Sweet Potato

Sweet Potato is a special-edition premium plant that appeared in the 3.0.1 update of Plants vs. Zombies 2. It can attract zombies from adjacent tiles covering the 1x3 (vertical) area in front of the tile where it was planted in lane. Furthermore, it is also a defensive plant, possessing a toughness scale equivalent that of a Wall-nut. Like Ghost Pepper, Homing Thistle, Fire Peashooter, and Dandelion, it costs 109 gems to purchase it. It was removed from the store on December 3, 2014.

Sweet Potato and other special-edition plants came back in the Luck O' The Zombie event. The plants were available for purchase from March 11, 2015 until March 24, 2015. It once again reappeared in the stores as of July 7, 2015 along with the new Piñata Parties advertising the availability of all the special-edition plants for a limited time. Its cost was reduced to 75 gems during the Summer Nights event.

Almanac entry
TOUGHNESS: High RECHARGE: Sluggish

Sweet Potatoes attract zombies from other lanes when they are close by.

Sweet Potato really is as sweet as she looks. Her favorite animal is the unicorn. Her favorite color is (and this is a direct quote) "all the colors in the rainbow." When she writes the letter "i", she draws a little heart where the dot belongs. Frankly, if it were anyone else, this amount of syrup would be sickening. But on her, well, it just seems right.

Plant Food
When given Plant Food, the plant fully heals itself and attracts all zombies in a 4x3 radius around its area. Subsequently, the following animation will proceed - love hearts will radiate off its body while simultaneously hopping up and down as an expression of joy and excitement. In the Chinese version, the plant will just enter an invulnerable state for a period of time, devoid of healing capabilities.

Costumed
Sweet Potato fully heals itself along with its regular effect.

Strategies
Sweet Potato gives the player ample time to stall zombies and set up defenses while attracting zombies into a well-guarded lane. It is especially useful for clustering a group of zombies coming from any of three adjoining lanes, placing them in a strategic position where zombies can be attacked all at once, such as by Banana Launchers, Winter Melons, Spikerocks, Ghost Peppers, Lava Guavas, or even Potato Mines placed behind it. Snapdragons are also highly effective as up to eight of these plant can be strategically arranged around the Sweet Potato (including two flanking it) to pummel all the zombies amassed together, destroying them quickly before the zombies can chew anything. The player can also opt for Hurrikale's pushing ability where a Sweet Potato cannot exercise its effect (a group of zombies on either of adjacent rows closing in to the left side of the lawn) or simply pushing again a group of zombies nibbling at Sweet Potato will provide excellent stall and utility support for the player's overall defense.

Since Sweet Potato has a toughness scale similar to that of Wall-nuts and is considered a defensive variant in game, the Wall-nut First Aid applies to it. Furthermore, its Plant Food ability will fully heal them in addition to drawing in nearby zombies, including some that are behind it (though Plant Food will not buff their defense in the form of a protective metal armor, unlike with other defensive plants).

Its main drawback is considered to be its high sun expenditure, which is often problematic when the player cannot gather a plentiful amount of sun due to a leaning difficulty curve for a given level (a good example is a level where variants of Gargantuar appears, when around enemies with instant-killing abilities such as Fisherman Zombies and Turquoise Skull Zombies, or if defense tactics are limited because a player must prioritize protecting a number of plants in a custom mini-game level). A massive group of zombies brought in from adjacent lanes can also devastate a Sweet Potato very quickly, resulting in a tantamount decrease of momentum in the game. Usually the main reason for this occurrence is underestimation from the player's side, not putting enough defenses on adjacent lanes where the Sweet Potato is placed in-between, allowing a large group of zombies to eventually accumulate by the time it reaches the Sweet Potato. Additionally, few zombies are also immune to being attracted by it, such as Jetpack Zombies and Zombie Bulls (see Trivia section below for the full list of zombies that are immune to this plant).

A Sweet Potato and Infi-nut fed with Plant Food is an effective combo as even with barrier intact, the former can still attract zombies while inside the barrier; this strategy is useful when a player wants to keep Sweet Potatoes alive against Fisherman Zombies and other dangerous zombies, since the attracted zombies will have to chew through the barrier first before reaching the Sweet Potatoes. Be aware of Zombie Parrots, Mecha-Football Zombies, and Surfer Zombies though, as even if there is a force field present on the lawn, parrots can still take the plants inside the barrier, Mecha-Football Zombies can still push the plants one tile to to the left, and Surfer Zombies can still crush them with their Surfboard upon successfully landing and dying near the barrier where the Sweet Potato is planted on.

If possible, refrain from using Sweet Potato in attracting Prospector Zombies in Big Bad Butte because these zombies take so much time to move forward that it has to be attracted just close enough to Sweet Potato, leaving the player's defenses susceptible to the rear-most rows and columns. Also, if the player uses a Plant Food on a Sweet Potato, the Prospector Zombies that were walking away from your house will not get attracted, but start walking towards your house again. Hence, Blovers are still the best way of sterilizing them.

It is recommended to place a Sweet Potato on the first, third, and fifth rows respectively, where there is one on the top, one on the middle, and one on the bottom, garnering maximum defense and lane control when at higher levels, especially those levels with more flags in them. Instead of placing them on the aforementioned positions, the player can also choose to place both on the second and fourth rows only, providing an excellent 300-sun profit if the player prefers saving a lot of sun in preparation for other choice of defenses. (They can be placed regardless of columns). It has also been proven that by placing Sweet Potatoes anywhere on the third column can keep the thrown Imps attention diverted to Sweet Potatoes so this tactic makes an efficient delivery in handling the risks of being susceptible to horde of zombies because as long as Sweet Potatoes are one-square apart in the third column, they can constantly attract all Imps thrown at a certain square where no Sweet Potato is placed. Alternatively, Sweet Potato can also be used in tandem with Spikerock or Spikeweed (planted adjacent to Sweet Potatoes) to snare down the rapid pace of Zombie Chickens, Ice Weasels, and Imps hurled by Zombie Bulls or Gargantuars.

Sweet Potato is also useful in Frostbite Caves levels with slider tiles on the first and fifth rows usually on the same column, or two sliders pointing the same direction on the first and second rows or the fourth and fifth rows. In these certain scenarios, the player only needs to plant one Sweet Potato to group most of the zombies in the center of the lawn. Replacing and unfreezing the Sweet Potato is a must whenever necessary. The same could be on some Save Our Seeds levels if there is a certain row that has a plant and one without, the player can place a Sweet Potato to attract zombies away from the endangered plants.

Trivia

 * Sweet Potato and Threepeater are the only plants in Plants vs. Zombies 2 with a sun cost of 300.
 * Jetpack Zombie, Disco Jetpack Zombie, Zombie Bull, Zombie King, Imp Cannon, Fisherman Zombie, and Barrel Roller Zombie are the only zombies that Sweet Potato cannot attract towards itself.
 * It makes vocal noises randomly whenever it is shown, examples being during a given level or in the Almanac. This makes it one plant that has vocal noises, with the others being Squash, Banana Launcher, Chard Guard, Dandelion, Strawburst, and Cactus.
 * It does not make vocal sounds while in the Zen Garden.
 * The brown area on its body appears to be the brown peel of the real life sweet potato.
 * It is the opposite of Garlic in terms of lane diversion, as Garlic repels zombies while Sweet Potato attracts them. However, the zombies do not have to eat Sweet Potato to change lanes, unlike Garlic.
 * It is the third potato-based plant in the whole series, the others being Potato Mine, Imitater, Potato Nugget Mine and Hot Potato.
 * Sweet Potato has the highest sun cost of all the defensive plants in the series, with it being 300.
 * Sweet Potato is not actually a potato (in scientific sense). In New Zealand it is called Kūmara which is the sister plant to the Potato.
 * Ironically, most sweet potatoes are actually poisonous once it grows the sprout. Furthermore, Sweet Potatoes have a heart shaped leaf on their primary plant, and hearts come off the Sweet Potato when using Plant Food.
 * Sweet Potato can make a Shield Zombie switch lanes with its shield activated, but it will detach from its shield and the shield will not be able to switch lanes.
 * In any situation where a zombie would repeatedly go back and forth between lanes due to more than one Sweet Potato trying to attract a zombie, the zombie will ignore Sweet Potatoes altogether. It will only be attracted to a Sweet Potato once when the other(s) is or are gone.
 * Sweet Potatoes that use their Plant Food upgrade have higher priority and therefore, the zombies will ignore the previously said statement and reach to the one which was fed with Plant Food only if the zombie is in its range.
 * If a zombie is at the back or at the bottom of Sweet Potato while fed with Plant Food, it will attract the zombie behind and the eating animation will also be backwards, the zombie facing the right side of the lawn.
 * If the zombie is a Gargantuar that has not yet thrown his Imp and his health goes below half and he is not currently attacking the Sweet Potato, he will throw the Imp backwards to the 3rd column (much like a hypnotized Gargantuar). The Imp will then walk to the right and eat Plants like a Prospector Zombie as he was spawned backwards and was never actually affected by the Sweet Potato.
 * There is a glitch after feeding it with Plant Food while planted on a Lily Pad on water: any zombies that move backwards to eat the Sweet Potato will actually consume the Lily Pad, losing the Sweet Potato in the process.
 * If the player places a Sweet Potato behind an Infi-nut's barrier, then feeds it with Plant Food, zombies will pass through the barrier.
 * Zombies pushed back by Fume-shroom and Hurrikale, or a pull from Chomper's Plant Food ability can get attracted by Sweet Potato.
 * If a zombie is attracted by Sweet Potato onto an ice floe, the ice floe will take no effect while the zombie is on that tile.
 * Its idle animation resembles that of Marigold.
 * In some Piñata Parties, the player can use Sweet Potato, even though it has been removed from the store.
 * In the Chinese version, its background in the Almanac is Ancient Egypt, even though it cannot be obtained in that world.
 * This is true for most monthly special plants in this version of the game.
 * According to the credits, Sweet Potato is voiced by Becky Allen.
 * Its costume may be a reference to Sailor Moon.
 * Sweet Potato and Hypno-shroom are the only plants in the Chinese version not to have a different Plant Food effect when costumed.
 * According to the texture file of the plant, there was planned, but never used, a third degrade of the Sweet Potato, making it lose its left side clothing.