Primal Peashooter

Primal Peashooter is the first plant obtained in Jurassic Marsh in Plants vs. Zombies 2. He is the primal version of Peashooter. Every three seconds, he shoots a rock-like pea that either immobilizes a zombie for half a second or sends it back for a tile. Each rock pea does 50 damage per shot to zombies. The zombies immune to its knockback capability are Jurassic Bully and Jurassic Rockpuncher. Due to its knockback effect, stunned zombies that are knocked back will no longer be immobilized.

Origins
Like his modern counterpart, Primal Peashooter is based on the plant Pisum sativum. The term peashooter is normally used to refer to a toy version of a blowgun, or as slang for small or low-caliber firearms.

Plant Food effect
When fed Plant Food, Primal Peashooter gains Stegosaurus-like plates on its head and will shoot five rock peas that look identical to its regular ones. However, these rock peas deal 100 damage per shot and have an area of effect of a tile, pushing all zombies located on it.

Costumed
It will now shoot an additional giant lava ball that leaves a fire trail similar to Pitaya's Plant Food ability.

Strategies
Primal Peashooter is a powerful plant for taking out single zombies, regardless of their health, as the zombies are greatly delayed from the push backwards. However, its slow rate of fire makes them vulnerable to zombies in groups and allows them to damage the defenses easily, especially if the player does not deploy a large number of Primal Peashooters on the lawn.
 * Primal Peashooter shouldn't be paired with Celery Stalker, Stunion, or any lobbed-shot plants with exception of any that deals splash damage, since it is possible that the peas will knock back the zombies and make Celery Stalker vulnerable, the stun effect from Stunion will be undone and the lobbed projectiles are more likely to miss their targets. Primal Peashooters work well with area of effect plants like Fume-shroom, Phat Beet, and Snapdragon, since the knock-back effect is effective in clustering crowds of zombies.
 * The Plant Food upgrade of this plant is weak as far as damage is concerned, but it is great for knocking zombies back to the beginning of the lawn, which will allow the player to have more time to restore lost plants either by using an Intensive Carrot or replanting. However, if this is being paired with Fume-shroom, Fume-shroom's Plant Food effect is far more superior.
 * An advantage of Primal Peashooter's projectiles is when knocking zombies back, it momentarily throws them a short distance off the ground, opening up a chance for them to be eliminated by Blover, as any zombie that does not touch the ground before the Blover activates will be blown away. This means that, with the exception of Jurassic Bully and Zombots, these peas when combined with Blover can knock out any push-able zombies, even Gargantuars, with one hit. This can be done most easily when Primal Peashooter is boosted.
 * Like other peashooting plants, Primal Peashooter can be combined with Torchwood to cause more damage to the zombies, and that stunning and knocking zombies back capacity continues to operate.
 * In Ancient Egypt, Primal Peashooter is useful for stopping sandstorms because its projectile can immediately end this attack, forcing the zombie to come out of the storm. Primal Peashooter is a good choice against Explorer Zombie as they can keep them out of range to prevent them from tearing through plants. They work great against Pharaoh Zombies as they can stall them as their sarcophagus gets destroyed.
 * In Pirate Seas, Primal Peashooter is useful for combating zombies in water lanes. Swashbuckler Zombie and Imp Pirate Zombies can be pushed back into the water if they are airborne. However, sometimes this will not kill them due to the glitch where they will walk on water. This is especially useful in the new levels that came to Pirate Seas that came in the new update. Barrel Roller Zombie's barrel can be pushed back by the knockback effect so they do not become a potential threat. In the later extension levels, Primal Peashooters are excellent choices for stalling Barrelhead Zombie and Pelican Zombie.
 * In Wild West, Primal Peashooters work very well against Poncho Zombies (especially with metal grate) and the Zombie Bull to ensure that other offensive plants have a chance to deal more damage against them. Primal Peashooters also work great if planted on minecarts. This will allow all zombies in those lanes to be knocked back within farther distance.
 * In Far Future, Primal Peashooter is a good choice against Mecha-Football Zombie as it can knock them back and prevent them from pushing your plants further. Pairing it with Blover should be one of the most essential strategies for instantly killing this zombie, along with Robo-Cone Zombie, Disco-tron 3000 or Gargantuar Prime as instants like Cherry Bomb cannot completely destroy them. In addition, Blover will help blow away Jetpack Zombies and Blastronaut Zombies that tend to block Primal Peashooter in the process.
 * In Frostbite Caves levels without Troglobites, Primal Peashooters can stop snowstorms similar to Ancient Egypt. They can also force any Dodo Rider Zombies on the ground with their knock-back affect and preventing them from bypassing defenses. In addition, they can push back dangerous zombies such as Blockhead Zombie so that they do not overwhelm defenses. Primal Peashooters are also useful in lanes where zombies have been redirected to by ice floes so they can repel them. Be aware of Hunter Zombies as they will block
 * In Neon Mixtape Tour, Primal Peashooter is effective against most zombies encountered in this world as their knock back can easily disable most of their abilities. They can repel Punk Zombies as a defense to prevent them from pushing other plants. Glitter Zombies that are knocked back allows the protected zombies to be vulnerable to attacks. They can knock back MC Zom-B and have them miss their attack or destroy plants that aren't very useful. Zombies kicked by Breakdancer Zombies can be repelled away easily. Primal Peashooter can also prevent Boombox Zombies from reaching the column that they will stun plants.
 * In early Jurassic Marsh levels, Primal Peashooters work very well against raptors as zombies can be repelled easily when kicked forward. When stegosaurus appears, Primal Peashooters can knock zombies back before they reach its tail. Primal Peashooter's knock back can disable pterodactyl's ability
 * In Modern Day, the Primal Peashooter can knock away zombies that come from portals making them less of the threat. They can also push back Super-Fan Imps to have them incinerate plants that aren't important assuming the player has put their most valuable plants in the back. Combined with slowing plants, they can push back Newspaper Zombies to allow more time to set up defenses.

However, Primal Peashooter still has many weaknesses:
 * In later levels of Ancient Egypt, Tomb Raiser Zombie poses a major threat. He will create many tombstones which can shield many dangerous zombies where it renders Primal Peashooter's ability useless.
 * In Wild West, Chicken Wrangler Zombie poses a major threat in the later levels. He will summon a chicken flock as distraction where they can easily destroy Primal Peashooter as it fires half the speed of its normal counterpart. The same applies to Weasel Hoarder in Frostbite Caves. Combining with Pianist Zombie and other Cowboy Zombies, they can destroy many Primal Peashooters within seconds.
 * In certain levels of Far Future, Shield Zombie poses a major threat. It will protect very dangerous zombies with its shield, which Primal Peashooter's peas cannot combat. However, using E.M.Peach could ease the situation.
 * In Dark Ages, avoid using Primal Peashooter, as Tombstones will get in the way, as well as the sheer amount of Jester Zombies that are present. Wizard Zombie is especially dangerous due to its constant disabling plants. This applies to Arthur's Challenge as well. Also, Necromancy ambush can easily overwhelm Primal Peashooter.
 * In Lost City, there are many obstructions. Excavator Zombie will not be damaged by Primal Peashooter damage though it will still be pushed/stunned. In addition, Lost Pilot Zombies, Bug Zombies, and Relic Hunter Zombies can all be considered meat shields for Primal Peashooter, and protect more dangerous zombies like Turquoise Skull Zombie. Imp Porter is especially dangerous once his tent is set up, as the constant supply of zombies (especially Buckethead variants), can make it extremely hard to get rid of the tent without support. This also applies to Temple of Bloom.
 * In some levels of Neon Mixtape Tour, Arcade Zombies are very dangerous, especially if they appear in large numbers. Its arcade machine can shield all of its projectiles from dangerous zombies. In addition, the spawning of 8-Bit Zombies are also an issue, especially if the machine spawns many Buckethead variants in a row. Hair Metal Gargantuar is also a threat, during his metal jam, as they randomly create a shockwave on an invisible target that can easily take out Primal Peashooter, despite that Primal Peashooter can keep him away far enough from crushing your back defenses. This also applies to Greatest Hits.
 * In the later parts of Jurassic Marsh, avoid using Primal Peashooter. Jurassic Bully now counters this. Jurassic Bully will take its shots (with the stun effect still working), but end up shielding other zombies. Not to mention, Jurassic Bully can sustain many blows. Furthermore, T. Rex is a huge disaster. Neither the stun effect nor the knockback effect will resist zombies' speed boosted by T. Rex, especially if this type of dinosaur or zombies arrive in groups. Ankylosaurus will sometimes fling zombies in large numbers towards the Primal Peashooter which they cannot repel when airborne. Due to its vulnerability against zombies in large numbers (especially Jurassic Fossilhead), Primal Peashooter is not very good at defending later in Jurassic Marsh.
 * In Modern Day, Primal Peashooter will only be useful in some levels. Some levels contain early ambushes, something Primal Peashooter may not be able to contain quickly. In addition, the previously mentioned zombies can also appear, so take caution when selecting plants.

Trivia

 * If a rock pea hits a Pianist Zombie, the music it plays will restart, regardless of knockback or stun.
 * Lost Pilot Zombie can get pushed back by it, even when dangling in the air. However, he will not fall to the ground after getting pushed back, until after a few seconds or if Blover is used.
 * If a Sunflower Singer uses Plant Food, all Primal Peashooters will shoot a giant lava ball.
 * Although its projectile is different than other peashooting plants, when its projectile passes through a normal or napalm Torchwood, the projectile becomes a common Peashooter's fire pea or napalm pea respectively. However, these fire/napalm peas are larger than normal. In addition, the peas will still stun or knock back zombies.
 * Its knock-back can wear off the gassed effect from zombies affected by a Chili Bean or a Stunion.
 * The rock Peas rotates, this was removed in the power plant update.