Garlic (PvZ)

Garlic is a plant in Plants vs. Zombies, Plants vs. Zombies: Journey to the West, and Plants vs. Zombies: Great Wall Edition. Any zombie that bites him gets diverted into a different lane. He is the 37th plant the player will receive and is obtained after beating Level 5-5.

Audio
The sounds of disgust that zombies make when they try to eat a Garlic.



Suburban Almanac entry
Garlic

Garlic diverts zombies into other lanes.

Usage: on contact

Special: diverts zombies into other lanes

Lane-diversion isn't just Garlic's profession. It's his passion. He carries an advanced Doctorate in Redirection from the Brussels University. He'll talk all day about lane vectors and repulse arrays. He even pushes things into alternate avenues at home. Somehow his wife puts up with it.

Cost: 50

Recharge: fast

Overview
Garlic can absorb 400 damage per shot, and his appearance changes at 133 and 266 damage per shot before being swallowed at 400 damage per shot. Garlic also has a unique trait where different zombies deal different damage per bite to it.

Usage
Place Garlic in the front of lanes to divert the zombies into other lanes, preferably those with greater defenses or attacks. Garlic only affects zombies that bite them, so they will not stop Zombonis, Catapult Zombies, Bungee Zombies, or Gargantuars, as they do not actually eat the Garlic, so plan accordingly. Also, Garlic will not stop Pogo Zombies or Pole Vaulting Zombies if they still have their equipment, since they will just jump/pole vault over him. Balloon Zombies with balloons will float over any Garlic beneath them without effect.

If a Snorkel Zombie tries to eat a Garlic, it will move into another lane very quickly, but while it's moving, its head will not go underwater for that second. It is a very unlikely chance that you could kill a Snorkel Zombie while he is moving into another lane because it is almost invincible when moving.

Strategies
Garlic is a useful plant on almost any level because with careful use, he can funnel zombies down lanes with greater defenses. They are especially effective on Pool and Fog levels, as zombies have only one other lane to swap to. He is often used in combination with the Gloom-shroom, diverting zombies to the sides of the mushrooms, so that they will be damaged by the mushroom and not be able to attack it. He can also be used so that you do not have to defend as many rows, leaving more room for Sunflowers, Marigolds, etc. behind the Garlic. This is very helpful to get the achievement Sunny Days if you have many defensive plants such as Tall-nut, Pumpkin, etc. It is recommended to get an offensive plant for crowd control, as zombies in such huge crowds will destroy the defensive plants easily within a few bites.

Also, add few defenses into lanes with Garlic that do not hit other rows, for they will not hit the zombies that have bitten the Garlic. However, again, with something like a Gloom-shroom, placing them behind Garlic is a good idea because they will hit the zombies once they move to other rows and the zombies will be unable to attack them. Threepeaters are better used behind Wall-nuts or Tall-nuts to maximize the effect. Using Spikeweeds and Spikerocks with Garlic is also usually a successful plan, because they can do maximum damage to large groups, especially with Snow Peas or Winter Melons.

Another great plan is putting Split Peas with Pumpkins and putting them behind Garlic with a Torchwood at the tile up or down and one space right of the Garlic. The Garlic has to be placed at the first column without any other plants in the row, excluding Spikeweeds and Spikerocks, in order to maximize effects with the Split Pea and Torchwood. The Split Peas will get rid of Pogo Zombies and Pole Vaulting Zombies easily, while Split Peas will still damage the zombies behind them.

Be aware that if you are using adjacent Garlic in different lanes, zombies will not be held up indefinitely; they will still move through to the other side after from three to five bites. Also, use two Garlics in the same lane when dealing with Pole Vaulting Zombies, as they will vault the first one and then encounter the second. Do the same for Pool levels, too, by planting one between rows one to three and another at row four to deal with the Ambush Zombies.

In the Mini-game Seeing Stars, it is helpful to use a Garlic in the middle lane at the beginning, so they will go into lanes where you are using defensive plants.

Keep an eye on the health of your Garlic. You cannot replace damaged Garlic without digging him up, so try to be prepared for when he finally gets eaten, so you can replace him immediately. Garlics should be replaced shortly after their eyes start to water, which means they are almost completely eaten.

In the Last Stand mini-game, Garlic is often used in conjunction with Gloom-shrooms, Pumpkins, Magnet-shrooms and Marigolds to create an effective gold farming strategy.

Be careful though, because placing Garlic in Pumpkins will not divert the zombies. This is because they are not directly eating the Garlic, but the Pumpkin instead.

Garlic can also be used alongside a Plantern on fog levels. Place the Garlic in front of your Planterns just above and below the pool rows and this should clear all of the fog if the Planterns are around the 2nd to 3rd column from where the zombies are coming. Use 2 Garlics on levels with pole vaulting zombies to counter them.

The Garlic should not be used in Survival: Endless as zombies come that can easily bypass Garlic, such as the Zomboni, Catapult zombies, Gargantuars and Giga-gargantuars. Unless you are in the very early flags of Survival Endless, this plant should be of no interest to any Survival Endless player.

Trivia

 * If a zombie bites a piece of him when the "future" code is entered, it will not pause and make a disgusted face, but will still make the disgusted sound.
 * He takes increased damage from a Peashooter Zombie or Gatling Pea Zombie's peas, as well as basketballs from Catapult zombie.
 * On the seed packet, he shows eyebrows. However, when he is planted, he does not have any. He has eyebrows in Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars and advertisements.
 * In the Nintendo DS version, the zombies will move to different lanes slower than on other versions, and instead of a "bleh," the zombies moan.
 * Some zombies will not make a disgusted face but they will still move to a different lane. Examples include the Zombotany Zombies, which only makes the disgusted sound when he eats them.
 * He is the only defensive plant which cannot be aided by Wall-nut First Aid. The other plant that changes appearance showing damage that cannot be aided through Wall-nut First Aid is the Spikerock, mostly because he is not defensive.
 * On the iPad version of the game, if a zombie bites him, the zombie's head will move up.
 * If a hypnotized zombie tries to eat a zombie that is not hypnotized, and there is a Garlic in the way, the zombie and/or the hypnotized one will be disgusted and move to the other lane, even though Hypnotized zombies
 * He is the only plant that can be eaten but can also be passed by zombies. He is also the only defensive plant that Ladder Zombies do not place their ladder on.
 * If eaten, he will not divert that zombie.
 * He has two teeth visible, but if he degrades to his second stage (when bitten seven times), only one tooth is seen. None are seen when bitten fourteen times.
 * He is the only defensive plant with Fast recharge.
 * In the Nintendo DS version of the game, he seems to be angry.
 * If a zombie takes a bite of it and almost instantaneously gets hit by butter, the zombie may end up taking a second bite of him.Zombie garlic glitch2.png
 * Due to the fact that zombies change lanes slowly in the Nintendo DS version, if a zombie dies just after biting him, he may end up falling over between lanes.
 * There is a glitch where if a zombie bites him and makes a face and says "bleh" and at the same time the player types the "future" code, the zombie will have shades but will not have his lower jaw. It remains like that even if the player types "future" again and return it to normal until it dies.
 * If a Dancing Zombie eats him, existing Backup Dancers stay in their original lanes.
 * On the iPad version of the game, Backup Dancers face stretches into an unusual shape after biting him.
 * The Almanac entries of Cob Cannon, Garlic, and Spikerock are the only ones where real places are written in (Harvard, New York, the Uni Brüssel and Europe).
 * If a zombie bites him in a five-lane level (Day, Night, and Roof), they tend to go up a lane much more often than down a lane, unless it is on either the top or bottom lanes, which is when they will always move down/up a lane. This has also been tested in I, Zombie (Me Smash!)
 * If a Gargantuar smashes a damaged Garlic, the squished Garlic will appear to be in his undamaged sprite. This also happens with other defensive plants.
 * There is an audio error were one of the "bleh" noises makes a click sound at the end.