Winter Melon

The Winter Melon is a lobbed-shot plant and the upgrade of the Melon-pult. It lobs frozen melons that deal 4 peas worth of damage per melon and freeze groups of zombies at once. It costs $10,000 to buy in Crazy Dave's Shop and is only available to purchase once the player has completed Adventure Mode. Its name is based on the benincasa hispida, but it appears to be a blue palette swap of the citrillus lanatus. When hit, Zombies move as slow as they do when hit by a Snow Pea or an Ice-shroom.

Suburban Almanac Entry
 Winter Melon 

Winter Melons do heavy damage and slow groups of zombies.

Damage: very heavy

Range: lobbed

Firing Speed: 1/2x

Special: melons damage and freeze nearby enemies on impact

Must be planted on melon-pults

Winter Melon tries to calm his nerves. He hears zombies approach. Will he make it? Will anyone make it?

Cost: 200

Recharge: very slow

Description
The Winter Melon looks like a blue watermelon with a frozen vine connecting it to a frozen catapult containing eternally respawning blue melons. It has a stem which is only 25% frozen.

Strategy
The Winter Melon is one of the most powerful plants in the game, in league with plants like the Cob Cannon, Gloom-shroom and Gatling Pea, etc. The Winter Melon can freeze zombies within a half-square radius and deal significant Area of Effect damage. The Winter Melon is effective against Shield Zombies. The Melon-pult and Snow Pea combination has a similar effect, but the Snow Pea can only affect one zombie per pea.

Compared to Gatling Peas, Winter Melons are more expensive for the first plant, but after every extra plant, they are less expensive for every plant afterwards. This is because you need only one Winter Melon per lane to freeze zombies in the lane, like a Snow Pea. Gatling Peas have a 450 Sun cost (if factoring in the Repeater), but if there is a Torchwood in the lane, it is a total cost of 200+250+175, equaling 625. A Winter Melon with a Melon-pult, is the same power, with improved splash damage, for 300+200+300, or 800. In other words, it is cheaper for a Gatling Pea with Torchwood compared to a Winter Melon and Melon-pult.

The Winter Melon is frequently used in Survival Mode. Because the zombie density increases dramatically over time, the splash slow effect is critical. Powerful zombies such as Football Zombies or Gargantuars appear frequently in Survival: Endless, but Winter Melons weaken them considerably. Winter Melons strategically placed in the pool rows can slow Buckethead Ducky Tube Zombies and Dolphin Rider Zombies. Use it to slow down groups of zombies and make other plants attack them easier.

Melon-y Lane Achievement
The achievement Melon-y Lane is unlocked by planting a Winter Melon in every lane. This can easily be done on any Survival Mode level. Keep in mind that they all do not have to be alive at one given time, or in the same column. This can also be easily done in Last Stand.

Trivia

 * If the Winter Melon's seed packet is fully recharged, the player has accumulated enough Sun to purchase it, and there are no Melon-pults on the lawn, clicking on the Winter Melon seed packets causes a message to appear stating "Plant a Winter Melon first" instead of "Plant a Melon-pult first".
 * It is one of the two Upgrade Plants that cost less Sun than the plants they upgrade, the other plant being the Gold Magnet.
 * According to the Almanac, the Winter Melon can deal a very heavy amount of damage. However, it deals the same amount of damage per melon as the Melon-pult. This may be because it slows zombies down.
 * The Melon-y Lane achievement is based on the Winter Melon.
 * Its basket appears to be made of ice instead of wood. This may be because the basket is so cold that the wood is frozen under all the ice.
 * It is one of three plants that can freeze zombies. The others are Snow Pea and Ice-shroom.
 * It is the only upgrade plant that can freeze zombies.
 * On the PS Vita version of the game, the Winter Melon's Seed Packet may have part of the melon erased. It shares this trait with Coffee Bean.