Zombie Chicken

For other uses, see Zombie Chicken (disambiguation).

Zombie Chicken is the ninth zombie encountered in the Wild West. It is released from a Chicken Wrangler Zombie after it has been damaged. They quickly rush towards the player's plants doing considerable amounts of damage. Lightning Reeds or any other area-of-effect plants are the best way with dealing with them.

Almanac entry

TOUGHNESS Fragile SPEED Flighty	Zombie Chicken
Once released onto the lawn chickens run at full speed to peck at your brains. Ba-qwack!

Overview

The Zombie Chicken absorbs 1 damage per shot. Because it is destroyed instantly when damaged, it only degrades when defeated.

Encounters

Plants vs. Zombies 2

Player's House: Piñata Party

Wild West: Days 10, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, Big Bad Butte, and Piñata Party

Dark Ages: Piñata Party

Jurassic Marsh: "Rescue the Gold Bloom" Epic Quest - Step 10

Modern Day: Days 12, 32, and Highway to the Danger Room

Arena: Gold Bloom's Garden Party Tournament

Plants vs. Zombies 2 (Chinese version) (China only)

Player's House: Premium Plant Quest: Parsnip

Wild West: Days 9, 10, 14, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, Ultimate Challenge, Daily Challenge and Endless Challenge

Lost City: Boss Rush

Modern Day: World Cup

Strategies

General

While single Zombie Chickens are very fragile individually, they come in huge, speedy packs and can easily overwhelm defenses lacking area-of-effect plants. Using plants that can attack multiple zombies at once, such as Lightning Reed (Introduced specifically as a counter against it), Laser Bean, and Fume-shroom, will allow multiple Zombie Chickens to die with each attack. Snapdragons and Phat Beet are fairly good because they can kill a very large group of Zombie Chickens in a couple of shots, since Zombie Chickens tend to bunch together in a 3x4 area. Spikeweeds and Spikerocks are good as well, as they can kill all Zombie Chickens that walk over them due to their fast attacks that will hurt infinite zombies. Bonk Choy punches quickly, making it a good plant to use as well. Since Melon-pult, Winter Melon and Dusk Lobber have splash damage, they can kill multiple Zombie Chickens with a single melon or bud, but they can occasionally misfire, causing no damage unless the chickens are in front of them. Using a Cherry Bomb can also work in an emergency, but it has to be planted far enough ahead that the Zombie Chickens do not run past it and are unaffected. Alternatively, if AoE plants are not available, using multiple fast attackers like Pea Pod or Repeater can compensate for it. In the Chinese version, Fire Gourd can kill multiple Zombie Chickens in a lane, as long as they are within the fire's range. Regardless, Lightning Reed's fast attacking velocity and the ability to instantly damage several zombies at once makes him the ultimate counter against the zombie chicken - Not to mention he covers up to 3 lanes as well.

Planting any of the aforementioned plants behind  will neutralize Zombie Chickens' fast speed and compensate for the slow attack rates of some of the mentioned plants.

However, if the player has access to it, Electric Peashooter behind defensive plants can be very effective. Electric Peashooter can zap an entire row of chickens. If you plant this on the middle row of chickens, so there are chickens in the row above and under row, This plant will zap three rows of chickens (five if at max level).

Moving a peashooting plant that has been fed Plant Food back and forth very fast on a minecart that covers all five rows is an easy way to get rid of a large crowd of Zombie Chickens, especially Threepeaters. Split Peas can be used to get rid of chickens behind it if the minecart is in the fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth column as well as damaging the zombies that are coming in as well. An exception to this tactic is the Pea Pod, Peashooter or Snow Pea with its costume in the Chinese version, and Primal Peashooter, as it will only fire three/five big peas that deal damage to only one Zombie Chicken per hit.

Lobbed shot plants lacking splash are very bad choices against Zombie Chickens because they fire half as fast as most plants and can only kill one Zombie Chicken at once, assuming they don't misfire. Torchwoods are also useless as they cannot attack on their own and the peas that pass through them do not do splash damage, only killing chickens one at a time. Bowling Bulbs are also ineffective as their fire rate is slow. Nightshades are also a bad idea as they do not splash damage and fire almost 2x slower than a lobbed shot plant.

Homing Thistles are also bad choices as they do not splash damage and other zombies such as Prospector Zombie can quickly serve a huge distraction to them while Zombie Chickens can eat the Homing Thistles up quickly. Magnifying Grass is also a bad choice as it can only kill one Zombie Chicken at a cost of 50 sun, requiring up to 650 sun. Any plants with a really slow rate of fire, such as Coconut Cannon, Citron, Banana Launcher, and Electric Blueberry are also ineffective. Grimroses are useless against Zombie Chicken as they can only drag down one zombie chicken per every use. Witch Hazel is not a good choice, as it can be distracted by released chickens, but it can still function alright if one has AoE plants to deal with the chickens. Also, avoid using plants like Iceberg Lettuce, Chili Bean, Sun Bean, or Spring Bean, since only one Zombie Chicken gets affected. Chompers are also bad choices alone, as it can only eat one Zombie Chicken at a time while the rest of the group can easily destroy your Chompers. In the Chinese version, do not use the Pumpkin Witch since it does not affect them and the slow fire rate will lead to the chickens destroying it.

Hypnotizing Zombie Chickens also counts as a good idea, not only as it prevents the Hypno-shroom from being consumed after a peck, but it also allow themselves to serve as a distraction to other zombies and saves you sun for your future disposals.

Guacodiles are a good plant, as they can rush and destroy an entire lane of Zombie Chickens. It is best to combine this plant with Sweet Potato, so its rush attack can eat an entire lane of chickens once the Sweet Potato has attracted all of the chickens. You can also use Banana Launchers with Sweet Potatoes so that its bananas can kill a lot of chickens on the same lane at once. It is best to combine Sweet Potatoes with Sap-fling and Banana Launchers to perform this combo for Zombie Chickens. You can also use Ghost Peppers too, as its screams can kill an entire lane of Zombie Chickens. It is also a good idea to use Lava Guava and Explode-o-nuts as their explosions can easily destroy a flock of chickens.

Hurrikale is a good choice against Zombie Chickens. It not only chills the entire lane of chickens, but moves them back. Endurian can also be used as they attack and defend at the same time and destroy one row of Zombie Chickens and they will sometimes not bite it. Plant them in groups if you want to defend more rows. Wasabi Whips are a good choice, because they have long range and rapid attack speed, so it is almost impossible for the Zombie Chickens to reach them.

In extreme situations where Zombie Chickens come from a lane with no defense or lawn mowers, use Power Zap as it acts similar to Lightning Reed.

Wild West - Day 22

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

Build two columns of Repeaters against them before the first wave or you will die automatically before you can even tap the Plant food button. Be careful when using Bloomerangs, as they only deal with three zombies at once and there are more than three Zombie Chickens per lane. However, they can help deal with other zombies that appear in the level.

Wild West - Day 20

See also: Not OK Corral and Wild West - Day 20

A Chicken Wrangler Zombie will appear in the middle lane in the final wave. Arrange the Coconut Cannon and a Peashooter in its lane and place all your other Peashooters in the lane above and below, Then when the wave starts, use the Coconut Cannon to kill the Chicken Wrangler Zombie, and your Peashooters will take care of the chickens. Lastly, kill the remaining zombies. This may be difficult because the Zombie Chickens' speed is very fast and they appear in groups.

Related achievement

	Fired Chicken Use the Lightning Reed on a chicken

Gallery

Plants vs. Zombies Wiki has a gallery for Zombie Chicken.

Visit this page to see it.

Trivia

• Along with the Rodeo Legend Zombie in its rushing state, it is the fastest zombie out of all the zombies in the Plants vs. Zombies series, as it can move exactly two spaces in one second. It is also the weakest zombie in the series, with only 1 DPS.
  • This shows that in just 4.5 seconds it can get to the Player's House.
• It can appear on its own (but technically by surprise attacks) in Piñata Parties.
• Feathers pop out when it dies. The same happens with Seagull Zombie, Zombie Parrot and Dodo Rider Zombie.
  • This does not occur in the Chinese version.
• On iOS devices and some Android platforms, if defeated with a Lightning Reed or Power Zap, Zombie Chickens may turn into buckets of fried chicken.
  • This is also the icon for the achievement Fried Chicken.
  • It's also a reference to KFC. However, this only happens when the chicken is electrocuted. Plants like Snapdragon will not cause this effect.
• Zombie Chicken, Ice Weasel, and Wild West Gargantuar have the shortest Almanac entry of all zombies. Among all of these, this zombie has the shortest one, while the Ice Weasel has the longest one.
• If a Chicken Wrangler Zombie is frozen, buttered, shrunken or stunned, its Zombie Chickens will not be released.
• As much as 13 of these can be released from a single Chicken Wrangler Zombie.
• When the Chicken Wrangler Zombie is killed by an instant-kill plant, power-up (except Power Toss), or the Zombot War Wagon when it rushes into them, Zombie Chickens will still be released. Also, when a Chicken Wrangler Zombie (with its chickens and bailing wire intact) gets killed by a lawn mower, some Zombie Chickens will be killed but most will survive, possibly causing the player to lose the game.
• It jumps every time it is moving, but it cannot be blown away by the Blover. This trait is shared with Jester Zombie and Bug Bot Imp.
• There were Piñata Parties called Chicken Week featuring this zombie.
• Zombie Chicken and the octopi thrown by Octo Zombie are the only zombies and animals to explode into food after being defeated.
  • Coincidentally, they are both summoned by other zombies.
• As of the 1.6 update, Zombie Chickens no longer played their zapped animations when being zapped by Power Zap or Lightning Reed. However, in the 3.0 update, it was restored, along with zapped animations for their Zombie Turkey counterparts in Food Fight parties.
• It is possible through glitches for the feathers released by a Zombie Chicken's death to "eat" the player's brains.
• It is impossible for this zombie to eat a Hypno-shroom. The same thing applies to the Ice Weasel.
  • This is because when the chicken does eat the Hypno-shroom, it gets hypnotized, but the Hypno-shroom remains.
  • This makes it and Ice Weasel are the only zombies in the entire Plants vs. Zombies 2 to damage plants by eating yet be unable to eat a Hypno-shroom completely.
• It is possible to butter a Zombie Chicken in Vasebreaker, however the butter does not appear. This can be done by using the Butter Zombie Power-up.
  • When doing this, the Zombie Chicken will not get killed. It's because the Butter Zombie power-up can't damage anything. Also, it does not have a sprite simply due to the fact that it wasn't supposed to be buttered in the first place.
• Zombie Chicken, Seagull Zombie, Zombie Parrot, Ice Weasel, and all Gargantuars from Plants vs. Zombies 2 are the only zombies that do not have any degrades.
• It is possible to slow down a Zombie Chicken without killing it by using Snow Pea's Plant Food effect, Sap-fling's sap, Hurrikale's blow, or Stallia's fumes.
• During the Piñata Party event of Food Fight, the Zombie Chickens were turkeys.
  • Its Food Fight 2015 counterpart lacked a zapped animation, leading to a sun sprite instead.

See also

• Lightning Reed
• Chicken Wrangler Zombie
• Fried Chicken
• Ice Weasel