Ultomato

Bring BIG SURPRISE!

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

Ultomato is a plant in Plants vs. Zombies 2, that was first introduced in the 7.8.1 update. He is a seasonal plant, tied to Ultomato's Ultimate Season in Arena, which lasted from January 16, 2020 to February 3.

He releases a powerful and devastating laser down the lane he is planted in, but shortly afterwards needs to recharge. The laser lasts for one and a half seconds. When released, it will target the first available zombie in its lane, repeatedly attacking it. If that zombie is defeated and the laser still has some duration left, it will target the next available enemy.

Ultomatoes can be planted on each other to increase their power, but their cost also increases the more Ultomatoes there are on the field. If an Ultomato is defeated, the sun cost will decrease.

Origins

He is based on the tomato (Solanum Iycopersicum), the fruit of a plant in the nightshade family.

His name is a pun on either the words "ultimate," or "ultimatum," and "tomato."

Almanac entry

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

Ultomato	SUN COST 250 SPECIAL Cost Efficiency SUN COST: 250 SPECIAL: Cost Efficiency RECHARGE 6.5 PLANT FOOD POWER Damage RECHARGE: 6.5 PLANT FOOD POWER: Damage TOUGHNESS 500 DAMAGE 1600 TOUGHNESS: 500 DAMAGE: 1600 FAMILY Fila-mint FAMILY: Fila-mint Ultomatoes charge up slowly, then fire a devastating beam down the lane that damages zombies as long as charge lasts. Ultomatoes can be made more powerful by planting multiple Ultomatoes on the same tile. Special: can be planted on top of itself, mutating from green to yellow to red Usage: costs more sun the more Ultomatoes are on the board Ultomato yawns as unimaginable energies build up inside his being. It's cool. He can afford to wait. He's got allllll day.

Ultomato

		SUN COST 250			SPECIAL Cost Efficiency

SUN COST: 250
SPECIAL: Cost Efficiency

		RECHARGE 6.5			PLANT FOOD POWER Damage

RECHARGE: 6.5
PLANT FOOD POWER: Damage

		TOUGHNESS 500			DAMAGE 1600

TOUGHNESS: 500
DAMAGE: 1600

		FAMILY Fila-mint

FAMILY: Fila-mint

Ultomatoes charge up slowly, then fire a devastating beam down the lane that damages zombies as long as charge lasts. Ultomatoes can be made more powerful by planting multiple Ultomatoes on the same tile.

Special: can be planted on top of itself, mutating from green to yellow to red
Usage: costs more sun the more Ultomatoes are on the board

Ultomato yawns as unimaginable energies build up inside his being. It's cool. He can afford to wait. He's got allllll day.

Upgrades

When fed with Plant Food, Ultomato will self-destruct, explode and damage everything within a 5×7 area on-screen. His sun cost will drop by 50, 100, or 150 sun corresponding to what stage it exploded in, due to it leaving the lawn.

Fila-mint effect

When boosted by Fila-mint, Ultomato's beam will deal an extra 2500 DPS.

Level upgrades

Strategies

Ultomato has the potential for extremely high damage output, for a correspondingly high sun investment. A big (stage 3) Ultomato deals almost as much damage as a Cherry Bomb, enough to one-shot a Pharaoh Zombie or kill a Gargantuar in 3 hits, and the enduring nature of the laser means that any leftover damage will continue on to the next target. The laser cannot be blocked or reflected by Excavator Zombie, Parasol Zombie, or Jester Zombie. However, the cost mechanic means that a single big Ultomato costs 900 sun to plant, and a full column of them would cost 9000 sun, which is typically not practical.

Ultomato's attack style has similarities to Citron, charging up for several seconds and then firing. However, it is more powerful at full strength, cannot be reflected, recharges slightly faster, and excess damage is not wasted but passed on to the next zombie, making it somewhat better at crowd control. The trade-off is that Ultomato is much more expensive, and its plant food effect is generally less useful.

Since Ultomato's attack power is slightly more than doubled with each growth stage, there is a very big difference between medium and big sizes, making it more efficient to upgrade an existing Ultomato than to plant a second one. As a result, Ultomato works well on minecarts in Wild West, where a single fully upgraded Ultomato (Stage 3) can provide extra muscle on lanes that need it, and can be moved out of harm's way while recharging.

Ultomato is primarily vulnerable due to its slow rate of fire and inability to hit an area (it can hit multiple zombies with one laser, but only if it has enough power to overwhelm them all one by one). It is a very risky choice against Zombie Chickens or Ice Weasels; if the laser fires at the right time, it can destroy all of them and continue on to hit targets behind them, but if not, they will easily overwhelm Ultomato before it can fire.

Like lobbed-shot plants, Ultomato can bypass obstacles like tombstones, surfboards, and octopi to hit zombies behind them, but will target and destroy the obstacles if there are no zombies in the lane. A big Ultomato can destroy a Troglobite, a frozen block, and an imp, in one shot.

Ultomato's Plant Food effect has a very large area of effect, but unlike most other plants, Ultomato is destroyed in the process (and it can be quite expensive to replant), so it is often a better choice to give Plant Food to another plant. It is not usually a good idea to plant Ultomato on a Power Tile.

Gallery

Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Ultomato.

Visit this page to see it.

Trivia

• His growth stages resemble an unripe, ripening, and ripe tomato.
  • He shares this quality with Strawburst, whose growth stages resemble a ripening strawberry.
• Oddly, he is in the Fila-mint family, despite not having an electricity-based attack.
• The Ultomato is the second plant you can plant on to strengthen, the first being Pea Pod.
• Penny's starting level quote misspells "Ultomatoes" as "Ultomatos".
• If there are zombies behind obstacles like tombstones, octopuses, ice blocks, etc., Ultomato will prefer to, and can still shoot zombies behind these obstacles.
• If the player plants an Ultomato on a minecart, and then moves it to another lane while it is shooting, there is a glitch where the laser moves to the lane which Ultomato moves to, but part of the laser's sprites will still appear in the original lane.
• If an Ultomato is fed Plant Food when Fila-mint is on the lawn, the light it creates will still appear for about 2-3 seconds after it explodes.
• If an Ultomato is covered in octos thrown by Octo Zombie while it is shooting, part of its laser's sprites will stay forever until the octopus is destroyed.
• There is a glitch when the player exit level while Ultomato is activating its Plant Food and exploding. When return, there will be a green Ultomato on the lawn for about 1.5-2 seconds and then disappear.
• He and Dartichoke are the only 2 Straight-shooting plants that can attack through objects.

See also

• Pea Pod
• Tile Turnip