Pepper-pult

Pepper-pult is the second plant obtained in Frostbite Caves in Plants vs. Zombies 2. He lobs flaming peppers at the rate of a Cabbage-pult (once every 3 seconds) that deals splash damage in a 3x3 area. A direct hit from a flaming pepper deals 50 damage per shot, while the pepper's splash effect deals 10 damage per shot.

Pepper-pult is also a heating plant, which is capable of emitting heat every 1.5 seconds that gradually thaws frozen or chilled plants in a 3x3 area surrounding him, as well as being immune to all freezing effects himself.

Origins

Pepper-pult is based on the real life bell pepper, a cultivar group of the plant Capsicum annuum. His name is a portmanteau of the word pepper and catapult, a ballistic device used to hurl large stones for warfare purpose during ancient times.

While his ability is based on the perceived spiciness of most peppers, ironically, Pepper-pult is based on the only species of chili pepper that carries a recessive gene that prevents any capsaicin from being made, causing it to lack the heat most peppers are famous for.

Almanac entry

Pepper-pult	SUN COST 200 RECHARGE 20 SUN COST: 200 RECHARGE: 20 TOUGHNESS 300 DAMAGE 50 TOUGHNESS: 300 DAMAGE: 50 RANGE Lobbed Special Warming Radius RANGE: Lobbed Special: Warming Radius FAMILY Pepper-mint FAMILY: Pepper-mint Pepper-pults lob flaming peppers at zombies and keep nearby plants warm. Special: immune to frost Special: warms nearby tiles Some say Pepper-pult is a hot head. Some find his fiery disposition off-putting. But the truth is, he's just very focused and determined. He loves what he does. He appreciates everything he has. "I came from the weedy side of the lawn," Pepper-pult explains. "I worked hard to pull myself up by my roots. I'm a self-made pepper and I don't take a single thing for granted."

Pepper-pult

		SUN COST 200			RECHARGE 20

SUN COST: 200
RECHARGE: 20

		TOUGHNESS 300			DAMAGE 50

TOUGHNESS: 300
DAMAGE: 50

		RANGE Lobbed			Special Warming Radius

RANGE: Lobbed
Special: Warming Radius

		FAMILY Pepper-mint

FAMILY: Pepper-mint

Pepper-pults lob flaming peppers at zombies and keep nearby plants warm.

Special: immune to frost
Special: warms nearby tiles

Some say Pepper-pult is a hot head. Some find his fiery disposition off-putting. But the truth is, he's just very focused and determined. He loves what he does. He appreciates everything he has. "I came from the weedy side of the lawn," Pepper-pult explains. "I worked hard to pull myself up by my roots. I'm a self-made pepper and I don't take a single thing for granted."

Upgrades

Plant Food effect

Pepper-pult when fed with Plant Food launches three giant flaming peppers at random zombies on screen, each pepper dealing 300 damage in a 3x3 area. Unlike other lobbed-shot projectiles, the giant peppers cannot be deflected or blocked by any means but can be negated by Imp Dragon Zombies.

Pepper-mint effect

When boosted by Pepper-mint, Pepper-pult will do an additional 200 DPS (with an additional 40 DPS added to his splash damage), and will warm plants more quickly.

Costumed (China only)

Pepper-pult launches four giant flaming peppers instead of three.

Level upgrade

Level upgrade (China only)

Level	Upgrades	Description
	Burn	Pepper-pult throws peppers at zombies, which burns them, dealing damage to them over a period of time.
	Combat Training	Pepper-pult gains 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
	Wildfire Pepper	Pepper-pult gains blue fire, which deals more damage when burning zombies.
	Cell Activation	Pepper-pult gains another 50% more attack power and health (200% of initial).
	Ability Awaken	Pepper-pult may be boosted when planted.
	Fighting Power	Pepper-pult gains another 50% more attack power and health (250% of initial).

Strategies

By himself, Pepper-pult is a moderately powerful offensive plant and can hold himself against most threats. His main value however is his ability to warm nearby plants, preventing them from being disabled by the wind and Hunter Zombies. He is also the only plant that can warm other plants that is obtained from normal gameplay. Every other plant is obtained with money or bought with gems. Most of the time, this will be used in most Frostbite Caves levels. His greatest weakness is his slow recharge rate, which prevents the player from quickly covering the lawn against the cold and against huge waves of zombies, although Imitater can be used to remedy this.

The player should try to space out Pepper-pults in order to cover as much ground and reach as many plants as possible. When frozen zombies are near, the player should make sure their warm defenses are congregated nearby. Pepper-pult can also be planted at the front line to block Hunter Zombies and protect other plants, although this also makes him vulnerable against other threats.

In Dark Ages, Pepper-pult is not the best choice, given the fact that his normal projectiles can be deflected by Jester Zombie. Aside from that, Imp Dragon Zombies are immune to all fire-based attacks, making Pepper-pult useless in battle against them.

In Lost City, Pepper-pult can be used to deal with Excavator Zombies, though one should be wary if the Pepper-pults are placed towards the front, as if Excavator Zombies can shovel them, their Sluggish recharge means Pepper-pult will not be available for a while. He is also risky to use them in levels with Parasol Zombies, since they ignore Pepper-pult's projectiles outright.

He faces competition from Fire Peashooter because of the latter's slightly lower sun cost and superior recharge. However, Pepper-pult has the advantage of being a lobbed-shot plant, meaning he can ignore ice blocks when attacking zombies. Thawing frozen plants may be a higher priority than attacking zombies though, so the choice is entirely up to the player.

Chinese version (China only)

Due to Pepper-pult having a fast recharge, he is a solid plant here. The fact his level 2 and 3 upgrades are free (by collecting enough stars) helps his case.

Related achievement

	So Thawful Thaw 13 ice blocks in a single level

Gallery

Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Pepper-pult.

Visit this page to see it.

Trivia

• In the 3.2 update, Jester Zombies could not deflect his projectiles.
• He has the least damaging splash damage when compared to the other splash-attack lobbed-shot plants.
• Sometimes when Plant Food is used on him, it makes the same noise that Cabbage-pult makes when Plant Food is used on him before he starts launching giant peppers.
• In the Chinese version, he uses his unused Valenbrainz costume from the international version as his costume.