Lightning Reed (Plants vs. Zombies 2)

For other uses, 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.
Statistics
Sun Cost	125
Recharge	5 seconds
Toughness	300 damage
Damage	10 damage
Range	Mutli-Hit
Zombies Zapped	3
Family	Fila-mint
Plant Food effect	Creates a storm cloud that damages random zombies on the lawn.
Statistics (China)
Sun Cost	125
Recharge	5 seconds
Toughness	300 damage
Damage	10 damage
Attack Rate	1.5 seconds
Range	Three Lanes to the Right
Area	Single Target
Class	Ranged
Quality	Uncommon
Tags	Damage, control, lightning
Plant features	Green plant, thunderbolt
In-game statistics
Other weakness	(immune to lightning bolts unless raincoat is shredded)
Unlocked	Beating Wild West - Day 9
Unlocked (China)	Beating Wild West - Day 9
Costumes
Code name	lightningreed
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 Reeds shoots lightning at the nearest zombie up to one lane away. The lightning also chains to other nearby zombies.	”
—Penny

Lightning Reed is the fourth plant obtained in Wild West in Plants vs. Zombies 2, introduced as a counter to Zombie Chickens. He can fire lightning bolts upon targets in his and adjacent lanes ahead, which can arc and hit several at once.

About

For more information about this character, see Lightning Reed.

Lightning Reed is the fourth plant unlocked in Wild West and the first plant in Plants vs. Zombies 2 to deal electric damage.

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, similar to Threepeater. The lightning will arc to another zombie or tombstone if close enough.

He attacks every 1.35-1.5 seconds, with direct hits dealing ten damage and the arcs of electricity dealing another ten damage.

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.

Chinese version  (China only)

闪电芦苇会对路线上最近的僵尸发射闪电，并且其电压会形成电弧扫过附近的僵尸。 范围：可以击中上下一行的目标 特殊：多个目标的连锁攻击 植物特征：绿色植物、十万伏特 这可能有些令人吃惊。闪电芦苇是业余无线电的热衷者。它[sic]的呼号是“闪0电3嗝1”。每周二你可以在调频收听到它给年纪大的植物们朗读经典。这周主题：理智的种子与情感。 In English: Lightning Reed shoots lightning at nearest zombie up to one lane away whose voltage will then form an arc and sweep other nearby zombies. Range: One lane away Special: Attack which affects multiple targets Plant feature: green plant, thunderbolt It might be surprising. Lightning Reed is a fan of amateur radio. Its call sign is "light0ning3burp1". Every Tuesday when tuning you can hear it read the classics to elderly plants. Topic of this week: Seed of Rationality, and Sensibility.

Upgrades

Plant Food effect

Plant Food ability (animated)

When fed Plant Food, he generates a small storm cloud that tracks down a random target, dealing 160 damage per second. If the target is defeated, the cloud will quickly move to another random zombie. The cloud lasts for 15 seconds before disappearing.

Fila-mint effect

When boosted by Fila-mint, Lightning Reed does an additional 60 damage to all zombies his electricity bounces to, and his electricity can bounce to an additional ten zombies.

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
4	100	4,000			450 damage	18 damage	Five
5	125	6,000	100		500 damage	20 damage
6	175	8,000			550 damage	24 damage	Six
7	250	10,000			600 damage	28 damage
8	350	15,000			650 damage	32 damage	Seven
9	450	20,000			700 damage	34 damage
10	800	60,000	75		750 damage	40 damage	Eight
11	1,000	75,000			800 damage	44 damage
12	1,250	100,000			825 damage	48 damage	Nine
13	1,500	150,000			850 damage	52 damage
14	1,750	200,000			875 damage	56 damage	Ten
15	2,000	250,000	50		900 damage	60 damage

Mastery upgrades

• Chance to Boost
• Damage Pierce

Level upgrade (China only)

Level	Upgrades	Description
	Powerful Lightning 高能闪电	7% chance to stun targets for 1 second. 闪电攻击命中后有7%的概率麻痹僵尸1秒。
	Combat Training 战斗训练	Lightning Reed gains 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
	Overdriven Current 过载电流	15% chance to stun targets for 1 second. 高能闪电的技能触发概率提升，攻击命中后有15%的概率麻痹僵尸1秒
	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).

Costumed (China only)

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

Strategies

At level 1, Lightning Reed is underpowered and should probably only be used to defend against Zombie Chickens and other low health enemies, if used alone. However, Lightning Reed is relatively cheap and levels up extremely well, becoming one of the most versatile and powerful attack plants in the game. Lightning Reed gets a huge power boost at level 2, with further impressive gains at levels 4, 5, and 6.

Lightning Reed has significant strategically unique aspects. The chain attack can deal impressive damage against hordes of small and medium enemies, as damage output goes up when there are more targets to attack. Moreover when sufficiently levelled up, this in turn allows the lightning to across more nearby targets across more lanes outside of its firing range as long as they are in close proximity.

Lightning Reed can also bypass or neutralize an extraordinary range of common threats and hazards. However, while Lightning Reed can deal impressive crowd damage, damage output may be less impressive against individual high health enemies. The player will likely need a plan plus support plants to address high health enemies. Lightning Reed also has a rather poor Plant Food effect, so it's generally better to use Plant Food on another plant.

Due to the lightning's chaining mechanic that can spread to multiple lanes, Lightning Reed is most effective when there are many targets and it is best to use many Lightning Reeds together. An isolated Lightning Reed will struggle to kill even a Basic Zombie, but when upgraded and deployed in large numbers, ten or more Reeds will work together to rapidly kill a multitude of enemies at the same time. Having more enemies on screen maximizes chain attacks, which means that some defensive tactics can serve as damage multipliers. Any cold, slow, knockback, or stun effects, or any wall type plants synergize very well with them as they can help pile up enemies and increase damage output. Plant Food on an Infi-nut, or pair of Winter Melons (on rows 2 and 4), can be extremely effective tactics to create, contain, and ultimately exterminate crowds of zombies. Primal Peashooter will also effectively pile up zombies, and can be useful to hold back a limited number of high-health zombies. Stickybomb Rice and Turkey-pult also work quite well to slow or stop zombies from advancing.

Lightning Reed attacks cannot be blocked or reflected by any means. Therefore, this completely ignores the defenses and special abilities of Shield Zombies, Jester Zombies, Excavator Zombies, and Parasol Zombies. Excavator and Parasol zombies in particular will sometimes appear together, a formidable combination that several Lightning Reeds easily counter.

The attack speed and chain of Lightning Reeds will almost instantly erase Zombie Chickens from the board. A mere two Lightning Reeds (in rows 2 and 4) is sufficient to cover basic chicken attacks across all 5 rows, although Ice Weasels or larger swarms of chickens will require a modest group of Lightning Reeds to sweep them away before they can attack your plants, as Ice Weasels can tank several hits and Zombie Chickens can be spawned in overwhelming numbers.

The chain attacks are very effective in grinding down and chaining beyond obstacles such as Tombstones, arcade machines, or entire rows of frozen zombies being pushed forwards. The chain damage can continue on to kill important targets behind such obstacles. The lightning chain is also helpful in grinding away any frozen blocks or octopi covering your own plants. As a result of these chain attacks, Lightning Reed is an effective choice against Disco Tron 3000, as the lightning can arc through Disco-Tron's summoned jetpacks and damage the zombie directly.

Chain damage is less effective against durable single targets like Buckethead Zombies or Gargantuars. Buckethead Zombies can however be countered with the support of one or more Magnet-shrooms, making certain levels very easy. Strong splash-damage or strong single-target plants such as Citron, Melon-pult, or Winter Melon may also be effective support. Primal Potato Mine or other single-target damage is particularly valuable to counter Gargantuar-class enemies that are too strong for Lightning Reed to kill on his own. See Gargantuar (PvZ2)#Strategies for additional tactics.

Lightning Reed is also helpful in defeating Surfer Zombies as he will destroy their surfboards upon defeating them, thus preventing any surfboards from crushing plants. However, the Surfer Zombies move quickly, making it difficult to pull this off. The chain attack may be useful against a column of Glitter Zombies, combining to take them all down quickly and uncover the zombies behind them.

In the Chinese version, Lightning Reed gains a stun effect when upgraded, making him devastatingly effective when in groups.

Balance changes

Update 5.6.1

• ▼ Direct hit damage decreased from 10 to 5.

Update 6.7.1

• ▲ Direct hit damage increased from 5 to 10.
• ▲ Splash damage increased from 5 to 10.

Related achievement

	Fried Chicken Use the Lightning Reed on a chicken

Gallery

Lightning Reed has a gallery!

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Lightning Reed
Simplified Chinese	闪电芦苇	"Lightning reed"
French	Arc électrique	"electric arc"/"electric bow"
German	Blitzschilf
Italian	Canna fulminante
Brazilian Portuguese	Junco-relâmpago	From junco and relâmpago
Russian	Электро-камыш	"Electric Cane"
Spanish	Junco eléctrico

Trivia

• 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."
  • This is most likely a reference to 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 changed 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.
• As explained in Gatling Pea’s Almanac entry, Lightning Reed came into existence after a reed was struck by lightning, due to an explosion of a research center
• 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 in the pre 7.4.1 update, 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.
• 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.
• He is the only Fila-mint family plant whose maximum level is 15.
• He is the first adventure plant to be showcased in Arena.

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.
• He is the only electric plant that doesn't have a twitching animation.

Specific to the Chinese version (China only)

• Despite the fact that he is unlocked after Wild West - Day 9, he is considered a Pirate Seas plant.

See also

• Fried Chicken
• Zombie Chicken

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