Zombie King

Zombie King is the tenth zombie encountered in Dark Ages in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time. As a king of the zombie army, its 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. It 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 its tile and it will then remain on that tile until it is defeated.

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 at 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 it will slowly transform all the zombies nearby into Knight Zombies, which absorb a lot of damage. Though it 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 it to put a row of Magnet-shroom and at the very first row 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 it 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 it, 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 its first appearance in Piñata Party. Fortunately, it will only grant knight helmets to Peasant Zombies.

Trivia

 * This is the only zombie in the whole series that has the last letter G, besides the Chinese Zombies.
 * It is the first zombie that does not have speed listed in its Almanac Entry because it cannot move.
 * It 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 it crushing another zombie, which is the Announcer Imp. The Announcer Imp is present in the Dark Ages trailers. It 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.
 * The Zombie King in its almanac picture is seen with a scepter.
 * If the player looks closely, he or she can see part of its belly sticking out from its clothes, meaning it is too fat to fit its clothes.
 * This, Fisherman Zombie and Treasure Yeti are the only zombies that have a Dense toughness. But before the 2.4.1 update, Pharaoh Zombie had the same toughness.
 * It can restore helmets to Peasant Zombies if they lose their helmets.
 * It will die instantly when there are no zombies left but itself. This one is 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.
 * 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 it 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; its head breaks away of its body and rolls down its belly, and then its throne disappears.
 * It and Fisherman Zombie are the zombies that cannot move.
 * It occasionally coughs on itself, and then slurps up the saliva.
 * Zombie King cannot be blown away by Blover when falling. However, it 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.
 * It 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 it 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.
 * The 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 it falls on one.
 * Even though its crown and throne are metallic, it cannot be taken by Magnet-shroom.
 * Only instant-usage plants such as Cherry Bomb can be planted on it.
 * 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 the 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 it was engaged when it 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 its throne.
 * The first time it appeared in a Piñata Party was on October 4, 2014.
 * Zombie King can give hypnotized Peasant Zombies knight helmets.