Citron (Plants vs. Zombies 2)

Citron
Citrons shoot powerful balls of plasma.
Almanac statistics
Sun cost	350
Recharge	5 seconds
Damage	800 damage per shot
Area	Single
Family	Fila-mint
In-game statistics
Other weakness	Blocks/Deflects When submerged
Rarity (China)	Legendary
Unlocked	Beating Far Future - Day 6
Unlocked (China)	Collecting 10 Citron Puzzle Pieces
Costumes
Costumes (China)
As the owner and primary user of "Vitamin C-U-Later" 20-hour energy shots, Citron is always on and always ready for action. "Let's make this happen!!"

Citron is the third plant obtained in Far Future in Plants vs. Zombies 2. When planted, it is relatively small. Then, it charges up its attack and gets larger. When fully charged, it will shoot a powerful ball of plasma approximately every 10 seconds that does 800 damage per shot to a zombie.

Overview

When Citron is first planted, it is small. At that stage, it charges its projectile and quickly gets bigger until it reaches its charged stage. It takes seven seconds to charge up the first ball of plasma, then takes ten seconds to charge after that. If there are no zombies or tombstones in front of the Citron, it will not fire until any other enemy enters it's range. The shot deals 800 damage, and is a single-target projectile.

Almanac entry

Citron	SUN COST 350 RECHARGE 5 SUN COST: 350 RECHARGE: 5 TOUGHNESS 300 DAMAGE 800 TOUGHNESS: 300 DAMAGE: 800 RANGE Straight FIRING RATE 1 RANGE: Straight FIRING RATE: 1 PLANT FOOD POWER Damage FAMILY Fila-mint PLANT FOOD POWER: Damage FAMILY: Fila-mint Citrons shoot powerful balls of plasma. As the owner and primary user of "Vitamin C-U-Later" 20-hour energy shots, Citron is always on and always ready for action. "Let's make this happen!!"

Citron

		SUN COST 350			RECHARGE 5

SUN COST: 350
RECHARGE: 5

		TOUGHNESS 300			DAMAGE 800

TOUGHNESS: 300
DAMAGE: 800

		RANGE Straight			FIRING RATE 1

RANGE: Straight
FIRING RATE: 1

		PLANT FOOD POWER Damage			FAMILY Fila-mint

PLANT FOOD POWER: Damage
FAMILY: Fila-mint

Citrons shoot powerful balls of plasma.

As the owner and primary user of "Vitamin C-U-Later" 20-hour energy shots, Citron is always on and always ready for action. "Let's make this happen!!"

Chinese version  (China only)

植物特征：橙红色植物、十万伏特 "厚积而薄发" 是充能柚子座右铭，少年老成的性格让人觉得他渊博，稳重。有人问他成功的秘诀时，他指了指他家那台大屏等离子电视机 。 In English: Plant feature: orange-red plant, 100,000 volts "Sufficiently accumulate." This is Citron's motto. his precocious character makes others think that he is profound and steady. When asked about his secret to success, he just pointed to his large-screen plasma TV in his house.

Upgrades

Plant Food ability (animated)

Plant Food effect

Upon the usage of Plant Food, Citron gets struck by lightning and shoots a giant glowing light-blue plasma ball that travels down the lane, flinging away most types of zombies and tombstones in that lane. The plasma ball disintegrates upon impact with any mechanized zombies, or Gargantuar, dealing 2500 damage. This will reset his attack delay, therefore, it's best to be used when he had just finished firing a shot, since a reset happening by then doesn't really affect gameplay. For balancing reasons, Zombie Bull, Treasure Yeti and all Imps are also directly removed from the screen when hit instead of the plasma ball exploding on them.

Fila-mint effect

When boosted by Fila-mint, Citron charges his plasma ball twice as fast, and its plasma ball does an additional 1000 DPS.

Level upgrades

Level	Seed Packets	Coins	Upgrades
			Sun Cost	Recharge (Fast)	Toughness (Typical)	Damage (Huge)	Projectile Velocity	Firing Rate (Slow)	Plant Food Power (Damage)*	Range
1	0	0	350	5 seconds	300 dps	800 dps	Normal	Normal	2500 dps	Straight
2	10	1,000	325	5 seconds	350 dps	850 dps		+ 20%	2600 dps
3	75	5,000	325	4.5 seconds	400 dps	900 dps	+ 1.5x		2700 dps
4	200	10,000	300	4.5 seconds	450 dps	950 dps		+ 40%	2800 dps
5	400	20,000	300	4 seconds	550 dps	1000 dps			3000 dps
6	750	30,000	275	4 seconds	600 dps			+ 60%	3200 dps
7	1,000	40,000	275	3.5 seconds	650 dps		+ 1.9x		3400 dps
8	1,250	50,000	250	3.5 seconds	700 dps			+ 80%	3600 dps
9	1,500	60,000	250	3 seconds	800 dps				3800 dps
10	2,000	75,000	225	3 seconds	900 dps			+ 100%	4000 dps

*Damage dealt to units it cannot wipe out instantly.

• Citron's charging time is actually 7 second, but there's a 2.5–second interval between each charge, during which he fires the plasma ball. This means that at Level 10, Citron attacks at a six–second rate and fully charges in only 3.5 second.

Level upgrade (China only)

Level	Upgrades	Description
	Speedy Energy Collection	Citron shoots 25% faster.
	Combat Training	Citron gains 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
	Energy Field	Citron shoots 40% faster.
	Cell Activation	Citron gains another 50% more attack power and health (200% of initial).
	Ability Awaken	Citron may be boosted when planted.
	Fighting Power	Citron gains another 50% more attack power and health (250% of initial).
	Electromagnetic Detonation	Citron now shoots plasma balls with electromagnetic effects, which will cause a shockwave attack, dealing splash damage. The attack will also leave an electromagnetic cloud that will continue damage the zombies in its area.
	Fighting Power	Citron gains another 50% more attack power and health (300% of initial).

Costumed (China only)

Citron now deals higher damage and produces chains of electric current to attack zombies.

Strategies

Citron's greatest advantage is its high damage per second capability. Against a single target, Citron can easily outmatch most controllable plants, including Strawburst and Banana Launcher or even the Magnifying Grass (If you don't have sun). Thanks to this, Citron is a powerful choice against single high-health targets such as Robo-Cone Zombie and Gargantuar. However, its high cost, slow firing rate, and the inability to control Citron mean that large numbers of zombies will present a great challenge, as Citron will deal huge amounts of overkill damage and waste its shots. Because of this, Citron should be paired with other crowd-controlling plants like Laser Bean or Fume-shroom, and it should not be used by itself. When paired with either of the two, it can become a seriously dangerous plant.

The Plant Food ability is very similar in many parts to Laser Bean's. The main difference between the two is how they deal with larger, tougher zombies. Laser Bean's Plant Food ability is not stopped by mechanical enemies, effectively making Laser Bean more useful than Citron for crowd control. Conversely, Citron's can instantly kill zombies that Laser Bean's cannot, making Citron ideal against single Gargantuars and Gargantuar Prime, who will release their Imp after passing the 91 normal damage shots mark. Regardless, in levels without tough zombies, the two plant food effects are perfectly interchangeable with no major differences.

Citron should be avoided against fast zombies like All-Star Zombie and Surfer Zombie or zombies that block or deflect straight-firing projectiles like Shield Zombie, Jester Zombie, and Excavator Zombie. All-Star Zombies and Surfer Zombies can reach the Citrons quickly and destroy them (though this is easily resolved by using a cannon fodder plant). Shield Zombie, Jester Zombies, and Excavator Zombies, on the other hand, will nullify the plasma ball. The same does not apply to its Plant Food ability projectile, so Citron can be boosted to deal with these threats should the situation get dire.

Do not use Citron on levels with Chicken Wrangler Zombies or Weasel Hoarders, as they release many small, extremely weak yet fast Zombie Chickens and Ice Weasels. Citron is unable to conquer them alone due to its slow attack speed, plus the fact that it can only hit one target at a time.

Tips: Avoid using Citrons on levels where tombstones are present as their plasma will hit them, wasting an attack. Also, Tomb Raiser Zombies pose a major threat against Citron in Ancient Egypt as they will continuously create more tombstones while Citron's fire rate is slow and can only destroy one at a time.

In the Chinese version, it is recommended to upgrade Citron to level 4, since when it is planted, it has a chance to immediately activate its Plant Food ability. In addition, Sweet Potato can help attract more zombies so Citron could kill them easily.

Gallery

Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Citron.

Visit this page to see it.

Trivia

• If one looks closely at a zombie that has been flung from its Plant Food ability, small bolts of electricity will arc around the zombie.

Citron costing 400 sun in an EA screenshot

• Before Far Future was released, it was originally going to cost 400 sun, according to an official screenshot released on Tuesday Exclusive prior to the world's release by Electronic Arts. Probably, the cost was reduced for balancing reasons - It doesn't deal splash damage like Coconut Cannon (also 400 sun), therefore the high cost would severely damage game balance.
• It was the second Far Future plant to be previewed in Piñata Parties, with the first being Laser Bean.
• During Last Stand setup, its animation stops once it is fully charged, possibly due to a bug. Once the level starts, its animation will resume. This also happens in Far Future - Day 15, in the seed selection screen.
• Magic Vine's projectile from Plant Food upgrade is a recolored version of the Citron's.
• The Puzzle Piece to unlock it shows a fully charged Citron, while the Puzzle Piece to unlock its costume shows an uncharged Citron.
• In a Zomboss battle, if there are fully charged Citrons in the lanes the Zombot is in, the Citrons will shoot at the Zombot while it is leaving.
  • This is similar to Zomboss battles with Spikeweed and Endurian as they will also attack the Zombot as it is leaving if they are close enough.
• Citron's idle animation in game is different from both the one of the Almanac (slightly flatter) and that of the seed packet (does not glow).
  • In certain levels like Last Stand, during the preparation phase, however, when a Citron is fully charged, its shape is actually the same as the one in the seed packet.
• Its Plant Food effect can destroy multiple mechanical zombies and/or Gargantuars at once if it is activated close enough, despite not being splash damage.
  • This is no longer true for Gargantuars in the 6.7.1 update.
• When Citron is bitten while reloading, his mouth will flash white and he will reload longer.
• His Almanac entry is a pun on "Vitamin C" in oranges and the phrase "see you later."

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