Ernie the Engineer

Ernie is an Engineer Zombie hero in Plants vs Zombies: Apocalyptic Arena. He is a defensive tactician who focuses on defending important points and areas. Using him requires lots of macromanagement. As he keeps his turret standing and shooting, he also place stun mines to flank points. Add up the mayhem by riding on a rapid-firing turret to keep pesky foes off your workplace.

Overview
Ernie, the Combat Engineer

Damage: 5/10

Utility: 8/10

Survivability: 4/10

Complexity: 4/10

Role: Tactician Sub-role: Defense, Utility, Pusher

Almanac Entry: ''Ernie is your everyday engineer. He works day and night to build cool stuff for Dr Zomboss to use. He accepts small wages every 72 hours of working and never complains. Being relatively weak and lowly educated, he's good at making weapons, turrets, stun mines, etc. So Zomboss turned him into a soft, whoopie cushion like, combat engineer with a big heart and stomach.''

Gameplay: As said, it requires some good macromanagement with this guy. HE can build up only a single turret and it's his responsibility to keep it standing and relocating it in a different area. Ernie can plant proximity stun mines in some sneaky areas. Combine it with the turret and you'll sure murder anyone who'll step in. Ernie can move from place to place quicker with the use of a jackhammer, which can jump over any wall and elevation. Ernie can man a bigger bolt blaster that shoots rapidly at enemies and lock himself in an area in need of defense. He can also choose to root his enemies for a very long time.

Stats and Abilities
Base Health: 1110 (+5% per level) Base HP Regen: 4.3 (+5% per level)

Base Energy: 0 Base EP Regen: 0

Attack Damage: 67 (+5% per level) Attack Range: Melee

Attack Speed (APS): 1.1 Movement Speed: 290

Traits
Scrap Collector

Instead of using Energy, Ernie collects scraps for his constructions and abilities. He gains 5 scraps from enemy minions and 30 from vanquished enemy heroes. He can have a maximum of 500 scraps. Activating his trait will consume some scraps to upgrade his weapon.

Ernie's Weapon Upgrade:
 * Base Weapon: Wrench - A simple melee weapon used to hit guys and repair and upgrade turrets. Even if this is replaced, he will still use it to upgrade and repair his turrets.
 * Level 1 Weapon: Nail Gun - A slightly short-ranged weapon shooting nails. Requires 100 scraps.
 * Level 2 Weapon: Screw Heater - A normal-heated weapon whose attacks can apply burn to the targets. Requires 200 scraps.
 * Level 3 Weapon: Concrete Launcher - A long-ranged weapon that shoots area-of-effect concrete. Deals 75% initial damage and 25% splash damage. Requires 300 scraps.

''Ernie doesn't have the energy to do his work really hard. But he's not lazy, he just wants to scrap up some time for a better working tool.''

Basic Abilities
Bolt Turret (Q)

Places a turret on a location to defend and shoot at enemies on range. When damaged, right click on the turret to repair it. Right clicking an undamaged turret will upgrade it, improving its damage, health, and fire rate. Turret costs 50 scraps. Repairing and upgrading costs 10 scraps. Only 1 turret can stand at a time. This ability will be replaced by Move Turret.

Bolt Turret Upgrades:
 * Level 1 Turret: 1000 HP (+50). Low damage. Average firing rate.
 * Level 2 Turret: 1500 HP (+75). Normal damage. Fast firing rate.

If plants can do the tower defense thing, so can the zombies.

Move/Drop Turret (Q)

Target your turret. You will move the turret as you walk. You can then drop it on a selected location. Ernie and the turret cannot attack while Ernie is carrying the turret.

There's always room for some renovations.

Proximity Stun Mine (W)

Ernie places a stun mine on a target area. When an enemy walks over it, it will explode and stun enemies for 2 seconds. Mine is invisible and lasts for 45 seconds. Carries a maximum of 2 mines. One mine costs 30 scraps.

Ernie's mines aren't really that deadly, but they are loud.

NOTE:
 * Proximity Stun Mine is destroyed in 2 hits when detected.

Jackhammer (E)

Ernie rides on his Jackhammer that grants him +50% movement speed and the ability to jump over walls. The jackhammer emits a seismic shock that slows nearby enemies by 25%. Ernie cannot attack while using the jackhammer. Lasts for 10 seconds. Costs

Ernie can't tell the difference between a jackhammer and a pogo stick.

NOTE:
 * Ernie can carry hi turret while riding the jackhammer.

Ultimate Abilities
Concrete Spill (R)

Ernie launches a heavy hunk of quick-dry cement on an area. Enemies are slowed by 50% for 2 seconds before getting rooted for 4 seconds.

''Ernie's Special Quick-Dry Cement(TM) will sure dry quick. Good for making roads and life-size plant statues.''

Bigger Bolt Blaster (R)

Ernie mounts himself on a bigger bolt blaster. He will fire super fast heavy rounds of big bolts at enemies while in this mode. Deal 75 (+5% per level) damage per bolt and has 250 ammo. This ability is not cancelled even when Ernie is stunned. Ernie can manually disassemble this big boy by pressing his ultimate again, reducing its cooldown for every bolt left.

Ernie's Bigger Bolt Blaster(TM) is a state-of-the-art Z-Tech machinery that makes good offensive and defensive turret.