Barrel Blast

They can be tough nuts to crack.

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Not to be confused with Berry Blast.

Barrel Blast
Ability for
Variants
Cooldown	20 sec.
Rarity	N/A
Ability for
Duration	15 sec.
Cooldown	15 sec.
Rarity	N/A

Barrel Blast is an ability for Captain Deadbeard in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 and Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville. When used, Captain Deadbeard hides in a wooden barrel with a fuse on it. The player triggers the fuse which leads to the explosion of the barrel after a certain amount of time. When Captain Deadbeard is in the barrel, he will move slower than usual, but after he triggers the fuse, he moves faster. The explosion does up to 150 splash damage to the plants. The player also takes 75% less damage while in the barrel. Its alternate ability is the Looty Booty Barrel Blast.

In Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville, the ability has been reworked to shield Captain Deadbeard from damage while still regaining the ability to explode. The barrel can take up to 100 points of damage before breaking, removing the option to detonate it if done quickly enough. In addition, if a plant aims for the eye hole in the barrel, they can damage Captain Deadbeard normally though this eye hole is miniscule.

Stickerbook description

Hop inside your trusty barrel to shield yourself from attacks, but that's not all! Light the fuse and run towards your Plant foes an explosive surprise.

Strategies

With

This should be used either as a sneak attack for snipers or as a way to get away from the plants. Most commonly, you'll use this in Team Vanquish to get some vanquishes, or in Herbal Assault, when you must retreat to the next objective and need extra protection. Gnome Bomb and Suburbination are also good, since plants must go to specific objectives. If you're in the barrel, they'll have to think twice of approaching. You should never run into the plants in your barrel when you're at low health, despite having damage reduced in the barrel. So overall, this ability can be used in a similar fashion to the Turbo Twister. 

If there are multiple plants, this can be extremely useful as you can use it to kill or severely damage other plants around you, along with it's short recharge. In Graveyard Ops, this can be useful against bosses, as they will not attack you. 

Note that Spikeweeds automatically cancel the barrel without activating it, and leave you completely helpless as you are likely to be close to the plants. Avoid them at all costs and if there is no easy way to approach, simply retreat with the barrel.

Against

Simply run away from it with something like Hyper. Most classes have a good way to quickly flee from the barrel unharmed, and as the explosion's range is extremely short, it should be easy to escape unscathed.

Note that some abilities will immediately cancel the barrel, while others will restrict its movement so much that the explosion is too far away from the player that the barrel is worthless. Such abilities include Goop, EMPeach and the aforementioned Spikeweeds. Ice variants can also try to freeze the barrel, stopping it from moving completely.

Remember that the barrel's damage reduction is not to be underestimated, so unless the pirate entered it with low health, it is unwise to try and vanquish the pirate inside, even with powerful abilities such as the Shuck Shot or Chili Bean Bomb.

Balancing changes

Post Beta

• ▲ Barrel armor damage reduction increased from 0.75 to 0.25

Graveyard Variety Pack DLC

• ▲ Made some movement speed improvements to his barrel when unlit.

Trouble in Zombopolis: Part One DLC

• Added the ability to cancel out of the barrel without lighting the fuse (ability still goes on cool down)

Gallery

Barrel Blast's stickerbook description

Icon

Barrel Blast as seen in the trailer

Captain Deadbeard using Barrel Blast against a group of Weeds

Captain Deadbeard jumping into his Barrel Blast

Captain Deadbeard using the Barrel Blast ability (about to explode)

Trivia

• This ability may be a reference to a gameplay mechanic from Sly 2: Band of Thieves. The character Sly Cooper could hop into a barrel of TNT as a disguise and sets the fuse to blow when necessary, similarly to how Captain Deadbeard uses the barrel to sneak in and lights the fuse at will.
• Previously, it used to have a 25% damage resistance. This was increased to 75% in the January 2016 update.
• The last sentence of its Stickerbook description seems incomplete. It should be "Light the fuse and run towards your Plant foes and give them an explosive surprise."
• The player will get an additional 100 XP if they manage to vanquish a pirate in its barrel. 
• Sometimes in Graveyard Ops, bosses and plants will not attack you while you are in the barrel, making this a good way to regenerate health. This is shared with the Foot Soldier with his stink cloud.

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