Zomboni is a zombie (according to the Suburban Almanac entry, he is actually more closely related to a space ogre) riding a Zamboni, an ice resurfacer with a red Z on it that leaves a temporary ice trail on which nothing can be planted. He is the 13th zombie to appear in Adventure Mode.
Zombie Bobsled Teams usually appear after the Zomboni leaves an ice trail behind (except during the final battle with Dr. Zomboss, Dr. Zomboss's Revenge mini-game or in Survival Mode, where they do not appear at all). The ice trail usually disappears after a while. However, a single Jalapeno can destroy both the enemy and the trail simultaneously. Chompers also work against them like a regular zombie: It will devour the machine and begin chewing.
His name is a portmanteau of "zombie," referring to the zombie controlling the machine and "zamboni," an ice-resurfacing machine.
Audio
Sound
Description
Zomboni arriving
Zomboni explodes
Suburban Almanac entry
Zomboni
The Zomboni applies ice, steam and pressure to your plants.
Toughness: high
Special: crushes plants, leaves an ice trail
Often mistaken for a zombie driving an ice machine, the Zomboni is a totally different life-form more closely related to a space ogre than a zombie.
Zomboni
The Zomboni applies ice, steam and pressure to your plants.
Toughness: high
Special: crushes plants, leaves an ice trail
Not to be mistaken with a Zamboni® brand ice resurfacing machine. Zamboni® and the image of the ice-resurfacing machine are registered trademarks of Frank J. Zamboni & Co., Inc., and "Zomboni" is used with permission. For all your non-zombie related ice resurfacing needs, visit www.zamboni.com!
Overview
The Zomboni absorbs 1350 damage per shot and his appearance changes upon absorbing 450, 675, and 1350 damage per shot, with heavy shaking and smoke at 1350 damage per shot before exploding. The Zomboni crushes plants and leaves a trail of ice that cannot be planted on. When he gets killed, he explodes (the scorched animation plays if killed by Cherry Bomb, Doom-shroom, or Jalapeno). Chomper will skip the animation. However, the explosion deals no damage. The wheels can be destroyed by Spikeweed or Spikerock, leading to a one-hit kill. While it will destroy the Spikeweed instantly, it will take 9 impacts to destroy Spikerock.
Before a Zomboni enters your lawn, the sound of a car engine turning on will be played. This will alert you to when he enters your lawn. Wall-nuts and Tall-nuts cannot stop the Zomboni, as he will simply run them over. Magnet-shrooms are also useless against the Zomboni. Zombonis are also immune to the movement-inhibiting effect of Snow Peas, Winter Melons, Ice-shrooms, and Kernel-pults. Spikeweeds or Spikerocks can be used to pop its tires (except on the roof). Any instant kill will destroy it as well. Although the Zomboni will leave an ice trail that nothing can be planted on, the Jalapeno can be used to melt the ice trail and kill the Zomboni simultaneously. If you kill the Zomboni, but you did not melt the ice trail, a Zombie Bobsled Team may appear. The ice trail will melt by itself eventually, as long as no other Zombonis drive over it. Piling on damage, just like any other zombie, will destroy a Zomboni, though this can be difficult, due to the Zomboni's immunity to freezing and his high health. A Chomper can devour the entire machine, and is one of the quickest recharging plants capable of defeating him. Besides Spikeweed and Spikerock, it is recommended to use the Jalapeno. This means to choose the Jalapeno and its Imitater version (if you are playing a level with many Zombonis and want to have a faster recharge). On ground levels, if possible, place a Spikerock at the very edge of the battlefield and in every lane, and it should stop every Zomboni.
Zomboni has a very large hitbox, so another good idea is to let hypnotized zombies eat him, since he will ignore hypnotized zombies and will not damage or crash them. But keep in mind that Zomboni himself is immune to hypnosis, and this may be harder to do in daytime levels.
Note: Plants cannot be placed on the ice left by a Zomboni for a short period of time, so plan ahead, and have defenses set up in advance, especially if you decide to use Squash.
During this level, an ice trail left by a Zomboni will not disappear. The Jalapeno is the best weapon against Zombonis. Setting a Potato Mine, Squash, Spikeweed, or Chomper early in anticipation of a Zomboni helps significantly. Once a Jalapeno removes the Zomboni's ice trail, planting Spikerock prevents any more ice trails from being set.
In Survival: Endless, dozens of Zombonis may spawn stacked on top of each other. Already given the problem of Gargantuars and Giga-Gargantuars, using Spikerock might seem tempting, but put it quite far left so it will not die so quickly and most Zombonis and Gargantuars will die, and sometimes Giga-gargantuars. Cob Cannons can help significantly, since they can fire corn cob missiles on the Zomboni's ice trail. Placing a Spikeweed underneath many Zombonis will pop all of their tires before disappearing. Explosives with a large blast radius, like the Cherry Bomb and Doom-shroom, can destroy Zombonis in multiple lanes.
These giants are very useful in Versus Mode when playing as the zombies, for a multitude of reasons. They are immune to being slowed or stopped by any plant. They have a high toughness, and crush plants as they go, eliminating the waste of time needed to eat. They also leave an ice trail on which nothing can be planted. Most importantly, if they get far enough with their ice trail, they will automatically summon a Zombie Bobsled Team for free. So if your opponent picks slowing or heavy offense plants such as the Melon-pult or Snow Pea, these are a must. Even if the Zomboni gets destroyed, the Zombie Bobsled Team provides backup.
As stated above, these zombies can provide a great help if playing as the zombies, but supply a great threat when playing as the plants. One almost cannot face them without instant kills. A good idea is the Jalapeno. These will destroy the entire Zomboni and its ice trail, and blow up the entire Zombie Bobsled Team if they have already appeared. Another good idea is the Squash. These recharge fast enough that you can overtake two or three Zombonis in succession using them. Since they can also be placed right by the zombies' spawning border, they are a very good idea to take them out before they have a chance to do any damage. Two Repeaters or the damage equivalent can also be used to take out Zombonis.
He is the first zombie encountered that can crush plants.
If a Zomboni appears on Roof levels, it will stop laying an ice trail after it reaches the slanted portion of the roof.
Also, despite the fact that Zomboni goes lower on the slanted part of the roof in Roof levels, the Zomboni is still facing the same angle as if it is moving on the flat portion on the roof, rather than facing lower, which is odd.
A small Zomboni (obtained by hacking) can crush plants about half a square away. This is because while the sprite becomes smaller, the hitbox does not change.
So far, the Zomboni is the only zombie that has a changed description in the Suburban Almanac for some versions.
Zomboni will not appear in Night levels because of the presence of graves; it would not make sense for the Zomboni to leave an ice trail on the grave but have the grave still be standing.
Zomboni's Almanac entry is cut off because of lack of space in the entry box. Other versions have the full entry, because the entry boxes can be scrolled down.
Sometimes, when Zomboni's tires are popped by Spikeweed or Spikerock, it will flip backward, then explode.
If the player uses any explosive plants while the flipping animation plays, the Zomboni disappears, similar to using explosive plants on the zombie's body that drops into the ground before disappearing.
A glitch allows daisies on the lawn to appear on top of the ice trail once Zomboni has passed (in the Game of the Year edition).
In the iPad version, the Zomboni driver's head is a lot bigger than most other zombies' and Zombonis' in other versions.
This is because it shares the same head used that is used in the iPhone/iPod/Android versions for an unknown reason.
Zomboni is the only zombie that cannot be stopped or slowed by anything (beside being destroyed).
Tiny Zombonis (encountered via hacking) leave a full-size ice trail.
In normal gameplay, Zomboni will be defeated by any type of instant kill. However, in its appearance in Co-op Bowling, it does not get killed instantly by Explode-o-nuts. Instead, it will just get the same damage it would get by a Wall-nut.
Also, in its appearance at the PC version of Wall-nut Bowling (available just by hacking means or save file editing) it has the same health as a normal Zombie, instantly killed by even an ordinary Wall-nut. This happens because it does not have proper programming for when it collides with a Wall-nut.
Zomboni still can move and crush the player's plants when it is about to explode (except for when it is killed by Spikeweed and Spikerock). This can also happen with Catapult Zombie .
Zomboni and Zombie Bobsled Team are the only zombies encountered in the Pool area that are not aquatic.
In the Nintendo DS version, the Zomboni does not degrade.
Zomboni is one of the four zombies to not fully be a zombie, as its old Almanac entry states that is a space ogre. The others are Baron von Bats, Zombie Bull, and Treasure Yeti.
Its description saying that it may be more closely related to a space ogre might possibly refer to it having "oni," an ogre-like Yōkai, in its name.
In the Game of the Year version, if one looks closely at the Zomboni, he or she can see that the zombie does not have a neck. Part of the background takes the place of the non-existent neck (there is green when the background is a grass tile), so the head appears to be floating.
The unused seed packet.
Unlike Catapult Zombie, the Zomboni's wheels do not move forward. This also shares the same with the idle animation, as the wheels are rotating back and forth.
Through hacking, one can find an unused Zomboni seed packet, meant for I, Zombie levels. When you put a Zomboni in an I, Zombie level, it will act normally and can even squish the brains if the Zomboni makes it there. However, in I, Zombie Endless, if the ice trail is still there when transitioning to another wave, then the ice trail will not disappear, and no plants will spawn in that lane in the next wave.
