Peashooter

Mechanics

• Base data: 100 sun; 7.5s recharge; 400 HP.
• Shoots peas forward. Gene A controls normal, ice, or fire peas; B controls size; D controls three-lane firing; F controls attack speed.
• Click one Peashooter, then click another Peashooter to crossbreed them. Genes are shown during crossbreeding.
• Peashooter can also crossbreed with Wall-nut in a special way, creating a Pea-nut Shooter.

Advanced mechanics

Peashooter's advanced mechanics are an inspectable, breedable gene system with pity weighting.

Gene storage and generation

• Each Peashooter stores six gene pairs, A–F, with two alleles per pair. A pair is treated as dominant if at least one allele is uppercase; it is recessive only when both alleles are lowercase.
• Newly planted Peashooters are always purebred: each pair starts as double-dominant or double-recessive, never as a natural heterozygote.
• Each gene pair starts with a 50/50 dominant-versus-recessive weight. After one trait appears, that same trait's next weight drops by 10% and the opposite trait's weight rises by 10%; all six pairs track this pity independently.
• Genes are shown during crossbreeding. The current build also lets the player choose a preferred gene display mode in settings.

A/B/D/F: pea type, size, lane coverage, and interval

$$D_{\text{large pea}}=2D_{\text{normal pea}},\quad r_{\text{large pea}}\approx\sqrt{2}\,r_{\text{normal pea}},\quad \Delta y_{\text{Pea-nut side shot}}(t)=s\left(2t-0.01t(t-1)\right),\quad s\in\{-1,+1\}$$

• Gene A controls pea type: AA fires normal peas for 20 damage; aa fires ice peas for 20 damage plus slow; Aa fires fire peas for 30 base damage with splash and clears slow or freeze from the target.
• Gene B controls size: BB and bb are normal-sized; Bb fires large peas. Large peas double damage relative to the normal-pea baseline and expand collision radius to about √2×, making large normal, large ice, and large fire peas deal 40, 40, and 60 damage.
• Gene D controls lane coverage: DD and dd fire only in Peashooter's own lane; Dd fires into the current lane plus the adjacent upper and lower lanes. Edge lanes skip nonexistent neighbors. Adjacent-lane peas spawn from the Peashooter and drift toward the target lane instead of appearing as direct copies. In particular, Dd Pea-nut Shooter side shots follow Δy(t)=s·(2t−0.01t(t−1)), where s=+1 is the lower side shot and s=−1 is the upper side shot.
• Gene F controls attack interval and wings: FF and Ff Peashooters usually fire one volley every [272, 300] cs, while ff Peashooters usually fire one volley every [136, 150] cs. ff displays wings; two winged Peashooters still produce wings, and winged Peashooters can float on water.

C/E: repeat-fire checks

• Genes C and E jointly decide whether repeat fire can happen. Repeat fire is possible when both pairs contain a dominant allele, or when both pairs contain no dominant allele; one dominant-side pair and one recessive-side pair disables it.
• Repeat-capable genotypes include CCEE, CCEe, CcEE, CcEe, and ccee. Non-repeat genotypes include ccEe, ccEE, CCee, and Ccee.
• After each shot, repeat chance is (40 − 10 × n)%, where n is the number of repeats already made by the current shot plus the total repeats made by the previous shot. In practice, a long burst makes the next burst harder to start; at n = 4, it cannot continue.
• Genes C and D are on the same chromosome. During crossbreeding, C and D use the same side of the draw, so repeat-fire potential and three-lane potential are not shuffled fully independently.

Crossbreeding and inheritance

• In ordinary crossbreeding, the first selected Peashooter acts as the donor and disappears. The second selected Peashooter remains on the board, keeps its current state, and receives the new gene combination.
• Either left-click or right-click can start crossbreeding selection. The second Peashooter must be clicked with the same button; the opposite button cancels the current selection.
• The new combination is equivalent to keeping one random allele from the target pair and receiving one random allele from the donor pair. Because C/D are linked, they use the same random side together. If the draw does not change a pair, that pair's visible behavior does not change either.
• The target keeps its remaining HP, hypnotized state, slow/freeze state, and similar runtime state. In other words, crossbreeding rewrites the surviving Peashooter's genes and appearance instead of creating a brand-new plant.
• A Peashooter can no longer self-crossbreed. During Time Stop, crossbreedable or plantable Peashooters still flash normally.
• Special crossbreeding lets Peashooter combine with Wall-nut into a Pea-nut Shooter. Wall-nut does not visibly flash like normal Peashooters, but the rule still exists and awards the related achievement.

Stage and time-state edge cases

• Since 0.17j, ice/fire Peashooters respond to Sands of Time state changes by switching between aa ice and Aa fire. Normal AA Peashooters are not part of this switch.
• A Lower Waterfall add-on challenge sets Peashooter's HP to 0: it does not die immediately on entry, but any touch kills it. This is a mode rule and does not replace the normal encyclopedia HP value.

Reading genes from appearance

• Peashooter has 48 visible variants: A gives three head colors, while B, D, F, and the C/E repeat-fire state each add two visible states.
• Head color reads A: original color is normal, blue is ice, and red is fire. Crossing a normal purebred with an ice purebred reliably makes a red fire Peashooter, which is the basic story hint.
• Stem thickness reads B: a thick stem means large peas. Rear leaf density reads D: denser leaves mean three-lane firing. Eyebrows read C/E: eyebrows mean repeat fire is possible. Wings read F: wings mean the fast ff type.

Story and design role

• The story places this gene ability in the Waterfall segment. Peashooter first explains only the basics, leaving the player to learn the rest through appearance, gene display, and repeated battles.
• Hurriclover-related dialogue connects the mechanic to real-world pea genetics and explicitly points out that C and E must have matching dominance behavior for repeat fire.
• The setting notes trace the idea to Mendel's pea experiments: randomness is not left as opaque chaos, but split into visible, inheritable traits that can be shaped by breeding.
• The Gatling Pea pond duel turns the system into a single-plant challenge: drag to move, use seed cards for sun, healing, or genes, and prove Peashooter's gene power in combat.

Interactions & counters

• Peashooter: Two Peashooters can crossbreed, combining genes that change pea type, size, lanes, and fire rate.
• Wall-nut: A special crossbreed can create a Pea-nut Shooter.
• Gatling Pea: The pond duel revolves around Peashooter's movement and gene upgrades.

In-game tooltip

Shoots peas at enemies. Can be crossbred. Has many genes; each one affects his traits. During crossbreeding, you can view Peashooter genes.