Rustbolt

"Didja know Rustbolt dug up his armor from a junkyard? Still, he's one tough tin can. He'll try to sap your Plants' Strength so you can't defeat his super-strong Zombies!"

- Crazy Dave

Rustbolt is a zombie hero in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, and the leader of the and  classes. His signature superpower is Shrink Ray, which gives a plant -3, and the zombie hero a card.

Like, he is the hero version of.

Origins
His name could possibly be a portmanteau of "rust bucket," a term meaning something being badly rusted, and "bolt." His helmet bears a slight resemblance to Marvel's Magneto. His armor may be a reference to the Marvel Comics superhero, Iron Man.

His description references the phrase "a few screws loose," which is used to describe someone or something that is crazy or weird.

Statistics

 * Classes: ,
 * Superpowers:
 * Signature: Shrink Ray - A Plant gets -3. Draw a card.
 * Other:
 * Heroic Health - Heal your Hero for 6.
 * Cut Down to Size - Destroy a Plant that has 5 or more.
 * Rock Wall - A Zombie gets +5.
 * Boss Fights:
 * Plant Mission 02: Junkyard Ambush!
 * Plant Mission 20: No Joke at the Junkyard
 * Plant Mission 23: A Toaster Full of Trouble!
 * Plant Mission 39: Rustbolt's Revenge!
 * Battle Area: Junkyard

Hero description
He enjoys keeping his bolts tight and his screws loose.

PvZHeroes.com strategy
"This metal menace is the master of defensive Tricks. His Armored Zombies are very tough to take down…especially when he uses special abilities to weaken the Plants!"

With
Rustbolt's Brainy and Hearty classes provide destroying mechanics such as Rolling Stone and Rocket Science for any plant that has 2 or less or 4 or more. If a plant has 3, which makes it immune to the destroying mechanics previously said, using Shrink Ray or will make that plant vulnerable to Rolling Stone, as well as deal less damage. Rustbolt can also let zombies do bonus attacks with Lurch for Lunch or Gadget Scientist and surprise plant heroes by ambushing zombies with Teleport.

Rustbolt also has access to the most sports zombies out of any zombie hero, with not only the initial Hearty sports zombies, but also Pool Shark, Drum Major, Mountain Climber, and Brain Vendor, allowing him to use a sports deck with great effects. Speaking of Brain Vendor, Rustbolt can get a brain profit by playing them while is on the field.

He also has plenty of zombies that can boost other zombies' health and damage, such as Team Mascot, Zombie Coach, and Coffee Zombie. These boosts can make Rustbolt's zombies almost invincible with boosted health, strength, and the Frenzy trait.

As Rustbolt has access to both cost-reducing cards such as Flag Zombie and ramping cards such as Brain Vendor, he is able to easily play his expensive cards like, Intergalactic Warlord, or especially Bad Moon Rising much earlier than usual, making them harder for his opponent to deal with. Some Rustbolt-exclusive combos include Zombie King + Transformation Station, allowing Rustbolt to get an 8-cost zombie as early as turn 5 via Knight of the Living Dead and Flag Zombie + Medulla Nebula and/or Brain Vendor, allowing him to have a ton of brains to use easily.

Rustbolt's main drawback is his lack of Amphibious zombies. Brainy and Hearty contain none of these zombies, so the aquatic lane is virtually untouchable by Rustbolt. However, Rustbolt does have many moving and stat-decreasing cards up his sleeve, which can help him deal with Amphibious threats, not to mention his signature superpower, Shrink Ray. He can also gain Amphibious zombies via the use of Portal Technician, Triplication, or Bad Moon Rising, but this is luck-based. As mentioned in the first paragraph, Rustbolt does not have any instant-kills against plants with 3, so he has to lower their strength first, wasting more cards in the process.

Against
Rustbolt has cheap health-boosting options for his zombies. Try to destroy them before Rustbolt can use health-boosting tricks. If it was already used, use cards that ignore health such as and  or reset them by bouncing with cards such as  and Jumping Bean. Flag Zombie will enable more dangerous zombies like Gargantuars to be played earlier when used with Brain Vendor or Gargologist. Therefore, removing Flag Zombie and similar zombies is a must. You would also want to get rid of any Medulla Nebula environments as he can ramp his brains up within a few turns.

Playing powerful plants on the aquatic lane is also a good way as Rustbolt will be forced to spend some brains on removing those plants rather than focusing on boosting his zombies. An alternative solution is to use plants with 3 since Rustbolt can't play his instant-kill cards to destroy them without playing Landscaper or Shrink Ray first.

Trivia

 * According to in-game text, he got his armor from a junkyard.
 * This is true, as in his introducing comic strip, he was not hit by the beam, but a vending machine next to him in a junkyard was.
 * This means that parts from the junkyard fused with his body.
 * He poses in the way similar to an Octo Zombie, a Troglobite, an Arcade Zombie, a Jurassic Bully, and a Jurassic Rockpuncher in Plants vs. Zombies 2, despite not having a body structure or build related to any of the five.
 * Rustbolt has the most sports cards in the game.
 * Despite this, the game suggests that the use of sports zombies is Z-Mech's preferred strategy.
 * Randomly during his idle animation, a spatula appears from his right arm. When this happens, he will look at the spatula, and then his helmet will open, revealing his face. He notices this, looks at the player, and then closes his helmet and retracts the spatula.
 * Prior to the Galactic Gardens update, a toaster appeared from his left arm, although it did not do anything but produce some bubbles. However, if he blocked an attack, he put this toaster in front of his face to protect him.
 * The toaster was replaced by a bubble blower as of the Galactic Gardens update.
 * He has the same battle theme as Professor Brainstorm and Z-Mech.
 * Coincidentally, they all lack Amphibious zombies.
 * Out of the three, Rustbolt is the only one that doesn't lead the class.
 * Rustbolt is currently tied with Electric Boogaloo for access to the most trick cards.
 * Rustbolt is one of the four zombie heroes that can be chosen as a new hero, the others being The Smash, Electric Boogaloo and Impfinity.
 * However, Rustbolt can only be chosen if Electric Boogaloo was chosen first, requiring the player to choose Electric Boogaloo in order to have the option between The Smash and Rustbolt as a new hero.
 * The name of his super-rare strategy deck, "Hail to the King", shares the same name with a song &amp; an Album by the heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold.
 * He is the only Hearty hero not to have a Gargantuar-based deck.