Cactus (Plants vs. Zombies 2)

For other uses, see Cactus (disambiguation).

Cactus
Cactus fires a penetrating thorn that can damage multiple enemies! Hides underground when zombies are close. Can stretch up and pop balloon zombies.
Statistics
Sun Cost	175
Recharge	5 seconds
Toughness	300 damage
Damage	30 damage
Range	Multi-Hit
Spike Damage	10 damage
Family	Spear-mint
Plant Food effect	Permanently increases piercing power and damage.
Special	Hides and does ground damage when zombies are near
Special	Pops Balloon Zombies with a special anti-balloon projectile
Statistics (China)
Sun Cost	175
Recharge	5 seconds
Toughness	300 damage
Damage	60 damage
Attack Rate	2 seconds
Range	Whole Lane to the Right
Area	Area of Effect
Class	Ranged
Quality	Legendary
Tags	Damage, area of effect
Plant features	Green plant, tall
In-game statistics
Other weakness	(reflects projectile) (digs her up) (destroys it instantly)
Unlocked	NA: $6.99 · EU: €5.49 · UK: £4.99
Unlocked (China)	Collect 10 Cactus Puzzle Pieces
Costumes
Costumes (China)
Code name	cactus
Things have really changed for Cactus lately. Book deals, movies, truck show appearances... she's just trying to focus on staying humble and launching thorns like always.

“	Indeed, Cactus has changed over time, User Dave. Now she fires a thorn for ranged damage, but hides for ground damage when zombies approach.	”
—Penny

Cactus is a combative, projectile-based plant in Plants vs. Zombies 2. She attacks by shooting piercing spikes at zombies, and being able to bury herself to deal ground damage.

About

For more information about this character, see Cactus.

In the sequel, Cactus is a premium plant which is advertised alongside Neon Mixtape Tour Side A.

She shoots a spike (every 2 seconds) that goes through two to four zombies, and also hides when zombies are close to her while dealing ground damage (every 0.5 seconds) to zombies that walk over her in this form, similarly to Spikeweed. The following zombies will not cause Cactus to cower: Zombie Parrot, Jetpack Zombie, Disco Jetpack Zombie, and Bug Zombie.

Each spike deals 30 damage to each zombie it hits, and the ground damage deals the same damage as the Spikeweed's. Jester Zombies can deflect shots from the Cactus, but still be damaged by her ground attack.

Cactus can also instantly puncture Balloon Zombies' balloon in an identical matter to how she did in the first game, stretching up and firing spikes. Cactus' attack is able to pop the balloons of Balloon Zombie's Big Brainz, Lawnbowl and Tutorial counterparts. To other aerial foes, her attacks deal increased damage.

Almanac entry

Cactus
	SUN COST 175 RECHARGE 5 TOUGHNESS 300 DAMAGE 30 RANGE Multi-Hit Special Spike Damage Spear-mint Plant Food: Permanently increases piercing power and damage. Cactus fires a penetrating thorn that can damage multiple enemies! Hides underground when zombies are close. Can stretch up and pop balloon zombies. Things have really changed for Cactus lately. Book deals, movies, truck show appearances... she's just trying to focus on staying humble and launching thorns like always.

Cactus

SUN COST 175 RECHARGE 5 TOUGHNESS 300 DAMAGE 30 RANGE Multi-Hit Special Spike Damage Spear-mint Plant Food: Permanently increases piercing power and damage. Cactus fires a penetrating thorn that can damage multiple enemies! Hides underground when zombies are close. Can stretch up and pop balloon zombies. Things have really changed for Cactus lately. Book deals, movies, truck show appearances... she's just trying to focus on staying humble and launching thorns like always.

Chinese version  (China only)

仙人掌可以发射穿透性尖刺，对多个敌人造成伤害！ 特点：隐藏自身，等僵尸靠近的时候会对他们造成地面伤害 植物特征：绿色植物、十万伏特、高个子 最近对仙人掌来说，情况发生了巨大变化。图书交易，电影，卡车表演什么的…她只想保持谦虚，跟平时一样发射尖刺就行了。 In English: Cactus can fire penetrative spikes, dealing damage to multiple enemies! Special: Hides, does ground damage when zombies are near Plant feature: green plant, thunderbolt, tall Lately for Cactus, things have greatly changed. Book trades, movies, truck show appearances and such... she just wants to stay humble, launching thorns like always.

Audio

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Upgrades

Plant Food effect

When fed Plant Food, Cactus' ranged attacks can penetrate two more enemies, and she does doubled damage. This upgrade persists until she is destroyed, and Plant Food cannot be used again on her.

Cactus after being fed Plant Food in Plants vs. Zombies 2

Cactus being fed Plant Food and firing charged thorns

Costumed (China only)

Cactus will additionally fire a volley of thorns. She can be fed Plant Food to fire more.

Spear-mint effect

When boosted by Spear-mint, Cactus's spikes do an additional 120 damage, her Plant Food spikes do an additional 240 damage, her hiding spike damage will do an additional 40 damage, and her Plant Food hiding damage do an additional 80 damage.

Level upgrades

Level	Seed packets	Coins	Upgrades
			Sun Cost	Recharge (Fast)	Toughness (Typical)	Damage (Normal)		Special (Spike Damage)*		Special (Bonus Damage)^	Projectile Velocity	Range
						Normal	Powered**	Normal	Powered**
1	0	0	175	5 seconds	300 damage	30 damage	60 damage	10 damage	20 damage	45 damage	Normal	Multi-Hit
2	10	1,000		4.5 seconds	350 damage	40 damage	80 damage	15 damage		60 damage
3	25	2,500			400 damage	50 damage	100 damage	20 damage	30 damage	75 damage	+ 1.6x
4	50	5,000		4 seconds	450 damage	60 damage	120 damage	25 damage		90 damage
5	100	10,000	150		550 damage	70 damage	140 damage		40 damage	105 damage
6	200	20,000		3.5 seconds	600 damage	80 damage	160 damage	30 damage		120 damage
7	400	30,000	125		650 damage	90 damage	180 damage		50 damage	135 damage	+ 2.2x
8	800	50,000		3 seconds	700 damage	100 damage	200 damage	35 damage		150 damage
9	1,200	75,000	100		800 damage	110 damage	220 damage		60 damage	165 damage
10	1,600	100,000		2.5 seconds	900 damage	120 damage	240 damage	40 damage	80 damage	180 damage

*This column shows its ground damage when hiding.
**After being fed with Plant Food, both its spike and ground damage are powered.
^Cactus's bonus projectile damage to flying zombies. This applies to both normal and Plant Food states.

Mastery upgrades

• Chance to Boost
• Damage Pierce

Level upgrades (China only)

Level	Upgrades	Description
	Electrical Spike 电流尖刺	17% chance to fire a charged thorn that does 150 damage. 攻击时有17%的概率发射伤害为150的电刺。
	Combat Training 战斗训练	Cactus gains 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
	Strong Puncture 强力穿刺	Projectiles now penetrate up to 5 zombies. 仙人掌的穿透尖刺最多可以穿透5个僵尸。
	Cell Activation 细胞活化	Cactus gains another 50% more attack power and health (200% of initial).
	Ability Awaken 能力觉醒	Cactus may be boosted when planted.
	Fighting Power 战斗能力	Cactus gains another 50% more attack power and health (250% of initial).
	Prickly Pear 仙人球	20% chance to fire a mini cactus that has 1000 health and does 60 damage every 0.5 seconds, stunning zombies for 1 second for each second or third hits. 仙人掌有20%的概率发射一个生命值为1000攻击力为60/0.5s的小仙人球，仙人球攻击2-3次会麻痹僵尸1s。
	Fighting Power 战斗能力	Cactus gains another 50% more attack power and health (300% of initial).

Strategies

Cactus's main strength is her versatility: She can be planted at the back to shoot incoming zombies, as well as a front-line plant to damage enemies like Spikeweed. Compared to other penetrating plants such as Laser Bean and A.K.E.E., Cactus also boasts a relatively high damage output, which can be further enhanced with Plant Food. However, her unreliable penetration capability makes Cactus not as reliable against large groups of zombies.

Cactus is also a good counter for Shield Zombie, Barrel Roller Zombie, and Pianist Zombie, as her spikes can pierce through each of the zombie's barricades. Because when it hides it acts like a Spikeweed, she can instantly destroy Barrel Roller Zombie's barrel and Pianist Zombie; however, Cactus will be sacrificed, even if she has her Plant Food effect activated. Cactus is also good against Imp Cannon, Zombie King, and Imp Porter as their projectiles can pass through zombies in front of them. It should be noted that Excavator Zombie can shovel up hiding Cacti without stepping on her. Since level 3, Cactus can also be useful against Imps thrown by Gargantuars and can be placed backwards for that.

In Frostbite Caves, Cactus has a great advantage against Troglobite and Weasel Hoarder as her spikes can hit all ice blocks and multiple Ice Weasels (similar to Zombie Chickens). Watch out for Dodo Rider Zombie as he will fly over hiding Cacti. She can also helps with the three Imps thrown by the Sloth Gargantuar if placed at backwards, but beware that Cactus herself is not immune to frost.

In Neon Mixtape Tour, Cactus has an advantage on most zombies encountered in this world, as their jams do not have a major effect on the Cactus: Punk Zombie cannot kick her, MC Zom-B cannot use its microphone attack against Cactus (in most cases), Glitter Zombies cannot instantly destroy the Cactus and Breakdancer Zombies and the zombies it kicks can still be affected by Cactus's ground attack. This makes the Cactus a great option to use in this world. The only things to look out for are Hair Metal Gargantuar (as even their shockwaves will instantly destroy Cacti, hiding or not), Arcade Zombie's arcade machine (as it can still crush Cacti, hiding or not), Boombox Zombie's boombox (as it stuns all Cacti not hiding) and Bass Zombie's speaker and shock waves. However, Cactus's pierce can directly hurt Arcade Zombie and Bass Zombie.

In Jurassic Marsh, Cactus works great against pterodactyls and ankylosauruses. Zombies carried by pterodactyls will still be damaged by her spikes. Ankylosauruses cannot fling zombies past the Cactus (unless Cactus was hiding during the fling) and will not be pushed. In the Chinese version however, one must watch out for Egg Stealer Imps and Egg Roller Imps as their eggs can easily crush Cactus and the baby dinosaurs that come with it can also destroy Cacti easily.

Like Spikeweeds, Spikerocks, Spring Beans and Celery Stalkers, Cactus should not be used in Big Wave Beach levels as zombies will eat the Lily Pad and cause Cactus to fall into the water, wasting 175 sun.

It is also a bad choice to place Cactus on a Gold Tile close to Imp Porters, as this does not prevent them from setting up their tent.

It is also the bad choice if you use her and Shrinking Violet/Enforce-mint in a level where Balloon Zombies appear, since that prevents her from hitting them.

In the Chinese version, she is considered to be weak among the other plants that have the Legendary rarity. However it is extremely recommended to get her costume, as one spike Cactus shoots in her Plant Food effect can destroy a speaker in a single hit. This, combined with her upgrades, area-of-effect, fast recharge and somewhat cheap cost, makes Cactus really worth the effort of grinding to get her to Level 4 and her costume as she will always activate her Plant Food effect under these conditions, allowing the player to fastly and effectively complete difficult levels.

Balance changes

Update 10.2.1

• ▲ Is now able to stretch up into the air and instantly pop Balloon Zombies' balloon.
• ▲ Projectiles can now deal additional damage to flying zombies.

Gallery

Cactus has a gallery!

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Cactus
Simplified Chinese	仙人掌
French	Cactus
German	Kaktee
Italian	Cactus
Japanese	サボテン
Brazilian Portuguese	Cacto	"Cactus" in portuguese
Russian	Кактус
Spanish	Cactus

Trivia

• In the earlier updates, although the thorns penetrated through various zombies, Excavator Zombie was immune to them, as the spikes hit the shovel, glanced off (missing the Excavator Zombie completely) and continued to the next zombie.
• She does not hide from Zombie Bulls and Balloon Zombies.
• In her case, she cannot be eaten (unless a Zombie Bull attempts to); she can only be killed by rolling or smashing attacks, lasers from a Gargantuar Prime or Turquoise Skull Zombie, or if a Jester Zombie returns enough projectiles. Additionally, MC Zom-B can hit her in some cases.
  • There is also a glitch, in which the Balloon Zombie with its balloon popped is able to destroy her, because she will not hide from it.
• An advertisement for Summer Nights event in 2015 accidentally leaked the return of it a month in advance.
• With her return, all Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare plant classes appear in both Plants vs. Zombies and Plants vs. Zombies 2.
• The vocal noise she makes is from her Garden Warfare appearance.
• She, Celery Stalker, Potato Mine, Primal Potato Mine, Escape Root, Snap Pea, and Olive Pit are the only "underground" plants that cannot be planted directly on Lily Pads in Big Wave Beach or plants in Pirate Seas. Despite this, they can technically be planted on Lily Pads if they or the plant behind them is pulled by a Fisherman Zombie, which in turn pushes them onto a Lily Pad.

  

  A Cactus disabling an ankylosaurus' attack

• Placing her on the third column from the right (seventh column from the left) will disable the ankylosaurus's attack. The zombies will simply be launched on top of her and stop when she hides. She will not be pushed.
  • This only works if she is out of the ground, not hiding. If she is, the zombie will be launched normally.
• Like Resistant Radish, Potato Mine, Bamboo Shoot, Carrot Missile, Celery Stalker, Primal Potato Mine and Escape Root, she cannot be planted on planks in Pirate Seas.
• Cactus, Torchwood, Hypno-shroom, Sun Bean and Electric Currant are the only non-defensive plants that have their Plant Food effect last until the plant has been destroyed.
• If facing a Seagull Zombie or Pelican Zombie, she will hide but she still tries to use her spikes to damage these zombies, although she can't damage them.
• For an unknown reason, in the 8.6.1 update, she is written in Enchant-mint's almanac entry, despite not being in the Enchant-mint family.
• Since Update 10.2.1. she is also able to prioritize Balloon Zombie, thus making her the fourth plant to be able to prioritize specific zombies with her attack. After Witch Hazel, Dartichoke and Gumnut.
  • Coincidentally, all four of them are female.
• When attempting to pop a Balloon Zombie's balloon, her spikes erroneously reused the sun sprite. This was fixed in 10.3.1 update.
• She is partially buried underground, unlike the first game.
  • She also appears slightly taller than in the first game.

Specific to the Chinese version (China only)

• Similar to Red Stinger, her seed packet is different: Cactus's entire body is visible in the Chinese version's seed packet, while her head and one arm is only visible in the international version.

See also

• Bloomerang
• Spikeweed
• Pine Needler

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