Zombies that either went unused, were scrapped, or went through changes found within the game files prior to their release.
Unused/Scrapped Zombies
ZombieProto
It was either an early version of the Basic Zombie, or a test zombie used for debugging the game while it was still in development. Only sprites and some animations for the zombie existed. It was removed in later versions.
Cleopatra Zombie
cleopatra
Was meant to be used by a scrapped event which you would go and fight her, similar to the Zombie Yeti. She walks for a brief moment before doing a dance, summoning 4 Mummy Zombies on adjacent tiles next to her, akin to the Dancing Zombie. It would have been a sort of mini-boss, but was scrapped for being too weak. Normally she spawns zombies in a diamond pattern, but has further unused patterns. Those being blocker, vertical, horizontal and square patterns.
ZombiePet
pet
A zombie which can only be spawned by the unused feature "Zombie Spawner." Its stats are similar to Basic Zombie, but it walks slower.
Far Future
Deflector Zombie
future_protector_veteran
A scrapped veteran version of the Shield Zombie meant for Far Future's expansion, his shield is completely immune to damage and can only be disabled by knocking back or stunning Deflector Zombie himself, it also recovers much faster when disabled. His shield was also supposed to stretch across five rows according to its unused almanac entry, however this doesn't happen in-game most likely due to it being highly unfinished. It was likely cut due to not being much of a threat.
[ZOMBIE_FUTURE_PROTECTOR_VETERAN] Deflector Zombie [ZOMBIE_FUTURE_PROTECTOR_VETERAN_DESCRIPTION] {KEYWORD}Special: {STAT}shield regenerates over time {FLAVOR}Deflector Zombie saw what Shield Zombie was doing and said to himself, "BRAAAAAAINS," because that's really the only word zombies know. [ZOMBIE_FUTURE_PROTECTOR_VETERAN_DESCRIPTION_HEADER] Deflector Zombie protects himself with a powerful force field that stretches across 5 rows.
Veteran Robo-Cone Zombie
mech_cone_veteran
A veteran version of Robo-Cone Zombie. He absorbs a lot more damage, moves and eats faster. Was likely cut due to not being different enough from the original.
Dark Ages
Imp variants
dark_imp_cone, dark_imp_bucket, dark_imp_crown
According to their names, there were going to be three other basic Imp variants: conehead, buckethead and crown.
Thief Zombie
dark_thief
The zombie would have acted like Bungee Zombie from the first game. Although would steal the rightmost plant in its column instead of randomly picking a tile.
Knight Zombie
dark_knight
Unlike the final Knight Zombie, it was going to have slightly less health, 1505 HP, and was going to be able to deflect straight shot projectiles, although could still be harmed by lobbed shots. Deflected shots can still harm other Knight Zombies. Its concept was most likely reworked into Jester Zombie, with the immunity to all but lobbed shots most likely being the inspiration for Excavator Zombie.
Barrel Zombie
pvza_barrel
Its function is very similar to Pharaoh Zombie, almost the same except with different stats. It is named after and is based on the Barrel Zombie from Plants vs. Zombies Adventures.
Blacksmith Zombie
dark_blacksmith
This zombie could make helmets for other Peasant Zombies. It had to first assemble 5 parts of metal that would take 1.5 seconds to make, and then it would make and give a helmet to the zombie that is closest to the player's house, it could also upgrade the zombies who wore these helmets. The Blacksmith was later replaced with Zombie King.
Gravedropper Zombie
dark_gravedropper
Would have carried a gravestone with them, which could also be able to absorb overflow damage like Pharaoh's sarcophagus in earlier versions of the game. Whenever it reached a plant, it would slam the gravestone into place. It would then begin to walk at a faster pace, or do so when the gravestone it was carrying was destroyed. Its ability to drop graves was later reworked/reused by Surfer Zombie when on land.
Wizard Zombie
dark_wizard
Slightly different from the Wizard Zombie in the final game, this version would have shot projectiles at plants which would turn plants into sheep instead of zapping them instantaneously.
- This was later on tweaked and implemented as PvP Mode's Wizard Zombie in the Chinese version of this game.
Castlehead Zombie
dark_armor4
Was a zombie meant to be used in the unreleased Dark Ages expansion. It would have been the Brickhead Zombie of the expansion.
Peasant Rally Zombie
dark_flag_veteran
Was a zombie meant to used in the unreleased Dark Ages expansion. It would have been the Rally Zombie of the expansion.
Veteran Wizard Zombie
dark_wizard_veteran
Was a zombie meant to be used in the unreleased Dark Ages expansion. It would have been the veteran counterpart to Wizard Zombie. It transforms plants into sheep much more frequently than the original Wizard Zombie.
Frostbite Caves
Veteran Zombies
Frostbite Caves never got an expansion. However, sprites for some of the expansion zombies were leaked in 2019.
Only the art for these zombies were made, nothing else was done.
Lost City
Totem Dropper Zombie
totem_dropper (3.4.4 & 3.5.1), lostcity_totem_dropper (3.6.1)
Totem Dropper Zombie would have dropped objects to create a totem and would have required 3 objects in a pile to create the said totem. The totem would have then afterwards summoned an Explorer Zombie. It might have been a prototype version of the Imp Porter.
Modern Day
Scrapped Expansion Zombies
Alongside the Frostbite Caves expansion zombies, two scrapped Modern Day expansion zombies were also leaked.
Strangely, Veteran Super-Fan Imp appears in one of Talkweb's Bilibili videos.
Unused Veteran Zombots
zombossmech_dark2, zombossmech_beach2, zombossmech_iceage2, zombossmech_lostcity2, zombossmech_eighties2
Veteran versions of the Dark Dragon, Sharktronic Sub, Tuskmaster 10,000 BC, Aerostatic Gondola and Multi-stage Masher exist in the game files and were presumably made for expansions of each of their respective worlds, however they're identical to the original Zombots due to not being finished.
Unused/Early content for Zombies
Ancient Egypt
Zombie Walk Cycles
The Zombies in Ancient Egypt originally had a different walk cycle used for them. While the Ancient Egypt zombies use a different walk cycle in the current release, this walk cycle would end up being used for the zombies in Far Future.
Unused Camel Zombie almanac entries
Variations for the Camel Zombie once had names and description headers, but were ultimately grouped into one entry, leaving these unused.
Pirate Seas
Unused Pirate Barrel almanac entry
Barrel Zombie's barrel once had its own description with almanac icon. Notably, their almanac icon shows the barrel in a perspective never seen in-game.
Wild West
Unused Treasure Yeti costume
There was going to be a Wild West costume for Treasure Yeti, but went unused due to the wrong codename being used for Wild West.
Unused Springening Poncho Zombie Grate
Poncho Zombie's Springening variant initially had an original grate design.
Far Future
There exists an early version of Disco-tron 3000's theme.
Sound | Description |
---|---|
The theme. |
Dark Ages
Early Placeholder Peasant Zombies
Had simple placeholder sprites, being a recolored Future Zombie with a Pirate Seas flag.
Big Wave Beach
Early Zombie Names
Many of the zombie's names changed in the final release.
Lost City
Early Zombie descriptions
Early text for the zombies exists in the files. Due to the different string naming ("[]_LOST" instead of "[]_LOSTCITY"), they were likely leftover by accident and never removed.
[ZOMBIE_LOST] Adventurer Zombie [ZOMBIE_LOST_DESCRIPTION] {FLAVOR}Adventurer Zombie was certain he was the first to rediscover the Lost City. He was less certain after he ran into another 50 Adventurer Zombies at the gift shop. [ZOMBIE_LOST_DESCRIPTION_HEADER] Regular adventurer zombie.
[ZOMBIE_LOST_ARMOR1] Conehead Adventurer [ZOMBIE_LOST_ARMOR1_DESCRIPTION] {FLAVOR}Given the rarity of traffic in the jungle, it’s a mystery how Conehead Adventurer managed to acquire his headgear. Maybe he ordered it online? [ZOMBIE_LOST_ARMOR1_DESCRIPTION_HEADER] His makeshift cone gives him twice the toughness of a normal explorer zombie.
[ZOMBIE_LOST_ARMOR2] Kettlehead Adventurer [ZOMBIE_LOST_ARMOR2_DESCRIPTION] {FLAVOR}Armed with his sturdy kettle and even sturdier moustache, Kettlehead Adventurer is ready to ruin your day and possibly make a stew. [ZOMBIE_LOST_ARMOR2_DESCRIPTION_HEADER] His kettle-bucket gives him great resistance to damage.
[ZOMBIE_LOST_BUGZOMBIE] Bug Zombie [ZOMBIE_LOST_BUGZOMBIE_DESCRIPTION] Bug Zombie and Bug make a great team, partly because Bug gives Bug Zombie great mobility, but mostly because they share an intense disinterest in horses. [ZOMBIE_LOST_BUGZOMBIE_DESCRIPTION_HEADER] Bug carries zombie in over ground defenses and lifts him over barriers.
[ZOMBIE_LOST_EXCAVATOR] Excavator Zombie
[ZOMBIE_LOST_GARGANTUAR] Porter Gargantuar [ZOMBIE_LOST_GARGANTUAR_DESCRIPTION] {KEYWORD}Special: {STAT}throws Lost City Imp when damaged {FLAVOR}Porter Gargantuar actually provided the bulk of the funding for the expedition. And most of the bulk all around, come to think of it. [ZOMBIE_LOST_GARGANTUAR_DESCRIPTION_HEADER] Terrifying behemoth of exploratory fury.
[ZOMBIE_LOST_IMP] Lost City Imp Zombie [ZOMBIE_LOST_IMP_DESCRIPTION] {FLAVOR}Nepotism got Lost City Imp where he is. He’s Bug Zombie’s second cousin thrice removed, but he parlayed that connection into a sweet gig getting carried around in a little box. [ZOMBIE_LOST_IMP_DESCRIPTION_HEADER] Gets tossed past most defenses, then explores on foot.
[ZOMBIE_LOST_JANE] Parasol Zombie [ZOMBIE_LOST_JANE_DESCRIPTION] Parasol Zombie desperately wants to get to the opera before the curtain rises. She’s not going to make it, though, because it’s thousands of miles away on another continent. [ZOMBIE_LOST_JANE_DESCRIPTION_HEADER] Parasol provides protection from lobbed projectiles.
Unused Excavator Zombie animations
Excavator Zombie has an unused eating animation never seen normally in the game, as he simply bashes using his shovel if he can't pass through something like Infi-nut's shield. Alongside this are Shovel-less idle and walking animations.
These animations went unused until the release of Bramble Bush, who was strangely given the ability to remove Excavator's shovel.
Said animations, alongside a still currently unused animation of his shovel being stolen, strongly implies that his shovel was originally able to be taken away using Magnet-shroom. Early art for the zombie shows it once had an iron shovel, further proving this point.
Unused Excavator Zombie Designs
Excavator Zombie has an unused designs.
Unused Relic Hunter Zombie falling animation
Relic Hunter Zombie has an unused animation of him falling off while swinging, similar to Swashbuckler Zombie. Since this chance is always set to zero, it is never used. Likely a leftover animation or unnecessary conversion from Swashbuckler Zombie.
Neon Mixtape Tour
Early Neon Flag Zombie Emblem
Instead of a brain, Neon Flag Zombie used to have the logo of ZTV, a parody of MTV. This was still used in the Piñata Party teaser icon.
Unused jam idle animations
Punk Zombie, MC Zom-B and Breakdancer Zombie have unused idle animations. Judging by the animation name, "idle_jam," there may have been plans for jams to be active at the start of a level during the seed selection screen. By modifying the game, it is possible for MC Zom-B and Breakdancer Zombie to play these animations. Punk Zombie's animation has been removed since Neon Mixtape Tour Side B.
However, these animations can still be seen using plants that put zombies in their idle state, such as Snap Pea or Pyro-shroom, and they also briefly appear when they're summoned by the Zombot Multi-stage Masher, but are never properly used.
Placeholder Punk Zombie description
In version 3.8.1, Punk Zombie has a placeholder description.
[ZOMBIE_EIGHTIES_PUNK_DESCRIPTION] Punk Zombie Description [ZOMBIE_EIGHTIES_PUNK_DESCRIPTION_HEADER] Punk Zombie Description Header
Roman Zombies
Unused almanac entries
Similarly to the Camel Zombies, 2 of Roman Shield Zombie's variations have full unused almanac entries.
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Roman Shield Pair
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Roman Shield Pair
TOUGHNESS: Protected
SPEED: Creeper
A pair of Roman shield zombies.
When three Roman shield zombies are too many, how about two? Two's a good number right? It's even, it's prime... it's got everything!
Backyard Big Top
Unused almanac icons
Zombie Dove and Zombie Monkey have almanac icons despite not having almanac entries.
Lunar Zoo Year
Unused almanac icons
Like Zombie Monkey and Dove, all of the Lunar zombies have almanac icons despite lacking almanac entries. These icons, except Lunar Camel Segment's, were used in the Chinese Version however, as the Lunar Zombies do have almanac entries in that version.