Pharaoh Zombie


 * Not to be confused with Undying Pharaoh from Plants vs. Zombies Heroes.

Pharaoh Zombie is a eleventh zombie encountered in Ancient Egypt in Plants vs. Zombies 2 and Plants vs. Zombies Online. Its appearance is based both on an Egyptian sarcophagus and a pharaoh, the ruler of ancient Egyptian civilizations. It speeds up after its sarcophagus breaks.

Description
It stays inside its sarcophagus, which has a face similar to Crazy Dave's on it. When it is broken, the player can see the appearance of the zombie. It appears as a Mummy Zombie wearing an Egyptian crown, a golden necklace and a belt.

Almanac entry
TOUGHNESS: Hardened

SPEED: Basic

His sarcophagus greatly protects him but slows down a rather fast zombie.

Speed Details: moves like a hungry zombie once free

The second cousin once removed of King Rot, he rose to power with his disappearing sarcophagus act, but met his untimely end in an unfortunate goat accident. His tale is told in great detail on the back of his sarcophagus, which no one will ever see.

Overview
Pharaoh Zombie absorbs 76.75 normal damage shots, and its appearance changes upon absorbing 20 and 40 normal damage shots before the sarcophagus breaks at 60 normal damage shots. Pharaoh Zombie loses its arm at 68.5 normal damage shots before it dies at 76.75 normal damage shots. Pharaoh Zombie also eats plants at a 1.5x faster rate than an average Basic Zombie.

Encounters
Player's House: Piñata Party and "Rescue the Gold Bloom" Epic Quest - Step 7

Ancient Egypt: Days 12, 14, 15, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30, 32, 34, 35, Pyramid of Doom, Block and Spike, "Beghouled Blitz" Epic Quest - Step 1, and Piñata Party

Lost City: "Aloe, Salut!" Epic Quest - Step 4 (portal only)

Modern Day: Days 1, 5, 17, 21, 32, 40, and Highway to the Danger Room (portal only)

Strategies
This zombie cannot be fully destroyed by instant kills in one hit, until the sarcophagus has been destroyed, since any instant kills will only destroy the sarcophagus and leave the zombie unharmed. Use an instant kill before the sarcophagus breaks to remove the sarcophagus, or after so that the player does not need to deal with its speed. A Bonk Choy behind a Wall-nut can deal with the sarcophagus quite easily, although it might need assistance from other offensive plants. When they come in swarms, Plant Food might be necessary to deal with all of them quickly. If using Plant Food, Snapdragon can be very effective since it will destroy both the zombie and the sarcophagus in one go.

Pharaoh Zombies are resistant to a lot of attacks and is challenging to deal with. It is also unique in the fact that, when in its sarcophagus, it can eat a Chili Bean or Garlic without fainting or moving into other lanes, unlike other zombies which either faint upon eating it or crush it (however, robot zombies also act like Pharaoh Zombies in its sarcophagus). Using Cabbage-pults and Potato Mines against Pharaoh Zombies are valid alternatives to Kernel-pult and Chili Bean. Using Snow Peas against it is a very good idea, as it will slow the already slowed down zombie and deny it from using its speed boost. Instant-kill plants, being only able to break the sarcophagus, are somewhat restricted against the Pharaoh Zombie, and use of them is recommended to be done only when there is a large amount of weaker non-Pharaoh Zombies nearby along with the Pharaoh Zombies.

In Pyramid of Doom, these zombies will become very annoying, since they can absorb a lot of damage and are sometimes found in large hordes. Planting one Winter Melon to deal with a single Pharaoh Zombie will just barely defeat it, assuming that there are no other zombies in that lane, so be sure to use many heavy-offense plants against Pharaoh Zombies.

Magnifying Grass is also useful as an armor-breaker, since it can kill the Pharaoh Zombie in four shots. Sun Bean with Plant Food will destroy the zombie and give the player large amounts of sun. Chomper can eat it even if it is still in the sarcophagus without Plant Food's help, although the player will need to be careful as Chomper may eat the wrong zombie and cannot do anything while chewing. The same goes with Toadstool.

Shadow-shroom can defeat this zombie easily since poison directly damages zombies itself. However, the player should plant Shadow-shroom near Moonflower to power it when this zombie comes in large groups so the player can spread poison all zombies together or feed Plant Food with it to poison all zombies.

Trivia

 * It without its casket resembles the Egyptian king Ramses the Great. Also, its crown resembles a crown from lower Egypt.
 * There is a glitch where if the player breaks a Pharaoh Zombie's sarcophagus and kill it with peas before it starts moving again, its headless body will move and play its death animation at the same speed it moves with its sarcophagus, basic. This is most likely because the game does not register that it should move at speedy speed, because the player did not let it move after its sarcophagus broke, so it thinks that it should still move at basic speed.
 * It is similar to Newspaper Zombie and Barrel Zombie, as all three of them will increase their speed once they lose their armor or shield.
 * It growls first to know it is going to enter the player's lawn, in a similar manner to how the Zomboni from the first game announces its arrival by making noise. The growl sounds like a coyote howling.
 * It, Poncho Zombie, Zombie Bull, Pirate Captain Zombie, Imp Cannon, Shield Zombie, Robo-Cone Zombie, Mecha-Football Zombie, Jester Zombie, Dodo Rider Zombie, MC Zom-B and Breakdancer Zombie both during a rap jam, Gargantuar and its mechanized variant, and Imps are the only zombies that make noise before entering the lawn.
 * It is the only zombie that is able to move faster than a Basic Zombie without a status alignments even when slowed down. When its sarcophagus is broken, it will still move relatively fast under the slowing effects of both ice and sap.
 * Pharaoh Zombies can eat the plants while still in their sarcophagus, even though it does not appear to be able to eat them, though it may be just scratching the plants instead of biting them.
 * If its sarcophagus is still on, it will not die when it eats a Chili Bean. On the contrary to this, it can be hypnotized by a Hypno-shroom or inflected with Sun Bean's effect despite not eating them.
 * It, Gargantuar, Robo-Cone Zombie, Disco-tron 3000, and Mecha-Football Zombie are the only zombies in Plants vs. Zombies 2 that can survive an instant kill.
 * Out of these five, the Pharaoh Zombie is the only one whose health is less than the instant-kill's damage, 75 HP versus 90 damage.
 * Its sarcophagus is also used by Mummified Gargantuar to crush the player's plants, but it appears to be longer. Additionally, when the Mummified Gargantuar crushes a plant with it, players can see a normal Mummy Zombie inside it for a split second.
 * It can be slowed down or frozen, even when it is inside its sarcophagus.
 * Its sarcophagus and the zombie itself have individual health bars since they are counted as separate objects, as a hit from an instant kill will not kill the zombie but destroy the sarcophagus, and while an instant kill normally does 90 damage, the Pharaoh Zombie's sarcophagus only absorbs 60 damage and the zombie absorbs 15 damage with the total health being 75 HP, all three of which are less than the damage an instant kill deals.
 * This is further proven by the fact that Squash (when fed Plant Food) or Electric Blueberry might strike the same Pharaoh Zombie twice (the first hit breaking the sarcophagus and the second hit killing the zombie), even further proving that the Pharaoh Zombie's sarcophagus and the zombie itself are indeed counted as separate entities.
 * It also takes two hits for a hypnotized Gargantuar to kill Pharaoh Zombie (as again, the first hit breaks the Sarcophagus and the second hit kills the zombie), supporting the theory that the Pharaoh Zombie and the sarcophagus are separate objects. But on the other hand, Snapdragons can kill Pharaoh Zombie even if its sarcophagus is still with it instantly when fed by a Plant Food. This is because when it uses its Plant Food ability, the fire removes the sarcophagus after which the Pharaoh Zombie will instantly make contact with the fire, thus killing it.
 * However, Shadow-shroom, Chomper and Toadstool ignore the sarcophagus and kill it directly, unlike most instant-kill plants. Shadow-shroom kills it by poisoning him directly, and the others kill him by eating it.
 * It is the only zombie in Plants vs. Zombies 2 that can only be defeated after its armor has been removed. This is because all other armor zombies either die when their armor is destroyed, such as Robo-Cone Zombie, or can be killed with instants when their armor is still on, such as Conehead Zombie.
 * The only exceptions are Snapdragon's and Sun Bean's Plant Food effects, which will kill Pharaoh Zombie, even if it is still in it its sarcophagus. Snapdragon can kill a Pharaoh Zombie due to the effect lasting long enough to destroy the sarcophagus and kill the zombie afterwards, unlike other instant kills. Sun Bean can make the Pharaoh Zombie explode and burst out a huge amount of sun, even with its sarcophagus on.
 * After the sarcophagus has been destroyed, Pharaoh Zombies will stop for a moment, a trait it shares with Camel Zombies.
 * Its sarcophagus has the face of Crazy Dave, marking the paradoxical idolization of it, along with the Sphinx-like monument from which zombies emerge in Ancient Egypt.
 * Although the Almanac says its speed is Hungry, it is Speedy compared to other zombies, but it really has a speed that is between Flighty and Speedy as it moves one tile per second. It has the speed of a Dolphin.
 * The candles from its Birthdayz costume will remain lit even if it is frozen.
 * When the Dark Ages update was released, its stated toughness in the Almanac was increased from Dense to Hardened.
 * Despite being immune to Chili Bean, it can be hypnotized by a Hypno-shroom and gain the effects of eating a Sun Bean. ​This trait is shared with the robot zombies in Plants vs. Zombies 2.
 * As of the 2.7.1 update, Pharaoh Zombie can be buttered by Kernel-pult's butter while still in its sarcophagus, implemented as a counter to its high health.
 * Its Almanac entry states that "no one will ever see" the back of its sarcophagus. This is actually true, since there is no back sprite for the sarcophagus in any of the game's files.
 * It with its sarcophagus will continue eating the Garlic without taking its diversion effect.
 * This also happens to mechanical zombies (since the mech itself eats the plant, rather than the pilot), but no other non-mechanical zombie but Pharaoh Zombie has this ability. This makes it the only non-mechanical zombie which is able to eat Garlic without being diverted into another lane. However, this only applies to the Pharaoh Zombie while it is in its sarcophagus (likely because the sarcophagus blocks the bad smell of the Garlic).