Bowling Bulb

Bowling Bulb
Bowling Bulbs rolls shots that can bounce into multiple zombies.The Larger bulbs deal more damage.
Statistics
Sun Cost	200
Recharge	5 seconds
Toughness	300 damage
Damage	40 damage
Range	Multi-Hit
Bulb Recharge	S>M>L
Family	Appease-mint
Plant Food effect	Shoots three charged explosive bulbs at zombies, dealing heavy damage. Waits until zombies appear on the lawn before shooting.
Damage Details	Larger bulbs do more damage
Statistics (China)
Sun Cost	200
Recharge	5 seconds
Toughness	300 damage
Damage	40 damage
Attack Rate	2 seconds
Range	Whole Lane to the Right
Area	Single Target
Class	Ranged
Quality	Legendary
Tags	Damage
Plant features	Brother group
In-game statistics
Other weakness	(deflects the bulbs) (immune to damage when submerged)
Unlocked	Beating Big Wave Beach - Day 11
Unlocked (China)	Opening red envelopes Collect 10 Bowling Bulb Puzzle Pieces
Costumes
Code name	bowlingbulb
Guess which team has won the League Championship for five years running now? Team Bowling Bulb, that's who. They are on a ROLL. You and your pals think you got what it takes to stop 'em? Yeah sure. Keep dreamin, bub.

For the Brain Buster, see Bulb Bowling.

Bowling Bulb is the third plant obtained in Big Wave Beach in Plants vs. Zombies 2. They shoot every 2 - 2.25 seconds. They can roll up to three types of bulbs (one at a time) of varying damage and recharge rate. Their bulbs bounce between zombies, crossing lanes, similar to Wall-nuts in Wall-nut Bowling.

Before level 3, the order of the bulbs is aquamarine first, then blue, and finally orange. Bowling Bulb's attacks are only triggered by a zombie appearing in the same lane in which they are planted.

The aquamarine bulb is the weakest and has the shortest recharge time at level 1, while the orange one is the strongest and has the longest recharge time at level 1. However, the Bowling Bulb will only use their blue and orange bulb if enough time is given for them to recharge before a zombie enters the lane that it is in, except for submerged Snorkel Zombies which the plant will ignore and proceed to recharge their bulbs if they are the only zombies in the lane.

Origins

This plant's name is a portmanteau of "bowling ball," referring to their ability and the holes that it has, and "bulb", the part of some plants that might be edible. They're probably based on onion (Allium cepa) bulbs in which they have different size and color.

Almanac entry

Note: The stats shown below only apply to Level 1.

Bowling Bulb
	SUN COST 200 RECHARGE 5 TOUGHNESS 300 DAMAGE 40 RANGE Multi-Hit Special Bulb Recharge Appease-mint Plant Food: Shoots three charged explosive bulbs at zombies, dealing heavy damage. Waits until zombies appear on the lawn before shooting. Bowling Bulbs rolls shots that can bounce into multiple zombies.The Larger [sic] bulbs deal more damage. Guess which team has won the League Championship for five years running now? Team Bowling Bulb, that's who. They are on a ROLL. You and your pals think you got what it takes to stop 'em? Yeah sure. Keep dreamin, bub.

Bowling Bulb

SUN COST 200 RECHARGE 5 TOUGHNESS 300 DAMAGE 40 RANGE Multi-Hit Special Bulb Recharge Appease-mint Plant Food: Shoots three charged explosive bulbs at zombies, dealing heavy damage. Waits until zombies appear on the lawn before shooting. Bowling Bulbs rolls shots that can bounce into multiple zombies.The Larger [sic] bulbs deal more damage. Guess which team has won the League Championship for five years running now? Team Bowling Bulb, that's who. They are on a ROLL. You and your pals think you got what it takes to stop 'em? Yeah sure. Keep dreamin, bub.

Chinese version  (China only)

保龄泡泡发射的泡泡可以弹射多个僵尸。 伤害：越大的泡泡伤害越强 植物特征：兄弟成群 猜猜哪个队直到现在蝉联五次冠军？没错，就是保龄泡泡队。他们现在如日中天。你和你的队友以为可以有什么办法打败他们吗？呵呵，继续做梦去吧，伙计。 In English: Bowling Bulbs' shots can bounce into multiple zombies. Damage Details: larger bulbs do more damage Plant feature: brother group Guess which team has won the League Championship for five years running now? Yes, it's Team Bowling Bulb. They are on a ROLL. You and your pals think you got what it takes to defeat 'em? Heh, keep dreamin, bub.

Overview

Aquamarine bulbs deal 40 damage, blue bulbs deal 120 damage, and orange bulbs deal 180 damage.

At level 1 and 2, the priority order of bulb recharge is aquamarine > blue > orange. At level 3 to 6, the priority order changes to blue > orange > aquamarine. At level 7 and above, the priority order is orange > blue > aquamarine. Each bulb in the order takes 4 seconds to recharge.

Upgrades

Plant Food effect

Plant Food ability (animated)

When given Plant Food, Bowling Bulb supercharges, gaining three plasma bulbs which will be fired down the lane only if there are valid targets. On hit, they bounce and deal 600 damage to the point of impact. After firing these, Bowling Bulb becomes fully reloaded.

Appease-mint effect

When boosted by Appease-mint, Bowling Bulb will deal an additional 80/240/360 damage with its small, medium, and large bulbs respectively, and it will regrow its bulbs in reverse order, starting with the largest bulb and finishing with the smallest bulb.

Level upgrades

Level	Seed packets	Coins	Upgrades
			Sun Cost	Recharge (Fast)	Toughness (Typical)	Damage (Heavy)			Special (Bulb Recharge)*	Range
						Aquamarine	Blue	Orange
1	0	0	200	5 seconds	300 damage	40 damage	120 damage	180 damage	Aqua > Blue > Orange	Multi-Hit
2	10	1,000		4.5 seconds	350 damage	45 damage	130 damage	200 damage
3	75	5,000			400 damage	50 damage	140 damage	220 damage	Blue > Orange > Aqua
4	200	10,000	175		450 damage	55 damage	150 damage	240 damage
5	400	20,000		4 seconds	550 damage	60 damage	160 damage	260 damage
6	750	30,000	150		600 damage	65 damage	170 damage	280 damage
7	1,000	40,000			650 damage	70 damage	180 damage	300 damage	Orange > Blue > Aqua
8	1,250	50,000	125	3.5 seconds	700 damage	75 damage	200 damage	320 damage
9	1,500	60,000			800 damage	80 damage	220 damage	340 damage
10	2,000	75,000	100	3 seconds	900 damage		240 damage	360 damage

*Order of bulb recharge. Each bulb in the order takes 4 seconds to recharge.

Mastery upgrade

• Chance to Boost
• Damage Pierce

Level upgrades  (China only)

Level	Upgrades	Description
	Speedy Growth 快速生长	25% chance to instead recover two units of ammunition. 每次恢复保龄球时有25%概率一次恢复两个保龄球。
	Combat Training 战斗训练	Bowling Bulb gains 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
	Instant Recovery 瞬间恢复	40% chance to instead recover all ammunition.. 每次恢复保龄球时有40%的概率恢复全部保龄球。
	Cell Activation 细胞活化	Bowling Bulb gains another 50% more attack power and health (200% of initial).
	Ability Awaken 能力觉醒	Bowling Bulb may be boosted when planted.
	Fighting Power 战斗能力	Bowling Bulb gains another 50% more attack power and health (250% of initial).
	Strike! 全中打击	20% chance to fire a cluster munition that does 720 damage while activating previous abilities. On hit, the projectile breaks into three submunitions. 有20%的概率发射一颗伤害为720点的大保龄球，并且发动二三阶技能。大保龄球命中后会分裂成3个保龄球。
	Fighting Power 战斗能力	Bowling Bulb gains another 50% more attack power and health (300% of initial).

Costumed  (China only)

Any zombies that are in a 3x3 radius around it while is "charging" will be killed. Then, it will shoot out some projectiles: first, a fiery orange bulb which is the biggest and undoes slowing effects, then a white bulb that gives a slowing effect and has a medium size, and an electricity bulb which is the smallest compared to the other bulbs that stuns zombies.

Strategies

At level 1 or 2, Bowling Bulb is rather weak and should generally be avoided, but it becomes a very solid attacker once it reaches level 3.

Bowling Bulb is an interesting plant, as its damage capability increases with zombie density, but works better when supported by other offensive plants. This means that while it will struggle early on against a lone Buckethead Zombie, Bowling Bulb can prove devastating against hordes of enemies at the end of the level. It can also last well into later Endless Zone levels, unlike many other projectile plants. Its Plant Food follows the same trend: it does not deal much damage to a lone Gargantuar but will be able to devastate a horde of them with little trouble.

Bowling Bulb is effective in defeating Penny's Pursuit Zomboss battles. The bulbs will almost always hit the boss, after bouncing through the horde of other zombies.

Bowling Bulb works very well with Primal Peashooter. While Primal Peashooters can stall a low number of zombies with high health such as Gargantuars, Bowling Bulbs can deal high damage to groups of zombies.

Due to Bowling Bulb's ability to bounce through zombies/obstacles and cross lanes, you can use it against zombies that can shield themselves such as Barrel Roller Zombie and Excavator Zombie as an advantage to help defeat other dangerous zombies such as Pirate Captain Zombie and Turquoise Skull Zombie. In addition, Bowling Bulb can be used early on in Ancient Egypt or Dark Ages to break a field of tombstones quickly, especially if the tombstones are in adjacent rows. Bowling Bulbs are also useful on minecart rails in Wild West, as you can move the Bowling Bulb into a lane clear of zombies so it can regenerate its stronger bulbs instead of firing the weakest one repeatedly.

Bowling Bulb is a great counter against Pianist Zombie as it can hit multiple dancing zombies, though it should be paired with Laser Bean, Fume-shroom, Snapdragon, Electric Peashooter, or Lightning Reed due to the risks of Chicken Wrangler Zombie. Bowling Bulbs also work very well against flying zombies such as Seagull Zombie, Jetpack Zombie, Bug Zombie, and Balloon Zombie as their attack can bounce through groups of them. Bowling Bulbs are also effective against Shield Zombie. The zombie cannot fully shield itself as the bulbs can cross lanes and damage it.

Bowling Bulb has a weakness, however. They are awful at targeting the edge lanes due to how the bulbs bounce off targets. Because of this, there is only one way for the bulbs to bounce into the top and bottom lanes; in that they must bounce from the adjacent ones. As such, it is recommended to use instant-kill plants such as Jalapeno, Cherry Bomb, Ghost Pepper and Squash to take out troublesome targets in those lanes as well as allowing the larger bulbs to grow back.

Bowling Bulb's Plant Food effect can be used to quickly get rid of frozen blocks and arcade machines pushed by Troglobites and Arcade Zombies respectively. In addition, Bowling Bulbs work very well at destroying groups of 8-Bit Zombies spawned from the arcade machine that may overwhelm your defenses.

Avoid using Bowling Bulbs against Chicken Wrangler Zombies or Weasel Hoarders when the Bowling Bulb has only the aquamarine bulb (unless you feed it Plant Food). This is because when these zombies release their flocks of Zombie Chickens or Ice Weasels, they will eat up your plants very quickly since the Bowling Bulb's firing time is quite slow.

Another zombie to not use it against is Jester Zombie, which can deflect the bulbs and have them bounce through your plants, dealing serious damage to the player's defense, especially if the Jester Zombie reflects the orange bulb. Do note, however, that it cannot deflect explosive bulbs back at your plants. Although Bowling Bulb cannot damage Snorkel Zombies when he is submerged, it can recharge its other bulbs so it can be ready to deal massive damage to them when they're on the surface.

Bowling Bulb's main weakness is its bulb recharge. Initially, the aquamarine bulb recharges first. Being the weakest bulb, it will not do much damage against the zombie horde, especially in worlds such as Jurassic Marsh or Big Wave Beach. Most levels will constantly spawn zombies in every lane, making it difficult for Bowling Bulbs to recharge their bulbs efficiently.

Garlic, Sweet Potato, and Escape Root can help Bowling Bulb, as they allow zombies to move away from it, or allow Bowling Bulb to move itself, giving it time to recharge its bulbs. However, this weakness can be ultimately rectified by leveling up Bowling Bulb, as its bulb order will change at certain levels. Once the bulb order changes, Bowling Bulb can easily take down high-health zombies while gaining much more crowd control ability.

Additional plants that can be used in tandem with Bowling Bulb are the vine plants. Blastberry Vine can assist in weakening zombies or otherwise defeat an entire row of them, due to his ability to strike up to five targets in a lane, allowing Bowling Bulb to recharge its bulbs, especially the higher-damaging ones. Pyre Vines, especially higher leveled ones, can be used to deal with zombies that are too close to Bowling Bulb while it is recharging, or to deal with threatening amounts of Zombie Chickens due to Pyre Vines' ability to continuously deal damage to infinite amounts of zombies provided that they are within their range, with an additional benefit of providing the Bowling Bulb with immunity to frost. Pumpkin is useful for protecting Bowling Bulb while it is recharging its bulbs. Shine Vine can be used to strategically stun a single zombie into place if plants like Solar Tomato stun in too large quantities (i.e. a zombie in another lane that can be defeated by a ricocheting bulb but is protected by another zombie in the way). Explode-o-Vine can knock back several zombies in another strategic manner, destroy powerful threats that Bowling Bulb recharges too slow against, or otherwise grant last-ditch protection to Bowling Bulb. Gloom Vine can reinforce areas directly above or below Bowling Bulb, or to otherwise weaken zombies that get too close so that Bowling Bulb can finish them off. Pea Vine provides Bowling Bulb with a damage boost due to both of them sharing a family. Power Vine's rapid-fire nature can be utilized to tear through zombies to allow bulbs to hit a certain zombie, or to otherwise destroy fast targets.

It is a good idea to use Bowling Bulb against Tomb Raiser Zombies, Disco-tron 3000, Octo Zombies, Hunter Zombies or Imp Porters (if it has all three bulbs) as a group of them can quickly destroy any tombstones, summoned Disco Jetpack Zombies, frozen blocks, tents or thrown octopi with their bouncing shots, preventing major threats (especially in Imp Porter's case), as well as deal some damage to these zombies if the bulbs do manage to hit them. It is best to support this plant with heavy-duty plants like Winter Melon or area-of-effect plants like Laser Bean so they can perform a combo to groups of these zombies.

Bulb Bowling

In the Brain Buster Bulb Bowling, you must use the four types of Bowling Bulbs against the incoming zombies (like in Wall-nut Bowling in the original Plants vs. Zombies). Save the charged bulbs for dangerous zombies (Surfer Zombies and Deep Sea Gargantuars) to deal more damage. Use the orange bulbs for everything else, as keeping blue/aqua ones on hold will prevent more blue/aqua from spawning, resulting in orange ones being generated in their place.

Related achievements

	Ten Pin Kapow Defeat ten zombies with a a single bulb from Bowling Bulb.

Gallery

Bowling Bulb has a gallery!

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Bowling Bulb
Simplified Chinese	保龄泡泡	lit. "Bowling Bubble"
French	Bulbe de bowling
German	Bowlingknolle
Italian	Bulbo da bowling
Brazilian Portuguese	Bulboliche	From bulbo and boliche
Spanish	Bulbo de bolera

Trivia

• If the player feeds Plant Food on a Bowling Bulb and there are no zombies in that lane, the Bowling Bulb will wait until a zombie appears in that lane. This is similar to how Citron acts, as it will hold the plasma ball until zombies appear in its lane.
• Their facial features resemble the three holes in a bowling ball.
• When Bowling Bulbs are used in Pirate Seas and Big Wave Beach, they will cross directly over a path of water rather than falling in.
• Bowling Bulbs are physically connected to the soil but still can be planted on Lily Pads. It shares this same attribute with Spikeweeds, Spikerocks, Sweet Potato and Phat Beets.
• Although they are buried in the ground, they can still be planted on planks in Pirate Seas.
• Bulbs normally cannot damage submerged Snorkel Zombies, but energized bulbs can damage them via splash damage, and all bulb types can damage submerged Snorkel Zombies in Bulb Bowling levels.
• When Plant Food is given to a Bowling Bulb, the explosive projectiles are about the same size as the aquamarine bulb, even though each bulb normally has a different size.
• The aquamarine bulb shares the same idle animation with Magic-shroom and Sun Bean.
• When a bulb recharges, its idle animation will reset in a non-smooth animation. This is likely an oversight.
• Before 7.1.1, Bowling Bulb was in the Enforce-mint family despite not using a melee attack.
• In its Arena icon, the aquamarine bulb appears more green.
• Prior to version 2.5.6 of the Chinese version, level 5 ability shots had a bigger priority than Plant Food ability shots, delaying the latter.
• In the Chinese version, there is a trick that players can use with Bowling Bulb's Plant Food to clear out zombies. The trick is to Plant Food a Bowling Bulb while there is a wave of zombies in its lane. They will start sending the Explosive Bulbs at the zombies. Then when the bulbs roll offscreen, spam the "Next Wave" button. The bulbs will start damaging the hordes of zombies, effectively killing or severely injuring the horde.
• It, Rotobaga and Red Stinger have the similarities as below:
  • They are the only world plants whose projectiles are not peas among the Appease-mint family plants.
  • Their maximum levels are all 10.
• Early versions of the Bowling Bulb are internally known as Coconut Bowler and they do not have any assets, but it can be inferred it was the same as Bowling Bulb, but the bulbs were instead coconuts.
• Its costume is called “Top Hats” in the almanac when they are really wearing bowler hats.

See also

• Bulb Bowling
• Ten Pin Kapow

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