Biologist

Biologist

ARTICLE

GALLERY

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Biologist
Unlock Cost	Triumph Bathroom Approach in Hard difficulty
Base Cost	$750
Base Selling Cost	$250
Role	Support
Placement	Ground
Placement Limit	8
Statistics
Base Damage	0
Damage Method	Single (Sunflower & Nightshade) Splash (Ivy) Poison (Ivy)
Base Firerate	1
Base Range	4 1.5 (Deadzone Range)
Hidden Detection	Level 2+ (Sunflower only)
Lead Detection	Level 1+ (Ivy only)
Flying Detection	Level 3+ (Nightshade only)
Immunities	Partial Debuff Partial Stun
Placement Footprint	Average (1.5)

"There's a zombie on your lawn... This calls for all out, plants versus zombies warfare!"

―Inventory Description

"Spring 2025 Event Tower"

―Former Inventory Description

Description

The Biologist is an exclusive tower obtained from beating Bathroom Approach in the Hard difficulty. It can also be obtained via a limited-time gamepass for 849.

The tower itself does not attack, as it only has three statistics: range, deadzone range and firerate. All of these statistics are only used by its ability to place down various plants, which is how it deals damage. The plants will only be placed down in its range, but not its deadzone range. As it has a firerate of 1, it means it can only place down one plant every second. It can deploy three types of plants, these being the Sunflower, Ivy (Level 1+) and Nightshade (Level 3+).

• Sunflower is the most basic plant, as it targets a single enemy and deals damage to it. At Level 2+, it can additionally detect Hidden enemies.
• Ivy deals energy damage with an AOE effect, applying poison to enemies. The poison deals damage over time and slightly slows down enemies. It can also damage Lead enemies with its explosion and poison.
• Nightshade is similar to the Sunflower, as it also deals damage to a single target. However, it fires far slower, deals more damage and applies confusion to enemies. It can also detect Flying enemies.

The Biologist has a placement limit of eight per player.

Upgrades

Level 2 - Scientific Breakthrough - $1,850
+1 Unit Queue +2 Damage +2 Range +100 Health +Hidden Detection +4 Damage +1.5 Range 2.008 > 1.808 Firerate +100 Health 3 > 4 Explosion Range +1 Poison Damage 5% > 7.5% Slowdown Sell Price changes to $1,066

Level 3 - Flower Power - $4,500
+16 Damage +2.5 Range •1.108 > 1.008 Firerate +200 Health +13 Damage +1.5 Range +200 Health 4 > 4.5 Explosion Range +2 Poison Damage 0.75 > 0.6 Poison Tick •50 Damage •30 Range •3.008 Firerate •20 Spawnrate •20 Lifespan •400 Health •1 Confusion Time •1 Confusion Cooldown •Flying Detection Sell Price changes to $2,566

Level 4 - Botanical Berserker! - $20,000
+1 Unit Queue +27 Damage +3 Range 1 > 0.8 Firerate +400 Health +20 Damage +1.5 Range 1.8 > 1.5 Firerate +4800 Health +1 Poison Damage 0.6 > 0.65 Poison Tick 4.5 > 5.2 Poison Time 7.5% > 12.5% Slowdown +85 Damage +5 Range 3 > 2.75 Firerate +400 Health 1 > 1.25 Confusion Time Sell Price changes to $9,233

Stats Table

To see the statistics without the Firerate Bug, visit the Firerate Bug page.

Biologist Stats
Level	Total Price	Firerate	Range	Deadzone Range	Unit Queue	Projectile Speed
0	$750	1.008	4	1.5	1	5
1	$1,350	1.008	4	1.5	1	5
2	$3,200	1.008	4	1.5	2	5
3	$7,700	1.008	4	1.5	2	5
4	$27,700	1.008	4	1.5	3	5

• Sunflower
• Ivy
• Nightshade

Sunflower Stats
Level	Health	Damage	Spawnrate	Firerate	Lifespan	Range	Detections	DPS	Min Cost Efficiency	Max Cost Efficiency
0	50	6	20	1.108	20	15	N/A	5.42	$138.38
1	100	10	20	1.108	20	15	N/A	9.03	$149.5
2	200	12	20	1.108	20	17	Hidden	10.83	$295.47	$147.74
3	400	28	20	1.008	20	19.5	Hidden	27.78	$277.18	$138.59
4	800	55	20	0.808	20	22.5	Hidden	68.07	$406.93	$135.62

Ivy Stats
Level	Health	Damage	Poison Damage	Spawnrate	Firerate	Poison Tick	Lifespan	Range	Explosion Range	Poison Time	Slowdown	Projectile Speed	Detections	Total Elapsed Damage	DPS	Min Cost Efficiency	Max Cost Efficiency
1	100	8	1	20	2.008	0.75	20	14	3	4.5	5%	20	Lead	6	5.31	$254.24
2	200	12	2	20	1.808	0.75	20	15.5	4	4.5	7.5%	20	Lead	12	9.31	$343.71	$200.63
3	400	25	4	20	1.808	0.6	20	17	4.5	4.5	7.5%	20	Lead	30	20.5	$375.61	$224.29
4	800	45	5	20	1.508	0.65	20	18.5	4.5	5.2	12.5%	20	Lead	40	37.53	$738.07	$284.95

Nightshade Stats
Level	Health	Damage	Spawnrate	Firerate	Lifespan	Range	Confusion Time	Confusion Cooldown	Detections	DPS	Min Cost Efficiency	Max Cost Efficiency
3	400	50	20	3.008	20	30	1	4	Flying	16.62	$463.3	$231.65
4	800	135	20	2.758	20	35	1.25	4	Flying	48.95	$565.88	$188.63

Skins

To see all the upgrades of a skin, see the gallery page.

Skin	Grim
Rarity	Rare
Daily Store Cost	N/A
Obtained From	Triumphing Bathroom Approach on the Hard difficulty three times, 399

Strategy

• The Biologist is extremely versatile, having a good damage output and a cheap price, making it an excellent choice for early game while also being a solid sub-DPS/support in the mid to late game.
  • It is also a good option for Hardcore since its units has all forms of detection.
• The Sunflower has the highest DPS out of all the plants, making it great against single enemies.
  • It is also the only plant with hidden detection, meaning that this plant should be used when they spawn.
  • It has the best cost efficiency out of all the plants, making placing down multiple Sunflowers quite effective.
• The Ivy can be great against hordes of enemies, due to its attack dealing damage in an area.
  • Unlike most other explosions, this one does not bypass defense.
  • Any enemy hit by it also has poison applied to it, which deals damage over time and slightly slows it down. This makes it useful at stalling enemies, though the slowdown is quite low.
    • This effect is the same as the one applied by the Toxic Gunner, though it has different statistics. In case of both towers applying poison, Toxic Gunner's effect will take priority.
  • Both the explosion and its poison can damage Lead enemies, making the Ivy useful against such enemies.
• The Nightshade, similarly to the Sunflower, targets a single enemy and deals damage to them, though unlike it, the Nightshade also confuses them, allowing them to stall the enemies while damaging them.
  • Because of this, the Nightshade will deal less DPS than the Sunflower, but it will gain more time to damage enemies because of its confusion.
  • Confusion can only be applied by Nightshade every four seconds. Additionally, it will not apply it if any confusion cooldown is active, even one from other towers such as the Jester.
    • This also applies to other towers. If the Nightshade's confusion effect ends, a Jester will be unable to apply confusion to that enemy.
• Most buffs work on the Biologist. However, most of them are insignificant as none of them are applied to units which are its method of attacking enemies.
  • Because of this, towers which debuff the enemies such as the Electroshocker, Freezer or Warden are recommended to use alongside the Biologist, as they can make its plants deal more damage or give them more time to kill them.
  • The DJ Booth's discount buff is quite helpful since the tower itself has expensive upgrades.
  • Damage buffs given by DJ Booth and Mercenary Base are completely useless as the effects does not apply to the units.
    • Same thing can be said for detection buffs given by Ace Pilot and Firework Technician.
  • The range buff and debuff will change the range in which the Biologist can deploy plants.
  • The firerate buff and debuff can alter the minimal time between each plant being created. This, however, only has an impact in cases where plants have very similar timers.
  • Despite not being a humanoid, its units can be protected and healed by the Field Medic, however since the units have a very short lifespan before being replaced this does not have much of an impact, especially since the flowers have enough health to tank most attacks.

Trivia

• The Biologist is based on the gameplay of the classic Plants vs. Zombies games.
  • The gamepass description for this tower references the game two times, once by saying its name and once by referencing Zombies On Your Lawn, a song from the credits of Plants vs. Zombies.
• The Ivy is stated in the unit queue description to deal single target DPS, despite it dealing splash damage.

Update History

• 16 April 2025 - v1.61.0
  • Biologist added.
  • Skin: Grim
  • Bug: When sold, its third plant will not disappear from the map until its lifespan ends.
  • Bug: Biologist creates far more plants than it is supposed to during periods of intermission after reviving, restarting or before a match starts.
  • Bug: Certain enemies will break when targeting a Biologist, causing them to either stop using their abilities or stopping their movement entirely.
  • Bug: Biologist is not affected by certain debuffs.
  • Bug: Biologist is unaffected by stuns from legacy enemy if they are fired like a minigun or beam, examples include the Gunslinger, Warden and Minigunner enemies.
  • Bug: Biologist can create plants even when frozen.
  • Bug: When in range of a Medic, it will be able to affect less towers with its Cleansing ability. Stacks with each Biologist or other similarly bugged tower/skin in range.
• 30 April 2025 - v1.63.0
  • Description updated.
  • Bugfix: Certain enemies no longer get stuck when targeting the Biologist.

Notes