Holly Barrier

When he sees zombies, he goes SPLAT!

This item is only obtainable during certain events. However, it can still be used if you have already obtained it. It is currently not available.

“	Tap Holly Barrier, then tap the target to launch barrier leaf. Launched attack knock back zombies and leave prickly barriers in empty tiles. Holly Barrier can launch 3 barriers and also deals prickly damage to attacking zombies!	”
—Penny

Holly Barrier
Holly Barrier deals damage to zombies attacking him, and can launch 3 prickly barrier leaves to knock back and damage zombies.
Statistics
Sun Cost	150
Recharge	15 seconds
Toughness	3000 damage
Damage	20 damage
Knockback	1 tile
Barrier Strength	2500 damage
Usage	Tap to Aim
Family	Reinforce-mint
Plant Food effect	Fully heals itself and regains all berries. Launches Armored leaves on to random tiles.
Usage	Tap to arm, tap on target tile to fire; can fire up to 3 barriers
Special	Projectile knocks back, does damage, leaves barrier on empty tiles
Statistics (China)
Sun Cost	150
Recharge	15 seconds
Toughness	3000 damage
Damage	20 damage
Attack Rate	2 seconds
Range	1 Tile to the Left and Right
Area	AoE within range
Class	Tough
Quality	Legendary
Tags	Defensive, summon, manual
Plant features	Red plant
In-game statistics
Other weakness	(cannot be knocked back while on stilts)
Unlocked	NA: $6.99 · EU: €5.49 · UK: £4.99
Unlocked (China)	Collect 10 Holly Barrier Puzzle Pieces
Costumes
Code name	hollyknight hollybarrierleaf hollybarrierleafplantfood
Holly Barrier would like to advise folks not to eat his berries. "It's rude to eat somebody's berries without asking," he says. "In addition, they are highly toxic."

Holly Barrier is a premium plant in Plants vs. Zombies 2 that is tied to the 2017 Feastivus event. He acts like an Endurian, damaging zombies that attack him every 1 second, as well as having the same amount of health as an Endurian. Like Banana Launcher and Missile Toe, he can launch one of his small berries to a selected tile on the lawn when interacted with.

The berries launched by Holly Barrier will damage and knock back zombies in a 3x3 area one tile. If the berries land on a tile free of obstacles like tombstones, it will leave a spiky barrier leaf on said tile that has the attacking power of Endurian (but half the health) as well as the stalling height of a Tall-nut.

Unlike Banana Launcher and Missile Toe, however, Holly Barrier's berries won't recharge over time. Similar to Chard Guard’s leaves, though, the player can manually plant a Holly Barrier on top of one to restore his berries if they have Wall-nut First Aid or use Aloe to heal him.

The barriers count as plants, and add up to a maximum plant total, cannot be planted on water and can be revived by Intensive Carrot, but can still be launched at Imp Cannons to deal impact damage. Exclusive to the international version, zombies knocked back by the barriers can be blown away by Blover while they are in the air.

He was released in the Chinese version in the 2.3.5 update along with Alarm Explosive Arrowhead.

Holly Barrier

He is based on both holly, a genus of flowering plants, and a barricade, an object or structure that creates a barrier or obstacle to control, block passage or force the flow of traffic in the desired direction.

His code name, Holly Knight, is a reference to the Christmas carol Silent Night (more specifically, the line "holy night"). It also references how Holly Barrier is both based on holly and is a defensive plant.

His almanac description refers to the fact that hollies are extremely poisonous.

Almanac entry

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

Holly Barrier
	SUN COST 150 RECHARGE 15 TOUGHNESS 3000 DAMAGE 20 Special Knockback Special Barrier Strength Usage Tap to Aim Reinforce-mint Plant Food: Fully heals itself and regains all berries. Launches Armored leaves on to random tiles. Holly Barrier deals damage to zombies attacking him, and can launch 3 prickly barrier leaves to knock back and damage zombies. Holly Barrier would like to advise folks not to eat his berries. "It's rude to eat somebody's berries without asking," he says. "In addition, they are highly toxic."

Holly Barrier

SUN COST 150 RECHARGE 15 TOUGHNESS 3000 DAMAGE 20 Special Knockback Special Barrier Strength Usage Tap to Aim Reinforce-mint Plant Food: Fully heals itself and regains all berries. Launches Armored leaves on to random tiles. Holly Barrier deals damage to zombies attacking him, and can launch 3 prickly barrier leaves to knock back and damage zombies. Holly Barrier would like to advise folks not to eat his berries. "It's rude to eat somebody's berries without asking," he says. "In addition, they are highly toxic."

Overview

Holly Barrier absorbs 3000 damage and his appearance changes upon at 900, 1950 and 2700 damage before being eaten at 3000 damage. His normal barriers absorbs 1500 damage and its appearance changes upon at 300, 600, 975 and 1350 damage before being eaten at 1500 damage. His Plant Food barriers absorbs 3000 damage and its appearance changes upon at 600, 1200, 1950 and 2700 damage before being eaten at 3000 damage.

Upgrades

Plant Food effect

Plant Food ability (animation)

When given Plant Food, Holly Barrier will regain all lost berries, and will launch four berries on random tiles. If they land on a tile without an obstacle, the spiky leaf will have metallic spikes attached to it, making it do more damage to zombies and giving it more health. And finally, it will heal to full health.

Costumed (China only)

Same as the normal Plant Food effect, but one of the berries deal electric damage, dealing more damage.

Reinforce-mint effect

When boosted by Reinforce-mint, Holly Barrier can absorb an additional 5000 damage, its leaves can absorb an additional 3000 damage, its plant food leaves can absorb an additional 5000 damage, and its plant food effect will activate.

Level upgrades

Level	Seed Packets	Coins	Upgrades
			Sun Cost	Recharge (Sluggish)	Toughness (Elevated)	Damage (Normal)*			Special (Barrier)^		Plant Food Power (Barrier)†		Special (Knockback)
						Melee	Berry	Plant Food Berry	Strength	Health	Strength	Health
1	0	0	150	15 seconds	3000 damage	20 damage	50 damage	200 damage	20 damage	1500 damage	40 damage	2500 damage	1 tile
2	10	1,000			3250 damage	30 damage			25 damage		50 damage		1.25 tiles
3	25	2,500			3500 damage		75 damage	300 damage		1750 damage		3000 damage
4	50	5,000		13 seconds	3740 damage				30 damage		60 damage		1.5 tiles
5	100	10,000	125		4000 damage	40 damage		400 damage		2000 damage		3250 damage
6	200	20,000			4250 damage		100 damage		35 damage		70 damage
7	400	30,000		12 seconds				500 damage		2500 damage		4000 damage	1.75 tiles
8	800	50,000			4500 damage	50 damage	125 damage	600 damage	40 damage		80 damage
9	1,200	75,000		10 seconds	4750 damage	60 damage	150 damage	700 damage		2750 damage	90 damage
10	1,600	100,000	100		5000 damage	80 damage	200 damage	800 damage	50 damage	3000 damage	100 damage	5000 damage	2 tiles

*This shows its damage to zombies attacking him, and the berries' damage after launching and exploding on impact, for both its normal and Plant Food berry, respectively.
^This shows the spiky barrier leaf's damage and toughness, respectively.
†This shows the Plant Food spiky barrier leaf's damage and toughness, respectively.

Mastery upgrades

• Chance to Boost
• Toughness Bonus

Level upgrade (China only)

Level	Upgrades	Description
	Knight Vicinity 骑士领域	Increases attack range, which is attack all zombies within one square to the left, right, up, and down simultaneously. 冬青骑士的攻击范围扩大，可以同时攻击左右上下各一格的所有僵尸。
	Combat Training 战斗训练	Holly Barrier gains 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
	Knight Faith 骑士信念	The knockback effect of small holly is enhanced. It can knock back small zombies by 3 squares. 小冬青的击退效果增强，可以击退小体型僵尸3格。
	Cell Activation 细胞活化	Holly Barrier gains another 50% more attack power and health (200% of initial).
	Ability Awaken 能力觉醒	Holly Barrier may be boosted when planted.
	Fighting Power 战斗能力	Holly Barrier gains another 50% more attack power and health (250% of initial).
	Knight Guard 骑士守护	The size of the small holly thrown by Holly Barrier is increased. Its health is increased to 3200, and its attack power is increased to be consistent with Holly Barrier. 冬青骑士抛出的小冬青体型增大，生命值提升至3200，攻击力提升至与冬青骑士一致。
	Fighting Power 战斗能力	Holly Barrier gains another 50% more attack power and health (300% of initial).

Strategies

Although Holly Barrier doesn't look great at first glance, Holly Barrier has a lot of hidden potential that can make the plant incredibly devastating. The main proponent of this is the fact that all of Holly Barrier's missiles knock back zombies around them in a 3x3 area when they land, in addition to leaving a decent HP wall that can also defend itself. Because of this, Holly Barrier is incredibly efficient at stalling zombies early in the game, and potentially stalling more dangerous groups of zombies, such as Gargantuars, later in the game.

Due to Holly Barrier's minuscule offensive potential however, it should not be used in the same way as a Banana Launcher or Missile Toe, rather it should be used entirely on the merits of its utility and synergies. Due to the nature of Holly Barrier and its missiles, Holly Barrier can also function similarly to Endurian, but be weary that sometimes the knock back utility of its missiles might be a better option to utilize.

The missiles this plant fires also behave exactly like Tall-nut, halting any and all flying zombies such as the Zombie Bull Rider imps thrown by Zombie Bulls or Rodeo Legend Zombies bulls, Balloon Zombies, Bug Zombies, amongst other low flying zombies. Interestingly though, despite any visual degradation of the launched barriers, they will continue to block flying zombies until completely eaten. The main plant that launches the barriers does NOT possess this one trait of height and will only block grounded zombies.

Holly Barrier has got quite a few synergies that really make the plant shine. Thanks to being a defensive plant, Wall-nut First Aid will work on Holly Barrier, allowing you to instantly replenish all of the leaves on the plant. Similarly to Chard Guard, Holly Barrier also has synergy with Aloe, whereupon Holly Barrier falling below half HP, Aloe will both heal him and restore any missing leaves, allowing Holly Barrier to both reutilize its knock back utility, as well as allowing it to better serve its role as an Endurian-like plant. Because Reinforce-mint triggers the Plant Food effects of all plants in its family when planted, Reinforce-mint can trigger the Plant Food effects of several Holly Barriers on the lawn, causing a ton of high-power barriers to be created, as well as causing several zombies on screen to both get knocked back and take a significant amount of damage. Finally, Blover has insane synergy with Holly Barrier thanks to Barrier's 3x3 knock back. When planted just before the barrier is about to drop on a group of zombies, Blover can instantly kill a 3x3 area of zombies as soon as the barrier drops, making this combo very efficient at clearing large amounts of zombies quickly, especially when combined with other aforementioned synergies.

Although Holly Barrier can be quite self-sufficient, combining him with other defensive plants, such as Infi-nut and Primal Wall-nut, can create some incredibly devastating stalls that are often hard for the zombies to break. It's generally easier to use long-ranged plants with Holly Barrier, since its effect can be quite unpredictable, and can often block spots for close-ranged plants if used incorrectly.

Holly Barrier can be used to deal with Chicken Wrangler Zombies and Weasel Hoarders thanks to the barrier's high HP. Holly Barrier can also help stall zombies such as Excavator Zombies, Punk Zombie, or MC Zom-Bs due to their animations. If placed correctly, Holly Barrier can separate the Barrel Roller Zombie from its barrel, preventing the zombie from pushing it any further. The barrier leaves can also be used as fodder for the All-Star Zombie.

Because the berries count as plants, it is best not to use Holly Barrier in levels where you can't have more than a certain number of plants, or in levels where you're not allowed lose plants. It also doesn't perform quite as well in Last Stand levels due to the limited amount of sun available.

The biggest weakness of Holly Barrier is that it can be difficult to use properly, due to the decision making needed, as well as knowledge of nuanced mechanics. Holly Barrier does also have a couple of weaknesses, namely that Breakdancer Zombies can kick past the barrier leaves and often into the Holly Barriers themselves, often creating problematic situations. Holly Barrier is also often a mediocre choice in Frostbite Caves due to the fact that both he and his missiles take space on the lawn, and since they're subject to frost, they can often limit the space that you have to plant, and this problem can become exasperated if Troglobites are in the level.

Balance changes

Version 2.5.6  (China only)

• ▲ Sun cost decreased from 450 to 150.
• ▲ Health increased.

Gallery

Holly Barrier has a gallery!

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Holly Barrier
Simplified Chinese	冬青骑士	lit. "Holly Knight"
French	Garde-houx	lt. "Holly Guard
German	Holly-Barriere
Italian	Barriera agrifoglio
Brazilian Portuguese	Murazevinho
Spanish	Barrera de acebo

Trivia

• His internal name is "hollyknight", which references the popular Christmas song, "Silent Night" and the name "Holy Knight", a popular rank name for knights widely used in Japanese media.
  • The name "Holly Knight" is used for Holly Barrier in the Chinese version of Plants vs. Zombies 2.
• Holly trees are dioecious, and the females grow red berries. However, Holly Barrier is referred to with masculine pronouns. On the other hand, this can explain why Holly Barrier's berries won't recharge over time.
• Unlike Banana Launcher and Missile Toe, Holly Barrier can be planted on minecarts. If the player tries this, a glitch will cause minecarts to no longer be movable.
• If one of Holly Barrier's leaves (Plant-fooded or not) is resurrected by Intensive Carrot, its damage value will glitch out due to not having one specified, causing its damage to go to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807.
  • This happens because the Leaves' damage value is tied to Holly Barrier itself, by reviving one, that tie is broken and the Leaf will now lack a damage value, causing it to go to the highest possible damage value the game can hold instead (the damage value is 64 bits).
    • Holly Leaves and their Plant Food variant are actually both internally listed as seperate plants than Holly Barrier, hacking them into the game and placing them down reveals the exact same glitched behaviour as when they're revived.
    • Sometimes though this will actually make the Leaves do no damage at all instead of doing 9 Quintillion, why this is is unknown.
      • The same issue also happened with Blooming Heart and with Rotobaga's Plant-Food projectile when they were first released, however, in Blooming Heart's case specifically, back then it would instead make whatever it hit become invincible instead of doing no damage.

See also

• Banana Launcher
• Missile Toe
• Endurian

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