Torchwood (PvZ)

Torchwood is a plant appearing in the Plants vs. Zombies game as well as their Chinese spin-offs.

Torchwood lights regular peas that pass through him, turning them into fire peas. These fire peas deal twice the damage of normal peas, but also removes all ice-based effect from the target, such as Ice-shroom's freezing and Winter Melon's chilling effect. The fire peas also do splash damage and all frozen peas fired by Snow Pea will thaw, becoming normal peas and losing their slowing ability.

About

 * For more information about this character, see Torchwood.

Torchwood is unlocked after finishing Level 3-7. Each fire pea generated by Torchwood deals 40 damage per shot worth of damage to the initial target, and 14 splash damage in a 1x1 area. Fire peas will remove ice-based effects from their direct target, but the splash damage cannot. In fog levels, Torchwood will also reveal an approximately 3x3 area around it.

Almanac entry
Torchwood

Torchwoods turn peas that pass through them into fireballs that deal twice as much damage.

Special: doubles the damage of peas that pass through it. Fireballs deal damage to nearby zombies on impact

Everybody likes and respects Torchwood. They like him for his integrity, for his steadfast friendship, for his ability to greatly maximize pea damage. But Torchwood has a secret: he can't read.

Cost: 175 Recharge: fast

Strategies
Torchwood should only be taken on levels where the player plans to use peas in order to maximize the damage potential. The player only needs one in each lane, but it helps to plant one before placing a second pea-shooting plant in the same lane, as in most cases, the flaming pea's splash damage will be more important than firing twice as fast. The player should keep Torchwoods behind their regular defenses such as Wall-nuts and Tall-nuts, but far enough to the right so that they can place several peashooting plants behind him. One of the most recommended uses for a Torchwood is with Gatling Peas, so the player uses the attack-increasing bonus from the Torchwood and the very fast firing from a Gatling Pea to kill most Zombies very easily. The player should plan ahead if they intend to use Snow Peas, though, and put them to the right of any Torchwoods, as frozen peas melt when they go through a Torchwood. This is usually not worth it, however, as flaming peas will defrost zombies (this includes freezing from other plants as well). Using Torchwood in conjunction with freezing plants is also discouraged, as the freezing will have little or no effect. Keep in mind that a Gatling Pea and a Torchwood is much more effective than 2 Gatling Peas, as it is cheaper, has the same DPS of the latter and has splash damage.

If the player is using Split Peas to defend against zombies that can bypass their defenses, such as Digger Zombies or Imps (thrown by Gargantuars), they can place a Split Pea to the right of a Torchwood so their rear-firing peas will catch fire, doing extra damage. This works best if the player has two or three Split Peas to the right of a Torchwood with other pea-shooting plants behind him.

Although Torchwood can clear out fog in fog levels, it is not recommended because he only clears the fog a small area around him (a 3x3 plus shape). The player should instead use a Plantern or Blover instead unless aiming for the Blind Faith achievement; the player may use the Torchwood in getting this achievement. However, the achievement Nebulaphile (the DS version of the achievement) does not allow even a Torchwood.

Using Torchwood in Survival: Endless is possible, but not recommended, as he only deals splash damage in a very short area and also makes it difficult to slow or freeze zombies, whereas Gloom-shrooms and Winter Melons do better splash/area damage and are compatible with slowing/freezing plants. Only use it if you are using Gatling Peas.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies

 * In the Nintendo DS version, an Imitater Torchwood is not a grayscale version, but rather a green version with blue fire and eyes.
 * He does not affect peas shot by Peashooter Zombies or Gatling Pea Zombies; instead, the peas will only damage the Torchwood.
 * He has the distinction of being unable to read according to his Suburban Almanac entry, implying that most other plants do know how to read despite them being plants.
 * Excluding upgrade plants, he is one of two plants that rely on another plant to work, the other being Coffee Bean.
 * He is one of the three plants which can affect fog, the others being Plantern and Blover. This makes him an environment modifier.
 * He is one of the twelve plants that appear in the seed selection screen after getting the Grave Buster in the online version; the others are the Ice-shroom, Lily Pad, Potato Mine, Threepeater, Tangle Kelp, Jalapeno, Spikeweed, Tall-nut, Doom-shroom, Cactus, and Blover.
 * Torchwood can be used to easily achieve the Blind Faith achievement.