Winter Melon (Plants vs. Zombies 2)

For other uses, see Winter Melon (disambiguation).

Winter Melon is a lobbed-shot plant in Plants vs. Zombies 2. He can be unlocked by beating Wild West - Day 24. 

Winter Melon attacks by lobbing frozen melons, each having an identical damage profile to those of the Melon-pult, except that they also chill zombies that are in their area of effect (3x3), slowing movement and attack speed by 50%. As with Melon-pult, Winter Melon's attack is only triggered by a zombie appearing in the lane in which he is planted. His chilling effect will be nullified if his target is also hit by attacks from fire based plants. While his attacks are powerful, he attacks slowly, but this is compensated by the slowing effect and the large splash area, taking out even mechanical enemies with terrifying ease when properly supported.

About

Winter Melon is acquired after unlocking the Locked and Loaded levels for the Wild West before the 1.7 update, beating Wild West - Day 24 after the 1.7 update, or collecting 10 Puzzle Pieces of it in the Chinese version. He has received some changes compared to the first game: his price was raised to 500 sun, and the frozen melon now deals 40 splash damage to all zombies in a 3x3 area. He is also no longer an upgrade plant, meaning that Melon-pult is no longer required in order to plant a Winter Melon.

Almanac entry

Winter Melon	SUN COST 500 RECHARGE Fast SUN COST: 500 RECHARGE: Fast TOUGHNESS Typical DAMAGE Heavy TOUGHNESS: Typical DAMAGE: Heavy RANGE Lobbed AREA 3x3 RANGE: Lobbed AREA: 3x3 PLANT FOOD POWER Damage SPECIAL Chill PLANT FOOD POWER: Damage SPECIAL: Chill FAMILY Winter-mint FAMILY: Winter-mint Winter Melons do heavy damage and slow groups of zombies. Firing Speed: 1/2x You may recognize Winter Melon's voice from such incredible documentaries as "It's Cold Up Here," "Ice Bingo," and "Surfin' Swedes."

Winter Melon

		SUN COST 500			RECHARGE Fast

SUN COST: 500
RECHARGE: Fast

		TOUGHNESS Typical			DAMAGE Heavy

TOUGHNESS: Typical
DAMAGE: Heavy

		RANGE Lobbed			AREA 3x3

RANGE: Lobbed
AREA: 3x3

		PLANT FOOD POWER Damage			SPECIAL Chill

PLANT FOOD POWER: Damage
SPECIAL: Chill

		FAMILY Winter-mint

FAMILY: Winter-mint

Winter Melons do heavy damage and slow groups of zombies.

Firing Speed: 1/2x

You may recognize Winter Melon's voice from such incredible documentaries as "It's Cold Up Here," "Ice Bingo," and "Surfin' Swedes."

Upgrades

Plant Food effect

When given Plant Food, Winter Melon will turn into a mortar and unleash a barrage of giant frozen melons separated into four waves to all zombies on the field, just like Melon-Pult. Each giant melon deals 200 damage to the initial target, but only 20 splash damage to every enemy in a 3x3 area. The chill effect will also be inflicted to every zombie hit. If there is no valid target, a single melon per volley will be targeted on a random tile. Also, the more enemies present, the more melons he fire. If there are too many enemies, he fires 4-5 bursts, each with at least 12 melons.

Winter-mint effect

When boosted by Winter-mint, Winter Melon will gain an additional 160 DPS on his melons (with an additional 80 DPS added to his splash damage), an additional 15 seconds will be added to his chill duration, and his plant food effect will deal an additional 425 DPS.

Notably, the splash damage on his plant food effect is not increased when boosted.

Level upgrade

*Direct damage per projectile. Its Plant Food splash damage does not change through upgrades.

Level upgrade (China only)

Level	Upgrades	Description
	Freeze	Winter Melon has a 7% chance to freeze zombies when he deals damage.
	Combat Training	Winter Melon gains 50% more attack power and health (150% of initial).
	Fast Cooldown	Winter Melon's chance of freezing a zombie will increase to 14%. Any zombie that gets caught in his splash will also get frozen solid.
	Cell Activation	Winter Melon gains another 50% more attack power and health (200% of initial).
	Ability Awaken	Winter Melon may be boosted when planted.
	Fighting Power	Winter Melon gains another 50% more attack power and health (250% of initial).

Costumed (China only)

He can now launch "Frost-Burn" melons that deal quadruple the damage of a frozen melon. This does not prevent him from slowing down enemies as they technically still count as ice effect.

Strategies

Compared to his incarnation in the previous game, Winter Melon has been significantly improved, both in his damage and crowd control capability, and mostly that can be gained easily. As a result, Winter Melon can now hold on his own against hordes of Buckethead Zombies and win most levels by himself. The removal of Melon-pult as a requirement, as well as the general ease of acquiring sun also benefits Winter Melon greatly. However, inefficiency in firepower output per sun remains a great problem to Winter Melon, so this plant should still be used as a supporting plant, rather than the player's sole option for damage dealing.

A good way to get enough sun to use this plant is to use Gold Bloom. It will give enough sun to fill most of Winter Melon's cost.

Winter Melon can be used to damage zombies that attempt to shield themselves from straight-shooting projectiles, with the sole exception being Shield Zombie (his shield blocks the frozen melon). Winter Melon is also useful in disabling Explorer/Torchlight and Prospector Zombies, preventing them from burning or bypassing the player's defense.

Surfer Zombie can block the projectiles when walking on land with his surfboard, because the surfboard blocks lobbed shots and the Parasol Zombies parasol blocks most lobbed projectiles (including Winter Melon's). However, the Parasol will prevent all types of damage by lobbed plants unless it was splash damage, whist the surfboard doesn't prevent damage at all - Since Winter Melon slows him down, there's more than enough time to destroy the surfboard before it destroys a plant.

Winter Melon should not be used in levels with Jester Zombies and Parasol Zombies, as they can deflect the melons and come out unharmed. Zombie Chickens and Ice Weasels also pose serious threats to Winter Melon, as they will often run in front of the horde and overwhelm the melons, preventing Winter Melon from hitting the bulk of the zombies. Winter Melon's low fire-rate also means the Chickens and Weasels can quickly overwhelm the front line if unprepared for. Lightning Reed can easily kill Ice Weasels and Zombie Chickens. You could also use Cold Snapdragon, as it does not neutralize the freeze effect of the melons.

Locked and Loaded - Wild West

See also: Locked and Loaded, Wild West - Day 9, Wild West - Day 22

Although they might seem impractically expensive, Winter Melons are required in these levels in order to defeat the massive numbers of zombies which swarm the screen, especially Day 9 where both Lightning Reeds and Split Peas cannot reliably take care of Poncho Zombies. In Day 22, it is advised the player places one on the hindmost mine cart in order to slow down the zombies. Be aware that Zombie Chickens can throw off Winter Melon's aim, so Bloomerang and Repeater should still be planted in order to deal with them.

Endless Zones

Similar to in Survival Mode in the previous game, Winter Melon is a key plant in all Endless Zones, due to his ability to suppress the incoming threats, giving the player more reaction time. His Plant Food in particular will prove to be one of the player's most useful assets - the ever-increasing zombie density only serves to increase the amount of splash damage Winter Melon can generate, and multiple Winter Melons when linked with Tile Turnip in higher levels can fire off a gigantic amount of frozen melons, capable of devastating even Gargantuars with ease. However, the player may find his price of 500 sun quite annoying early on due to the pace of Endless Zones, thus it's a good idea to have some early defenses to go along with him, such as Cold Snapdragon and instant-use plants or even just a simple Puff-shroom.

In Arthur's Challenge and Temple of Bloom, Winter Melon should not be used on levels with Jester Zombies and Parasol Zombies for aforementioned reasons. If the player wishes to boost multiple Winter Melons through Tile Turnip, it is recommended to link them to a non-damaging plant such as Sun-shroom and Iceberg Lettuce and then boost him first, as boosting a Winter Melon first can accidentally kill off weaker zombies and as a result reduce the amount of splash damage dealt in the ensuing barrage.

Gallery

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Trivia

• Him, Banana Launcher, and Missile Toe are the second most expensive plants in the game (500 sun each), the most expensive being Tile Turnip, with his cost capable of going up to 16,000 (64,000 in the Chinese version) sun.
• He is the only upgrade plant from Plants vs. Zombies to not have his total sun cost changed in Plants vs. Zombies 2.
• His vine that connects his body to his basket and his leaves under him are now completely blue, unlike the first game.
• The Almanac states that he does the same damage as a Melon-pult, even though in the first game, the Almanac states falsely that he does very heavy damage.
• His Winter Hat costume is a reference to Eric Cartman's hat from the hit animated TV show South Park.
  • Likewise, his Chinese costume is Kyle Broflovski's hat from the same show.
• He is not immune to the freezing winds in Frostbite Caves despite being a cold plant.
• His Almanac entry could be a reference to Simpsons character Troy McClure.
• Unlike other plants, his cost is reduced by 50 sun with each sun cost reduction when he is being leveled up. Other plants only have their sun cost reduced by 25 sun when they level up.

See also

• Melon-pult