Winter Melon


 * For other uses, see Winter Melon (disambiguation).

Winter Melon is a lobbed-shot plant available in both main series Plants vs. Zombies games. He acts as the upgrade of Melon-pult in the first game, and can be unlocked in the the second game's Wild West.

Winter Melon attacks by lobbing frozen melons, each having an identical damage profile to those of the Melon-pult, except that they also chill zombies that are in their area of effect (3x3), slowing movement and attack speed by 50%. As with Melon-pult, Winter Melon's attack is only triggered by a zombie appearing in the lane in which he is planted. His chilling effect will be nullified if his target is also hit by attacks from fire based plants.

Origins
Like Melon-pult, Winter Melon's shape and projectile is based on the fruit of the watermelon (Citrullus lanatus var. lanatus). His name is a pun on winter melon, referring to Winter Melon's ability to chill zombies with his frozen melons.

Plants vs. Zombies
Winter Melon can be purchased from Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies for $10,000, once the player has finished Adventure Mode for the first time. After the purchase, the player can use Winter Melon's seed packet to convert any Melon-pult present on the lawn into Winter Melon for another 200 sun. Each melon deals 4 normal damage shots worth of damage to the initial target, and 1.5 splash damage to all enemies in a 3x1 area.

Plants vs. Zombies 2
Winter Melon is acquired after unlocking the Locked and Loaded levels for the Wild West before the 1.7 update, beating Wild West - Day 24 after the 1.7 update, or spending 600,000 coins in the Chinese version of the game. He has received some changes compared to the first game: His price was raised to 500 sun, and the frozen melon now deals 2 splash damage to all zombies in a 3x3 area. He is also no longer an upgrade plant, meaning that Melon-pult is no longer required in order to plant a Winter Melon.

Plants vs. Zombies
Winter Melon

Winter Melons do heavy damage and slow groups of zombies.

Damage: very heavy

Range: lobbed

Firing Speed: 1/2x

Special: melons damage and freeze nearby enemies on impact

Must be planted on melon-pults

Winter Melon tries to calm his nerves. He hears zombies approach. Will he make it? Will anyone make it?

Cost: 200

Recharge: very slow

Plant Food effect
When given Plant Food, Winter Melon will unleash a barrage of giant frozen melons separated into four waves to all zombies on the field. Each giant melon deals 10 damage to the initial target, but only 1 splash damage to every enemy in a 3x3 area. The chill effect will also be inflicted to every zombie hit. If there is no valid target, a single melon per volley will be targeted on a random tile.

Costumed
He can now launch "flaming frozen melons" that deal quadruple the damage of a frozen melon.

Plants vs. Zombies
Winter Melon can be considered as one of the most useful support plants in the game. His frozen melons, while not as powerful as Gloom-shroom's fumes or Cob Cannon's missile, are capable of chilling waves of zombies, forcing them to move and act twice as slow. This is significant in Survival Mode and vital in Survival: Endless, as the player will need as much time as possible to neutralize ever increasing numbers of Gargantuars, Football Zombie, as well as to rebuild and repair the constantly crumbling line of defense. However, Winter Melon suffers from having a very low firepower output for his massive price tag of 500 sun, and the fact that Melon-pult is required in order to plant him, making Winter Melon impractical in normal levels.

Only one column of Winter Melon should be used in any levels, as additional columns will require additional sun and time, while not increasing zombie suppression capability at all. Winter Melon is also useful against Newspaper Zombies, Screen Door Zombies, Ladder Zombies, as his melons can bypass their shields. In Survival: Endless, using Winter melon in one column, and use the rest Melon-Pults. Put them in Pumpkins.

Melon-y Lane achievement
The achievement Melon-y Lane is unlocked by planting a Winter Melon in every lane. This can easily be done on any Survival Mode level or Last Stand. It should be kept in mind that they do not all have to be alive at one given time, or in the same column.

Plants vs. Zombies 2
Compared to his incarnation in the previous game, Winter Melon has been significantly improved, both in his damage and crowd control capability, and mostly that sun making is much easier. As a result, Winter Melon can now hold on his own against hordes of Buckethead Zombies and win most levels by himself. The removal of Melon-pult as a requirement, as well as the general ease of acquiring sun also benefits Winter Melon greatly. However, inefficiency in firepower output per sun remains a great problem to Winter Melon, so this plant should still be used as a supporting plant, rather than the player's sole option for damage dealing.

A good way to get enough sun to use this plant is to use Gold Bloom. It will give enough sun to fill most of Winter Melon's cost.

Winter Melon can be used to damage zombies that attempt to shield themselves from straight-shooting projectiles, with the sole exception being Shield Zombie (his shield blocks the frozen melon). Winter Melon is also useful in disabling Explorer/Torchlight and Prospector Zombies, preventing them from burning or bypassing the player's defense.

Surfer Zombie can block the projectiles when walking on land with his surfboard, because the surfboard blocks lobbed shots and the Parasol Zombies parasol blocks most lobbed projectiles (including Winter Melon's).

Winter Melon should not be used in levels with Jester Zombies and Parasol Zombies, as they can deflect the melons and come out unharmed. Zombie Chickens and Ice Weasels also pose serious threats to Winter Melon, as they will often run in front of the horde and overwhelm the melons, preventing Winter Melon from hitting the bulk of the zombies. Winter Melon's low fire-rate also means the Chickens and Weasels can quickly overwhelm the front line if unprepared for.

Locked and Loaded - Wild West

 * See also: Locked and Loaded, Wild West - Day 9, Wild West - Day 22

Although they might seem impractically expensive, Winter Melons are required in these levels in order to defeat the massive numbers of zombies which swarm the screen, especially Day 9 where both Lightning Reeds and Split Peas cannot reliably take care of Poncho Zombies. In Day 22, it is advised the player places one on the hindmost mine cart in order to slow down the zombies. Be aware that Zombie Chickens can throw off Winter Melon's aim, so Bloomerang and Repeater should still be planted in order to deal with them.

Endless Zones
Similar to in Survival Mode in the previous game, Winter Melon is a key plant in all Endless Zones, due to his ability to suppress the incoming threats, giving the player more reaction time. His Plant Food in particular will prove to be one of the player's most useful assets - the ever-increasing zombie density only serves to increase the amount of splash damage Winter Melon can generate, and multiple Winter Melons when linked with Tile Turnip in higher levels can fire off a gigantic amount of frozen melons, capable of devastating even Gargantuars with ease. However, the player may find his price of 500 sun quite annoying early on due to the pace of Endless Zones, thus it's a good idea to have some early defenses to go along with him, such as Cold Snapdragon and instant-use plants.

In Arthur's Challenge and Temple of Bloom, Winter Melon should not be used on levels with Jester Zombies and Parasol Zombies for aforementioned reasons. If the player wishes to boost multiple Winter Melons through Tile Turnip, it is recommended to link them to a non-damaging plant such as Sun-shroom and Iceberg Lettuce and then boost him first, as boosting a Winter Melon first can accidentally kill off weaker zombies and as a result reduce the amount of splash damage dealt in the ensuing barrage.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies

 * In older versions of the game, if his seed packet is fully recharged, the player has accumulated enough sun to purchase it, and there are no Melon-pults on the lawn, clicking on the Winter Melon seed packet would cause a message to appear stating "Plant a Winter Melon first" instead of "Plant a Melon-pult first." This error has been fixed in current versions of Plants vs. Zombies.
 * According to the Suburban Almanac, he can deal a very heavy amount of damage. However, he deals the same amount of damage per melon as Melon-pult.
 * On the PlayStation Vita version of Plants vs. Zombies, his seed packets might have part of the melon erased. It shares this trait with the Coffee Bean.
 * In the iPad version, he is a lot lower down on its seed packet than Melon-pult.
 * His stem is green, even though it is mostly colored blue. He shares this trait with Snow Pea.
 * In the seed packet for the iOS and Android versions, His leaves at the bottom are colored cyan instead of green.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies 2

 * Him, Banana Launcher, and Missile Toe are the second most expensive plants in the game, the most expensive being Tile Turnip, with his cost capable of going up to 16,000 (64,000 in the Chinese version) sun.
 * He is the only upgrade plant from Plants vs. Zombies to not have his total sun cost changed in Plants vs. Zombies 2.
 * His vine that connects his body to his basket and his leaves under him are now completely blue, unlike the first game.
 * The Almanac states that he does the same damage as a Melon-pult, even though in the first game, the Almanac states falsely that he does very heavy damage.
 * His Winter Hat costume is a reference to Eric Cartman's hat from the hit animated TV show South Park.
 * Likewise, his Chinese costume is Kyle Broflovski's hat from the same show.
 * He is not immune to the freezing winds in Frostbite Caves.
 * His Almanac Entry could be a reference to Simpsons character Troy McClure.