spiky vines.
 * Instead of wrapping the zombie it is pulling down with seaweed, it hides underwater for a few seconds and then seaweed emerges from the water and submerges the zombie.
 * Its eyes have pupils, unlike it's variant in the first game.
 * This is the fourth plant in this game that went through a major redesign. The other plants are Grave Buster, Spikeweed, and Starfruit.
 * Dirt can now be seen when Tangle Kelp is planted, and the splashing sound is no longer played.
 * Any zombie targeted by this plant will be immobilized. The zombie is immobilized until it pulls the zombie underwater.
 * If a zombie targeted by Tangle Kelp is killed before it gets pulled, Tangle Kelp will resurface, instead of disappearing, allowing it to drown another zombie.
 * There is an action that when a zombie has just come out of the water, the zombie can still can be pulled by this plant. When this happens, the seaweed comes from the sand, with the splash animation of water. This may be a glitch.
 * In the Zen Garden, only its weeds can be seen in the Flower Pot.
 * It is the only plant without a watering animation.
 * However, there are bubbles made where the face would be when watered.
 * It is unkown why this and the Lily Pad need to be watered, since they are constantly in water.
 * Killing ten zombies by using Tangle Kelps earns the player the achievement Undertow.
 * When Tangle Kelp is on the water column which is low by the tide, it will die. However, it will not happen with Lily Pad.
 * Tangle Kelp cannot pull a Deep Sea Gargantuar underwater, but it can deal heavy damage. When it tries to pull a Deep Sea Gargantuar, it appears to wrap around nothing in the lane below or above.
 * This and Lily Pad are the cheapest plants in Big Wave Beach, each costing 25 sun.
 * If the player tries to bring Tangle Kelp on any Far Future day before Day 10. The text will say "Complete future10 to unlock using Tangle Kelp on this level". The same glitch occurs to Lily Pad and Hot Potato.
 * This and Tile Turnip are the only plants that cannot be planted on Power Tiles. This also counts if it is planted on a Power Tile wiped by the tide.
 * In the Chinese version, it appears to be on land in the almanac entry, but this is not the case in gameplay.
 * Lily Pad also shares this trait.