Lava Guava

For the version in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, see Lava Guava.

Lava Guava
Lava Guavas erupt, creating a lava pool that burns zombies.
Statistics
Sun Cost	75
Recharge	15 seconds
Damage	200 damage
Range	Touch
Usage	Single, Instant
Family	Pepper-mint
Plant Food effect	Fractures the ground in front, dealing damage over several seconds.
Usage	Single use, on contact
Special	Erupts, damaging nearby zombies
Special	Creates a burning lava pool in its tile
Statistics (China)
Sun Cost	75
Recharge	10 seconds
Toughness	300 damage
Damage	1000 damage
Range	3×3 Nearby
Area	AoE within range
Class	Special
Quality	Rare
Tags	Insta, area of effect, fire
Plant features	Green plant, full of anger
In-game statistics
Other special	Warms nearby plants in Frostbite Caves Cannot be planted on minecarts. Burn a Lily Pad, then the lava pool quickly disappear (if the Lily Pad is on water) in Big Wave Beach
Other weakness	(immune to lava)
Unlocked	Spending 100 gems
Unlocked (China)	10 Lava Guava Puzzle Pieces Obtain 280 stars
Costumes
Code name	lavaguava
Lava Guava frowns with barely-repressed rage. He's trying to keep it in check. But one day some zombie's going to push him too far and he can't be held responsible for the consequences.

“	Lava Guava erupts dealing damage to all nearby zombies.	”
—Penny

Lava Guava is a gemium plant in Plants vs. Zombies 2. He was released on May 26, 2015 for 129 gems, along with the Lost City part 1 teaser Piñata Parties. His price has been reduced to 99 gems during the Big Brainz event. He permanently costs 100 gems in the store.

Lava Guava erupts upon contact with a zombie, briefly splashing lava around him and dealing 200 damage to all enemies in a 3x3 area. Afterwards, a lava puddle that lasts for 12 seconds (only 1.5 seconds on the water in Big Wave Beach) will be formed, capable of damaging zombies that step on it as well as preventing other plants from being planted on the tile until it disappears.

Lava Guava is also a thawing plant, emitting heat every 6 seconds that gradually unfreezes frozen or chilled plants in a 3x3 area surrounding him as well as being immune to all freezing effects himself. This applies to the lava tile he leaves, too. The lava puddles can override butter puddles (from Buttercup and Bud'uh Boom) / sap puddles (from Sap-fling) / oil puddles (from Olive Pit) / slippery ices (from Zomboni) / poison tiles (from Goo Peashooter), while these kinds of grid items cannot be spawned on lava puddles. Shallow puddles, pothole puddles, goo puddles from Cran Jelly, and molten pools from Meteor Flower have a higher priority, thus being able to prevent lava puddles to be spawed on them and destroy lava puddles on spawning.

Origins

Lava Guava is based on the guava fruit, most likely the common guava (Psidium guajava), a common tropical fruit that is cultivated and enjoyed in many tropical and subtropical regions; and a volcano, a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. His name is also a reverse of "Guava Lava," a type of cocktail.

A real-life example of Psidium guajava, the plant Lava Guava is based on

Almanac entry

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

Lava Guava
	SUN COST 75 RECHARGE 15 DAMAGE 200 RANGE Touch Usage Single, Instant Pepper-mint Plant Food: Fractures the ground in front, dealing damage over several seconds. Lava Guavas erupt, creating a lava pool that burns zombies. Lava Guava frowns with barely-repressed rage. He's trying to keep it in check. He's trying so hard. But one day some zombie's going to push him too far and he can't be held responsible for the consequences.

Lava Guava

SUN COST 75 RECHARGE 15 DAMAGE 200 RANGE Touch Usage Single, Instant Pepper-mint Plant Food: Fractures the ground in front, dealing damage over several seconds. Lava Guavas erupt, creating a lava pool that burns zombies. Lava Guava frowns with barely-repressed rage. He's trying to keep it in check. He's trying so hard. But one day some zombie's going to push him too far and he can't be held responsible for the consequences.

Chinese version  (China only)

岩浆番石榴会喷射岩浆,[sic]并生成一个岩浆坑对僵尸造成伤害。 用法: [sic]单次使用，[sic]接触后触发效果 特点: [sic]喷射岩浆, [sic]对周围的僵尸造成伤害 特点: [sic]在它[sic]所在的格子生成一个岩浆坑。 植物特征：[sic]绿色植物、满腹怒火 岩浆番石榴皱着眉头压抑着愤怒。它[sic]尝试保持冷静。 [sic]它[sic]是那么的[sic]努力，但当僵尸对他[sic]得寸进尺时，他[sic]就不能忍了。 In English: Lava Guava can spray lava, and creating a lava pool to damage zombies. Usage: single use, on contact Special: sprays lava, damaging nearby zombies Special: creates a burning lava pool in its tile Plant feature: green plant, full of anger Lava Guava frowns and represses rage. It's trying to keep calm. It's trying so hard, but when zombies push him too far, he can no longer hold back.

Upgrades

Plant Food effect

When fed with Plant Food, Lava Guava creates a fissure in the ground on all tiles in front of him, dealing a total of 900 damage over 12 seconds to all grounded enemies walking along the crack. In addition, he warms nearby plants every 1.5 seconds in Frostbite Caves, this trait is shared by all thawing plants.

Pepper-mint effect

When boosted by Pepper-mint, Lava Guava will have an additional 600 damage added to his explosion, and an additional 60 damage per tick added to his plant food damage.

Level upgrade

Level	Seed packets	Coins	Upgrades
			Sun Cost	Recharge (Mediocre)	Starting Recharge	Damage (Heavy)*	Plant Food Power (Damage)**	Range
1	0	0	75	15 seconds	10 seconds	200 damage	25 damage	Touch
2	10	1,000				250 damage
3	25	2,500		14 seconds	9 seconds	275 damage	30 damage
4	50	5,000				300 damage	35 damage
5	100	10,000		13 seconds	8 seconds	350 damage	40 damage
6	200	20,000	50			400 damage	45 damage
7	400	30,000		12 seconds	7 seconds	450 damage	50 damage
8	800	50,000		11 seconds	6 seconds	500 damage	55 damage
9	1,200	75,000		10 seconds	5 seconds	550 damage	60 damage
10	1,600	100,000	25			600 damage

*Column shows his erupting damage. His lava tile damage per second does not increase through upgrades.
**Per hit. His Plant Food effect does a total of 36 hits.

Mastery upgrades

• Chance to Boost
• Damage Pierce

Costumed  (China only)

Lava Guava will now create a fissure in a cross pattern.

Level upgrade  (China only)

Level	Upgrades	Description
	Enhanced Lava 强化熔岩	Increases lava tile duration from 12 seconds to 14 seconds. 岩浆番石榴留下的岩浆池的持续时间增加2秒。
	Combat Training 战斗训练	Lava Guava gains 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
	Ragefire Eruption 怒炎喷发	Creates secondary lava tiles in all connected tiles, which persist for 11 seconds.
	Cell Activation 细胞活化	Lava Guava gains another 50% more attack power and health (200% of initial).
	Ability Awaken 能力觉醒	Lava Guava may be boosted when planted.
	Fighting Power 战斗能力	Lava Guava gains another 50% more attack power and health (250% of initial).
	Volcanic Eruption 火山爆发	Launches five lava boulders that target five random tiles and generate those of their own for 11 seconds on impact. 岩浆番石榴喷发后随机抛出 5 个岩浆球，岩浆球落地后生成持续 11 秒的岩浆池。
	Fighting Power 战斗能力	Lava Guava gains another 50% more attack power and health (300% of initial).

Strategies

Similar to Ghost Pepper, Lava Guava benefits greatly from his long damage-dealing duration, low sun cost, and relatively quick recharge rate compared to other instant-kill plants. Because of this, he is best used as an aid to other offensive plants or an emergency option to quickly neutralize large clusters of zombies. While Ghost Pepper has a greater range and therefore will be better suited to fighting quick-moving enemies, Lava Guava deals more damage in a smaller area and will prove to be better at attacking slower targets.

Lava Guava should ideally be positioned in areas where large groups of zombies will walk through, which makes it useful in Endless Zones. Directing zombies with Sweet Potato or Garlic as well as delaying them with stalling plants such as Stunion or Stallia or stopping them with a defensive plant can also greatly increase Lava Guava's efficiency. Lava Guava's Plant Food ability should not be relied upon, as he deals relatively low damage compared to other plants. However, Lava Guava works as a barrier while using his Plant Food ability, but that barrier role should be best used with Primal Wall-nut and a lava pool instead.

Lava Guava is particularly useful in Frostbite Caves, as the ice floes can create natural choke points, forcing enemies from multiple lanes to walk through the lava tile and maximizing Lava Guava's potential. Additionally, Lava Guava can be used as a thawing plant if the player opted not to carry other fire-based plants into the battle, with the added benefit of NOT disabling freezing effects of ice-based plants as he has no ranged attacks and can therefore be deployed safely in the back. It’s also a good idea to use Lava Guava against Chicken Wrangler Zombie or Weasel Hoarder, as his explosion can easily destroy a flock of Zombie Chickens or pack of Ice Weasels. The player should be aware of Troglobites because their frozen block can crush Lava Guava as well as Dodo Rider Zombie, as they can fly to bypass the lava tile. Of course, he can be planted on an adjacent role to melt all the ice blocks so they won't be of a threat.

He cannot be used against Imp Dragon Zombies due to their immunity to his attacks. It is also a poor idea to use this plant on water tiles in Big Wave Beach - the lava tile will disappear very quickly and deal little damage to zombies, wasting the player's sun in the process. A Cherry Bomb or a Ghost Pepper (which does not require a Lily Pad) would be much better. However, outside of Big Wave Beach, Lava Guava can easily defeat an Octo Zombie when planted on the tile he is on, as an erupting Lava Guava cannot be bound and since the Octo Zombie is slow, the damage will be enough to finish him off. Since the Lava Guava will undo freezing and other ice-based effects, other non-ice equivalents must be relied on.

It is a good idea to use Lava Guava against All-Star Zombies. An All-Star would tackle the Lava Guava and lose his high running speed, but Lava Guava will still activate and survive the damage from the tackle as well as doing high damage to the zombie.

Lava Guava is also able to be used for the same strategies as Spikeweed and Spikerock, thanks to how similar they are. However, he is not permanent nor he recharges fast. But when it comes to zombies that can crush plants, he will work better since the lava pool can only disappear after its duration has expired and zombies cannot remove it. Furthermore, while only temporary, it deals much higher damage than the two aforementioned plants.

Related achievement

	So Thawful Thaw 13 ice blocks in a single level

Gallery

Lava Guava has a gallery!

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Lava Guava
Simplified Chinese	岩浆番石榴	"Lava guava"
French	Goyelave	"Gualava"
German	Lava-Guave
Italian	Guava lava
Brazilian Portuguese	Goialava	From goiaba and lava
Spanish	Guayalava

Trivia

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies 2

• He, Banana Launcher, Jack O' Lantern, Escape Root, Missile Toe, and Olive Pit are the only plants that cannot be planted on minecarts.
  • Trying to plant a Lava Guava on a minecart will yield the message, "Lava would melt the railcart."
  • However, this does not happen in the Chinese version.
• If his Plant Food ability is used in Pirate Seas or Big Wave Beach, the water in the lane will boil and bubble up.
• Even after leaving his lava puddle behind, he could be shoveled up for sun refund before the 3.7.1 update. The lava would stay on that tile after Lava Guava had been dug up.
• If a zombie is about to trigger a Lava Guava but gets immobilized, the Lava Guava will not activate.
• If any plant is planted to the right of the lava tile, Mecha-Football Zombie will push that plant two tiles backwards, behind the lava tile.
• If he erupts, a Tomb Raiser Zombie can spawn tombstones on the puddle, which strangely does not damage them.
• Excavator Zombie will sometimes attempt to attack Lava Guava with his shovel.

Seed packet images: international 3.5.1 (left), international 3.6.1 (middle), and Chinese version (right)

• In the 3.6.1 update, his splash damage effect was delayed and took a few seconds more to hurt the zombies. The delay was removed again in the 3.8.1 update.
• His seed packet was changed to his in-game texture in the 3.6.1 update.
  • In the Chinese version, his seed packet image is sharper than that in the international version.
• One of his costumes is a lei, a string of flowers originated from Hawaii.
  • This might be a reference to the fact that Hawaii is a series of islands formed from volcanoes, and that Lava Guava looks and acts similar to a volcano.
• MC Zom-B can kill an idling Lava Guava using his microphone attack. This will not trigger the Lava Guava even though this would have killed him as if the Lava Guava ruptures, lava will spill all over the tile, burning the zombie.
  • Additionally, MC Zom-B would also attempt to attack lava tiles, stalling him for a while. This was fixed in the 4.1.1 update.
• As of the 11.3.1 update, he can leave a lava puddle that does not quickly disappear on beach water if the tide does not start to change. This is a glitch.
• According to the credits, he is voiced by Scott Porterfield.

Specific to the Chinese version  (China only)

• Lava Guava's Tier menu statistics list his damage as "1000.00".
• His level 3 upgrade makes plants unable to be planted in a + plus shape. However, plants that were planted there before will be unaffected by this.
• His level 5 projectiles are the same as those of Primal Peashooter's level 5. The lava pools that they create also look different than the main pool, resembling larger versions of Dragonfruit's costumed Plant Food pools and Primal Peashooter's level 5 pools.

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