Kernel-pult

Kernel-pult is an offensive lobbed-shot plant available on Roof levels in Plants vs. Zombies, and the first unlocked plant in Pirate Seas in Plants vs. Zombies 2. It launches either small light-damage kernels or big double-damage butter which immobilizes zombies for five seconds. Its odds of firing butter is approximately 25%. In the first game, Two Kernel-pults placed adjacent to another horizontally can be upgraded into a Cob Cannon.

This plant along with its kernels are based of the maize, which is also known as corn.

In Plants vs. Zombies
Kernel-pult

Kernel-pults fling corn kernels and butter at zombies.

Damage: light (kernel), normal (butter)

Range: lobbed

Special: butter immobilizes zombies

Kernel-pult is the eldest of the Pult brothers. Of the three of them, Kernel is the only one who consistently remembers the others' birthdays. He bugs them about it a little, too.

Cost: 100

Recharge: fast

In Plants vs. Zombies 2
Sun cost: 100

DAMAGE: Light

RANGE: Lobbed

RECHARGE: Fast

Kernel-pult flings corn kernels and butter at zombies.

Damage Details: light (kernel), normal (butter)

Special: butter immobilizes zombies

While working as an usher at the local movieplex, he saw "Fried Green Tomatoes" and found his higher calling. He packed up his husks, his kernels, his butter, and enlisted.

Plant Food
When fed Plant Food, Kernel-pult hurls butter that hits every zombie and obstacle on-screen, dealing two normal damage shots and paralyzing every zombie.

Costumed
When given Plant Food, Kernel-pult shoots flaming butter which deals more damage.

Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars
Sticky Butter: Deals huge damage to a enemy and stuns it for one move. It needs Brave Plant Food to activate.

Strategies
Kernel-pult is best used in conjunction with other lobbed-shot plants (including other Kernel-pults), since it does not do a good amount of damage reliably. They are also good when used in conjunction with Spikeweeds or Spikerocks since they can stun the zombie while it is standing on the Spikeweed or Spikerock, the zombie will take large amounts of damage from it.

A Kernel-pult requires a bit of luck, as the only reason why it can be useful is it has the chance to stun with butter, while a kernel does hardly any damage. If you need consistency, you will be better off with a Cabbage-pult.

This lobbed-shot plant is more useful than Cabbage-pult overall, since it can stun, but if you want a better one, go for Melon-pult. This plant is best used to increase the effective damage output of other plants; it can slow the zombies, giving your plants more time to deal damage. At the beginning of a level, plant a Cabbage-pult and then two Kernel-pults; when two or three are used in a single row, the zombies get buttered much more frequently.

It is also recommended to have multiple rows, to increase the butter chance and to overall deal more damage. If you combine this with Melon-pults, Winter Melons, or Gatling Peas, you have a combo dangerous to most zombies.

Plants vs. Zombies
Kernel-pult is especially important during Roof levels as the incline of the Roof will upset the firing of peas, spores, etc. It can also hit Screen Door Zombies and Ladder Zombies over their doors and ladders, and Snorkel Zombies while they're underwater.

It is best to use a combination of Cabbage-pults, Kernel-pults, then Melon-pults. It is a good idea to eventually replace Cabbage-pults with Melon-pults, and then with Winter Melons.

I, Zombie
Because of the inconsistency of butter throwing frequency, it is easy to underestimate or overestimate the power of a Kernel-pult in I, Zombie. One Kernel-pult near the back would prove to be very hard to deal with, especially if Digger Zombies cannot eat it. Consider either doubling up your zombies or using a stronger Zombie (Football Zombie, Dancing Zombie, Buckethead Zombie) instead in rows with Kernel-pults. In rows with more than one Kernel-pult, consider the Digger Zombie, instead of head-on assault.

Plants vs. Zombies 2
Kernel-pult once again is useful in Plants vs. Zombies 2 with Spikeweed, Spikerock and also Bonk Choy and Snapdragon due to their short range and dealing heavy damage if it butters the zombies in the right time.

Kernel-pult is an excellent choice against these zombies when it uses its butter attack: Unless a zombie is ahead of it, try not to deal with Jester Zombies as they can deflect butter and corn too if you use this plant (but if you have a defensive plant ahead of it, decide if it is worth digging up). Zombie Chickens and Ice Weasels are harder due to their sheer speed and numbers contrary to Kernel-pult's slowness (1/2 the speed of Peashooter) unless you use Plant Food. Also, do not use it on Parasol Zombie as it will negate its attack.
 * Gargantuar variants (temporarily stuns them)
 * Seagull Zombie (kills it instantly with butter)
 * Swashbuckler Zombie (kills it instantly only when it is raiding)
 * Barrel Roller Zombie (prevents it from crushing other plants)
 * Pirate Captain Zombie (prevents it from releasing the Zombie Parrot to steal your plants)
 * Zombie Parrot (kills it instantly)
 * Pianist Zombie (makes the dancing zombies stop dancing and prevents it from crushing plants)
 * Chicken Wrangler Zombie and Weasel Hoarder (stuns them from releasing their animals and if killed while stunned, they won't release their animals)
 * Disco-tron 3000 (prevents it from summoning Disco Jetpack Zombie)
 * Mecha-Football Zombie (prevents it from pushing plants to the left)
 * Wizard Zombie (prevents it from transforming your plants into sheep)
 * Octo Zombie (prevents plants from it throwing his octopi on sooner)
 * Fisherman Zombie (prevents it from reeling in your plants)
 * Dodo Rider Zombie (will instantly make it drop from the sky)
 * Troglobite (will stop them from pushing frozen blocks)
 * Bug Zombie (kills it instantly with butter)
 * Excavator Zombie (keeps it from shoveling up plants, and is one of the only ways to kill it)
 * All Neon Mixtape Tour zombies during their jams

Its Plant Food's ability damage is low and simply stuns all the zombies on the lawn, so try to avoid using it except if there are too many zombies and you need more plant cooldown time or if there are a lot of Seagull Zombies, Bug Zombies or Zombie Parrots. Its Plant Food ability differs from Iceberg Lettuce's, as it does damage and butter is immune to fire effects. However, it is ineffective against off-screen zombies.

General

 * Kernel-pult is one of the four plants based on corn, the others being Popcorn-pult, Cob Cannon, and Popcorn.
 * Kernel-pult is the eldest of the pult brothers, Melon-pult is the middle child and Cabbage-pult is the youngest.
 * The kernel damage is actually normal.
 * However, Kernel-pult throws one kernel every 2 or 3 seconds, while Peashooter shoots one pea per 1 or 1.5 seconds, making the damage per second of kernel lower - only about 0.5 normal damage shots per second.
 * Butter replaces kernel when Kernel-pult is about to launch it.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies

 * An eyebrow-less and catapult-less Kernel-pult could be seen in the Character Menu on the original official Plants vs. Zombies website.
 * In the old iPod Touch and iPhone versions of the game, there is also an image of an eyebrowless Kernel-pult on the seed packet. However, the actual Kernel-pult does have eyebrows.
 * However, it still does not have them on the seed packet in the iPad version.
 * A zombie with butter on its head appears in the promotional music video Zombies on Your Lawn.
 * Kernel-pult is the only plant that fires two different kinds of projectiles.
 * Kernel-pult has the weakest projectile of all lobbed-shot plants.
 * Like with other catapult plants, if a zombie is directly in front of a Kernel-pult, the kernel or butter will hit the zombie instantly instead of flying up in the air.
 * If a zombie has butter on its head while one enters the code "dance", it will not dance but instead pose in a frame of the dance until the butter wears off.
 * Kernel-pult is the only lobbed-shot plant which looks different than its projectile.
 * All lobbed-shot Plants have a different stem from each other. The Kernel-pult has a zigzag stem.
 * The Kernel-pult has different leaves than the Cabbage-pult and Melon-pult. Instead of having regular leaves, Kernel-pults have corn stalks.
 * In the Mini-games Invisi-ghoul, the Kernel-pult tends to shoot more butter than kernels.
 * In the Nintendo DS version of the game, the Kernel-pult's butter sometimes sticks to the zombie's hair or jaw, rather than its head.
 * If there is a zombie that bites a Garlic and the Kernel-pult throws butter at it, the zombie will show the disgusted face while it is paralyzed by the butter.
 * It is the only freezing plant which does not use ice, making a good choice with flaming peas as they will not remove the freeze effect, although butter can melt easily.
 * The butter, except in Invisi-ghoul, is only thrown when a zombie gets near a plant, which means that it can still survive when a zombie is right in front of it and it is the only attacking plant in the row.
 * Butter is the only projectile that remains visible after hitting the Zombie, not counting fumes.
 * If a Kernel-pult is about to lob butter, but is squashed, the squashed Kernel-pult will have a kernel in it instead of butter.
 * Kernel-pult in the Nintendo DS version of the game has thicker eyebrows than in other versions.
 * Kernel-pult the player uses seems to have a slim chance for it to lob butter, but the Kernel-pult in I, Zombie has a greater chance to lob butter.
 * Kernel-pults seem to throw butter at stronger zombies more than weaker ones.
 * It is the only lobbed-shot plant in I, Zombie.
 * When choosing where to plant it in the Xbox Live Arcade version, butter can be seen in the basket.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies 2

 * Like Melon-pult and Cabbage-pult, Kernel-pult's basket has changed from the top of an acorn to a green cup-like basket.
 * The butter seems to get bigger after it is hurled.
 * Now the butter will be on the zombie's face instead of the head. Also, the butter now looks like a soap bar.
 * Kernel-pult and Seagull Zombie are required to earn the achievement Pat the Birdy.
 * Kernel-pult, Spikeweed, Spikerock and Magnet-shroom are the only plants that can instantly kill certain zombies.
 * Kernel-pult's butter can instantly kill Seagull Zombies, Zombie Parrots, and Bug Zombies, and make Swashbuckler Zombies fall into the ocean, and Dodo Rider Zombies that are flying fall to the ground.
 * Kernel-pult and Sap-fling are the only pult plants not to deal over ten damage during its Plant Food ability.
 * When Jetpack Zombie is buttered, it is still standing in mid-air.
 * Kernel-pult (in the Zombot Dark Dragon battle), Wall-nut (in the Zombot Sphinx-inator battle), Threepeater (in the Zombot Tuskmaster 10,000 BC battle), Bonk Choy (in the Zombot Aerostatic Gondola battle), and Stunion (in the Zombot Multi-stage Masher battle) are the only plants to be used in a boss level outside of the world the player gets it in.
 * After the 2.7.1 update, Kernel-pult can immobilize Pharaoh Zombie while in its sarcophagus.
 * In the Chinese version, if a zombie gets buttered, then a cuke goes off, the zombie's head will float in mid-air, but the rest of the body will disappear.
 * Fried Green Tomatoes, mentioned in its Almanac entry, is a movie about a housewife who is unhappy with her life, and she befriends an old lady who her tells her stories of people she used to know.
 * Kernel-pult has the most costumes available of all of the plants, having six in total.
 * Three of these costumes were only obtainable for a limited time.
 * Kernel-pult, Strawburst and Bowling Bulb are the only plants to fire different projectiles and deal different normal damage shots.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies Online

 * It was formerly unlocked after beating Pirate Seas - Level 3-1.