Potato Mine (Plants vs. Zombies 2)

For other uses, see Potato Mine (disambiguation).

Potato Mine
Potato Mines explode on contact, but they take time to arm. Plant them ahead of zombies.
Statistics
Sun Cost	25
Recharge	20 seconds
Toughness	300 damage
Damage	1800 damage
Area	Tile
Plant Food Power	25%
Arming Time	14 seconds
Usage	Single, On contact
Family	Bombard-mint
Plant Food effect	Immediately arms and spawns multiple copies of itself.
Usage	Single use, delayed activation
Range	Contact
Statistics (China)
Sun Cost	25
Recharge	20 seconds
Toughness	300 damage
Damage	1800 damage
Attack Rest	15 seconds
Range	On Contact
Area	Single Tile
Class	Special
Quality	Common
Tags	Insta, AOE, ash
Plant features	Brown plant, armed family, short
In-game statistics
Unlocked	Beating Player's House - Day 3
Costumes
Costumes (China)
Code name	potatomine
Believe it or not, SPUDOW! did not happen overnight. Having been forced to try out new catchphrases and focus testing as many variations as possible (Tubular? Really?), Potato Mine weeded out the competition to stick with what he knows best.

For more information about this character, see Potato Mine.

“	Potato Mine will explode on contact, but require sometime to arm. So, place them well in advance and ahead of Zombies.	”
—Penny

Potato Mine is a returning explosive plant present in Plants vs. Zombies 2. He explodes on contact with the first zombie that comes near him.

After being planted, Potato Mine will take 14 seconds (about the time it takes a regular zombie or any other slow zombie to walk three spaces) to arm himself before surfacing, during which Potato Mine is vulnerable to attack. After that, he will explode in a 1x1 area when an enemy comes into contact with him, dealing 1800 damage per shot to all affected zombies and leaving behind a comic-esque "SPUDOW!".

He cannot be planted on planks in Pirate Seas, or on Lily Pads on the water in Big Wave Beach. The SPUDOW! achievement also makes a return.

Audio

Sound	Description
	Potato Mine explodes

Almanac entry

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

Potato Mine
	SUN COST 25 RECHARGE 20 TOUGHNESS 300 DAMAGE 1800 AREA Tile PLANT FOOD POWER 25% ARMING TIME 14 Usage Single, On contact Bombard-mint Plant Food: Immediately arms and spawns multiple copies of itself. Potato Mines explode on contact, but they take time to arm. Plant them ahead of zombies. Believe it or not, SPUDOW! did not happen overnight. Having been forced to try out new catchphrases and focus testing as many variations as possible (Tubular? Really?), Potato Mine weeded out the competition to stick with what he knows best.

Potato Mine

SUN COST 25 RECHARGE 20 TOUGHNESS 300 DAMAGE 1800 AREA Tile PLANT FOOD POWER 25% ARMING TIME 14 Usage Single, On contact Bombard-mint Plant Food: Immediately arms and spawns multiple copies of itself. Potato Mines explode on contact, but they take time to arm. Plant them ahead of zombies. Believe it or not, SPUDOW! did not happen overnight. Having been forced to try out new catchphrases and focus testing as many variations as possible (Tubular? Really?), Potato Mine weeded out the competition to stick with what he knows best.

Chinese version (China only)

植物特征：褐色植物、武器家族、矮个子 土豆地雷是个兢兢业业工作的好同志，在热火朝天的工作气氛他很享受。什么？他只是个小个子？你没见过他的身体吧？想见么？ In English: Plant feature: brown plant, armed family, short Potato Mine is a dedicated good comrade, as he enjoy his work even if the atmosphere is literally at full blast. What? He's just a shorty? You haven't seen his body, have you? Wanna see it?

Upgrades

Plant Food effect

Plant Food ability (animated)

When given Plant Food, Potato Mine will instantly arm himself (if he hasn't already) and launches up to 2 armed copies of himself onto available tiles.

Bombard-mint effect

When boosted by Bombard-mint, Potato Mine's arming time is reduced to 1 second, he will launch 5 clones regardless of level, and his explosion damage is increased to 2400 damage.

Costumed (China only)

When costumed and fed with Plant Food, Potato Mine will launch three additional Potato Mines instead of two.

Level upgrades

Level	Seed packets	Coins	Upgrades
			Sun Cost	Recharge (Sluggish)	Starting Recharge	Toughness (Typical)	Damage (Massive)	Area	Plant Food Power (Duplication)	Arming Time (Slow)
1	0	0	25	20 seconds	15 seconds	300 damage	1800 damage	Tile	2 duplicates	14 seconds
2	3	50		19 seconds	14 seconds	350 damage	1900 damage
3	10	200		18 seconds		400 damage	2000 damage			13 seconds
4	25	1,500		17 seconds	12 seconds	450 damage	2100 damage
5	50	2,000		16 seconds		500 damage	2175 damage
6	75	3,000		15 seconds		550 damage	2250 damage		3 duplicates
7	100	4,000		14 seconds	10 seconds	600 damage	2325 damage
8	125	5,000				650 damage	2400 damage			12 seconds
9	175	6,000		13 seconds	8 seconds	700 damage
10	225	8,000		12 seconds		750 damage
11	300	10,000				800 damage			4 duplicates
12	350	15,000		11 seconds	6 seconds	850 damage
13		20,000		10 seconds	5 seconds	900 damage
14	400	25,000								11 seconds
15	450	30,000		9 seconds	4 seconds
16	500	35,000		8 seconds	3 seconds
17	550	40,000							5 duplicates
18	600	45,000		7 seconds	2 seconds					10 seconds
19	700	50,000		6 seconds						9 seconds
20	800	55,000	0	5 seconds	1 second

Mastery upgrades

• Chance to Boost
• Damage Pierce

Level upgrades (China only)

Level	Upgrades	Description
	Quick Setup 快速安装	Reduces Potato Mine's arming time to 50% 学习快速安装技巧，使土豆地雷的准备时间减少50%。
	Combat Training 战斗训练	Potato Mine gains 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
	Improved Fuse 引信改良	Removes Potato Mine's arming time. 强化快速安装效果，使土豆地雷一种下就能立即准备完毕。
	Cell Activation 细胞活化	Potato Mine gains another 50% more attack power and health (200% of initial).
	Ability Awaken 能力觉醒	Potato Mine may be boosted when planted.
	Fighting Power 战斗能力	Potato Mine gains another 50% more attack power and health (250% of initial).

Strategies

Because of his low cost and early availability, Potato Mine can be effective in the early part of the level for neutralizing the first few zombies, especially if the enemies in question are Conehead or Buckethead Zombies, who will pose serious difficulty against more conventional offensive plants. However, his arming period greatly hampers his usefulness in the long run, as the massive amount of threats will give Potato Mine little time to arm himself.

Potato Mine should be planted at least three squares or more in front of zombies with Basic speed in order to explode right when the threat approaches him. Defensive plants such as Wall-nut, Tall-nut, Infi-nut, or Primal Wall-nut can buy Potato Mine additional time for arming, as well as gather more zombies to increase Potato Mine's efficiency. Plants that have freezing or decelerating abilities such as Iceberg Lettuce, Snow Pea, Sap-fling, Stallia, or Draftodil also provide Potato Mine with sufficient arming time, but such plants do not do well in gathering zombies. It is a alternative choice to place plants with low sun cost such as Puff-shroom in front of Potato Mine to prevent zombies from eating Potato Mine.

Potato Mine functions the same way as in the original game but faces competition from Primal Potato Mine, who costs more and is unlocked very late into the game, but arms in five seconds and does higher damage in a larger area.

Using Plant Food on a Potato Mine will arm him instantly, and spawn armed dupes. This can be useful against Gargantuars and other high toughness zombies.

Potato Mines are highly useful for catching flying zombies that are about to land such as Swashbuckler Zombie, Dodo Rider Zombie, and Super-Fan Imps. Like in the original game, two Potato Mines can kill a normal Gargantuar, and if followed with an instant kill most Gargantuars will instantly be defeated without even throwing their imps.

In Lost City, Potato Mines can be planted to stop swarms of Lost Pilot Zombies from approaching your defenses. They are also useful as a distraction against Imp Porters who are about to set up their tent. It is best to plant Potato Mine near or on a gold tile, as the explosion will also nuke the tent.

In Neon Mixtape Tour, Potato Mines can be used to combat Punk Zombies and MC Zom-Bs as they cannot move or instantly destroy him, and have relatively low health.

In Jurassic Marsh, Potato Mines are useful for stopping zombies armed by T. rexes and ankylosauruses. They can also be planted in the back to stop zombies carried by pterodactyls.

Avoid using Potato Mine against Shield Zombie, Troglobite, Excavator Zombie, and Arcade Zombie. Shield Zombies with their force fields can trigger the mine without being affected (however, it will destroy the shield and damage zombies caught in the area anyway). Troglobites and Arcade Zombies can crush Potato Mine (hiding or not). Excavator Zombies can shovel him up from a distance untouched. However, Excavator Zombies will also instantly arm him.

If an Explorer Zombie/Torchlight Zombie approaches an unarmed Potato Mine while its torch is lit, it will just ignore the Potato Mine and walk past him, while if he's armed, he will trigger the mine normally.

Potato Mines are very useful in Last Stand because you can fill the board with them without worrying about its sun cost nor recharge.

It is inadvisable to bring Potato Mine in levels where you cannot lose a certain amount of plants due to how he destroys himself to deal damage.

Balance changes

Update 5.7.1

• ▲ Arming time reduced from 15 to 14 seconds.

Related achievements

	SPUDOW! Blow up a Zombie using a Potato Mine

Gallery

Potato Mine has a gallery!

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Potato Mine
Simplified Chinese	土豆地雷	From tǔdòu and dìléi
French	Mine patate	From mine and patate
German	Kartoffelmine	From Kartoffel and Mine
Italian	Tubero esplosivo	From tubero and esplosivo
Brazilian Portuguese	Batatamina	From batata and mina
Russian	Картофельная мина	From картофель and мина
Spanish	Papapum	From papa and pum. It's also a play on the sound of various explosions "pa, pa, pum".

Trivia

• In Last Stand and Save Our Seeds levels, Potato Mine will not arm until the player triggers the onslaught. The arm timer still counts, though, so any Potato Mine that was planted more than 15 seconds before starting the level will be immediately armed afterward.
• His mask costume looks like the one similar to Leonardo's from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
  • In Potato Mine's Almanac entry, one catchphrase was "tubular," also referencing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
• He and Cabbage-pult are the only plants obtained in the Player's House that do not have costumes depending on the season.
• There are four ways a Potato Mine can activate other than a zombie directly making contact with him:
  • Using Plant Food on a Spikeweed or Spikerock will push all zombies to him and will make any armed Potato Mine they pass detonate.
  • Using Plant Food on an Infi-nut will make a shield, but armed Potato Mines behind it will still explode when a zombie starts eating the shield, even though they are not near enough to activate him.
  • Using Blover or Hurrikale to blow away thrown Imps and Prospector Zombies will activate any Potato Mines they pass while being blown from the lawn. Zombies in sandstorms and snowstorms will activate any Potato Mines, too. This occurs with other instants as well, like Iceberg Lettuce and Squash.
  • Using Plant Food on a Chomper will activate Potato Mines as zombies fly past them.
• Unarmed Potato Mines can dodge projectiles fired back from Jester Zombies, but armed Potato Mines will take damage.
• The duplicates from his Plant Food effect take a moment to arm, during which they can be eaten.
• On earlier versions, if the player fed Plant Food to him and the spawned ones landed on Dave's mold colonies, they would not lose the level after version 1.7 or still get a star before the 1.7 update, similar with Chili Bean. This was to prevent unfair defeats due to the random number generator placing a plant onto forbidden tiles.
• From the 3.3 update to the 3.5 update, he had the ability to blast tombstones, surfboards and frozen blocks in a 3x3 radius around him when exploding. However, this did not apply to zombies.
  • However, in the Chinese version, it still exists.
  • In the 4.2 update, Potato Mine regained this ability to blast tombstones, surfboards and frozen blocks in a 3x3 radius. This was removed again in the 4.3.1 update.
• In the Chinese Almanac, it implies that Potato Mines can be planted above the ground. However, Potato Mines will have their "hidden" underground body.
• Regardless of what stage he was in when defeated, Intensive Carrot will always revive the Potato Mine to his on-planting stage. The same goes with Pea Pod, Sun-Shroom, Strawburst, Primal Potato Mine, Escape Root, and Kiwibeast.
• If an Excavator Zombie shovels up the Potato Mine, he will be armed instantly after landing. This also applies to Primal Potato Mine.
  • He will appear as a potato mid-air while his primal counterpart appears as a spiky potato mid-air.
• In Plants vs. Zombies Online Adventure Mode, Potato Mine can only target one zombie when armed. This can be seen when a Wall-nut is used to gather zombies into a single tile and letting them all touch a Potato Mine.
• If the level ends and a Plant Food is given to Potato Mine, the clones will fly off, not landing on a tile.
  • The same also happens with his primal variant and Chili Bean.
• He now has a single tooth than he did in the first game.

See also

• Primal Potato Mine
• Escape Root
• Teleportato Mine

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