Rodeo Legend Zombie is a black mechanical zombie bull ridden by a Zombie Bull Rider that appears in the Wild West expansion in Plants vs. Zombies 2. It is the upgraded version of Zombie Bull, which is tougher, the charging speed is twice that of Zombie Bull, it deals 2000 damage to the first plant it meets, which is enough to instantly kill any non-defensive plants, attacking every 2/3 seconds and can charge repeatedly, once every 6 seconds.
Rodeo Legend Zombie smashes a plant and launches his zombie rider past most of your defenses.
"Legend" perhaps overstates Rodeo Legend Zombie's status in the rodeo world. Don't tell him that, though, unless you're desperate to hear an hour-long tirade about calf-roping.
Rodeo Legend Zombie
TOUGHNESS
Hardened
SPEED
Hungry
Rodeo Legend Zombie smashes a plant and launches his zombie rider past most of your defenses.
"Legend" perhaps overstates Rodeo Legend Zombie's status in the rodeo world. Don't tell him that, though, unless you're desperate to hear an hour-long tirade about calf-roping.
Rodeo Legend Zombie absorbs 1400 damage, and its appearance changes upon absorbing 460 and 940 before dying at 1400 damage. Its smashing attacks deal 2000 damage. It also eats plants at a x1.5 faster rate than an average Basic Zombie.
Strategies[]
This is an extremely dangerous zombie, especially with its extra ability and increased speed, as most defensive plants will be severely damaged or even destroyed. Kill it quickly, as he can smash an unlimited amount of plants in its lane. Groups of Rodeo Legend Zombies may cause you to lose the game easily without the right defenses and lead to you spending Plant Food or Power Ups to get rid of them. Primal Wall-nut is a good choice because of his fast recharge.
Sacrificial plants such as Puff-shroom or Sun-shroom can be good as a primary staller for this zombie. However, when they come in groups, such as in Wild West - Day 33, they may be overwhelmed, since they have to recharge. Spore-shrooms are also effective when this zombie appears with some other zombies as they will create a new Spore-shroom which will stall it, even when charging towards your plants. Infi-nut's Plant Food effect can be used to block this zombie.
Spring Bean, Chard Guard, Primal Peashooter, and Holly Barrier are good choices, since they can push back this zombie when he is charging. However, Spring Bean must be awake for this to work. It's a good idea to pair knock-back plants with a Blover, as it will blow Rodeo Legend Zombie away. Rodeo Legend Zombie will not attack Ghost Pepper or any underground plants such as Spikeweed, Spikerock, Cactus, and Celery Stalker. Due to this, these plants are a good way to defeat these zombies. Guacodiles, Lava Guava, Explode-O-Nut, or Hot Date are also useful against the zombie as they will trigger the attacks instead of destroying these plants, greatly damaging him.
Tall-nut is highly useful against the zombie because the Tall-nut can not only block the Zombie Bull Rider the same way he can block them when thrown from Zombie Bulls, but it also ignores damage caused by impact of being hit. Using Infi-nut is also a great idea. If he charges at Infi-nut, even if he is still regenerating health, he will still stop his charge attack. Not only that, but he'll back up a tiny bit, and before he arrives at Infi-nut, he will be ready to charge. This means one Infi-nut per row will stop all Rodeo Legend Zombie attacks.
Note:Bonk Choys, Snapdragons, Phat Beets, and Cold Snapdragons are useless (unless fed with Plant Food) as they can only attack from a very short range. While the Rodeo Legend Zombie is charging, avoid placing these plants near him, as they will hardly damage in and will easily get destroyed. Homing Thistles are also useless, as they can easily be distracted by other zombies, especially if Chicken Wrangler Zombies, Prospector Zombies, or Pianist Zombies (with other Cowboy Zombies) appear and therefore, they will have a hard time trying to take this zombie out. Citrons are also ineffective against it unless fed with Plant Food, as they fire very slowly compared to other plants and these zombies are very fast, and the increased damage will not be enough to fend them off. Nightshades without Plant Food are not useful either because they have too low of a range when not powered and regenerate projectiles too slowly when powered. Chomper and Toadstools are also a very bad idea, as they cannot devour the Rodeo Legend Zombies and will only attack them while they can easily destroy your Chompers and Toadstools. In addition, using Plant Food on these plants against this zombie is also useless. Also, avoid using Parsnip against it as, unlike Guacodile, it will destroy it without making it rush.
Hypno-shroom, if timed right, can hypnotize this zombie, as there is a fairly significant amount of downtime between its attacks during which it must eat plants. Enchant-mint and Caulipower can get around this completely. Either way, they allow players to not only remove this zombie as a threat but also further cripple oncoming zombies.
With Wild West Gargantuars[]
A combination of Rodeo Legend Zombies and Wild West Gargantuars can be very threatening, as they both have high health, move very fast, and have Zombie Bull Riders that can easily cause huge problems if thrown to your backmost defenses. To prevent this, you should keep at least a Blover or Hurrikale at your disposal. All normal instant kill plants except Chili Bean, Primal Potato Mine, or possibly Grapeshot may require at least two strikes to kill the Rodeo Legend Zombie itself. Stalling or delaying them with Primal Peashooters, Apple Mortars, Kernel-pult and other plants with offensive and immobilizing powers may be required. Shrinking Violet is also useful as this prevents them from launching their Zombie Bull Riders and gives Jack O' Lantern, Banana Launcher, and Missile Toe the ability to kill the Rodeo Legend Zombie instantly.
Hypnotised Rodeo legend about to launch zombie bull rider
Almanac texture
Rodeo Legend Zombie arriving, being chilled and charging (Animated)
HD Rodeo Legend Zombie running
HD Rodeo Legend Zombie without Zombie Bull Rider
In other languages[]
Please note that only official translations are used.
Language
Name
Description
English
Rodeo Legend Zombie
French
Zombie rodรฉo star
German
Rodeo-Legenden-Zombie
Italian
Zombi leggenda del rodeo
Brazilian Portuguese
Zumbi Peรฃo Lendรกrio
Spanish
Zombi leyenda del rodeo
Trivia[]
It and Jurassic Rockpuncher are the only veteran zombies to have a unique ability compared to their downgrades.
Despite the fact its speed is listed in the Almanac as Hungry, its actual speed when charging is Flighty and its speed when not charging is Stiff.
Whenever the bull is about to charge at plants, its eyebrows change to a blondish-orange color, due to the animations being re-used from the Zombie Bull.
It is possible for the bull to throw the imp directly into the player's house, causing the player to lose instantly, even if he was hypnotized.
In Wild West - Day 35, it is not spawned by Zombot War Wagon. Instead it comes surprisingly from the zombie side, despite not being encountered in the zombie preview.
Unlike Zombie Bull, it can be eaten by Toadstool. It is unknown if this is an glitch or not.
Rodeo Legend Zombie (if not counting Wild West expansion levels), Imp Dragon Zombie (excluding Modern Day levels) and Cart-Head Zombie (condition similar to Rodeo Legend Zombie) are the only zombies to appear in one level of a world.
Interestingly, this zombie and Cart-Head zombie are the only veteran or upgrade zombies that appear in a non-expansion level, which is Modern Day - Day 32.