Does Torchwood Double Damage? Understanding Its Impact in Plants vs. Zombies
The short answer is yes, Torchwood does double the damage of regular peas that pass through it in the Plants vs. Zombies franchise. However, the full picture is a bit more nuanced and warrants a deeper exploration. This article will delve into the specifics of how Torchwood affects pea projectiles, its interactions with various other plants, and address common questions players often have about this pivotal plant.
How Torchwood Amplifies Pea Damage
Torchwood is a unique support plant that doesn’t directly attack zombies. Instead, its primary function is to enhance the offensive capabilities of other plants, specifically peashooting plants. When a regular pea passes through a Torchwood, it is instantly transformed into a fire pea. This fire pea deals twice the damage of a standard pea. This simple yet significant boost can dramatically increase a player’s damage output, especially in late-game scenarios or when facing tougher waves of zombies.
The Fire Pea Transformation
The key mechanism behind Torchwood’s damage boost is the transformation of regular peas into fire peas. This transformation is not merely cosmetic. It results in a 100% damage increase, making each projectile significantly more potent. This effect applies to all standard peas, including those fired by the basic Peashooter, Repeater, and even Primal Peashooter. The fire effect itself does not add any elemental or status-based damage but simply acts as a multiplier on the base damage of the pea.
Impact on Gameplay
Torchwood’s doubling of damage can significantly alter gameplay strategies. By strategically placing Torchwoods in key lanes, players can maximize the damage output of their pea-based offenses. This allows them to eliminate even heavily armored zombies quicker than with standard peas, and can create an efficient damage engine, transforming a standard peashooter to an incredibly potent threat. However, optimal placement is crucial as Torchwood’s effect only works on projectiles that pass directly through it.
Torchwood’s Interactions with Other Plants
Torchwood’s effect isn’t universal; understanding its interactions with other plants is crucial for effective gameplay. Here’s a breakdown of some notable combinations and their outcomes:
Snow Pea and Torchwood
One of the most important interactions to understand is with the Snow Pea. While Snow Pea provides a useful slowing effect by freezing zombies with frozen peas, passing these frozen peas through Torchwood will melt them, removing the slowing effect. Instead, the Snow Pea will then be firing regular fire peas which lack the freezing element. Therefore, combining Snow Pea and Torchwood is generally not recommended. It’s important to choose between the damage boost or the slowing effect when you decide your strategy.
Fire Peashooter and Torchwood
The relationship between Fire Peashooter and Torchwood is unique. By default, Torchwood does not affect Fire Peashooter’s fire peas. However, when Torchwood receives a Plant Food boost, it can relight fire peas into plasma peas, increasing the damage output further. This makes it a viable combination if you invest in Plant Food to unlock the potential for plasma peas.
Primal Peashooter and Torchwood
Primal Peashooter is affected by Torchwood, making it a potent combination. Primal Peashooter’s slightly more powerful peas become even more dangerous when turned into fire peas by Torchwood. This makes it an ideal choice if you’re looking for a powerful early-game combination or you need to use Primal Peashooter in combination with fire.
Sling Pea and Torchwood
Unlike many other pea-based plants, Sling Pea is unaffected by Torchwood. This is because Sling Pea’s projectiles never actually pass directly through the Torchwood. As a result, Sling Pea must be supported by other area-of-effect plants if you want to use it in conjunction with Torchwood.
Plant Food and Torchwood
When a Torchwood is boosted with Plant Food, it significantly enhances its effects. Instead of doubling the damage, Plant Food will transform all peas passing through it into blue plasma peas, tripling their damage. This effect remains active until the Torchwood is removed from the field. This further solidifies Torchwood’s place as a late-game strategic plant to maximize damage output.
Does Torchwood Double Damage? – Conclusion
In summary, Torchwood doubles the damage of regular peas by turning them into fire peas. Its interactions with other plants are varied, necessitating careful planning. However, if you are seeking a substantial damage boost for your pea-based offense, Torchwood is a vital component of any strategy. Mastering its placement and synergistic potential is crucial for surviving the relentless zombie hordes.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are some common questions about Torchwood, offering further insight into its functionality and how best to utilise it within the game:
1. Does Torchwood work with all pea-shooting plants?
Yes, Torchwood works with most pea-shooting plants that fire projectiles, such as Peashooter, Repeater, Primal Peashooter, and Gatling Pea.
2. Why is it not recommended to use Torchwood with Snow Pea?
Because Torchwood melts the frozen peas from the Snow Pea, removing their slowing effect and turning them into regular fire peas, effectively negating the Snow Pea’s primary advantage.
3. Does Torchwood’s effect stack if multiple Torchwoods are placed in a row?
No, the effect of Torchwood does not stack. A pea can only be turned into a fire pea once. Having multiple Torchwoods in a row will only serve as redundant plants.
4. Is Cabbage-pult more effective than Peashooter?
Although Cabbage-pult does twice the damage per projectile, it fires at half the rate of Peashooter, meaning it deals an equivalent damage per second to Peashooter. Cabbage-pult however does not work with Torchwood, making Peashooter a preferable choice due to its flexibility.
5. Is Fire Peashooter better than Pepper-pult?
Fire Peashooter is generally considered slightly better than Pepper-pult. Fire Peashooter fires twice as fast, costs less, and deals more overall damage. However, unlike Pepper-pult, it can’t shoot over obstacles and does not provide splash damage.
6. How much damage does a fire pea deal compared to a regular pea?
A fire pea deals twice the damage of a regular pea.
7. What is the Plant Food effect for Torchwood?
When given Plant Food, Torchwood’s fire becomes blue, and it triples the damage of all peas that pass through it, turning them into plasma peas.
8. Does Torchwood remove other types of ice effects apart from Snow Pea?
Yes, the fire from Torchwood can remove any ice-based effects from zombies, such as those inflicted by Iceberg Lettuce and Winter Melon.
9. Is Gatling Pea a good plant to use with Torchwood?
Gatling Pea is incredibly powerful in conjunction with Torchwood, unleashing a barrage of fire peas. However, it comes at a high cost, making it unsuitable for every game mode.
10. Does Torchwood work in all Plants vs. Zombies games?
Torchwood is a recurring character in the series, though its exact abilities and interactions may slightly differ between different Plants vs. Zombies games.
11. Can Torchwood be attacked by zombies?
Yes, Torchwood is a regular plant and can be targeted and eaten by zombies. Therefore you need to ensure they are protected by more offensive plants.
12. Does Plant Food on Torchwood turn all existing peas into fire peas?
No, Plant Food only affects peas that are fired after the Plant Food is used. Peas already on the field will not be affected.
13. Why is Torchwood named Torchwood?
The name Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who, used during filming to prevent leaks.
14. What is a Giga Torchwood?
A Giga Torchwood is a boss plant exclusive to Graveyard Ops and the Backyard Battleground in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2.
15. What is the highest damage output in PvZ?
The highest single projectile damage is Citron’s charged plasma ball during its Plant Food effect, which can deal up to 4000 damage (at level 10). However, Torchwood’s amplified peas are still incredibly powerful for their cost and relative ease of use.