Lightning Reed

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For other versions, see Lightning Reed (disambiguation).

Lightning Reed
Lightning Reeds shoot lightning at nearest zombie up to one lane away. The bolt will then arc and hit other zombies.
Almanac statistics
Sun cost	125
Recharge	Fast
Damage	Light
Range	Multi-hit, can even hit targets one lane above or below
Special	Chain attacks to multiple targets
Rarity (China)	Uncommon
In-game statistics
Direct damage	0.25 normal damage shot
Splash damage	0.25 normal damage shot
Unlocked	Beating Wild West - Day 9
Unlocked (China)	Beating Wild West - Day 9
Costumes
This may come as a shock, but Lightning Reed has a serious passion for ham radio. His call sign is El3ctric H1ccup. You can tune in every Tuesday to hear him read the classics to elderly plants. This week: Seeds and Sensibility.

Lightning Reed is the fourth plant obtained in Wild West in Plants vs. Zombies 2. He generates lightning from his body that strikes the closest zombie or obstacle, such as a tombstone, within three lanes from where he is planted, similarly to Threepeater. The lightning will arc to another zombie or tombstone if close enough. After the 5.6.1 update, a direct hit deals a quarter of a normal damage shot and the arcs of electricity deal the same amount of damage. Before the 5.6.1 update, a direct hit dealt half of a normal damage shot and the arcs of electricity dealt a quarter of a normal damage shot. He attacks approximately every 1.5 seconds.

Origins

Based on his appearance, it is likely that the Lightning Reed is based on the Typha plant family, commonly referred to as cattail in English. His name is a pun of "lightning rod," a piece of metal put on top of a tall structure to protect it from lightning strikes; "lightning," a sudden electrostatic discharge occurring during thunderstorms; and "reed," the real-life plant that this plant is based on.

Almanac entry

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

Lightning Reed
	SUN COST 125 RECHARGE 5 TOUGHNESS 300 DAMAGE 10 RANGE Multi-Hit SPECIAL Zombies Zapped Fila-mint Plant Food: Creates a storm cloud that damages random zombies on the lawn. Lightning Reeds shoot lightning at nearest zombie up to one lane away. The bolt will then arc and hit other zombies. This may come as a shock, but Lightning Reed has a serious passion for ham radio. His call sign is El3ctric H1ccup. You can tune in every Tuesday to hear him read the classics to elderly plants. This week: Seeds and Sensibility.

Lightning Reed

SUN COST 125 RECHARGE 5 TOUGHNESS 300 DAMAGE 10 RANGE Multi-Hit SPECIAL Zombies Zapped Fila-mint Plant Food: Creates a storm cloud that damages random zombies on the lawn. Lightning Reeds shoot lightning at nearest zombie up to one lane away. The bolt will then arc and hit other zombies. This may come as a shock, but Lightning Reed has a serious passion for ham radio. His call sign is El3ctric H1ccup. You can tune in every Tuesday to hear him read the classics to elderly plants. This week: Seeds and Sensibility.

Upgrades

Plant Food effect

Lightning Reed unleashes a small cloud

When fed Plant Food, he generates a small storm cloud that tracks down a random target, dealing 8 normal damage shots per second. If the target is defeated, the cloud will quickly move to another random zombie. The cloud lasts for 15 seconds before disappearing.

Costumed (China only)

Lightning Reed unleashes a huge lightning cloud and instantly electrocutes all zombies on screen.

Level upgrade

Level	Seed Packets	Coins	Upgrades
			Sun Cost	Recharge (Fast)	Toughness (Typical)	Damage (Normal)	Special (Zombies Zapped)	Range
1	0	0	125	5 seconds	300 damage	10 damage	Three	Multi-Hit
2	10	1,000			350 damage	14 damage	Four
3	50	2,000			400 damage	16 damage	Four
4	100	4,000			450 damage	18 damage	Five
5	125	6,000	100		500 damage	20 damage	Five
6	175	8,000			550 damage	24 damage	Six
7	250	10,000			600 damage	28 damage	Six
8	350	15,000			650 damage	32 damage	Seven
9	450	20,000			700 damage	34 damage	Seven
10	800	60,000	75		750 damage	40 damage	Eight
11	1,000	75,000			800 damage	44 damage	Eight
12	1,250	100,000			825 damage	48 damage	Nine
13	1,500	150,000			850 damage	52 damage	Nine
14	1,750	200,000			875 damage	56 damage	Ten
15	2,000	250,000	50		900 damage	60 damage	Ten

Level upgrade (China only)

Level	Upgrades	Description
	Powerful Lightning	Lightning Reed gains a 15% chance to release a red, high voltage lightning that can stop zombies for a short while.
	Combat Training 战斗训练	Lightning Reed gains 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
	Overdriven Current	The chance of releasing red lightnings is increased to 30%.
	Cell Activation 细胞活化	Lightning Reed gains another 50% more attack power and health (200% of initial).
	Ability Awaken 能力觉醒	Lightning Reed may be boosted when planted.
	Fighting Power 战斗能力	Lightning Reed gains another 50% more attack power and health (250% of initial).

Strategies

Due to the lightning's chaining mechanic, Lightning Reed is best used in large groups. While one will have trouble against even a regular Zombie, ten or more of them are capable of dealing an impressive amount of damage against swarms of enemies, especially when all five lanes are occupied with zombies. However, his low initial damage means that it will have difficulty against durable targets like Buckethead Zombies, meaning that more powerful splash-damaging or strong single-target plants, such as Citron or Melon-pult will be required to support it.

Because of his high attack speed and chain attacks, Lightning Reed is a powerful weapon against Zombie Chickens and Ice Weasels because he can destroy multiple chickens in only one shot. Compared to other plants that can also counter them such as Spikeweed and Fume-shroom, Lightning Reed can cover up to three lanes at once, attack faster and has better range, but cannot neutralize Ice Weasels as effectively due to his low damage, unless it's level 4, as it does more damage and zaps 5 Ice Weasels per hit, planting 1-2 columns is the the best against both; Zombie Chickens and Ice Weasels.

Another useful feature of Lightning Reed is that his attack cannot be blocked or reflected by any means. Therefore, it is a possible counter against Shield Zombies, Jester Zombies, and Excavator Zombies. Lightning Reed is also helpful in defeating Surfer Zombies in Big Wave Beach as he will destroy their surfboards upon defeating them, thus preventing any surfboards from crushing plants.

Lightning Reeds can be quite useful against a column of Glitter Zombies. While they can protect all zombies behind them and severely reduce the effectiveness of single-lane plants such as Laser Bean and Fume-shroom, a group of Lightning Reed can still attack the entire column of Glitter Zombies and defeat them quickly.

In the Chinese Version it is highly recommended to upgrade him because he will be able to stun zombies for a few seconds. Groups of upgraded Lightning Reeds will be easily able to stun zombies because of fast attacks combined with splash damage. Because of this , it works well in PVP mode combined with other upgraded plants.

Gallery

Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Lightning Reed.

Visit this page to see it.

Trivia

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies 2

• The "El3ctric H1ccup" in his Almanac entry is an improper call sign for ham radio operators. A real one resembles something such as "K7PKRL." "El3ctric H1ccup" is actually "leetspeak" for "Electric Hiccup."
  • Hence, when he's zapping zombies, his head rises as if he has hiccups.
• Despite the fact that the real life reed is an aquatic plant, he cannot be planted in the water in Big Wave Beach.
  • This has been corrected in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes.
• "Seeds and Sensibility" mentioned in his Almanac entry is based on the novel Sense and Sensibility, a famous Jane Austen novel.
• His Plant Food immunity time is less than half a second, making him one of the few plants which can be eaten while under the effects of Plant Food.
• If he zaps the body of a zombie that has already lost its head, the head comes back for the dying animation.
• If he zaps any kind of Gargantuar, the player will see that Gargantuar has a skeleton of a dinosaur where its rib cage should be.
• When a Zombie Bull is zapped, it reveals the mechanical parts used to make up the Zombie Bull instead of a skeleton, unlike all the other zombies. If the Zombie Bull Rider is not yet thrown and the Zombie Bull is zapped, the Zombie Bull Rider will vanish.
• If he zaps a Balloon Zombie, the player will see that the balloon has a skeleton of a monkey riding an old school bicycle and wearing a fez, rather than an empty balloon.
  • The same will happen with Electric Blueberry
• If his storm cloud goes after a swinging Swashbuckler Zombie, it will zap the Swashbuckler Zombie's landing spot.
• If he electrifies an Imp that was launched from an Imp Cannon over water, the Imp will just disappear. 
• After the 2.5.1 update, his electricity immediately fades away.
• If he manages to zap a Zombie Chicken, the player will obtain the Fried Chicken achievement.
  • Sometimes, some zombie chickens when defeated by Lightning Reed will disappear without the zapping animation, and instead leaving a miniature bowl of KFC chicken.
• In the Almanac, it says he deals normal damage, but he only deals light damage in actual gameplay.

Lightning Reeds planted in one column in this shot

• He was originally going to cost 150 sun, according to pre-release gameplay footage.
• He, Sun-shroom, Sun Bean, Hot Potato, and Explode-o-nut have a glow around themselves in the seed packet.
• In the Behind the Brainz - New Plants the developers said that Lightning Reed is a female, but the Almanac entry says he's a male.
• He is the only electric plant that doesn't have a twitching animation.

Specific to the Chinese version

• Despite the fact that he is unlocked after Wild West - Day 9, he is considered a Pirate Seas plant.
• His Plant Food ability will zap illusions created by Magic Mushroom instead of attacking other zombies. This is probably a glitch.

See also

• Fried Chicken
• Zombie Chicken

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