Damage per shot (often shortened to DPS) is used officially in every game of the main Plants vs. Zombies series to express the damage plants deal and the amount of health zombies have.
Damage per shot is the basic measurement of damage in Plants vs. Zombies, Plants vs. Zombies 2 and Plants vs. Zombies Online. A pea deals 20 damage per shot, while each bite from a zombie (the damage counted by each second the zombie attacks) deals 100 damage per shot.
Some projectiles from plants can do more than just 20 DPS, and can do up to about 80 DPS, such as Cabbage-pult, Melon-pult, and peas ignited by a Torchwood. The projectile with the most damage output is Citron's charged plasma ball created during its Plant Food effect, dealing about up to 4000 DPS (at level 10).
Instant kills deal a heavy amount of damage, most dealing about 1800 DPS except for Primal Potato Mine, which deals 2400 DPS. However, in ZomBotany 2, a full-health Tall-nut Zombie can be killed by a corn cob, Cherry Bomb, Jalapeno or Doom-shroom, even though Tall-nut Zombies have 2400 health. A single Potato Mine or Squash cannot kill a full-health Tall-nut Zombie, despite dealing the same damage as the aforementioned explosive plants. Chompers deal 40 DPS (200 in the sequel) to any zombie it cannot devour. Likewise, Grimroses do 600 DPS to any zombie they cannot kill.
The following plants do not have a damager per shot because they are only sun-producing plants and defensive plants and magic plants and water plants:
Big plasma does 4000 damage, and it instantly kills any zombie except the Zombots, which it will only deal 2500 damage per shot. It does 6000 damage to Jurassic Gargantuars.
Magnifying Grass deals 550 damage per shot when being tapped by the player
