Pea-nut


 * For the version in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, see Pea-Nut (PvZH).

Pea-nut is an offensive and defensive premium plant that appears in Plants vs. Zombies 2. It was released on June 22, 2014, and is currently available for purchase for $2.99 (although there was a discount where it costed $0.99 starting July 20th). It can now be purchased for 100 gems permanently.

Pea-nut is a combination of Peashooter and Wall-nut: It can shoot peas at zombies that deal as much damage as a pea, as well as delay them with its bite-absorbing shell. However, if Pea-nut suffers from too much damage and has reached its second degrade, its fire rate will be halved (except in the Chinese version) as each head takes turns shooting peas.

Origins
Pea-nut is based on the real life Arachis hypogaea, a grain legume commonly known as peanut in English. Its name is also related to Pea-nut's ability: "Pea" refers to Pea-nut's ability to shoot peas like Peashooter, while "nut" relates to Pea-nut's similarity to Wall-nut, as both are defensive plants.

Overview
Pea-nut absorbs 40 bites and its appearance changes upon at 10, 20 and 30 bites before being eaten at 40 bites. Pea-nut's fire rate is halved when it reaches its second degrade, as both heads take turns to fire peas, so when the top head is bitten off, it shoots peas twice as slow.

Plant Food effect
When given Plant Food, Pea-nut will act similarly to both Peashooter and Wall-nut: It will shoot 60 peas, restores its health, and gets a metal Viking helmet that can absorb up to 80 bites or a smash from Gargantuar.

Costumed
Pea-nut gets additional armor, increasing its health.

Strategies
Pea-nut is a special plant that has both offensive and defensive capabilities, costing and doing a similar job as a Peashooter and Wall-nut set. While neither its offensive nor defensive capability is stellar for its price tag of 150 sun, Pea-nut is a useful plant if the player wishes to combine offense and defense into a single plant. Pea-nut also benefits from its relatively fast recharge for a defensive plant, allowing the player to set up defensive lines more quickly earlier in the level, as well as repair defense later on.

Thanks to its health, Pea-nut is useful against ambushes that can send zombies deep into the player's defenses, as well as Imps deployed by Imp Cannons and Gargantuars. Torchwood can also be used to boost Pea-nut's offensive potential, although this is often counterproductive as Torchwood will have to be placed on the front line to utilize its ability. Using Aloe with this plant can also help, especially since Aloe can heal Pea-nut back to two heads, meaning it can shoot regularly again.

However, many zombies can overwhelm this plant. Major hordes of zombies alone will make Pea-nut do poor work. This is mainly due to it shooting one projectile at a time. Its peas do very weak damage, so relying on this plant alone will do no good. Additionally, Kiwibeast does a much better job at defending and attacking than Pea-nut. Although, Kiwibeast must be eaten to do more damage, so for levels such as Neon Mixtape Tour, Pea-nut may be more suitable.

Trivia

 * Before the 3.2 update, it could absorb 20 bites before dying, degrading at 5, 10 and 15 bites.
 * It's the only peashooting plant that can shoot at shrunken zombies while they are in the water, because of its lower head.
 * Prior to version 2.8, Wall-nut First Aid would not work on its second degrade.
 * In the Chinese version, its green pea projectiles are replaced with peanuts, complete with their own sprite and animation. Peanuts behave almost identically to normal peas and can be ignited by Torchwood, but cannot be reflected by Jester Zombies and Hammer Zombies.
 * It is featured for free in Dark Ages - Nights 13, 18, and 20.
 * Its fire rate is halved when it reaches its second degrade, making it and Banana Tree the only plants that weakens its attacks when damaged enough.
 * It is also the only international plant to do so.
 * It, Homing Thistle, Pepper-pult, Dandelion, Dusk Lobber and Apple Mortar are the only projectile-shooting plants that do not have a fast recharge speed.
 * Its costume is similar to Fisherman Zombie's rubber ring.
 * On March 16, 2017, it became one of 4 premium plants to be permanently purchasable with 100 gems, along with Squash, Jalapeno and Hypno-shroom.