Jester Zombie

Jester Zombie is a zombie that appears in Dark Ages. It can deflect projectiles like peas, lobbed-shots, cannons, and others. To defeat it, the player must use Fume-shrooms, other area of effect plants, or instant-kill plants.

Almanac entry
TOUGHNESS:  Protected

SPEED:  Hungry

Returns projectiles that are shot at him.

Oh sure, everyone loves to laugh at Jester Zombie's clownish routines. But what no one knows is that he has a Master of Fine Arts from the Chewliard Performing Arts School. Heck, he's been on stage with some of the finest classical theatre companies this side of the lawn. But sometimes you just gotta go where the paycheck is.

Appearances
Player's House: Piñata Party

Wild West: Piñata Party

Dark Ages: Nights 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 (pre 2.7), 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and Arthur's Challenge.

Overview
The Jester Zombie absorbs 21 normal damage shots and its appearance changes upon at 10.5 normal damage shots before dying at 21 normal damage shots.

General
The Jester Zombie can deflect projectiles shot by these plants:


 * Peashooter
 * Cabbage-pult
 * Bloomerang
 * Repeater
 * Snow Pea
 * Kernel-pult
 * Coconut Cannon
 * Threepeater


 * Split Pea (only forward)
 * Pea Pod
 * Melon-pult
 * Winter Melon
 * Citron
 * Puff-shroom
 * Pea-nut
 * Magnet-shroom's Plant Food upgrade


 * Bowling Bulb


 * Starfruit (Although it can deflect Starfruit's projectile, only the ones shot forward, northeast and southeast are deflected.)

Its main weakness is the Fume-shroom, but it can be damaged via area of effect attacks like the Lightning Reed and the Laser Bean. Snapdragons and Magnifying Grasses work because they do not have projectiles to throw at Jester Zombie. However, the Magnifying Grass shoots light, so it can be used as an instant kill, as it will take damage from them. Two Spikerocks adjacent to your plants will also sterilize the Jester Zombie. Bonk Choys can be used, but keep a Tall-nut or Wall-nut adjacent to it or you will risk the Bonk Choy getting eaten because of its minimum range. If you are having trouble with the Jester Zombie because of the lack of area of effect attacks, you can use instant kills. Beware, however, when the Jester is spinning, it is immune to both Chili Beans and Hypno-shrooms.

Do not use Plant Food on the projectile-based plants when the Jester Zombie is in front. It will only compound your problems, as the Jester Zombie will deflect them all. Exceptions are the Cabbage-pult's big cabbages, Melon-pult and Winter Melon's big melons, Split Pea because Jester Zombies cannot deflect peas backwards, Pea Pod's giant pea, Citron's big plasma ball and Coconut Cannon's big bomb.

Iceberg Lettuce can stop it from deflecting the projectiles, so using it with Winter Melon is a good idea, especially its Plant Food upgrade in Arthur's Challenge.

Never use Bowling Bulb in any level with this zombie, as its projectiles when deflected can deal damage to multiple plants, especially the orange bulb, making most of your plants die easily.

Arthur's Challenge
The Jester Zombie serves as the biggest threat due to its constant reflecting projectiles from powerful plants, leaving you no other choices than using Fume-shrooms or the others that does not shoot projectiles to deal it. If this zombie is compared with large numbers of Knight Zombies, Zombie Kings, Dark Ages Gargantuars, Wizard Zombies, and the surprise attacks, these zombies can cause an extremely massive havoc on your lanes. If you see Jester Zombies along with other Dark Ages zombies in large numbers, these combinations will cause you to lose the game, thus, causing you to risk spending money on Power Ups and Plant Food. You will need to have Cherry Bombs, Jalapenos, Iceberg Lettuces, Power Lilies, and their Imitater versions of them.

Trivia

 * The Jester Zombie is the second zombie to throw back plants projectiles in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time, with the first being the Hammer Zombie and the third being the Nunchaku Zombie from Kung-Fu World. It could be compared to its Chinese counterparts as the Jester is stronger as it can deflect lobbed-shots.
 * It gains a speed boost while spinning.
 * Jester Zombie does not deflect peas behind it from the Split Pea.
 * If you freeze a Jester Zombie with an Iceberg Lettuce or Chili Bean's gas while it is spinning, the Jester Zombie will be unable to deflect projectiles and will be damaged normally by them allowing open fire from plants that uses projectiles.
 * If the Jester Zombie deflects a boomerang shot by Bloomerang, it will not return to the Jester Zombie. It will attack whole row of plants but the Bloomerang can take it and will not take damage.
 * If the plants are attacked by Snow Pea or Winter Melon, they will not be chilled (slowed down). However, it can be chilled and damaged by the splash of a Winter Melon. Also, they can be chilled by Snow Pea's Plant Food ability.
 * Jester Zombie cannot deflect giant peas shoot by Repeater, Split Pea and Pea Pod's Plant Food ability.
 * In the Almanac the Jester Zombie had a bone sticking out of its hand prior to the 2.5.1 update.
 * If Jester Zombie is damaged enough, the player can see the bone when spinning.
 * When spinning, it is slightly translucent.
 * There is an achievement called "All in Jest" where the player must complete a level without letting a Jester Zombie deflect even a single projectile.
 * Unarmed Potato Mines are unaffected by projectiles deflected from Jester Zombies, but armed Potato Mines get hit.
 * If the Jester Zombie returns one of Citron's projectiles against an Infi-nut, it will go to the next degrade stage although it takes more projectiles to make Wall-nut and Tall-nut to go to the next degrade stage. This proves that the Infi-nut is weaker.
 * While spinning, Jesters can eat a Hypno-shroom without being affected by it. However, it can be hypnotized when it is not spinning. This is also true to Chili Bean and Sun Bean.
 * The Jester Zombie will only spin if there is a projectile approaching it. But while the Jester Zombie is spinning, it will automatically take any projectiles that are fired at it and redirect them back to the player's plants.
 * In the almanac, it appears to do the backstroke, a swimming move. This makes it the only zombie that having unusual standing animation and when it moves, it just jumps. Also, when it is not spinning it eyes appear to be spinning round in circles.
 * Like the Zombie Chicken and Bug Bot Imp, it cannot be blown away by the Blover while jumping.
 * A bell's sound will be played when just one Jester Zombie enters the lawn.
 * All projectiles deflected by the Jester Zombie can damage zombies.
 * If it deflects a projectile to a hypnotized Jester Zombie, the projectiles keeps going back and forth.
 * It can deflect metallic objects thrown by Magnet-shroom's Plant Food upgrade.
 * This and the Archer Zombie are currently the only zombies that are cross-eyed.
 * According to the game files, Jester Zombie's original name was Juggler Zombie.
 * Strangely, it can deflect the Starfruit's projectiles, though they are not solid.
 * Besides the Plant Food upgrade's and backward projectiles, Magnifying Grass' projectile is the only one that the Jester Zombie cannot deflect.
 * Infi-nut is the only plant that can survive Jester Zombie's projectiles, even when hologram is off. It resets the timer of regenerating the infi-nut.