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.
Almanac statistics
Sun cost	125
Recharge	5 seconds
Damage	10 damage per shot, with 10 damage per shot splash damage.
Range	Multi-hit, can even hit targets one lane above or below
Special	Chain attacks to multiple targets
Family	Fila-mint
In-game statistics
Rarity (China)	Uncommon
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 can target multiple zombies in adjacent lanes, and lightning fired from him also damages nearby zombies.

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, similarly 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 per shot and the arcs of electricity dealing another ten damage per shot.

Almanac entry

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

Lightning Reed	SUN COST 125 RECHARGE 5 SUN COST: 125 RECHARGE: 5 TOUGHNESS 300 DAMAGE 10 TOUGHNESS: 300 DAMAGE: 10 RANGE Multi-Hit SPECIAL Zombies Zapped RANGE: Multi-Hit SPECIAL: Zombies Zapped FAMILY Fila-mint FAMILY: Fila-mint 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

SUN COST: 125
RECHARGE: 5

		TOUGHNESS 300			DAMAGE 10

TOUGHNESS: 300
DAMAGE: 10

		RANGE Multi-Hit			SPECIAL Zombies Zapped

RANGE: Multi-Hit
SPECIAL: Zombies Zapped

		FAMILY Fila-mint

FAMILY: Fila-mint

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

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 DPS 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 dps	10 dps	Three	Multi-Hit
2	10	1,000			350 dps	14 dps	Four
3	50	2,000			400 dps	16 dps	Four
4	100	4,000			450 dps	18 dps	Five
5	125	6,000	100		500 dps	20 dps	Five
6	175	8,000			550 dps	24 dps	Six
7	250	10,000			600 dps	28 dps	Six
8	350	15,000			650 dps	32 dps	Seven
9	450	20,000			700 dps	34 dps	Seven
10	800	60,000	75		750 dps	40 dps	Eight
11	1,000	75,000			800 dps	44 dps	Eight
12	1,250	100,000			825 dps	48 dps	Nine
13	1,500	150,000			850 dps	52 dps	Nine
14	1,750	200,000			875 dps	56 dps	Ten
15	2,000	250,000	50		900 dps	60 dps	Ten

Mastery upgrades

• Chance to Boost
• Damage Pierce

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	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	Lightning Reed gains another 50% more attack power and health (200% of initial).
	Ability Awaken	Lightning Reed may be boosted when planted.
	Fighting Power	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, however Lightning Reed levels up extremely well. 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. 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 the plant 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 ten or more Reeds will work togther 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, 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 off a limited number of high-health zombies.

Lightning Reed attacks cannot be blocked or reflected by any means. This completely bypasses the defenses of Shield Zombies, Jester Zombies, Excavator Zombies, and Parasol Zombies. Excavator and Parasol zombies in particular will sometimes appear together. That combination is normally difficult, as almost any attack plant will be completely unable to damage one of the two. Lightning Reed deals with both of them easily.

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 their slow attack speed may allow the chickens to rush past his attacking range. A modest group of Lightning Reeds will vaporize the largest swarms of chickens or Ice Weasels.

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.

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

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

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

Visit this page to see it.

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.
  • This may be due to water being a conductor of electricity in the real world.
• "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.
• 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.
• In the Almanac, it says he deals normal damage, but he only deals light damage in actual gameplay.
• He is the only Fila-mint family plant whose maximum level is 15.

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.
• His Plant Food ability will zap illusions created by Magic-shroom instead of attacking other zombies. This is probably a glitch.

See also

• Fried Chicken
• Zombie Chicken

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