Red Stinger (PvZ2)

For the versions in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes and Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars, see Red Stinger (PvZH) and Red Stinger (PvZ: AS).

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Red Stinger (PvZ2)
Red Stingers fire shots at full force when close to home, and become more defensive further from it.
Almanac statistics
Sun cost	150
Recharge	5 seconds
Damage	30 damage per shot (per stinger, when planted in columns 1-3) 15 damage per shot (when planted in columns 4-6)
Toughness	300 damage per shot (columns 1-3) 900 damage per shot (columns 4-6) 1500 damage per shot (columns 7-9)
Range	Straight
Family	Appease-mint
Rarity (China)	Rare
In-game statistics
Speed attack	Fires two projectiles every 2 seconds (on the first three columns) Fires once every 2 seconds (on the middle three columns)
Unlocked	Beating Lost City - Day 1
Unlocked (China)	Beating Lost City - Day 1
Costumes
Flexibility is of key importance to Red Stinger. "I do stretching exercises every morning," he says. "It's important to stay physically and mentally nimble."

Red Stinger is the first plant obtained in Lost City in Plants vs. Zombies 2. He was first revealed in the trailer for Lost City Part 1, then more information was released with the Lost City Part 1 developer diary.

When planted on the first three columns to the left, Red Stinger will fire two petals, which together deal 40 DPS at a time and have the same health as a regular plant. If Red Stinger is planted in the next three columns to the right, he will be more defensive, increasing its health to 900 dps, but it will fire just one petal dealing only 30 DPS. If he is planted on the last three columns on the right, he will be a defensive plant with 1500 dps, but he will not be able to attack.

Origins

A real-life Etlingera elatior in which Red Stinger is based on.

Red Stinger is based on the Etlingera elatior, known as the torch ginger. He is a flower found in tropical areas. The meaning of his in-game name, however, is left unclear. As he does not sting anything, the most probable possibility is that "Red Stinger" is actually a pun on "red ginger," an alternative name of the plant he is based on. Internally, the projectiles are named "stingers," indicating that the projectile are the stinging part.

Almanac entry

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

Red Stinger
	SUN COST 150 RECHARGE 5 TOUGHNESS 0 DAMAGE 30 RANGE Straight Appease-mint Plant Food: Fires a laser beam that pierces through all zombies in its column, dealing damage and temporarily slows their movement. Red Stingers fire shots at full force when close to home, and become more defensive further from it. Flexibility is of key importance to Red Stinger. "I do stretching exercises every morning," he says. "It's important to stay physically and mentally nimble."

Red Stinger

SUN COST 150 RECHARGE 5 TOUGHNESS 0 DAMAGE 30 RANGE Straight Appease-mint Plant Food: Fires a laser beam that pierces through all zombies in its column, dealing damage and temporarily slows their movement. Red Stingers fire shots at full force when close to home, and become more defensive further from it. Flexibility is of key importance to Red Stinger. "I do stretching exercises every morning," he says. "It's important to stay physically and mentally nimble."

Upgrades

Plant Food effect

File:Red Stinger laser PF.jpg

Red Stingers at the backmost column firing lasers at zombies

When given Plant Food, Red Stinger fires a focused laser beam, slowing and dealing a total of 690 damage per shot to all zombies in the lane.

Appease-mint effect

When boosted by Appease-mint, Red Stinger will do an additional 200 DPS per stinger in the back three columns, and an additional 150 DPS per stinger in the middle three columns.

Level upgrade

Level	Seed Packets	Coins	Upgrades
			Sun Cost	Recharge (Fast)	Toughness (Elevated)*			Damage (Moderate)*		Projectile Velocity	Range
					Left	Middle	Right	Left	Middle
1	0	0	150	5 seconds	300 damage	900 damage	1500 damage	30 damage	15 damage	Normal	Straight
2	10	1,000	150	5 seconds	600 damage	1200 damage	2000 damage	40 damage	20 damage
3	75	5,000	150	4.5 seconds				50 damage	25 damage	+ 1.6x
4	200	10,000	150	4.5 seconds				60 damage	30 damage
5	400	20,000	125	4.5 seconds				70 damage	35 damage
6	750	30,000	125	4 seconds				80 damage	40 damage
7	1,000	40,000	125	4 seconds	900 damage	1500 damage	2500 damage	80 damage	45 damage	+ 2.2x
8	1,250	50,000	125	3.5 seconds				90 damage	50 damage
9	1,500	60,000	125	3.5 seconds				100 damage	55 damage
10	2,000	75,000	100	3 seconds				120 damage	60 damage

*These statistics depend on the plant's position - either close to the left side of the lawn, in the middle, or close to the right side of the lawn.

Level upgrade  (China only)

Level	Upgrades	Description
	File:Red Stinger (PvZ2) Upgrade 1.png Potential Outbreak	When being in offensive form, its attack speed is increased when attacking continuously. And in defensive form, it will explode after its defeat, doing additional damage to zombies.
	Combat Training 战斗训练	Red Stinger (PvZ2) gains 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
	File:Red Stinger (PvZ2) Upgrade 2.png Doubled Potential	Attack speed is further increased and the explosion will do more damage.
	Cell Activation 细胞活化	Red Stinger (PvZ2) gains another 50% more attack power and health (200% of initial).
	Ability Awaken 能力觉醒	Red Stinger (PvZ2) may be boosted when planted.
	Fighting Power 战斗能力	Red Stinger (PvZ2) gains another 50% more attack power and health (250% of initial).

Costumed  (China only)

Red Stinger will now fire two laser beams, doing in total 1380 DPS.

Audio

Sound	Description
	Red Stinger Plant Food

Strategies

The game put a lot of emphasis on Red Stinger's versatility; depending on the location, he can work as a more powerful Repeater, a Pea-nut with greater offense but worse defense, or an improvised Wall-nut. However, in most situations, this is more of a hinderance than a help because this means that Red Stinger will suffer from diminishing offensive potential return, as additional Red Stingers planted from the fourth column will deal less damage than those planted on the first three columns.

Red Stinger's most useful form by far is the fully offensive form, where he effectively acts as a more powerful Repeater or Fire Peashooter with a lower cost. This makes him a very economical option with a great damage/cost ratio, allowing for a fairly powerful setup near the beginning of a level. When in this form, Red Stinger combines a reasonably fast rate of fire with fairly high damage, allowing him to take out large groups of weaker zombies as well as some stronger zombies such as Buckethead Zombies. This can be very effective against Weasel Hoarders because he deals enough damage to kill the Weasel Hoarder and also has a fast enough rate of fire to kill the Ice Weasels released. However, make sure he is Level 2 or above before using him against the weasels or he will not be able to kill them in one shot, meaning they will quickly overwhelm your plants.

Red Stinger cannot take out very strong zombies such as Gargantuars very easily, so he needs to be used with harder hitting plants like Citron or Winter Melon or defensive plants when facing these. Don't rely on his Plant Food ability to take out Gargantuars because it deals relatively little damage compared to other plants and also only hits one lane.

The main drawback of this strategy is that for the maximum amount of damage, Red Stingers must be planted in column 1-3, meaning that sun-producers have to be planted further forward, which can make them vulnerable early on in a level. For this reason, he works well in conjunctiuon with plants which produce large suns, such as Primal Sunflower or Sun-shroom because generally only one column of these is needed per level, which makes them slightly less vulverable if they are planted towards the front of the lawn and still allows for two columns of full-power Red Stingers if they are planted in the back.

When planted in columns 4-6, Red Stinger acts like a Pea-nut with less health, though this is generally not recommended, since his defence is much lower than Pea-nut's for the same price. However, since Pea-nut is a premium plant, some players may not have him; therefore, Red Stinger could be used as an alternative. In Lost City, he can be helpful in combating Lost Pilot Zombie, as his elevated health helps him survive the ambush much better than other offensive plants.

Red Stinger's column 7-9 form should generally not be used except in desperate situations because even in his fully defensive form he has fairly low health, less than half of that of a Wall-nut for triple the price. In addition, in situations where the player desperately needs a defensive plant the zombies will generally be close to the house, where Red Stinger's defensive form cannot be used.

Red Stinger should not be as the only offensive plant in levels with Excavator Zombie, and plants that can bypass his shovel such as A.K.E.E. and Laser Bean should be used in tandem with him. If Excavators get too close to your plants, his Plant Food effect can take them out quite easily, and will also slow him down, which may prevent him from digging up a plant if he is just about to. However, this will only affect the zombies in one lane. Also, do not use him with Jester Zombies, as they will reflect the petals and deal damage to your plants.

Related achievements

	Unwelcome Mat Have 10 Red Stingers in the two columns closest to your house.

Gallery

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Trivia

General

• Although he is a defensive plant when placed on the right side of the lawn, he cannot be healed with Wall-nut First Aid.
• If his Plant Food effect is used near the end of a Piñata Party, his laser beam will still be visible while whacking piñatas.
• If he is moved to a different tile by a zombie like Mecha-Football Zombie, Fisherman Zombie, Excavator Zombie, Punk Zombie, or any zombie pushed by Ankylosaurus, he will change his role accordingly to what part of the lawn he is moved to.
• In his Almanac entry, his toughness still says Elevated, despite the 6.7 update changing the rating of toughness to numbers.
  • This is most likely because of his ability to be more defensive or offensive depending on where he is placed.
  • There is no detailed data of his toughness in the game's plant leveling chart either.
• His Almanac entry says that its damage is 30. It comes from the fact that his 1st form deals 40 DPS while the 2nd form does 20 DPS and arithmetic average of damage between them is 30.

Specific to Chinese version of Plants vs. Zombies 2 (China only)

• Zombies defeated by him used to play their zapped animation. This has been fixed.
• Both his offensive and defensive forms are seen in his level upgrade icons.
  • If one looks closely in his second upgrade icon, one can see that the defensive Red Stinger is wearing his military hat costume, as one can see the string that is attached to the hat.
    • However, in the game, he wears his other costume.
• The seed packet is different.
  • His entire body is visible in the Chinese version's seed packet, while his head is only visible in the international version's.

See also

• Unwelcome Mat
• Pea-nut

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