Pumpkin (PvZ)

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This item is only obtainable during certain events. However, it can still be used if you have already obtained it. It is currently available.

For other uses, see Pumpkin (PvZ).

Pumpkin
Plants vs. Zombies
Pumpkins protect plants that are within their shells.
Sun cost	125
Recharge	Slow
Toughness	High
Special	Can be planted on another plant
Unlocked	After beating Level 4-7
Pumpkin hasn't heard from his cousin Renfield lately. Apparently Renfield's a big star, some kind of... what was it... sports hero? Peggle Master? Pumpkin doesn't really get it. He just does his job.
Plants vs. Zombies 2
Pumpkins can be planted on top of other plants to provide a tough additional layer of armor.
Sun cost	150
Recharge	12 seconds
Toughness	4000
Family	Reinforce-mint
Unlocked	100 seed packets
Pumpkin may be a hollowed-out shell, but he still has a rich inner life filled with feelings, fantasies and surprisingly disappointing opinions.

Pumpkin is a plant that appears in both main series Plants vs. Zombies games. He is the 31st plant unlocked in the first game, unlocked after beating 4-7. In the second game, Pumpkin is a seed packet unlockable premium vine, associated with Pumpkin's Safety Season of Arena.

In both games, Pumpkin is a defensive plant with the same health as a Wall-nut. Unlike other defensive plants however, Pumpkin does not occupy a garden space for himself, allowing other plants to be planted inside of him, or for him to be planted on top of other plants, effectively giving another layer of protection. In the first game, Pumpkin is unable to be planted on Sea-shroom, Tangle Kelp, Grave Buster, Cob Cannon, and other Pumpkins. In the second game, he is unable to be planted on Blastberry Vine, Pyre Vine, Tangle Kelp, Grave Buster, Hot Potato, and other Pumpkins. In both games, Pumpkin can be repaired with Wall-nut First Aid if it's unlocked.

Origins

He is a carved pumpkin, a fruit belonging to the squash genus. They are usually carved for events like Halloween.

History

Plants vs. Zombies

Pumpkin is unlocked upon beating Level 4-7 for the first time. He is planted around other plants, and any zombies attacking a space with a Pumpkin on it will attack the Pumpkin first. However, it is unable to protect other plants from basketballs, as Pumpkin only protects the sides of the plant that's planted in it, not the area above it. Pumpkin absorbs 3600 damage per shot and his appearance changes at 1200 damage per shot and 2400 damage per shot before being swallowed at 3600 damage per shot.

Plants vs. Zombies 2

Pumpkin is acquired after collecting 100 Pumpkin seed packets. Pumpkin functions almost identically to the first game, however due to the mechanics change between games, Pumpkin has some slightly different functions. Like other vine plants in this game, Pumpkin's Plant Food effect will trigger regardless of if it's planted on another plant or not, meaning Pumpkin has the potential to duplicate Plant Food. Another byproduct of being a vine plant is that it is now impossible to dig up a plant planted inside Pumpkin without first removing the Pumpkin itself. Aside from those and some minor stat changes however, Pumpkin is pretty much the same. Pumpkin absorbs 4000 damage per shot and his appearance changes at 1000 damage per shot, 2000 damage per shot, and 3000 damage per shot before being swallowed at 4000 damage per shot.

Almanac entry

Plants vs. Zombies

Almanac entry of Pumpkin

Pumpkin

Pumpkins protect plants that are within their shells.

Toughness: high
Special: can be planted over another plant

Pumpkin hasn't heard from his cousin Renfield lately. Apparently Renfield's a big star, some kind of... what was it... sports hero? Peggle Master? Pumpkin doesn't really get it. He just does his job.

Cost: 125

Recharge: slow

Plants vs. Zombies 2

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

Pumpkin
	SUN COST 150 RECHARGE 12 TOUGHNESS 4000 PLANT FOOD POWER 33.33% Reinforce-mint Plant Food: Creates a hard armor shell, [sic] that can absorb additional damage. Pumpkins can be planted on top of other plants to provide a tough additional layer of armor. Pumpkin may be a hollowed-out shell, but he still has a rich inner life filled with feelings, fantasies and surprisingly disappointing opinions.

Pumpkin

SUN COST 150 RECHARGE 12 TOUGHNESS 4000 PLANT FOOD POWER 33.33% Reinforce-mint Plant Food: Creates a hard armor shell, [sic] that can absorb additional damage. Pumpkins can be planted on top of other plants to provide a tough additional layer of armor. Pumpkin may be a hollowed-out shell, but he still has a rich inner life filled with feelings, fantasies and surprisingly disappointing opinions.

Upgrades

Plants vs. Zombies 2

Plant Food effect

When given Plant Food, Pumpkin will gain a protective shell of metal capable of absorbing 8000 DPS or one Gargantuar smash.

Reinforce-mint effect

When boosted by Reinforce-mint, Pumpkin will be able to take an additional 8000 DPS, and his Plant Food effect will activate.

Level upgrade

Level	Seed Packets	Coins	Upgrades
			Sun Cost	Recharge (Sluggish)	Toughness (High)	Plant Food Power (Armor)*
1	0	0	150	12 seconds	4000 damage	8000 damage
2	50			12 seconds	4800 damage
3	100		125	11 seconds	5200 damage
4	200			11 seconds	5600 damage	12000 damage
5	300		100	10 seconds	6000 damage
6	400			9 seconds	6400 damage
7	500		75	9 seconds	6800 damage
8	600			8 seconds	7200 damage	16000 damage
9	800		50	8 seconds	7600 damage
10	1,000			7 seconds	8000 damage

*Column shows armor's hitpoints separately.

Strategies

Plants vs. Zombies

A Survival: Endless build utilizing Pumpkins as protection

Pumpkins are excellent on later levels, where the player needs to conserve as much space as possible. Catapult Zombies and Bungee Zombies always target the plant inside the Pumpkin first, so they are useless as protection against them. They can be used to buy time so that your plants have more time to take out Digger Zombies. The best plant to put inside a Pumpkin (for defensive purposes) is the Tall-nut, so Pole Vaulting Zombies or Dolphin Rider Zombies cannot jump over them, and the zombies will have to eat the Pumpkin and Tall-nut. Note, however, that he is not as efficient, sun-wise, as a Tall-nut alone; a Tall-nut and Pumpkin combo costs as much as two Tall-nuts, yet has only as much health as one-and-a-half. They are also useful for plants that the Imitater duplicates, because he protects them as they transform.

Do not put plants that are supposed to be eaten into Pumpkin, such as Garlic or Hypno-shrooms. The zombies will have to eat the outside Pumpkin before eating the plant, so doing so will result in a waste of sun and seed slot recharge. Pumpkins are usually good along with Potato Mines, as they give Potato Mine time to arm, and once the zombies break through the Pumpkin, they will have come together onto one spot and will all be hit by the Potato Mine. The only problem with this is that because of their larger horizontal hit-box, Football Zombies will trigger the Potato Mine while he is inside the Pumpkin, only killing some of the zombies, as they will not all count as in range. As a result, it may make more sense to use a Wall-nut or Tall-nut to protect the Potato Mine instead, as they are cheaper or costs the same and will allow time for all of the zombies to get in range. This can also be a bad idea, however, as the Potato Mine may rise before the zombie even gets to the Pumpkin. To remedy this, if you want them to all get blown up, put him in the second or first column from the zombies.

Try to plant them on every plant except for Kernel-pults that you will upgrade into Cob Cannons, Spikeweed, Spikerock, Garlic, and Hypno-shroom.

When facing Gargantuars, put a Pumpkin around the plants in the third and second row so they are protected from the Imps they throw.

Survival Mode

Almost all setups on Survival Mode use these. Because Pumpkins can surround other plants, when player use Pumpkins in conjunction with Wall-nut or Tall-nut, it is more convenient to extend their defenses. For example, if you use Tall-nut on column five in all rows and the defense needs to be expanded to six columns, the sun that is used for planting these Tall-nuts will be wasted, as they should be dug up, or there will not be enough spaces for placing new plants. If you use Pumpkins, just simply replace the plants without digging up the Pumpkins. Pumpkins are usually used to protect plants at sensitive positions.

These are also very useful in Survival: Endless because they are excellent space savers, and can be used to protect your more valuable plants (Winter Melon, Gloom-shroom, Twin Sunflower) from zombies. If a zombie makes it through your defenses and you are vulnerable, Pumpkins might be the only thing saving you from the zombies successfully eating your brain.

Pumpkin can also be used effectively for the Ladder Zombie strategy, which is pretty straight forward, get Ladder Zombies to put ladders on your main offensive plants especially Gloom-shrooms on the second column. Since the ladders are on all Pumpkins, Imps thrown by Gargantuars cannot eat your plants which results in saving considerable amount of sun. Note that the ladders will disappear if they are hit by explosive plants, and Magnet-shrooms can remove them.

Related achievements

	Wall-Not Attack Complete ZomBotany without using Wall-nuts, Tall-nuts, or Pumpkins.

	Morticulturalist Collect all 49 plants.

	Book Learner Fill out the Suburban Almanac.

Gallery

Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Pumpkin (PvZ).

Visit this page to see it.

Trivia

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies

• He has a second degrade that can only be seen in the "reanim" folder, where the game stores his images.

Pumpkin's cousin Renfield, seen in Peggle

• His Suburban Almanac description references Renfield as Pumpkin's cousin. Renfield is a pumpkin in the 2007 game Peggle, another game made by PopCap Games.
• For some reason, the player can place Pumpkins on top of a Spikeweed or a Spikerock. If they place a Pumpkin on top of a Spikeweed when there is a zombie on it, the zombie will eat the Pumpkin and at the same time be attacked by the Spikeweed.
• Puff-shroom is too small for a Pumpkin, but when he shoots a spore, the spore somehow passes through the Pumpkin's shell and still damages the zombies, which is unusual, though it could be going out through the Pumpkin's holes.
• When a Pumpkin with a plant inside is squashed, he will have a flattened animation of the plant above a flattened Pumpkin instead of a flattened version of the plant in the Pumpkin.
• Starfruit lies on his back, but if a Pumpkin is added, he will stand up (as he would otherwise be completely concealed within him).
• Bungee Zombies cannot take Pumpkins if they are surrounding another plant, except Lily Pad and Flower Pot. However, if a Bungee Zombie attempts to take a Cattail from a Pumpkin, it will cause the Cattail to downgrade to a Lily Pad. The same thing happens if the player tries to dig a Cattail from inside a Pumpkin. This is to avoid the Pumpkin from falling into the water.
  • This also makes Cattail the only plant able to downgrade.
• He cannot be planted on Sea-shroom and Tangle Kelp, as they are aquatic plants.
  • They can still be planted on Cattails however, because she is the upgrade for the Lily Pad.
  • He also cannot protect Cob Cannon and Grave Buster, because Cob Cannon is too big to fit and Grave Buster cannot be protected because he is on a grave, and graves cannot be planted on.
• There is a way to dig him up without digging up the plant inside him. Try using a shovel on the bottom of the square he is on.
• If Chomper is in Pumpkin, when the Chomper sways to the right, his lower lip seems to go through Pumpkin.
• In the DS version, he does not move; however, he moves in the Suburban Almanac.
• In the iPad version, the holes on his top edge are missing. Also, he looks rounder.
• He prevents plants such as Gloom-shroom and Squash that are behind him from hitting zombies in front of him, as the Pumpkin has a slightly larger hitbox.
• Putting himself on plants is almost always advantageous, except when Zombonis, Catapult Zombies, Gargantuars, or Giga-gargantuars appear; putting a Pumpkin on the front plant actually increases the chance of them being squashed. This is because Pumpkin has a larger hitbox than normal plants.
• His flattened sprite can still be removed by a shovel (only applies if the sprite is there and before it disappears).

See also

• Wall-nut First Aid
• Defensive plants
• Vine plants

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