Prospector Zombie is the fifth zombie encountered in the Wild West. His dynamite detonates after the zombie reaches the second column from the right, launching him behind the player's defenses. He then turns around and eats his way back to the right side of the screen. He functions similarly to the Digger Zombie from Plants vs. Zombies, but instead of burrowing and surfacing at the very left, he appears vulnerably in the lawn and only reaches the back after his dynamite explodes. The dynamite can be extinguished by Iceberg Lettuces, Snow Peas, Winter Melons, Hurrikales, Cold Snapdragons, Winter-mints, Ice Blooms (provided that he does not turn into an ice block), Boingsettas, and Iceweeds, and it also can be relighted by fire attacks such as the one from Snapdragon. While he is being launched and he is in mid-air, he can be blown away by Blover.
The Prospector Zombie wears an orange tattered cowboy hat with a purple patch and the upper and rear portions folded upward. He has a silver hair and a messy beard. He only has three teeth: the upper right, lower right, and lower left.
Then, Prospector Zombie has a red handkerchief tied to his neck in a cape-like form, and wears a light blue long sleeve stained with small grasses from grasslands, with the right sleeve torn up to his biceps while the left one torn up to his wrist and on the back that is somehow torn up. There is also a blue grass-like pattern extending from his shoulders to his elbow and along with his waist-line and has a gray-like colored belt with four dynamites strapped to his left side. His pants are the same color and are also torn up, with the right leg up to his knees while on his left it is only exposing the knees. Finally, he only has one orange boot on his right foot and a white sock with two red and light blue stripes on his left.
Almanac entry[]
Prospector Zombie
TOUGHNESS
Average
SPEED
Stiff
Launches over your defenses when his fuse blows down.
Special: appears on the left side of your lawn when dynamite explodes
"There once was a zombie who got old, spending all his day looking for gold. 'Til one day in the rain, he finally ate the brains… and, wait, where's his other shoe?"
Prospector Zombie
TOUGHNESS
Average
SPEED
Stiff
Launches over your defenses when his fuse blows down.
Special: appears on the left side of your lawn when dynamite explodes
"There once was a zombie who got old, spending all his day looking for gold. 'Til one day in the rain, he finally ate the brains… and, wait, where's his other shoe?"
Overview[]
Prospector Zombie absorbs 190 damage. His appearance changes upon absorbing 85 damage (at which point the arm falls off) before he dies at 190 damage.
Using Hurrikale when he is at the back of the lawn will take him all the way to the right without your defenses being damaged, and he will simply walk out of the lawn.
Alone, this zombie does not pose much of a threat as he does not have much health. However, he is very dangerous in huge waves as he can easily utilize his speed as an advantage to hide behind other strong zombies, such as Pianist Zombie, Poncho Zombie and Zombie Bull, ensuring that they absorb all of the plants' projectiles. You should kill this zombie as fast as possible or he will end up destroying your backmost defenses. Good choices to destroy this zombie include Split Pea or Bonk Choy, because they can attack forward and backward. In fact, Split Pea is introduced right before this zombie appears. You can also disable the dynamite's fuse by cooling it using freezing plants like Iceberg Lettuce, Winter Melon, or Snow Pea. However, do not use fire plants alongside these plants as they will relight his dynamite. You can also stun him with butter from a Kernel-pult, giving you more time. Using Plant Food on any catapult plant can be a last resort, as they target every zombie on screen. While they are flying to the left, you can use Blovers, if you do not want to plant Split Peas and freezing plants because you could be using fire instead. Blocking him with defensive plants while his dynamite is active is not a good idea, as it will not stop him from jumping. A column of Ghost Peppers in the back column will also sterilize these zombies, due to Ghost Pepper's range and the Prospector Zombie's low health. Laser Beans and Fume-shrooms are a good idea as they can target all zombies in their lane or damage area, which allows them to eliminate this zombie before he is able to launch himself.
Planting two Spikeweeds or a Spikerock on the rightmost columns will easily take out all Prospector Zombies due to their low health. Those can also take down all Zombie Chickens too, making them very useful plants in this world. Both are also good when using their Plant Food effect as they can drag the Prospector Zombies and other Zombies from the leftmost side to the right. Planting Spikerocks and Spikeweeds in the rightmost columns in the Chinese version is a bad idea because Prospector Zombie jumps much faster in the Chinese version.
In Big Bad Butte, bringing the Blover is recommended as there are some cases where newly-arrived Prospector Zombies cannot be damaged by Winter Melons and may cause a serious damage to your backmost defenses if not taken care of immediately. With its fast recharge, try to time carefully when will they fly, then use Blover to wipe them off, allowing you to save much sun and time for upcoming assaults. This tactic is effectively done in higher levels, four-flagged levels, or in levels with presences of Wild West Gargantuars or other dangerous zombies. Alternatively, use Spikeweeds and Spikerocks to deal with hordes of this zombie.
Making strategies that does not require you to plant sun-producing plant at the left-most column is a good idea, because it can mostly eat one of your plants here when fused.
Balance changes[]
Update 6.3.1[]
▼ Health decreased from 270 DPS to 190 DPS
Update 1.8.0 (China only)[]
▲ Prospector Zombie's dynamite now detonates in the first column
Please note that only official translations are used.
Language
Name
Description
English
Prospector Zombie
Simplified Chinese
淘金僵尸
From táo jīn and jiāngshī, lit. "Prospecting Zombie"
French
Zombie prospecteur
German
Goldgräber-Zombie
Italian
Zombi prospettore
Brazilian Portuguese
Zumbi prospector
Spanish
Zombi buscador de oro
Trivia[]
Prospector Zombie is based on a gold digger/miner, hence his Almanac description and dynamite.
The fuse of the dynamite was going to be longer as seen in the Wild West Trailer.
If Prospector Zombie is killed after his dynamite exploded and he lands on the opposite side of the lawn, his head will fall off backwards when he dies. This will happen even if he was launched to the left side and killed by a plant that shoots to the right, like a Threepeater or Peashooter on a mine cart.
A Prospector Zombie appears in the Wild West as an advertisement to get more coins if the player's coin balance is low enough.
Prospector Zombie and Super-Fan Imp are the only zombies in the entire Plants vs. Zombies series that use dynamite. However, Super-Fan Imp uses it more aggressively than he does.
Lobbed-shot plants, Lightning Reed and Starfruit can hit it in midair.
Stallia does not affect the time it takes for his dynamite to detonate.
The way that this zombie gets to the other side of the lawn is actually similar to the rocket jump technique used in many first person shooters.
If the player listens closely, when the Prospector Zombie's dynamite detonates and he is launched, he coarsely shouts 'Brains!' while in the air.
Prospector Zombie is one of the few zombies which do not target the player's house (unless the dynamite has been extinguished and it is near to the player's house as shown on Vasebreaker), the others being all Zombot variants, Zombie Parrot, Zombie King, zombies carried by a pterodactyl, and Fisherman Zombie.
However, when it is about to reach the player's house, it will not turn red and not make the Turbo Button to be deactivated. It will only deactivate once it reaches the house and eat the brains.
If he gets hypnotized (by a Hypno-shroom) before his dynamite goes off, he will still go to the leftmost column. He just will not eat the plants.
A smoke trail will appear behind the zombie when he launches.
When chilled while airborne, his smoke will turn blue.
He dies immediately when there are no zombies left but himself. This trait is shared with Zombie King, Fisherman Zombie, and any zombie facing backwards via pterodactyl.
Even if his dynamite is extinguished and he is on the right side of the lawn, he will still die when this situation occurs.
He does not die on levels with flowers so that he can allow to trample them and make the player lose the level (or not get a star before the 1.7 update).
This can also happen on Save Our Seeds so that this zombie can eat an endangered plant.
If the dynamite blows up it will not be on the zombie when he reaches the other side of the lawn. However, if you freeze him while he is walking to the right, the dynamite will reappear and will immediately deactivate. The player cannot reactivate it.
Since the 1.8 update in the Chinese version, his dynamite now detonates faster and explodes at the first column from the right. Some other zombies that got buffed are Ski Zombie and Hammer Zombie.
If the Prospector Zombie is chilled or frozen when it’s dynamite has already been used, it will reappear, just without a fuse.
Lawn Mower cannot kill this zombie in the moment while he is airborne. In this case, he will still reach the first column and walk backward.
English
Simplified Chinese
French
German
Italian
Brazilian Portuguese
Spanish