Strawburst

"Tap the Strawburst to fire. Strawburst's berry grows over time."

- Penny

Strawburst is a special-edition premium lobbed-shot plant in Plants vs. Zombies 2 that can currently be bought for a limited time during the Summer Nights event. As its description states, Strawburst has three types of damage depending on how long the player waits for its berry to grow.

Upon contact with zombies, the initial small berry deals 10, the medium berry deals 20, and the largest berry deals 45 normal damage shots. Furthermore, it can explode like a Potato Mine if a zombie approaches it in a "Touch" distance and it is not fired, no matter what growth stage it is in.

It takes Strawburst ten seconds to grow from small to medium, and 15 seconds to grow from medium to big. After firing a berry of any size, it needs eight seconds to regrow. This means the total time between firing a berry and it growing back to a big berry is 33 seconds.

Etymology
Strawburst is based on the widely cultivated red fruit strawberry, belonging in the Fragaria genus. Its name is a portmanteau of "strawberry" and "burst." Being a verb, burst means "to break from internal pressure"; therefore, it refers to how Strawburst's berries explode, or rather burst on contact with the zombies. Visually, it is presented as an upside-down strawberry. It might also reference starbursts, since it was introduced in a summer-themed event.

Almanac entry
Sun cost: 400

DAMAGE: Huge AREA: 3x3 RECHARGE: Fast

Strawburst grows a berry for small, medium or huge damage!

Usage: tap to fire

"Big is good," says Strawburst. "Though small's pretty choice as well. And you should never discount medium. I just like sizes, really."

Plant Food
When fed with Plant Food, it grows to full size and giggles, and then a huge strawberry comes down, exploding on impact and dealing 20 normal damage shots to all zombies on the lawn.

Strategies
This and Coconut Cannon both have the same cost and can do splash damage to the zombies close to the projectile's path (the former's main differences are lobbed-shot attack, growing projectiles, and longer projectile recharge time). Strawbursts are advantageous attacking plants that can do massive splash damage with big strawberries. In normal levels, protect Strawbursts wisely with such defensive plants such as Infi-nuts and Endurians as 400 sun is very difficult to obtain. To wait for them to produce big strawberries, use stalling plants like Stallia, Stunion, and/or Iceberg Lettuce to prevent the zombies from eating your Strawbursts.

Do note that Wizard Zombies, Octo Zombies, and Hunter Zombies are the main weaknesses of Strawbursts, as there is a chance that they might disable usage of plants, even when the other plants are disabled by them. It is recommended you kill these zombies quickly before you use these plants. If any of these zombies are about to cause negative effects on plants, make sure you dig them up to get half the sun back.

If you are going to use this plant in levels where you cannot lose plants, avoid letting the zombies touch the Strawbursts by protecting them with Infi-nuts. Its explosion (which can damage zombies) counts as losing as a plant.

A good combination to use with Strawburst is to have a Hurrikale and Sweet Potato with you. Let all the zombies get attracted to the Sweet Potato and then use Hurrikale to push them back to the right side of the screen and slow them down. Once you have done this, wait for the Strawburst to produce a big strawberry and then touch it to deal massive splash damage.

In Far Future, it is also a good idea to put Strawbursts on the same type of Power Tiles and then use Plant Food to produce multiple huge strawberries at once against machined zombies. This can help you save Plant Food and deal very massive damage to almost all zombies at once.

Trivia

 * Strawburst is the second lobbed-shot plant to not have characteristic catapult-like shape, the first being A.K.E.E..
 * Strawburst is the only non-mushroom that has different stages of growth.
 * Strawburst is the only plant that was unannounced and available in a soft release before a trailer has released.
 * It is the most expensive premium plant by sun cost.
 * Strawburst, Bowling Bulb, and Kernel-pult are the only plants that can shoot different projectiles and deal different normal damage shots with them.
 * Strawburst is similar to Bowling Bulb, as they both deal more damage if their projectiles recharge for longer.
 * Strawburst's Plant Food upgrade is very similar to Cuke and Doom-shroom, but it is weaker.
 * Strawburst is the second plant in the international version to grow in stages. The first one is Sun-shroom.
 * Strawburst is one of the seven plants that make vocal noise. The others are Squash, Banana Launcher, Sweet Potato, Chard Guard, Dandelion, and Cactus.
 * It is the second special-edition money premium plant with the first one being Sap-fling.
 * Strawburst and Coconut Cannon are the only plants in Plants vs Zombies 2 that cost 400 sun.
 * Coincidentally, they both are manually controlled plants, can deal 45 normal damage shots with their projectiles.
 * Strawburst attacks in a similar manner to Bowling Bulb, both throwing themselves at zombies to damage them.
 * This is the only premium plant among them.
 * Strawburst is the only plant with seven different attack methods, three different berry damages, three different self explosion damages based on which size berry it is, and its Plant Food effect.
 * Despite its berries being lobbed-shot projectiles, Parasol Zombie's parasol cannot deflect the middle stage and large stage Strawburst projectiles.
 * It shares this trait with Banana Launcher and Sap-fling.
 * Jester Zombie can only deflect small berries.
 * Strawburst, Pea Pod, Bowling Bulb, and Cherry Bomb are currently the only plants to wear fedoras for their costumes.
 * Similar to Guacodile, Strawburst can self-explode when hit by lasers by Turquoise Skull Zombie and Gargantuar Prime and deflected projectiles by Jester Zombie.
 * In Last Stand levels, Strawbursts always start with the medium berry when the level commences, no matter how long the player waits during the setup. Additionally, they are always at the small berry stage during that time.
 * This also happens in Piñata Parties with pre-planted Strawbursts.
 * When placed right behind an undamaged tombstone, the first strawberry launched will hit the tombstone, even if there is a zombie in its lane.
 * Strawburst, Bamboo Shoot, Bamboom, A.K.E.E., and Popcorn-pult are the only lobbed-shot plants with mouths.