Octo Zombie

Octo Zombie is a zombie encountered in Big Wave Beach in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time. It can throw octopi at plants in its lane to disable them. The octopus will occupy the tile until the octopus is destroyed by other plants. If there are no plants in front of it, it will proceed to the player's house.

Description
The Octo Zombie has five octopi strapped on to its different body parts. The first one is a large, purple octopus that serves as its head, next on its shoulder is the orange one. The orange octopus is attached to its shoulder and it covers its chest with its two tentacles, with the third tentacle wrapping up the arm of the Octo Zombie, and its remaining tentacles on its back. The third one is a pink-colored octopus, found on its left wrist, entangled, while the fourth one is a violet-colored octopus strapped on to its right wrist. Finally, the fifth octopus flashes a fucshia like color that entangles the left leg of the Octo Zombie. The purple-colored octopus on the Octo Zombie's head has eight white circles above it. Both of its eyes move in different directions as seen in its in-game renders. The Octo Zombie also is a muscular type of zombie as it has slight muscles and abs showing on its body. It simply wears an orange brief-shaped swimming trunks with black colors for design.

Almanac Entry
TOUGHNESS: Hardened

SPEED: Creeper

Throws octopi at your plants to bind them up.

Special: bound plants are passive until their octopus is destroyed

It started innocently enough. One day, Octo Zombie decided to get a pet octopus. But he loved that octopus so much, he got another and another... and another. Next thing you know, he was volunteering at an octopus rescue shelter. And now, well, no one wants to tell him, but he's pretty much the undersea equivalent of a cat lady. You should see how many are living at his house. It's quite startling.

Overview
Octo Zombie absorbs 44 normal damage shots and its appearance changes at 22 normal damage shots before dying at 44 normal damage shots. The octopi absorb 21 normal damage shots and do not degrade.

Appearances
Player's House: Piñata Party

Big Wave Beach: Day 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and Tiki Torch-er

General
Octo Zombie is a very dangerous zombie, especially if many come in groups. It also uses its disadvantage, which is its speed, to its advantage in order to keep on bombarding octopi to your plants and ensuring that faster zombies, such as Surfer Zombies or Deep Sea Gargantuars, absorb all of your offensive plants' projectiles. Therefore, instant-kill plants such as Cherry Bombs or Tangle Kelp are vital to stopping them from binding plants. Using a Kernel-pult may also help. Kill it quickly, as it can bind up an unlimited number of plants. This could result in all plants being bound up and lead to losing the level. If possible, keep all your instant kill plants at your disposal (which includes the Cherry Bomb, Jalapeno, and Squash). This zombie can be a major pain when you're trying to kill the Fisherman Zombies that are present on the lawn. This zombie should be killed with as few octopi thrown as possible - without plants that can shoot anywhere on the lawn or backwards, you are going to have a very difficult time clearing the octopi and defending your house. If none of the above techniques work correctly, resort to the Power Ups.

Of all the types of plants, the Magnifying Grass can kill it the fastest with two shots/100 sun, and is useful for freeing other plants. However, sun can be in short supply in the levels this zombie appears in, especially if other zombies get in the way. If this happens, use an instant kill (Cherry Bomb, Jalapeno, Squash, or Tangle Kelp) on it quickly before it ensnares too many plants. The Split Pea and Bonk Choy are useful for both attacking the Octo Zombie from behind (it cannot bind plants behind it) as well as clearing out octopi. A group of Snapdragons can destroy bound octopi around themselves quickly, and more can be planted to flank Octo Zombies from their sides.

Of the plants introduced in Big Wave Beach, the Tangle Kelp and Banana Launcher are most effective. The Banana Launcher can kill an Octo Zombie in one blast no matter where it is, making it especially useful if it appears in ambushes, as well as destroy bound octopi and zombies trying to pass through at the same time.

Starfruit is also useful against Octo Zombies - a lawn full of Starfruits can easily get rid of octopi thrown due to Starfruit's rapid, multi-directional attack.

Since the Octo Zombie always targets the plant in the lead position first, the player can stall it by planting sacrificial plants in the front when it appears, such as Puff-shrooms or even extra Sunflowers or Sun-shrooms. The player can also dig up a plant that is about to get hit with an octopus, causing the Octo Zombie to miss and waste an attack; this can be looped using plants with fast recharge times like Puff-shrooms. Like the Wizard Zombie, it will retaliate against plants it encounters within biting range with an immediate octopus binding, but it will otherwise stop to eat anything it cannot bind, such as Lily Pads in its way, or the Infi-nut's Plant Food effect. Iceberg Lettuce cannot be bound by octopi and simply freezes the zombie upon contact.

Tiki Torch-er
Octo Zombies, along with Deep Sea Gargantuars and Fisherman Zombies are very dangerous when in large numbers. Like Wizard Zombies and Gargantuar Primes, Octo Zombies can use their abilities off the game's screen, allowing any other zombies to pass by with ease. This zombie is especially deadly when paired with Fisherman Zombies and/or Surfer Zombies. You will need to have powerful plants, like a Cherry Bomb, an Iceberg Lettuce and a Ghost Pepper at your disposal to prevent these zombies from invading your house.

Trivia

 * So far, it is the only zombie without visible eyes, as the blue octopus covers them. This can be proven by the fact that the blue octopus occasionally blinks. It is also the only octopus that has moving pupils.
 * It is closely related to Wizard Zombie as both can immobilize the player's plants but unlike sheep the Wizard Zombies use, the octopi can be destroyed. Additionally, the octopi will not revert into plants when the Octo Zombie dies.
 * The dying animation of the octopi is very similar to the sheep, as they both seem to "poof" when they disappear.
 * After an octopus is destroyed, it will turn into what appears to be an octopus sushi.
 * This is similar to Zombie Chickens because Zombie Chickens have a death animation which involves the Zombie Chicken turning to a bucket of fried chicken.
 * Despite having different colored octopi strapped to its body, this zombie will always throw the orange ones.
 * Also, despite its animation showing only one orange octopus on its shoulder, it can throw an unlimited amount of octopi, binding an unlimited amount of plants.
 * Octo Zombie has the longest dying animation.
 * The Octo Zombie only eats Lily Pads and the Infi-nut's barrier.
 * Similar to Pianist Zombie, its toughness is listed as Hardened, but it is actually Dense.
 * If the player dig ups the plant before the octopus covers it, that octopus will just disappear.
 * This is one of the two zombies in the whole series that has the first letter O. The second is Outhouse Zombie in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare.
 * Octopi will not survive underwater when being indirectly moved by Fisherman Zombie.
 * Octo Zombie shares its walking and eating animation with Treasure Yeti.
 * When its octopus is on a Lily Pad that is eaten by the zombies, the octopus will disappear and that bound plant will disappear too.
 * If there is an octopus behind an Infi-nut's Force Field, when a Surfer Zombie uses its surfboard to crush, both the octopus and the bound plant will be killed.
 * So far, Surfer Zombie is the only one that can directly kill an octopus.
 * In the soft release of the 3.0.1 update, Octo Zombie had 24 normal damage shots, and the octopuses had 16 normal damage shots. After the soft release, the Octo Zombie has 44 normal damage shots and the octopi have 21 normal damage shots.
 * Based on the coding, Octo Zombie was planned to be called "Octopus Thrower Zombie". Additionally, the octopi were only supposed to temporarily stun a plant.