Winter Melon


 * For the version in Plants vs. Zombies Online, see Winter Melon.
 * For the version in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, see Winter Melon (PvZH).

Winter Melon is a lobbed-shot plant available in both main series Plants vs. Zombies games. It acts as the upgrade of Melon-pult in the first game, and a normal plant unlockable in the Wild West in the second game.

Winter Melon attacks by lobbing frozen melons at zombies, each having an identical damage profile to Melon-pult's, but is also capable of chilling all enemies that are in its area of effect (3x3), slowing their movement and attack speed by 50%. The chilling effect will be nullified if the victim is hit by attacks from fire based plants.

Origins
Winter Melon, like Melon-pult, is based on the fruit of the plant Citrullus lanatus var. lanatus. Its name is a pun of the word winter melon, referring to Winter Melon's ability to chill zombies with its frozen melons.

Plants vs. Zombies
Winter Melon can be purchased from Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies for $10,000, once the player has finished Adventure Mode for the first time. After the purchase, the player can use Winter Melon's seed packet to convert any Melon-pult present on the lawn into Winter Melon for another 200 sun. Each melon deals 4 normal damage shots worth of damage to the initial target, and 1.5 splash damage to all enemies in a 3x1 area.

Plants vs. Zombies 2
Winter Melon is acquired after unlocking the Locked and Loaded levels for the Wild West before the 1.7 update, beating Wild West - Day 24 after the 1.7 update, or spending 600,000 coins in the Chinese version of the game. It has received some changes compared to the first game: Its price was raised to 500 sun, and the frozen melon now deals 2 splash damage to all zombies in a 3x3 area. It is also no longer an upgrade plant, meaning that Melon-pult is no longer required in order to plant a Winter Melon.

In Plants vs. Zombies
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

In Plants vs. Zombies 2
Sun cost: 500

DAMAGE: Heavy

AREA: 3x3

RECHARGE: Fast

Winter Melons do heavy damage and slow groups of zombies.

Firing Speed: 1/2x

Range: lobbed

Special: damaged enemies are also chilled

You may recognize Winter Melon's voice from such incredible documentaries as "It's Cold Up Here," "Ice Bingo," and "Surfin' Swedes."

Plant Food effect
When given Plant Food, Winter Melon will unleash a barrage of giant melons separated into four waves to all zombies on the field. Each giant melon deals 10 damage to the inital target, but only 1 splash damage to every enemy in a 3x3 area. If there is no valid target, a single melon per volley will be targeted on a random tile.

Costumed
It can launch "flaming frozen melons" that deal quadruple the damage of a frozen melon.

Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars
Mortar: Lobs frozen melons at three random targets that has a chance to slow or freeze them down on their tracks. It needs Brave Plant Food to activate.

Plants vs. Zombies
Winter Melon can be considered as one of the most useful support plant in the game. Its frozen melons, while not as powerful as Gloom-shroom's fume or Cob Cannon's missile, are capable of chilling waves of zombies, forcing them to move and act twice as slow. This is significant in Survival Mode and vital in Survival: Endless, as the player will need as much time as possible to neutralize ever increasing numbers of Gargantuars, Football Zombie, as well as to rebuild and repair the constantly crumbling line of defense. However, Winter Melon suffers from having a very low firepower output for its massive price tag of 500 sun, and the fact that Melon-pult is required in order to plant it, making Winter Melon impractical in normal levels.

Only one column of Winter Melon should be used in any levels, as additional columns will require additional sun and time, while not increasing zombie suppression capability at all. Winter Melon is also useful against Screen Door Zombies and Ladder Zombies, as its melons can bypass their shields.

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 or Last Stand. It should be kept in mind that they do not all have to be alive at one given time, or in the same column.

Plants vs. Zombies 2
Compared to its incarnation in the previous game, Winter Melon has been significantly improved, both in its damage and crowd control capability. As a result, Winter Melon can now hold its own against hordes of Buckethead Zombies and win most levels by itself. The removal of Melon-pult as a requirement, as well as the general ease of acquiring sun also benefits Winter Melon greatly. However, inefficiency in firepower output per sun remains a great problem to Winter Melon, so this plant should still be used as a supporting plant, rather than the player's sole option for damage dealing.

Winter Melon can be used to damage zombies that attempt to shield themselves from straight-shooting projectiles, with the sole exception being Shield Zombie, as its shield can also block the frozen melon, and Surfer Zombie (when walking on land with his surfboard), because the surfboard blocks lobbed shots. Winter Melon is also useful in disabling Explorer and Prospector Zombies, preventing them from burning or bypassing the player's defense.

Winter Melon should not be used in levels with Jester Zombies and Parasol Zombies, as they can deflect the melons and come out unharmed. Zombie Chickens and Ice Weasels also pose serious threats to Winter Melon, as they will often run in front of the horde and absorb the melons, preventing Winter Melon from hitting the bulk of the zombies.

Locked and Loaded - Wild West

 * See also: Locked and Loaded, Wild West - Day 9, Wild West - Day 22

Although they might seem expensive, Winter Melons are required in these levels in order to defeat the massive numbers of zombies which swarm the screen, especially Day 9 where both Lightning Reeds and Split Peas cannot reliably take care of Poncho Zombies. In Day 22, it is advised the player places one on the hindmost mine cart in order to slow down the zombies. Be aware that Zombie Chickens can throw off Winter Melon's aim, so Bloomerang and Repeater should still be planted in order to deal with them.

Endless Zones
Similar to in Survival Mode in the previous game, Winter Melon is a key plant in all Endless Zones, due to its ability to suppress the incoming threats, giving the player more reaction time. Its Plant Food in particular will prove to be one of the player's most useful assets - the ever increasing zombie density only serves to increase the amount of splash damage Winter Melon can generate, and multiple Winter Melons when linked with Tile Turnip in higher levels can fire off a gigantic amount of frozen melons, capable of devastating even Gargantuars with ease. However, the player may find its price of 500 sun quite annoying early on due to the pace of Endless Zones, thus it's a good idea to have some early defenses to go along with it, such as Cold Snapdragon and instant-use plants.

In Arthur's Challenge and Temple of Bloom, Winter Melon should not be used on levels with Jester and Parasol Zombies for aforementioned reasons. If the player wishes to boost multiple Winter Melons through Tile Turnip, it is recommended to link them to a non-damaging plant such as Sun-shroom and Iceberg Lettuce and then boost it first, as boosting a Winter Melon first can accidentally kill off weaker zombies and as a result reduce the amount of splash damage dealt in the ensuing barrage.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies

 * In older versions of the game, if 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 packet would cause a message to appear stating "Plant a Winter Melon first" instead of "Plant a Melon-pult first." This error has been fixed in current versions of Plants vs. Zombies.
 * According to the Suburban Almanac, Winter Melon can deal a very heavy amount of damage. However, it deals the same amount of damage per melon as the Melon-pult.
 * On the PlayStation Vita version of Plants vs. Zombies, Winter Melon's seed packets might have part of the melon erased. It shares this trait with the Coffee Bean.
 * In the iPad version, Winter Melon is a lot lower down on its seed packet than Melon-pult.
 * Its stem is green, even though it is mostly colored blue. It shares this trait with Snow Pea.
 * In the seed packet for the iOS and Android versions, its leaves at the bottom are colored cyan instead of green.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies 2

 * Winter Melon and Banana Launcher are the second most expensive plants in the game, the most expensive being Tile Turnip, with its cost capable of going up to 16,000 (64,000 in the Chinese version) sun.
 * It is the only upgrade plant from Plants vs. Zombies to not have its total sun cost changed in Plants vs. Zombies 2.
 * Winter Melon's vine that connects its body to its basket and its leaves under it are now completely blue.
 * The Almanac states that it does the same damage as a Melon-pult, even though in the first game, the Almanac states falsely that it does very heavy damage.
 * Its Winter Hat costume is a reference to Eric Cartman's hat from the hit animated TV show South Park.
 * Likewise, its Chinese costume is Kyle Broflovski's hat which is also from the hit animated TV show, South Park.