Didja know Rustbolt dug up his armor from a junkyard? Still, he's one tough tin can. He'll try to sap your Plants' Strength so you can't defeat his super-strong Zombies!
His name is a combination of "rust," a possible reference to his armor coming from a junkyard, and "bolt," referring to his appearance and many of his animations. It may also be based on the region of the United States, "Rust Belt."
His helmet bears a slight resemblance to Marvel's Magneto. His armor may be a reference to the Marvel Comics superhero, Iron Man, who is also known for his reliance on his powered armor.
His description references the phrase, "A few screws loose," which is used to describe someone or something that is crazy or weird, as well as the fact they do appear in some of his animations.
The name of his super-rare strategy deck, "Hail to the King," shares the same name with a song & an album by the heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold.
The name of his strategy deck, "Pharaoh's Curse," references the curse of the pharaohs.
Rustbolt was once a normal brown coat zombie, he was fleeing from a group of plants and ended up being knocked into some kinda radioactive machine. This mutated him into becoming Rustbolt.
"This metal menace is the master of defensive Tricks. His Armored Zombies are very tough to take downโฆespecially when he uses special abilities to weaken the Plants!"
With[]
Rustbolt's Brainy and Hearty classes provide comprehensive destruction mechanics, suitable for hard removal of just about every plant, being Rolling Stone, Weed Spray, and Celestial Custodian for any plant with 2 or less, Rocket Science for 4 or more, and Knockout for 3 (or less, but Rolling Stone is still better for plants with 2 or less). Or, he can lower plants' strength with Shrink Ray or Landscaper will make that plant vulnerable to some of the aforementioned cards, as well as do less damage. Rustbolt can also let zombies do bonus attacks with Lurch for Lunch or Gadget Scientist and surprise plant heroes by tactical use of Teleport.
Rustbolt also has access to the most sports zombies out of any zombie hero, with not only the initial Hearty sports zombies, but also Pool Shark, Drum Major, Mountain Climber, and Brain Vendor, allowing him to use a sports deck with great effects for otherwise weak zombies. Speaking of Brain Vendor, Rustbolt can get a brain profit by playing them while Flag Zombie is on the field.
He also has plenty of zombies that can boost other zombies' stats, such as Team Mascot, Primeval Yeti, and Coffee Zombie. These boosts can make Rustbolt's zombies almost invincible with boosted health, strength, and the Frenzy trait.
As Rustbolt has access to both cost-reducing cards such as Flag Zombie and ramping cards such as Brain Vendor, he is able to easily play his expensive cards like Zombie King, Intergalactic Warlord, or especially Bad Moon Rising much earlier than usual, making them harder for his opponent to deal with. Some Rustbolt-exclusive combos include Zombie King + Transformation Station, allowing Rustbolt to get an 8-cost zombie as early as turn 5 via Knight of the Living Dead and Flag Zombie + Medulla Nebula and/or Brain Vendor, allowing him to have a ton of brains to use easily.
Rustbolt's only drawback is his lack of Amphibious zombies, as his classes feature neither, making the aquatic lane near-untouchable. However, Rustbolt does have many moving and stat-decreasing cards up his sleeve, which can help him deal with Amphibious threats, not to mention his signature superpower, Shrink Ray, as well as any other hard removal cards he owns. He can also ConjureAmphibious zombies via the use of cards like Triplication, but this is luck-based.
Against[]
Rustbolt has cheap health-boosting options for his zombies. Try to destroy them before Rustbolt can use health-boosting tricks. If it was already used, use cards that ignore health such as Squash and Lawnmower or reset them by bouncing with cards such as Spring Bean and Jumping Bean. Flag Zombie will enable more dangerous zombies like Gargantuars to be played earlier when used with Brain Vendor or Gargologist. Therefore, removing Flag Zombie and similar zombies is a must. You would also want to get rid of any Medulla Nebula environments as he can ramp his brains up within a few turns.
Playing powerful plants on the aquatic lane is also a good way as Rustbolt will be forced to spend some brains on removing those plants rather than focusing on boosting his zombies due to his weakness in the aquatic lane. However, try to avoid just using brute force against his zombies as he will use health-boosting tricks and bonus attacks to keep them alive for much longer.
Put the Sports fiends into play with this Strategy Deck that freatures All-Star Zombie, Defensive End, and Sumo Wrestler. Give these athletes the support they need with Zombie Coach and Team Mascot.
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Hail to the King
Turn 2 Flag Zombie plus Turn 3 Brain Vendor equals incredible synergy! This combo gets you a 5-cost Zombie like Shieldrusher Viking on turn 3! Get Zombie King out there early too and turn weaker Zombies into a powerful force.
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Pharaoh's Curse
This is the ultimate late-game control deck! Get control early with Beam Me Up, Landscaper, and Weed Spray. Draw extra cards to pull ahead. Shut the door on Plants with tons of Undying Pharaohs to stay alive. Cheap Tricksters seal the deal.
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Applied Science
Has Science gone too far? Placing Genetic Experiment next to an Interdimensional Zombie is a public health hazard... for Plants! Be prepared for a huge blowout when you surprise your opponent with a Zombot Battlecruiser 5000!
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Combo Stomper
Use Zombology Teacher to make your cheap Tricks free and draw tons of cards. All those cards help Stompadon and Going Viral make your army truly enormous!
Please note that only official translations are used.
Language
Name
Description
English
Rustbolt
Simplified Chinese
้้ไพ
Traditional Chinese
้ฝ้ตๆฎญๅฑ
French
Rouillator
German
Rostbolzen
Italian
Ruggibullone
Japanese
ใฉในใใใซใ
Korean
๋ฌ์คํธ๋ณผํธ
Brazilian Portuguese
Ferrujรฃo
Russian
ะ ะถะฐะฒัะน ัะฐะทััะด
"Rusty zap"
Spanish
Tornillo Oxidado
Trivia[]
According to in-game text, he got his armor from a junkyard, as in his intro comic, he was chased by plants (2 Peashooters, a Carrotillery and a Cabbage-Pult) to the junkyard up until a vending machine nearby was struck by the hero laser, which in turn morphed with him.
Randomly during his idle animation, a spatula appears from his right arm. When this happens, he will look at the spatula and then his faceplate will open. He notices this, looks at the player, and then closes his helmet and retracts the spatula.
Prior to the Galactic Gardens update, a toaster appeared from his left arm, although it didn't do anything but produce some bubbles. However, he would use the toaster as part of his super-block animation. The toaster was replaced by a bubble blower after the Galactic Gardens update. Rustbolt using the toaster to shield himself may be a subtle reference to "Protect me, cone!", a meme with roots in the popular comedy webseries Red vs. Blue, where Dexter Grif (the quotee) and Rustbolt are prominent characters of their respective teams in orange armor, using particular inanimate objects in an attempt to protect themselves. Coincidentally, Rustbolt is also associated with cones, as seen by his Hearty class (whose icon is a roadcone) and his access to Conehead.
Coincidentally, they are all technology-related heroes that lack Amphibious zombies in their classes and their signature superpowers are all in the science tribe.
Out of the three, Rustbolt is the only one that doesn't lead the Crazy class.
Brainy and 
Hearty classes. His signature superpower is Shrink Ray, which gives a plant -3
and draws a card.
Brainy, 
.
Frenzy trait.
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Brainy
Crazy
Hearty
Sneaky