Character Overview

Plant is the fifth character in the game and is unlocked by reaching 3-1 (Scrapyards) as any character. They have a normal starting loadout with the Revolver. Their B-Skin is unlocked by reaching (sitting on) the Nuclear Throne in under 10 minutes as them.

Plant A Sprites
	Icon	Plant B Sprites	Icon
	Idle		Idle
	Walk		Walk
	Death		Death

Abilities

• Pressing RMB will cause Plant to shoot a seed in the direction of their cursor. It will become a snare upon contact with any prop/enemy/wall.
• Snares will hinder enemies movement as long as they are standing within it, will not hinder Plant at all.
• How slowed enemies are is dependent on their size. Maggots will be completely stopped, while the Throne will largely ignore it.
• Vans are the exception, they are completely stopped in snare while in motion. However they can be pushed by enemy bullets.
• Shooting another seed will erase the current snare. If a seed has yet to make contact with anything, pressing RMB will do nothing.
• Throne II's arena has no walls, but there are invisible borders far out in the level that the seed will make contact with.
• Snare will act as a light source in any dark areas.
• Holding RMB will cause snare to be placed and pull Plant's vision in that direction. The further the snare is from Plant the further they can see.
• Will not work if something else is pulling the camera, which includes the Throne waking up or an open exit portal.
• Snare will not interact with most projectiles.
• It will completely stop enemy fire and slow toxic gas.
• Mom's toxic blast is a different attack and is NOT slowed, just the toxic from it.
• Enemies will take knockback at the same rate despite the slower speed, which can cause them to get pushed around on snare.
• On Non-Beta this can cause some enemies to get pushed into walls, especially with any repeatedly hitting weapon.
• The most notable example is Hyper Crystal who can get pushed into a wall entirely which makes her go out of bounds. In later loops, she has enough HP to keep travelling further away until she eventually dies to out of bounds damage. (Takes 100 damage every few seconds.)
• The Throne can get pushed around really hard and destroy walls making it off-center easily.
• On Betas this is severely reduced to prevent enemies from getting pushed into walls.
• The Throne can still get pushed easily by snare, but not into walls.
• Shielders can deflect seeds and it will 'change teams' and can hit Plant, but the snare itself will always remain on Plant's team as intended.
• If an Elite Shielder attempts to teleport to a snare it will flash there momentarily but then return to its original position.

• Mutants have a default speed of 4, while Plant's is 4.5 which is similar to the Extra Feet mutation.
• Plant is still effected by terrain movement, this only changes their speed.
• Taking Extra Feet will increase Plant's speed to 5 instead.
• (These are based on the game's code without applying friction, which is technically a bit different in practice.)

• Any enemy standing in a snare will automatically die if they are at 33% health or below.
• Vans are included in this, while props are not.
• On any of the betas this is changed to 33.33% health or below, a slight increase.
• Scarier Face fully removes 20% of enemies max health, meaning that TB only effects them at 33% of their new value.
• Face and TB stacked together translates to about a 47.4% total health reduction from their original HP, instead of a flat 53% reduction as one would assume.
• If an Elite Shielder attempts to teleport to a snare and is under the threshold to be killed by TB, they will instantly die but at their original position before teleporting. If they drop a pickup it will be at that location instead.

Ultra A: Trapper		Ultra B: Killer

• Plant's seed will be shot out as normal, but upon contact it will break into 6 snares instead, with one in the center.
• If shot at a wall some of the snares will crowd together instead of being perfectly spread out.
• All snares will act the same way, slowing enemies and each providing a light source in dark areas.
• Non-Beta Bug: Laser Crystals circling around Hyper Crystal may glitch out as their hitboxes get disjointed from their sprites, meaning it's impossible to see where they actually are. Undoing snare fixes this. It's somewhat possible on normal snares, but prominent with Trapper. This is seemingly fixed on the Betas.

• If an enemy is killed within Plant's snare it will cause a Sapling to spawn.
• Saplings have 10 HP and will circle widely around the player.
• If any enemies are in range they will rush it down and explode on them. Will not target props.
• Will also explode if they run out of health. Their health will naturally decay and will die on their own after ~13 seconds.
• These do 5 contact damage then will cause 3 blood explosions, as well as drop 3 rads. They do not drop pickups or weapons even if running Crown of Guns.
• Blood explosions do up to 4 damage a hit three times respecting enemy iframes, doing up to 12 damage total to any single target.
• Similar to blood weapons, blood explosions can erase enemy projectiles and cause enemy explosions to go off, such as IDPD grenades.
• Some mutations will apply to Saplings as well.
• Killing enemies can cause Trigger Fingers to proc for Plant.
• Can also cause Bloodlust and Lucky Shot to proc.
• Impact Wrists also applies to enemies killed by them.

Preloop Strategy Guide

Plant is often overlooked by newer players as it's hard to immediately see why they actually are so great - although a lot of their viability only kicks in during loop.

Active Rating: (Text)
Snare is a tool that has limited usage initially, it's fairly small and only limits enemy movement. It doesn't effect most enemy projectiles, although will completely negate Fire Salamanders and Fire Traps. Otherwise its best usage is helping create more efficient chokepoints in narrow hallways, preventing taking contact damage in close-range combat, and helping keep bosses/bigger enemies to stand more still for easier weapon aiming. It's a utility active that has various, smaller uses in situations.

Passive Rating: (Text)
Getting some extra speed isn't a necessity to Plant's run yet still will work decently with their active. If Plant is damaged badly they can snare enemies while making a faster retreat, as well as circling around enemies to dodge attacks is more effective. So this is one of the more average passives, but is still nice to have.

Thronebutt Rating: (Text)
The crowning achievement for Plant's preloop play is Thronebutt, which kills any enemies under 33% of their remaining HP. This means that any enemies and bosses only need ~66% of their health removed in order to be killed which reduces the chances of death during encounters and also reduces the amount of ammo used to kill anything. It also stacks well with Scarier Face taking around half of their original HP. While this only sort-of helps with low HP enemies, sometimes it can make mid HP enemies to die in one hit to weapons they would not to otherwise, but really is the most useful for any tankier enemies or bosses who usually need to be dispatched quickly. This is one of the best mutation picks in preloop.

Plant is pretty much just a mid-tier character during preloop that can boost themselves into a high-tier position if running Thronebutt. They have pretty different gameplay than other characters though which makes them worth committing a few runs to at least to get a feel for; their viability by loop changes a lot.

Loop Strategy Guide

Plant is significantly stronger in loop, which in large part is due to one of their ultra picks. One big factor as well is how Plant's snare will completely will stop Vans which helps protect them from ever getting hit by them. Just be aware that while on the snare Vans can easily take knockback from enemy projectiles and get pushed out of it, they are trivialized as a threat otherwise.

Trapper Rating: (Text)
This is easily Plant's better pick of ultras as it massively increases their viability. Snare will cover a far larger portion of the level meaning that Plant can constantly control groups of enemies rather than just individual ones, and it takes them much longer to escape the effects of snare. This always gives Plant a lot more breathing room which helps them take contact damage far less often - especially useful in Labs or Palace with rushdown enemies. The important part of snare usage is to constantly be using it for most situations to take full advantage of its benefits.

Trapper can also more effectively hold Vans, the best way to use this is to shoot the snare at the back of the Van. When it unloads IDPD, Plant can instantly kill most/all of them in one spot. It is also very useful to use snare near IDPD portal spawns to help in case of Elite Grunts spawning who will move much slower and easier to react to, or Elite Inspectors who between their slower speed and Plant's extra speed will struggle to ever actually pull Plant close enough.

Killer Rating: (Text)
This works decently well in loop. Plant can chain Sapling spawns together by killing a low HP enemy in their snare, then shooting their snare at the next low HP enemy that their Sapling would likely target. It's something that is particularly useful in areas such as Desert, Sewers and Labs as they do a modest amount of damage with a modest amount of AoE which can serve as a third source of damage for Plant, although this still limits snare's direct usefulness (while Trapper boosts it). Some practice may be needed to effectively use Killer to try to get as many Saplings as possible. It's easy to underutilize this ultra during a run.

Thronebutt Rating: (Text)
Thronebutt is simply amazing when paired with Trapper. If Plant actively uses their snare on enemies then it's a constant large area in which enemies will only need 2/3rds of their health removed in order to be killed which helps deal with enemy clusters. As mentioned Trapper is also great with denying area control to IDPD, and paired with Thronebutt this makes them really non-threats. Trapper + TB is undoubtedly one of the best combinations in loop given how oppressive IDPD can sometimes be.
Paired with Killer it's fine and enables more Sapling chaining, although with snare's limited area in this condition it will be the most useful in just helping kill bosses quicker, which still makes it a great mutation as the bottom line.

Meta Strategy Guide

Note that this is an advanced guide, it is meant to be used by those primarily looking at loops 3+. This builds off of content shared in the meta guide.

Plant is considered one of the higher tier characters due to how many situations their snare can come in use, while not quite a powerhouse they are definitely a strong character.

Trapper Rating: (Text)
This is the best pick for Plant. They can constantly use snare to hold enemies closer together, and is effective against most bosses detailed below. One of the biggest perks is still how it completely stops Vans - these start exploding in loops which can instantly kill the player, but Plant's ability to stop them is full area denial. In some situations Plant can stop Vans from both sides while standing near the middle of their snare, although this is dangerous in later loops due to the explosion radius of stacked Vans. Be especially careful in areas such as Desert as any number of Golden Scorpion bullets can push Vans at an alarming rate over snare, which can directly lead to Plant's death.

Snare's strongest area will be Palace, which is usually a really dangerous area. Plant is given significantly more reaction time to Dog Guardians pouncing and can hold spawn much easier, which is something that weaker characters can struggle with. A good Plant player should rarely ever die in Palace, just make sure to constantly have snare over the majority of enemies and be swinging ushov the moment any of them pounces.

Killer Rating: (Text)
Plant being stuck with their default snare size makes this ultra not as useful as Trapper. Saplings themselves are not necessary in terms of damage and worse of all they can proc IDPD grenades which can be an active threat to the run. If wanting to try Killer out in meta loops then Boiling Veins is strongly suggested.

Passive Rating: (Text)
Plant's passive gives a nice boost for quickly maneuvering around levels and during boss fights making it a decent passive. However a lot of gameplay is based on muscle memory and playing with the extra speed often causes players to make mistakes walking into bullets/explosion misjudging their speed, making Plant less popular as more time needs to be put forth to adjusting to this different movement speed.

Thronebutt Rating: (Text)
Plant's Thronebutt is considered to be one of the best TB's in the game. Any groups of enemies that snare covers is killed very easily, and paired with Scarier Face makes it absurdly useful. Bosses are one of the biggest threats in deeploop but with ~47% of their original HP being removed with TB + Face means any fight is cut nearly in half than if neither of the mutations were being ran. Popo Freaks will die to one ushov swing under TB's effects up to Loop 9 (or L10 in betas, being 33.33% instead), and stacked with Face extends all the way to L17. This works best for when many Popo Freaks all revive in the same grouping.

Even with how good TB is, it may not be Plant's most optimal set. The question isn't how good Thronebutt is, but rather what mutation it can replace. Plant has a few options for sets:

Core Mutations						Choose 2-3 From:			Choose 0-1 From:

Standard p9 may be the best option here, running Paw instead of Bloodlust is always up to personal preference. However Plant has some other combinations to try:

• Triple Damage entails running TB + Face + Brain. This makes Plant one of the highest damage characters in the game, but at the cost of no healing mutation which can make pushing difficult sometimes and recovery annoying. It is worth trying though as it absolutely decimates bosses.
• Face + Butt + Healing will drop Laser Brain which is used for crowd clearing, requiring more ushov use for crowds which can be slower but still effective.
• Brain + Butt + Healing is also really powerful at handling bosses, although many deeploop players dislike faceless runs and may pass on this.

Each of these builds have their own upsides and obviously is up to preference on which 7th-9th mutations seem the most useful. Trying out at least one combination with Thronebutt is strongly encouraged to see what gameplay is like when Plant leans into their snare as much as possible, and how satisfyingly quickly bosses will get taken down. Those looking for the best sets may try just sticking to just any old p9, however.

Boss Strategies:

Big Bandits will go better for Plant than a lot of other mutants. If Plant is running from Bandits they can shoot their snare against a wall, causing Bandits to charge through all of that just to reach Plant if coming from that direction. Plant can then use ushov to get more swings in before any Bandits get too close, making it a lot safer and losing important cover a lot less often. If they are unable to get snare at the opposite side of the wall it can still be used - instead putting snare on the inside of the wall, so if Bandits end up charging too close then it still puts Plant at a much lower risk of ever taking charge damage.

In early meta loops Plant's active will trivialize Mom as she is moves extremely slowly through snare and is an easy target. Be careful of toxic blasts still, as they can travel through the snare freely. Once Mom starts to speed up in later loops snare will not be as effective - she will often run right through it with ease. At this point snare should instead be used near a corner that Plant is hiding in (a common strategy) which will help increase Plant's reaction time as Mom will have to walk through it to reach Plant. Even snare's extra lightning can come in handy at this point to minimize the amount of darkness on-screen.

Of the hardest bosses, Throne II will still give Plant a difficult time. The preferred way to handle the T2 fight is to use perfect shots at the right angles, however Trapper slowing down T2 will actually make perfect shots harder to execute. This means that it's best not to use snare in this fight specifically, focusing on the fight as normal. If running Thronebutt then after its low health noise, Plant could routinely try to see if TB will proc or not. (If seed misses it will need to travel all the way to the edge of the arena which will take a few seconds until it is usable again.)
In other words unless if Plant is fighting T2 with Thronebutt, their fight will go the same as other characters.

Other bosses of note includes,
For Non-Beta using Trapper on Hyper Crystal is dangerous as it can cause Laser Crystals to get disjointed from their hitboxes. Be sure to constantly be re=placing snares to be safe.
For the Betas using it on Hyper Crystal is a lot safer, although be aware that if Laser Crystals are stuck against walls they may 'pop' out in an unexpected way, so don't stand by walls while doing this.

For Non-Beta be aware that it's really easy to push the Throne off-center which can make its laser beam harder to remember off-screen, using snare lightly for this fight is fine as slowing the Throne down does not provide any significant advantages.
For Beta this is largely fixed as it's very difficult to push the Throne into any walls.