Cob Cannon (Plants vs. Zombies)

For other uses, see Cob Cannon (disambiguation).

Cob Cannon
Tap/click on the Cob Cannon to launch deadly cobs of corn.
Almanac statistics
Sun cost	500 (+100x2)
Recharge	Very slow
Damage	Massive
Toughness	Normal
Area	3x3 (corn cob)
Range	Anywhere on lawn
Reload time	34.75 seconds
Usage	Tap to arm, target area to fire
Special	On impact, explodes in medium area
In-game statistics
Direct damage	1800 damage
Reload time	34.75 seconds
Health	Six
Other weakness	Cannot be put in Pumpkins
Planted on	Ground, Lily Pad, or Flower Pot
Upgrade of	Two side-by-side Kernel-pults
Unlocked	Beating Adventure Mode, then buy it for $20,000
What's the deal with Cob Cannon, anyway? He went to Harvard. He practices law in a prestigious New York firm. He can explode whole areas of zombies with a single corn launch. All this is common knowledge. But deep inside, what really makes him tick?

Cob Cannon is an upgrade plant, which can be purchased from Crazy Dave at his shop. He is a manual multi-use instant kill plant.

He must be planted on two side-by-side Kernel-pults, which must be placed one in front of the other in the same lane (horizontally), making him the only plant in the game to take up two tiles rather than one, and no plant has taken up two tiles since. Cob Cannons cost $20,000 to buy in Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies.

Once the corn cob is produced, the player can click on the Cob Cannon and can manually launch the corn cob onto an area that the player targets. The corn cob will explode and deal 1800 damage to all zombies in a 3x3 area, like the Cherry Bomb. He has a reload time of 34.75 seconds.

Audio

Sound	Description
	Cob Cannon firing.
	The explosion of the corn cob (same as Doom-shroom)

Suburban Almanac entry

Cob Cannon
Click on the Cob Cannon to launch deadly cobs of corn. Must be planted on 2 side by side kernel-pults What's the deal with Cob Cannon, anyway? He went to Harvard. He practices law in a prestigious New York firm. He can explode whole areas of zombies with a single corn launch. All this is common knowledge. But deep inside, what really makes him tick? Cost: 500 Recharge: very slow

Strategies

Main Game

The Cob Cannon costs 500 sun to place and does not fire automatically. Instead, it has a missile effect and animation. The missile itself is a corn cob which takes 34.75 seconds for the Cob Cannon to load. Once it is ready, the player can click (or press the / button in the console versions) on the Cob Cannon and then use the crosshair to aim the shot.

One can also right click to cancel the launch or click on the shovel two times to cancel the launch. The cob has a devastating effect, much like that of a Cherry Bomb, but will still require two hits to kill a Gargantuar as all explosives do.

The missile usually takes about two to three seconds between launching and detonating. The Cob Cannon, although highly expensive, is very effective and can dominate entire waves of zombies very quickly, as the cobs can be shot anywhere and do not use sun.

The Cob Cannon is better than the Cherry Bomb in three ways. First, he is reusable. Second, his reload speed exceeds that of instants. Third, the Cob Cannon's attack can be placed anywhere without requiring additional space for planting.

One thing to note is the cost: 700 sun is a lot to pay for a plant. To make sure your sun was well-used, make sure to use your Cob Cannon plenty of times. To save more sun than repeatedly using Cherry Bombs, make sure to use the Cob Cannon at least five times (as 150 times five is 750, and Cob Cannons cost 700, meaning a saving of 50 sun), and the minimal time to make that up is exactly two minutes and 30.64 seconds, given the fact the first cob only takes about five seconds to arm. For more Cob Cannons, repeat as needed.

Note that the Cob Cannon can be eaten at the normal rate, despite his size, and cannot be protected with Pumpkins. Thus, they must be placed carefully. Fortunately, however, Bungee Zombies cannot target them, but still, you have to put the Cob Cannon in a safe area. Be careful when clicking on sun that appears or falls over a Cob Cannon, as you may accidentally engage it. If this happens, you can cancel it either by clicking on a seed packet, pressing the Esc button, clicking the shovel twice, or right-clicking. Clicking on a Cob Cannon will when this happens will instead cause him to fire on his location.

Using the Cob Cannon in the Nintendo DS Version is not a good idea. Compared to other versions of the game, the time in between the cob firing and hitting is much longer, lags more and will often miss its intended target. However, aiming a bit to the left of the target can solve this problem.

Some Zombies are fast enough to evade Cob Cannon's projectiles. Remember to aim carefully when you are fighting against them, as you could waste your valuable shots.

Survival: Endless

Here is an alternative; Cob Cannons used in Last Stand

Although it is not usually necessary in levels (except on occasion in the Survival: Hard levels), the Cob Cannon is one of the most helpful plants for Survival: Endless. Setups can be classified as either zero (instead relying on other plants for offense), two, four, six, or eight or more cob builds, and the highest number record now is a map-filling 24 (although its author admits that such extreme builds are almost impossible to sustain without using a backup save file).

Keep in mind, though, that along with every upgrade plant, the Cob Cannon will cost more sun for every one you currently have on the screen. The zero and two cob builds require a rotation of instants and/or double Ice-shrooms (Ice-shroom with Imitater Ice-shroom) to cover their downtime, while the six and eight cob builds have enough units use constant cob rotations. The four Cob build is quite flexible, with more space and more frequent cob rotation than other builds but also leaves you with room for other plants.

Easier builds are six cobs and eight cob builds - six cob builds are the somewhat flexible as it can achieve a constant cob rotation or mixed with instants, the average time between cob launches being 12 seconds. The eight cob build is recommended for newer players who want to achieve a constant rotation without much trouble.

Theoretically a 12-cob build is also quite easy to use, because it effectively allows a launch every 6-7 seconds. The main problem with these builds is that they require a constant barrage of cobs, making the game somewhat tiring since Cob Cannon requires manual targeting.

Despite having many cobs, reducing the space available for other plants, as long as the timing of the player is good, said other plants are not necessary. Beware, however, that some of the cobs will be quite vulnerable, since there is literally no safe place to put cobs after the first four (barring someone with extremely good timing who can time Imp landings, Digger Zombie surfacing, and/or underwater pool zombies surfacing (the ones that come up from the pool every two waves) apart from the front lines.

Although this can be easily solved by using an Ice-shroom 5.5 seconds before the zombies show up, the safest cobs are the four cobs in the back of the pool lanes, as there will be no Digger Zombies and Imps (or Balloon Zombies that have made it very far before being popped, as Balloon Zombies simply sink when shot down). Moreover, in builds with more than 20 cobs, hitting Gargantuars with many cobs at a time before the Imps are thrown is actually preferred over timing the Imps landing.

However, arguably the easiest setup is the four cob setup, as it does not require perfect timing as the builds with more cobs do; nor does it require a large amount of instants as the builds with fewer cobs do. Most of the plants are not very vulnerable to zombies, in addition to the Cob Cannons being completely safe once the setup is complete. In addition to this, the four cob setup is easiest to build due to its relative ability to withstand zombies before it is completed. In fact, they are the safest ways as no zombies can come near them unless they eat the pool's front row plants, which is unlikely to happen.

Buttered Popcorn

The Cob Cannon is the only means of destruction in the mini-game Buttered Popcorn. It is a Pool level with four Cob Cannons placed on land, while the player can stun zombies with butter via tapping. Strategic use of the Cob Cannons would therefore be key to victory.

Popcorn Party and Defcorn 5

To unlock the achievements - Popcorn Party and Defcorn 5, you must kill two Gargantuars with Cob Cannons on a single level and have five Cob Cannons on a single level, respectively (easiest way is to play the Mini-game Last Stand).

It makes sense to do them both on the same level. After you have all five Cob Cannons up and the first corn cob hits a Gargantuar, it will throw the Imp off its back (assuming that two cobs were not fired at once). If the Cob Cannons are in the same row as the Gargantuar, it is wise to put a Squash or a Cherry Bomb right in front of your Cob Cannons to kill any Imps that were thrown at it.

Also, because it takes time for the Cob Cannons to load, the player should wait for multiple to load before trying to dispatch the Gargantuars. Keep in mind that a Cob Cannon has to deliver the killing blow, so a Squash could weaken Gargantuar, but Cob Cannon will have to get the kill for the achievement to count.

Related achievements

	Pyromaniac Complete a level using only Explosive Plants to kill zombies.

	Popcorn Party Defeat two Gargantuars with Corn Cob Missiles in a single level.

	Defcorn 5 Build 5 Cob Cannons in a single level.

	Morticulturalist Collect all 49 plants.

Gallery

Cob Cannon has a gallery!

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Cob Cannon
Simplified Chinese	玉米加农炮	"Corn Cannon"
Traditional Chinese	玉米加農炮
Dutch	Kolfkanon
French	Canon à épi
German	Maiskanone
Italian	Sparapannocchie
Japanese	コッブキャノン
Brazilian Portuguese	Canhão-de-Milho	(Also known as "Canhão de Espiga".
Russian	Кукурузная Пушка
Spanish	Mazorcañón	A portmanteau of "Mazorca" (Cob) and "Cañón" (Cannon)

Trivia

• Plant projectiles or other instants do not hurt other plants, yet he needs to shoot up in the air rather than straight to the zombie.
• If a Pole Vaulting Zombie tries to jump through him, he slides forward in midair, landing behind the Cob Cannon, because it would not make sense if the zombie lands up in the middle of a plant.
  • While for a Pogo Zombie, it has to jump four times before jumping over him.
  • Also, Dolphin Rider Zombies cannot jump over him, unless he is placed in the rightmost two spaces in the pool (since it ignores the rightmost space, it only has to jump over the back of the Cob Cannon).
• When he shoots the cob of corn in the Nintendo DS version of the game, it will be slow to hit the zombies, slower than the other versions.
• If a Kernel-pult is targeted by a Bungee Zombie and then the player quickly upgrades him to the Cob Cannon, the Bungee Zombie cannot steal him.
• In his Almanac picture, he is placed irregularly instead of on two squares.
• He is the second most expensive plant in Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies, the first being the Imitater.
• In Last Stand, the Cob Cannon will generate a new cob as soon as the last wave has ended, even if the 36 seconds have not passed yet.
  • This may be because Last Stand allows you to wait an indefinite amount of time before starting the next wave, and therefore simply saving you time as you could wait for it to recharge anyway.
• There is a glitch on the PlayStation Vita version of the game where the Cob Cannon cannot be fired on other plants. A simple solution is to keep a clear square near the zombies to deploy Cobs. However, disabling the touchscreen and going with PlayStation 3 controls will fix this.
• He is the most expensive plant in Plants vs. Zombies, costing 500 sun (700 counting the two Kernel-pults needed for upgrading them).
  • However, Winter Melons are more expensive per space: Cob Cannons cost 350 sun per space, while Winter Melons cost 500 sun per space.
• In the Xbox Live Arcade version of the game, the crosshair used to aim the corn cob looks different.
• In the Plants vs. Zombies pinball table for Zen Pinball 2 for PlayStation Network and Pinball FX 2 for Xbox Live Arcade, a Cob Cannon is used to launch the ball.
• Planting five Cob Cannons in a single level will earn the player the achievement Defcorn 5. Its achievement is a pun for the actual Defcon.
• He looks more like a rocket launcher than a cannon.
• His eyes are closed on the seed packet in the iPad version.
• Although it has wheels, he never moves around.
• In the online Almanac, he only has one wheel.
• On the iPad version, one can fire multiple corn cobs from Cob Cannons at once as one can select two or more corn cobs at once in the iPad version. 
• The explosion of his projectile has the same sound as Doom-shroom exploding.
• He’s the only manually-controlled plant in the first game.
• If the player spawns a cardboard Cob Cannon in I, Zombie through third party programs, it will not move. The plant will only move or become animated if the player clicks on it to launch its projectile.

See also

• Upgrade plants
• Kernel-pult
• Missile Toe
• Holly Barrier
• Banana Launcher
• Buttered Popcorn
• Lobbed shots
• Corn cob
• Defcorn 5
• Popcorn Party

View · Edit	Plants (Tower defense)	L · G

V · T · E	Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies