Torchwood

Torchwood is a plant that lights regular peas on fire when they pass through its flame, doubling the pea's damage and dealing splash damage to its target and any zombies behind it (only in Plants vs. Zombies). Frozen Peas will turn into regular peas when passing through a Torchwood, and flaming peas will defrost any slowed or frozen zombies. When planted during the Fog levels, it clears the fog around it for approximately one and a quarter spaces. The only other plant that can eliminate fog until eaten is the Plantern.

Although there is a flowering plant family known as Torchwood (Burseraceae), which includes frankincense and myrrh, the name may also be a reference to the eponymous organization in the Doctor Who spin-off series.





Plants vs. Zombies
Torchwood

Torchwoods turn peas that pass through them into fireballs that deal twice as much damage.

Special: doubles the damage of peas that pass through it. Fireballs deal damage to nearby zombies on impact

Everybody likes and respects Torchwood. They like him for his integrity, for his steadfast friendship, for his ability to greatly maximize pea damage. But Torchwood has a secret: He can't read.

Cost: 175

Recharge: fast

Plants vs. Zombies 2
Sun cost: 175

TOUGHNESS: Typical

RECHARGE: Fast

Torchwoods turn peas that pass through them into fireballs that deal twice as much damage.

Special: doubles the damage of peas that pass through it.

Special: immune to frost and warms plants next to it.

Torchwood and Snapdragon have become fast friends. They like to hang out at either the Tiki Lounge or the Renaissance Faire.

Plant Food
The fire becomes blue fire, tripling the damage of all the peas that pass through it. This effect lasts until the Torchwood is eaten. In Frostbite Caves, Torchwood emits a pulse of heat to warm nearby plants twice as often.

Costumed
Plant Food ability gives it purple fire that peas quadruple damage.

Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars
Huge Impact: Strikes the first enemy on its row and the enemies in a 3x3 area, needs Tenacious Plant Food to activate.

Usage
The player should place Torchwoods in any lane in front of any plant that shoots peas to turn the peas into flaming projectiles that do double the normal damage. Flaming peas also deal splash damage (equivalent to 0.7 of a normal pea's damage) to all nearby zombies, unless you are playing the second game. However, if a frozen pea passes through a Torchwood, it will melt, becoming a normal pea that does normal damage, but if it passes through two, then it will turn into a flaming pea. Any zombie with a shield or a Zomboni will nullify the splash effect. A flaming pea also defrosts zombies, so using them in combination with Ice-shrooms, Winter Melons, Snow Peas, or Iceberg Lettuces is not recommended. In Frostbite Caves, it warms all the plants near it, melting their ice gradually.

Plants vs. Zombies
Torchwood should only be taken on levels where the player plans to use peas in order to maximize the damage potential. The player only needs one in each lane, but it helps to plant one before placing a second pea-shooting plant in the same lane, as in most cases, the flaming pea's splash damage will be more important than firing twice as fast. The player should keep Torchwoods behind his or her regular defenses such as Wall-nuts and Tall-nuts, but far enough to the right so that he or she can place several peashooting plants behind it. One of the most recommened uses for a Torchwood is with Gatling Peas, so the player uses the attack-increasing bonus from the Torchwood and the very fast firing from a Gatling Pea to kill most Zombies very easily. The player should plan ahead if he or she intends to use Snow Peas, though, and put them to the right of any Torchwoods, as frozen peas melt when they go through a Torchwood. This is usually not worth it, however, as flaming peas will defrost zombies (this includes freezing from other plants as well). Using Torchwood in conjunction with freezing plants is also discouraged, as the freezing will have little or no effect.

If the player is using Split Peas to defend against zombies that can bypass his or her defenses, such as Digger Zombies or Imps (thrown by Gargantuars), he or she can place a Split Pea to the right of a Torchwood so its rear-firing peas will catch fire, doing extra damage. This works best if the player has two or three Split Peas to the right of a Torchwood with other pea-shooting plants behind it.

Although Torchwood can clear out fog in fog levels, it is not recommended because it only clears the fog a small area around it (a 3x3 plus shape). The player should instead use a Plantern or Blover instead unless aiming for the Blind Faith achievement; the player may use the Torchwood in getting this achievement. However, the achievement Nebulaphile (the DS version of the achievement) does not allow even a Torchwood.

Using Torchwood in Survival Endless is possible, but not recommended, as it only deals splash damage in a very short area and also makes it difficult to slow or freeze zombies, whereas Gloom-shrooms and Winter Melons do better splash/area damage and are compatible with slowing/freezing plants.

The Torchwood will only affect peas, not any other projectiles.

When Crazy Dave selects them, the player should try to use them to their full potential.

Plants vs. Zombies 2
Torchwood is weakened in this game, as it no longer deals splash damage with or without Plant Food, making it completely useless against massive groups of zombies that come early on in the stage. It is also difficult to set up as every lane must have a Torchwood and a Repeater on it, and setting this up will cause zombies to slip past your defenses easily while you are concentrating on a lane. This is compounded by the fact that it is a premium plant, but that doesn't mean that it's not worth your money, as there are other plants that can help it in different cases, like the Laser Bean, Lightning Reed, Spikerock, and Sap-fling. Some examples of those plants helping Torchwood are:
 * When there are Barrel Roller Zombies in Dead Man's Booty, they will destroy your defense with ease because they crush plants and have a large amount of health. However, if you use Laser Bean, the laser will quickly kill the roller zombie and stop the barrel from crushing plants. This allows the torchwood to take out tougher zombies, like Buckethead Pirates.
 * When there are Zombie Chickens, you must simply use Lightning Reeds for stopping the chickens, as chickens are really fast and they are always found in large groups.
 * When there are too many zombies for a Torchwood, you could plant Spikerocks for crowd control.
 * Sap-flings slow down the zombies, even if they are in contact with fire, so Sap-fling can help Torchwood against strong zombies like the Pharaoh Zombie and Gargantuars.

A Plant Food fed Torchwood can do massive damage, especially with a maxed out Pea Pod as the napalm fire triples damage. It is very hard and risky to pull off correctly; nonetheless, when done well, this setup can easily counter high zombie densities, and this also helps a lot when battling against Octo Zombies, as the Napalm peas can defeat the octopi very quickly. They also can help against the zombies in Terror from Tomorrow, but keep in mind that the high health of Robo-Cone Zombie, Disco-tron 3000, Mecha-Football Zombie, and the Force Field created by the Shield Zombie will absorb a lot of fire peas. It is highly suggested that you bring Citrons, Sap-flings or E.M.Peaches along with Torchwood to stun the zombies, or Blover to deal with Disco Jetpack Zombies blocking the peas.

Torchwood is also a very effective plant in Frostbite Caves as fire has numerous advantages in this ice themed world. When planted on any tile, it produces heat in a 3x3 area, preventing the surrounding plants from freezing or melting their ice blocks.

Note: Avoid using Torchwoods in Arthur's Challenge when you see Jester Zombies and Imp Dragon Zombies in the seed selection screen, as Jester Zombies can deflect fire peas while Imp Dragon Zombies are immune to all fire damage (including flaming peas).

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies

 * In the Nintendo DS version, an Imitater Torchwood is not a grayscale version, but rather a green version with blue fire and eyes.
 * Rain, the Watering Can in the Zen Garden, and Ice-shrooms do not extinguish Torchwood fire.
 * The Torchwood does not affect peas shot by Peashooter Zombies or Gatling Pea Zombies; instead, the peas will only damage the Torchwood. That might be because ZomBotany and ZomBotany 2 would be too hard otherwise.
 * Torchwood has the distinction of being unable to read according to its Suburban Almanac entry, implying that most other plants do know how to read despite them being plants. This may be because Torchwood burns up everything in range, so he would burn the paper, although he cannot burn non-pea projectiles.
 * The splash damage caused by the peas that pass it do not thaw zombies.
 * In the Zen Garden, Torchwood's roots seem to hang out off the flower pot a bit.
 * Also, ironically, it is immune to water, despite being on fire.
 * Torchwood is the only plant that affects both fog and peas.
 * Excluding Upgrade plants, the Torchwood is one of two plants that rely on another plant to work, the other is the Coffee Bean.
 * It is one of the three plants which can affect fog, the other being the Plantern and the Blover.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies 2

 * The flame on top of the Torchwood is taller than in the first game. The wood portion also becomes shorter.
 * Its eyes will change color if the player uses a Plant Food. They will turn white with light-blue pupils and the flame will be slightly higher.
 * The peas that go through it do not do splash damage this time, even when fed Plant Food.
 * Torchwood's Almanac entry will be unlocked when the player unlocks the Snapdragon.
 * If the player waters a Torchwood in the Zen Garden, he or she can see that it is hollow.
 * Also when watering it in the Zen Garden, its flames will go out, then reignite.
 * The peas from the bottoms heads of the Pea Pod and Pea-nut will still ignite from passing through a Torchwood, even though they fly directly under its flame.
 * If huge peas from Repeater's and Pea Pod's Plant Food effect passes through a Torchwood, a sound of ravaging flames can be heard.
 * It can warm up plants like the other two flame-visible plants.
 * When fed with Plant Food, its warming rate quadruples.
 * Torchwood's Almanac entry hinted at Dark Ages and Big Wave Beach since the game's release.
 * Explorer Zombie can burn Torchwood, despite Torchwood having a flame on his head, that is not instantly burning Torchwood.
 * Since the 3.6 update, Torchwood's Almanac entry mentions its abilities in Frostbite Caves.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars

 * It attacks zombies by briefly lighting the tile in front of it on fire when they get close.