Zombie King

Zombie King is the tenth zombie encountered in Dark Ages in Plants vs. Zombies 2. As a king of the zombie army, his main role is to provide a support and health boost of its Peasant Zombies, Conehead, and Buckethead Peasants by granting knight helms. The Zombie King will periodically boost a Peasant Zombie's toughness, transforming it into a Knight Zombie. He does not move, rather, an Announcer Imp will appear on a tile in the rightmost column, blow a horn, and the Zombie King will fall down and crush the Announcer Imp along with any plants on his tile. He will then remain on that tile until he is defeated.

Appearance
He will fall down on the Announcer Imp on the rightmost column of any row. He will just stay there and convert all Peasant Zombies into Knight Zombies.

He has a brown beard, and a golden crown on his head. He sits on a throne, and holds a scepter. He has a red fur coat and a blue shirt. He wears lime green colored pants and a pair of brown shoes. The horn blown by the Announcer Imp can be seen under the throne of Zombie King, as well as one Imp hand and a leg too.

Almanac entry
TOUGHNESS:  Dense

Grants knight helms to nearby peasant zombies.

As Shakespeare once wrote, "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." And Zombie King couldn't agree more. It is incredibly difficult to get a good night's sleep with a crown on your head. That thing is all kinds of uncomfortable.

Appearances
Player's House: Piñata Party

Dark Ages: Nights 16, 17, 18, 19 and Arthur's Challenge.

Overview
Zombie King absorbs 50 normal damage shots and its appearance changes upon absorbing 17 normal damage shots before dying at 50 normal damage shots.

General
When you see this zombie on the lawn, kill all the Peasant Zombies quickly because he will slowly transform all the zombies nearby into Knight Zombies, who absorb a lot of damage. Although he does not move, close-range plants like Snapdragon and Bonk Choy are useless, as other zombies will quickly overwhelm them. The best strategy to deal with him is to put a column of Magnet-shroom and at the very first column from the left put Magnifying Grass to deal with the Zombie King, the Magnet-shroom can attract any knight helms and is fast. That means if a Zombie King has just granted a knight helm, a Magnet-shroom will attract it immediately, making it the Zombie King's weakness. Put Spikerocks the rightmost edge of the column but to be safer, double the Spikerocks to slow down upgraded Peasant Zombies. Brute force from your plants will also work if you have enough fire-power. It is also good to use the Hypno-shroom and hypnotize a strong armored zombie. By the time the hypnotized zombie gets to the Zombie King, the hypnotized zombie will start eating the Zombie King and the king will do nothing, since he does not eat plants.

Dark Ages - Night 18
When the first huge wave comes, three Zombie Kings will immediately appear at once. A Kernel-pult should stun them, so you can try planting as many as you can before they appear. Kill it quickly with Fume-shrooms and plant Pea-nuts to protect your plants from the Knight Zombies. However, save the Plant Foods, only use them when the zombies cannot be killed.

Arthur's Challenge
These, along with Jester Zombies, Knight Zombies, Wizard Zombies, and Dark Ages Gargantuars are very dangerous if all of them appear in one level. If you see these five types of dangerous zombies in large numbers in one level, all of these zombies can cause massive havoc on your lawn, emptying everything and causing you to lose the game. To prevent massive havoc from happening, you must have a Cherry Bomb, and some very heavy hitting plants, like Winter Melons and Coconut Cannons. In later levels, Boosts such as Iceberg Lettuce are highly recommended.

Piñata Party
The Zombie King is one of the greatest threats in his first appearance in Piñata Party. Fortunately, he will only grant knight helmets to Peasant Zombies.

Trivia

 * He is the first zombie that does not have speed listed in his Almanac entry because he cannot move. The same applies to the Fisherman Zombie.
 * He is the second zombie who provides support, with Dr. Zomboss being the first one.
 * Dr. Zomboss' way of providing support is that he will compress all zombies that he summons in one square with the zombie with the least toughness or so will be the leading one. This provides him enough time to evade or to charge forward. A possible third one could be the Zombie hands that put potions on the lawn.
 * William Shakespeare's passage "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown" is a reference to the first scene of the third act of Henry IV.
 * If the player looks closely, the player can see him crushing another zombie, which is the Announcer Imp.
 * The Announcer Imp is present in the Dark Ages trailers. He holds two parts of a coconut and makes a galloping horse sound to pretend that the Knight Zombie was riding a horse. Then they would stop by and visit the Jester Zombie and the Imp Monk Zombies. This is likely a reference to the British comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
 * Zombie King in his Almanac picture is seen with his scepter.
 * If the player looks closely, he or she can see part of his belly sticking out from his clothes, meaning he is too fat to fit in his clothes.
 * He can restore helmets to Peasant Zombies if they lose their helmets.
 * He will die instantly when there are no zombies left but himself. This was a sign of failure to acknowledge defeat in medieval times where kings had no choice but to commit suicide to prevent from being captured. Prospector Zombie and Fisherman Zombie do the same.
 * However, in the Chinese version his head doesn't fall by itself.
 * If the player uses a Cherry Bomb or any other instant-kill plant at the time where the Announcer Imp arrives, the player will see that he is imperishable.
 * Zombie King does not disintergrate when a Cherry Bomb is used; instead, the head falls off as normal. This trait is shared with the Zombie Bull, Robo-Cone Zombie, Disco-tron 3000, Gargantuar Prime, Mecha-Football Zombie, Shield Zombie, Jetpack Zombie, and Disco Jetpack Zombie.
 * The death animation of this zombie is different from the others; his head breaks away of its body and rolls down his belly, and then his throne disappears.
 * Zombie King, Fisherman Zombie, Imp Cannon, and Zombot Tuskmaster 10,000 BC are the only zombies that cannot move.
 * He occasionally coughs on himself, and then slurps up the saliva.
 * Zombie King cannot be blown away by Blover when falling. However, he is not too heavy to be tossed away by Citron's Plant Food ability.
 * There can only be one Zombie King per lane, unlike Imp Cannons which can have many per lane. This trait is shared with the Fisherman Zombie.
 * He cannot be moved by Spikeweeds or Spikerocks, or by the Power Toss.
 * If the Zombie King has Plant Food, then the Announcer Imp will have Plant Food too.
 * If the player listens closely, the player can hear a low pitched voice when he coughs.
 * Zombie King, Gargantuar Prime, hypnotized zombies, and Dr. Zomboss are the only zombies that can kill other zombies. This is because the King will crush the Announcer Imp, Dr. Zomboss has his infamous two-lane charge attack, hypnotized zombies eat other zombies, and Gargantuar Prime can burn zombies with its laser.
 * Announcer Imp is not generally counted as a zombie, as it does not have any effect on the game (It does not eat or otherwise eat plants or brains and it does not summon or boost zombies).
 * Tombstones will be crushed by the Zombie King if he falls on one.
 * Even though his crown and throne are metallic, they cannot be taken by Magnet-shroom.
 * Only instant-usage plants such as Cherry Bomb can be planted on him.
 * Hypnotized zombies can kill the Announcer Imp before the Zombie King falls.
 * Except Peasant Flag Zombie and Announcer Imp, Zombie King is the only Dark Ages zombie that does not appear in Dark Ages - Night 20.
 * The player cannot plant on Announcer Imp, but the plant on the tile it is on still remains until the Zombie King falls.
 * If the player looks closely, he or she can see there is a ring on one of Zombie King's fingers. This might indicate that he was engaged when he is alive. However, it could just be there for decoration.
 * In the Dark Ages' preview and the icon in the almanac, there is no dirt around his throne.
 * In the soft release of Dark Ages Part 2, he had Protected toughness according to his almanac entry. This was later changed to Dense after the update.
 * He can give helmets to hypnotized Peasant Zombies.
 * Zombie King and Imp Porter are the only zombies that can crush a Spikerock immediately.
 * Zombie King can also kill a Ghost Pepper if he falls on it.