Ice Weasel

"It is true, weasels are pesky."

- Plants vs. Zombies Facebook

Ice Weasel is the twelfth zombie encountered in Frostbite Caves in Plants vs. Zombies 2. It is released by the Weasel Hoarder when damaged to rush at plants, and can run over sliders without switching lanes.

Almanac entry
TOUGHNESS: Fragile SPEED: Flighty

Once released, weasels run full speed even over ice floes to nibble your brains.

Skweek-ka-REE!

Overview
An Ice Weasel absorbs 2 normal damage shots. It is slightly slower than a Zombie Chicken and has no degrades.

Appearances
Player's House: Piñata Party

Frostbite Caves: Days 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30, and Icebound Battleground

Strategies
If you see a Weasel Hoarder in the seed selection screen, be sure to bring at least Fume-shroom, Laser Bean, Spikeweeds, Spikerock, or anything this zombie is weak to in your seed slots. Laser Beans can instantly kill all Ice Weasels in a lane as their damage per individual laser beam is the same as a Ice Weasel's health. Fume-shrooms are cheap for preparing the defense fast, and they have a slightly faster firing rate than Laser Beans. It is also recommended to put Wall-nuts in front of the sliders, due to the fact that weasels will run over sliders. Anything you'd do to defeat Zombie Chickens may or may not be recommended here, but don't treat them as easy as the chickens as they have eight times more health, which may ruin your strategy in an instant. Snapdragons are recommended (with defensive plants) as well for damaging zombies in a medium area. Lightning Reeds are useful if there are planted 2-3 columns and if combined with Pepper-pults, they will defeat the Ice Weasels without problems. Unlike the other plants, Lightning Reeds can protect 3 lanes but with a better a far range, planting them behind the sliders can protect the plants from the Weasels and Dodo Rider Zombies. But you must be quick in planting them, if you don't have at least 1 column of Lightning Reeds for the first Weasel Hoarder, the weasels can easily pass the Lightning Reeds. And don't forget to keep warm these plants, or otherwise they will freeze and Ice Weasels don't waste this kind of opportunity.

Using catapult plants (Cabbage-pult and Kernel-pult) is a bad idea towards Ice Weasels (unless you feed them Plant Food), as they can easily destroy your catapults. This is because their lob shot is slow and the Ice Weasel's speed is fast. Also, avoid using Citrons against them (unless you have Plant Food), as their plasma balls can only hit one Ice Weasel at a time.

Guacodiles are good choices against Ice Weasels. Combining this plant with a Sweet Potato is also a good idea. Once the Sweet Potato gets destroyed and the Ice Weasels get close to the Guacodile, it will rush towards an entire lane. You can also use Hurrikale to push them back to the right side of the screen to slow them down. However Hurrikale pushes them much back slower than usual zombies.

Bonk Choys can help as always they have a defensive plant (preferable Tall-nut or Pea-nut) because they defeat an Ice Weasel in three punches, meaning that a large number of Ice Weasels can defeat them cause they can only hit one Ice Weasel at a time.

Using Plant Food on Fire Peashooters and Chompers is a good idea, as they can easily kill all overlapping Weasels in one lane. If you do not have both of these plants boosted, do not use them.

Endurians are a very effective way of eliminating Weasels, as it serves as a strong offense and semi-strong defense. By boosting them, the Weasels die almost instantly, and barely take away any damage to the Endurian.

Toadstools can also be useful when handling Weasels. Their attack is much faster than a Chomper, and can reach farther, providing in less problems to deal with. It is recommended you place a defensive plant in front in case they come in large numbers. If the Toadstool chews a zombie with Weasels behind it, dig it up and replace or feed it plant food, or else you will have to wait 30 seconds until it can eat again, and by or even before the time is up, the Weasels will already have reached the plant and just eat it, even if a defensive plant is placed in front of a Toadstool.

Cacti are only somewhat helpful when dealing with Ice Weasels. Cactus' thorn can pierce through three Ice Weasels at once, which is good because there can be a lot of Ice Weasels going for your house at times, too much of which will overwhelm Cacti. The only possible time when Cactus is not a good counter for Ice Weasels is when Cactus hides underground. Its damage underground is just about the same as Spikeweed. Weasels run over Spikeweeds, so they can escape them. Spikerocks can kill them, though. So, a Cactus fed with Plant Food would be best if you plan to deal with these Weasels underground. You can also use two Cacti to remove weasels, though Spikerock is a cheaper and another alternative.

Another good idea will be to have five or more Homing Thistles. Since they target the zombies that are closest to the lawn mowers, Homing Thistles can serve to kill the zombies at hand.

Trivia

 * They were originally called Snow Weasels. However, in Weasel Hoarder's Almanac, they are called snow weasels, weasels, and ice weasels.
 * This is currently the only zombie in Plants vs. Zombies 2 that is referred by three different names.
 * It is the only zombie of Frostbite Caves part 2 that was featured in an advertisement.
 * Its appearance in the advertisement is different than the released Ice Weasel. The main differences are its nose is black rather than pink, has its mouth open instead of closed, the ears are folded down instead of standing up, and it has eye bags. Also, it doesn't have its two front teeth.
 * In Plants vs. Zombies Facebook, PopCap said the Ice Weasels were similar to the Zombie Chickens, and both their weaknesses was Lightning Reed.
 * Both Zombie Chicken and Ice Weasel have similar Almanac entries, as their entries are the onomatopeic sounds they make.
 * Currently, Day 30 is the only level where it appears on its own. However, it sometimes does not appear on the level.
 * Ice Weasel has an achievement tied to it: Run Weasley, which requires the player to not let any Ice Weasels cross over any sliders for an entire level.
 * Before the 3.4.4 update, they did not have any eating animations.