Torchwood



Torchwood is a plant which lights regular peas on fire and melts frozen peas. When planted during the Fog levels, it clears the fog around it for approximately one square.

Although there is a flowering plant family known as Torchwood (Burseraceae [1]), which includes frankincense and myrrh, the name may also be a reference to the eponymous organization in the Doctor Who spin-off series.

Usage
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. However, if a frozen pea passes through it, it will melt, becoming a normal pea that does normal damage.

Suburban Almanac Entry
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

Strategy
Torchwood should only be taken on levels where you plan to use peas to maximize the damage potential. You only need one in each lane, but it helps to plant one before placing a second pea-shooting plant in the same lane, as the fireball area damage will be more important than firing twice as fast. Keep Torchwoods behind your regular defenses such as Wall-nuts and Tall-nuts, but far enough to the right that you can place several pea-shooting plants behind it. Plan ahead if you intend 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 un-freeze zombies. It is better to use a Winter Melon in conjunction with the Torchwood instead, since the melons go over it and some of the zombies will stay frozen.

If you are using Split Peas to defend against zombies that can bypass your defenses, such as Digger Zombies or Imps (thrown by Gargantuars), you 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 you have two or three Split Peas to the right of a Torchwood with other pea-shooting plants behind it.

The Torchwood should not be used in Fog levels for clearing fog because it only clears the fog a small area around it. Use a Plantern or Blover instead.

The Torchwood will not ignite Fumes, Spores, Spikes, or Stars so plan ahead when using them.

Trivia

 * Flaming peas' splash damage deals a normal pea's damage to all nearby zombies.
 * The Torchwood, Plantern and Sea-shroom are the only three plants with visible roots.
 * It is strange that, while zombies are able to eat the Torchwood, they do not get burnt by the fire while they are eating. Perhaps Popcap Games did not consider this fact for gameplay reasons, or simply overlooked it.
 * Because the Snow pea's peas are frozen, frozen peas that go through the Torchwood will turn to a normal pea, as if the ice melts, although no water is seen.
 * Torchwood, Plantern, and Blover are the three plants that will let you see through fog.
 * When a Bungee Zombie plans to get the Torchwood, it will not get burnt and will simply snatch it if your defenses are not strong enough.
 * The Zen Garden version of Torchwood needs to be watered regardless of flames, and they don't seem to be affected by it.