Havocado

Havocado is the first premium plant unlocked in Rock Beach’s level path C (more about level paths here) in Plants vs. Zombies: Lost World, after beating Level 3C. Unlike most artillery plants that fire explosive projectiles in Plants vs. Zombies 2, Havocado is automatic, and prefers to target zombies with the most health first (if there are zombies with equal health, all having the highest, the target is chosen randomly). When firing, Havocado releases an explosive pit, which explodes in the area of the tile hit, and requires a cooldown of 15 seconds before he can fire another pit again. This cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds for every flag that has already passed in a level.

Origins
Havocado’s name is a portmanteau of the words ‘avocado’ and ‘havoc’. Avocado, or Persea Americana (scientific name), is the fruit that Havocado represents. The word ‘havoc’ is defined as widespread destruction, referring to how Havocado fires explosive pits onto the lawn.

Almanac entry
Havocado Sun cost: 300 Recharge: Fast Havocados automatically fire explosive pits onto zombies, primarily targeting zombies with the highest health. Fires faster for every flag passed. Special: Firing speed is increased as more flags pass. Havocado recently retired from the army and specialized in demolition. He’s not gonna stop exploding stuff just yet though, cause now he pits himself on the lawn as part-time.

Plant Food power
When fed with Plant Food, Havocado targets the zombie with the highest health on the lawn (if there are zombies with equal health, all having the highest, the target is chosen randomly), and launches a nuke pit onto them, exploding in a 5×5 area. The pit, however, still does the same amount of damage.

Ultimate ability
When fully upgraded, Havocado’s pits will now explode twice. They explode first when they hit the lawn. The pit will remain on the lawn before another zombie comes into contact with the pit, which it will then explode the second time (dealing the same amount of damage, within the same area).

Available stat upgrades
More about the upgrading system and ultimate ability here.

Strategies
Havocado is useful in a sense that it can automatically target zombies for the player, and so the player doesn’t need to worry about not paying attention either to whether Havocado is ready to fire, or take off a few seconds of attention to the rest of the lawn. Plus, Havocado prefers to target zombies with the highest health, and so can help to easily weaken tough zombies (like Gargantuar) with high amounts of damage. Havocado is also useful by the fact that his firing cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds for every flag already passed in a level, making him an excellent plant to use in the late game. However, the inability to not control Havocado is also disadvantageous, as the player may not be able to reserve any explosives to deal with potential threats sooner (since Havocado’s firing rate is slow), plus, the player is not given the option to actually choose other zombies to target where necessary. Another downside is Havocado’s area of effect being limited to only one tile, and so every shot Havocado makes will mostly affect only one or only a small number of zombies. But, however, the one of the most obvious and significant downsides are Havocado’s high sun cost, slow recharge and slow firing rate, like most artillery plants that fire explosive projectiles in Plants vs. Zombies 2. But, however, the high sun cost is not as drastic, and his firing rate is decreased for every flag passed, which makes Havocado a slightly more practical choice (despite the slow recharge).

Gallery
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