Jack O' Lantern

"Tap Jack O' Lantern for a burst of flame. Tap and HOLD for an extended burst that does increasing damage!"

- Penny

Jack O' Lantern is a special-edition premium plant in Plants vs. Zombies 2, tied with the Lawn of Doom 2015 event released with the 4.1 update. It returned on the Luck O' The Zombie 2016 event with the discounted price of $3.99.

It is a tap-to-use plant that blows a flame jet three tiles in front of him for a few seconds. When not continuously pressed, it will use one of five "charges" to just deliver a short burst of fire, which will deal continuous damage in an area of effect for a very short while, totaling 18 normal damage shots. If held, it will deal continuous damage while draining his remaining charges. After holding on it from its full recharge form (five charges), it deals a total of exactly 90 normal damage shots, which is enough to kill all non-machined and non-Gargantuar zombies.

If it is not attacking, it will gradually recharge itself. After fully depleted all of its charges, it takes 5 seconds to the first charge and another 16 seconds to fully recharge itself. Jack O' Lantern is also a thawing plant, emitting heat every 1.5 seconds that gradually unfreezes frozen or chilled plants in a 3x3 area around it, as well as being immune to all freezing effects itself.

Almanac entry
Sun cost: 225

DAMAGE: Heavy

RECHARGE: Sluggish

Jack O' Lanterns spray fire down a lane, doing extensive burning damage over a short distance.

Usage: tap for single flame burst; tap and hold for more powerful flame jet

Special: fire recharges over time

"Boo! Mwah-ha-ha-haaaaah," opines Jack O' Lantern. Oh, yes. Things and stuff are scheduled to be seriously spooky when he's around. Count on it."

Plant Food effect
When fed Plant Food, Jack O' Lantern summons five to nine green wisps on random tiles on the lawn. The wisps, which resemble Jack O' Lantern itself, continuously do fire damage to zombies, dealing 45 damage. It will also restore all its five charges if this is done while it doesn't have all its recharge stages.

Strategies
The best way to use it is when the plant is fully charged. When zombies are near, hold the plant until you see that all the zombies within its range are burned. This way, you make sure that you fully use this plant.

Since it is a short-ranged plant, it is best to place it near your defensive plants. Using it in the square behind your Wall-nuts can be useful, as you can stop zombies on the square of the Wall-nut. Never use it as your only attacking plant, because it is a tap-to-use plant and the player can easily be distracted by other things like the sun collecting or planting. Multi-touch works with this plant, but on devices with smaller screens it is hard to do this. This plant is especially useful when combined with a boosted sun-producing plant (Sunflower, Twin Sunflower, Toadstool, and Sun-shroom) and Tile Turnip, because when it activates its Plant Food effect with Tile Turnip, he will almost cover the whole lawn annihilating almost all zombies. However, Jack O' Lantern should not be used against Imp Dragon Zombies in Arthur's Challenge, as they are completely immune to Jack O' Lantern's attack and Plant Food effect.

Note that it instantly defrosts frozen zombies, so it is better to use Stunion over Iceberg Lettuce in conjunction with Jack O' Lantern. However, you will not be able to stun robot zombies as they are immune to stunning gas and could be thawed if frozen by Iceberg Lettuce. Use E.M.Peach to stun any robot zombies if they overwhelm your defense.

Trivia

 * It and Ghost Pepper are currently the only limited-time Halloween-themed premium plants in the game. However, both plants use a different currency to buy. Ghost Pepper uses gems for purchase while Jack O' Lantern requires real life money for purchase.
 * It, Rose Swordsman, Pretty Little Plum, Flame Mushroom, Angel Starfruit, and Match Flower Boxer are the only plants with a sun cost of 225.
 * It is the only plant in the international version that costs 225 sun.
 * Its flame jet is similar to Fire Peashooter's Plant Food effect before the Frostbite Caves Part 2 update came out. However, its flame jet is shorter.
 * Along with Fire Peashooter, it is the second plant to have a unique noise when dug up.
 * It, Lava Guava, Banana Launcher, Escape Root and Bamboo Shoot cannot be planted on mine carts. Trying to plant one will give the player the message, "You can't plant Jack O' Lanterns on rail carts."
 * It, Saucer, Pumpkin, Pumpkin Witch, and Smashing Pumpkin are the only plants based on pumpkins.
 * Its flame jet uses the flame tile effect from Lost City.
 * It is the most expensive money premium plant alongside Electric Blueberry, Grapeshot, Blooming Heart, Escape Root, and Wasabi Whip.
 * It is the only plant to have an apostrophe in his name.
 * Strangely, it can damage flying zombies despite attacking by burning the ground.
 * Like Fire Peashooter, its flames are not affected by the water in Pirate Seas and Big Wave Beach.
 * Even after the player defeats the final zombie and the reward drops, it can still be used.
 * When it is stunned by a Boombox Zombie, it glitches out and starts playing its activation and deactivation sounds repeatedly until the power ballad jam is finished.
 * It is the third special-edition plant to cost real money, the first being Sap-fling, the second being Strawburst, the fourth being Blooming Heart, and the fifth being Explode-O-Nut.
 * It also has the most expensive price out of the five, tied with Blooming Heart.
 * Its abilities may refer to how in real life jack-o'-lanterns include the use a flame, such as a candle, to make them glow from the inside.
 * It is the second premium plant to be manually controlled, the first being Strawburst.
 * Coincidentally, both plants are also special-edition.
 * Its idling animation is similar to Peashooter's and Sun Bean's.
 * According to the credits, it is voiced by John Stumme.
 * It is really similar to Fire Gourd in the Chinese version of the game, but unlike Jack O' Lantern, Fire Gourd is not paid with real money.