Magnifying Grass

Magnifying Grass is the sixth plant obtained in Far Future in Plants vs. Zombies 2. It uses sun earned by the player and turns it into a bolt of energy when tapped. Each bolt deals 27.5 normal damage shots to a single zombie and costs 50 sun to fire.

Origins
It is based on Poaceae, the large and nearly ubiquitous family of flowering plants known as grasses. Its name is a portmanteau of "magnifying glass," a convex lens used to produce a magnified image of an object, and "grass," the type of plant this is based on.

Plant Food effect
When fed with Plant Food, Magnifying Grass shoots a sun beam that burns zombies ahead of it one by one. This effect will last longer the more sun-producing plants (excluding Sun Bean, Toadstool, and Sun-shroom in the Chinese version) there are present on the lawn; if there are none, the effect will only last for 3.5 seconds.

Costumed
Its sun beam deals a greater amount of damage.

Plants vs. Zombies Online (Adventure Mode)
Fires a stronger projectile at target. If target dies, the projectile will damage the target behind the initial target.

Strategies
Here is a table of the number of sun shots to kill some tough zombies. Magnifying Grass allows the player to weaponize their sun production to deal damage to the zombies. Its high damage and quick firing capability allow the player to allocate firepower to swiftly eliminate high-threat targets, provided that they have enough economy to do so - Surfer Zombie, Jester Zombie, Wizard Zombie can only survive one shot, Mecha-Football Zombie can survive four, and Gargantuar can take up to seven shots. Its greatest weakness however is its inefficiency: 50 sun is a very steep price for an attack that cannot kill a Conehead Zombie, and Magnifying Grass will drain sun very quickly if used to attack large amounts of weak zombies, such as Zombie Chickens and Imps.

Because of this, it is not recommended to use Magnifying Grass as the main offensive plant, but rather to use it as a supporting offensive option for others. Several plants can be used to help remedy Magnifying Grass' weaknesses, should the player intend to use it as the main offensive plant:


 * A Squash costs only 50 sun and can help Magnifying Grass in these cases:
 * It can instantly kill Buckethead Zombies and their variants, Poncho Zombies, Knight Zombies, and Blockhead Zombies.
 * It deals 90 damage, meaning it will save you about 125 sun (27.5 x 3 = 82.5 so its cost for three shots is 150 sun, then do the subtraction 150 - 25 = 125 sun) for machined zombies.
 * It can kill many zombies at once.
 * Area of effect plants such as Laser Bean, Snapdragon, Lightning Reed, and Fume-shroom can quickly deal with swarmers and effectively reduces the shots required to kill other zombies by one. Puff-shroom can also be helpful with this task, as it saves valuable sun for Magnifying Grass.
 * Use a Cherry Bomb when there are at least four or more zombies in a 3x3 square or Jalapeno when there are three or more zombies in a lane. The more zombies there are, the higher amount of sun you can save.
 * Sun Bean can be used to aid in sun production when used on high health enemies.
 * Gold Bloom can provide a massive power boost combined with Magnifying Grass, as its effect equals 15 Magnifying Grass attacks.
 * Tile Turnip allows the player to acquire sun more quickly when used with sun producing plants.

In Endless Zones, Magnifying Grass can be used to neutralize Imps thrown by Gargantuars if placed near the house, as sun production is generally less of a problem in Endless Zone due to the stockpiled Plant Food between levels. In Tiki Torch-er, Magnifying Grass can also be used to clean up surfboards or octopuses thrown by Octo Zombies.

Do not use Magnifying Grass against Excavator Zombies, as this zombie can block its powerful projectiles with its shovel. If you spam shots at it, this zombie will drain your sun counter quickly, wasting countless sun against it; this is a major weakness of the Magnifying Grass.

Trivia

 * It was first shown off in Plants vs. Zombies: Official Guide to Protecting Your Brains, and files were discovered in the game's coding. However, it was confirmed once by an image revealed by Electronic Arts showing the Far Future seed packet.
 * In that book, it is referred to as male, although in game, it is referred to as female.
 * The concept of this plant is the same as when sunlight passes through a prism. Sunlight seems colorless but when passed into a prism, it breaks, forming six colors which is the visible spectrum. The sun passes into the Magnifying Grass, forming a rainbow.
 * Firing 500 sun through it in a level will give the player the Grass Effect achievement.
 * When it uses its Plant Food ability, it burns the zombies its kills. This is a reference to when sun rays are focused using a magnifying glass, the ray can burn objects.
 * Unlike other interactive plants, at the end of any level, it can still be tapped on and will use its ray attack. This also happened with the Banana Launcher before the 3.1 update. It is currently still the case with Jack O' Lantern.
 * A glitch can occur when the player uses Plant Food on it, the zombie will not get burnt, but will fall down and it will keep firing at the same spot until the effect ends, instead of firing at another zombie.
 * Prior to the 2.4.1 update, Camel Zombies can take up to two shots from it, although each Camel Zombie has a health of only 21 normal damage shots.
 * Its attack used to only deal about seven damage in the Chinese version of Plants vs. Zombies 2, while it still spent 50 sun to attack. The bug was fixed in 1.2.1 update.
 * Aside from projectiles fired upon by its Plant Food upgrade, its sun beam, bombs released from the Dandelion, and pinecones lobbed by Sap-fling when not fed with Plant Food are the only projectiles that cannot be deflected by Jester Zombie.
 * It can still shoot projectiles and kill zombies while under the effect of Boombox Zombie's ballad jam.
 * In Plants vs. Zombies: Bully For You, Crazy Dave creates a Magnifying Grass that, if looked through, allows the player to see objects from very far away (such as a space station).