Turquoise Skull Zombie

Turquoise Skull Zombie is a zombie encountered in Lost City. In a similar manner to Ra Zombie, it steals sun, but can also use its turquoise-colored skull to burn the player's plants up to four tiles in front of it. The zombie does not need sun in order to do the latter. If it manages to steal sun from the player, the beam's range will be increased and the sun will not be returned to the player when the zombie dies, unlike Ra Zombie.

Almanac entry
TOUGHNESS: Solid SPEED: Basic

Uses skull to steal sun, then unleashes energy in a destructive beam.

Unlike the more famous crystal skulls, turquoise skulls are non-mysterious and common as dirt.

Overview
Turquoise Skull Zombie absorbs 12 normal damage shots and degrades upon absorbing 6 normal damage shots before dying at 12 normal damage shots.

Encounters
Player's House: Piñata Party

Lost City: Days 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, Temple of Bloom, "Beghouled Blitz" Epic Quest - Step 5 and Piñata Party

Modern Day: Days 17, 34, |44, and Highway to the Danger Room (portal only)

Strategies
The instant kill abilities of Turquoise Skull Zombie can quickly become a problem, especially in Temple of Bloom, when it is accompanied by a group of Buckethead Adventurer Zombies, Excavator Zombies, Parasol Zombies, or worse, Porter Gargantuars.

The main weakness of this zombie is its own ability to steal sun, as it keeps it from being overpowered, as it will always try to steal sun before burning the plants in front of it. Because of this, the player has a decent amount of time before killing it. This can be prolonged if you let the sun travel a bit towards its turquoise skull. If more expensive plants are close to Turquoise Skull Zombie and it has not been killed yet, it is perhaps best to dig the plants up. Turquoise Skull Zombie, however, only uses its attack when plants are in close range; therefore, if the player removes plants from its range or it is far away, it cannot use the attack. Also, unlike zombies such as Gargantuar Prime, Wizard Zombie, and Octo Zombie, their attacks do not stack up and can be effectively stalled, akin to Jester Zombie, Hunter Zombie, and Excavator Zombie.

Guacodile can help stop these zombies, as they begin to rush when Turquoise Skull Zombie shoots them with its laser. Ghost Pepper can also be useful to defeat this zombie and a group of Lost City zombies. Kernel-pult may be useful to stop these zombies, but only when you have two or three columns of them. However, avoid using this strategy when Parasol Zombies are in front of them. Spikeweed or Spikerock could be useful, as its beams cannot destroy those plants. One attack from Magnifying Grass will instantly kill one of them. Cactus and Celery Stalker can also be useful. However, Cactus must be planted near the zombie to avoid being burned by its beam. If these zombies get close, Primal Peashooters can knock it out of range, causing them to waste an attack or incinerate plants that aren't that useful. However, it is only useful in some levels as Lost Pilot Zombies, Excavator Zombies, Relic Hunter Zombies, and Bug Zombies will most likely shield them in later levels or Temple of Bloom, while absorbing all your plants' projectiles.

Infi-nut can be useful as a defensive plant against this zombie because, unlike other defensive plants, Infi-nut can recover once shot by the laser of the Turquoise Skull Zombie. It is not recommended to use Infi-nut's Plant Food ability, as its force field can be easily destroyed by this zombie. Avoid using Explode-O-Nut as they can burn it without making it explode.

Trivia

 * It bears a strong resemblance to Archimedes Q. Porter from Tarzan and Dr. John Hammond from Jurassic Park.
 * The skull used by it is an obvious reference to the crystal skull in the Indiana Jones movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
 * This is further proven by its Almanac entry, which references crystal skulls.
 * The zombie itself has a very similar appearance to Henry Jones from the Indiana Jones series.
 * Despite stealing sun, it still appears in Lost City - Day 32, Modern Day - Day 34 and certain Special Delivery Piñata Parties. This is because it does not need sun to attack.
 * However, it does need sun to expand the laser beam's attack range, so that it can attack further plants.
 * Sun about to be stolen by this zombie becomes blue instead of red, unlike the color of Ra Zombie's sun.
 * Its laser can kill hypnotized Gargantuars and other hypnotized zombies in one shot.
 * It and Imp Porter are the only zombies in Lost City that can insta-kill plants aside from Dr. Zomboss.
 * Unlike when killed by Explorer Zombie's torch, an Infi-nut hologram will be "burned" but the projector will stay if it gets hit by the laser beam.
 * It deals the most damage to plants, with over 200, even more than the longer-ranged laser of a Gargantuar Prime. Therefore, it can destroy Infi-nut's shield even at full health.
 * Along with Mecha-Football Zombies, Glitter Zombies and MC Zom-Bs (with their respective jam's playing), Dr. Zomboss, and Ankylosauruses, Turquoise Skull Zombies are the only zombies able to destroy an Infi-nut's shield in one hit.
 * The beam created by Turquoise Skull Zombie is similar to Gargantuar Prime's laser.
 * It is similar to Explorer Zombie, as they both burn plants and have the same health.
 * However, it, along with Gargantuar Primes, do not bring fiery objects with them that needs to come in contact with a plant to burn it. Rather, they both use lasers to incinerate targets from a farther, safer range.
 * Its walking animation is the same as Ra Zombie's and Boombox Zombie's.
 * It is slightly smaller in size than regular zombies.
 * The skull loosely resembles the mosaic mask of Quetzalcoatl.
 * Unlike Ra Zombie, Turquoise Skull Zombie's eyes don't turn red from stealing sun.
 * It will not charge its laser if all the plants on its row cannot be hit by the laser. (i.e. Spikeweed, Celery Stalker, etc.)
 * It will, however, target Cactus and Spring Bean when they are upright, as they switch between being regular and low-lying plants.
 * Even when hypnotized by Hypno-shroom, it still uses its crystal skull and fires it towards the player's house.
 * If one looks closely, he is only wearing one shoe.