Potato Mine

Clicking the first Potato Mine enters connection selection; clicking another Potato Mine confirms the other endpoint. If no passable route exists between them, the connection is not created and the no-path advice is shown.

Each Potato Mine stores only one partner. Before a new connection is made, the old route is removed and begins fading out, while the old partner's indicator light is cleared as well. After a successful link, both endpoint lights turn on, and route cells are tagged by the two endpoints' runtime IDs so later checks can tell whether the line still belongs to the same pair.

This makes Potato Mine a one-to-one endpoint plant, not a global network node. Extra mines are valuable because they let the player place several protected segments, not because every mine automatically joins one board-wide circuit.

The route expands on the 9-column by 6-row board through the four orthogonal directions only; it does not move diagonally. Apart from the two endpoint cells, the route can pass only through cells that are legal for Potato Mine and not occupied by plants. Illegal terrain, occupied plant tiles, and off-board cells all act as obstacles.

The search is centered on the shortest reachable route, with distance to the target endpoint used as the practical tie-breaker. When a route is created, every route cell receives a line tile. Those tiles both show direction and perform the later control checks.

If a cell on an existing route later becomes blocked, its line tile requests a recomputation. If recomputation succeeds, the old route fades and a new route connects the same endpoints. If it fails, that pair of mines disconnects.

A route tile is not a one-use explosion. As long as both endpoints remain valid, it repeatedly checks zombies in the same row whose current grid cell overlaps that route tile. A zombie merely passing near the drawn line does not count unless its current cell is the route cell.

Stepping onto the route first applies a long slow. If the target remains on route cells until the slow timer falls into the roughly 3.0–3.2s window, the line upgrades the control into freeze and refreshes a longer slow timer. This is why straight interception, corner holding, and wall-front congestion are more valuable than a brief touch.

Fire and other effects that remove chill states can reduce the line's payoff. Conversely, Wall-nut, Honey Bamboo, or other delay tools can hold zombies on route cells long enough for the slow timer to reach the freeze window.

Potato Mine can be planted on Lily Pad, so water lanes can become route endpoints or controlled cells near a route. Lily Pad supplies the legal landing surface; the upper Potato Mine is still the object that connects, takes bites, and needs protection.

A water-crossing route turns otherwise awkward water cells into a freeze corridor. The cost is exposure: if either endpoint is eaten, shoveled, or moved away, the whole route is cleared with it.

In practice, short routes are good for guarding key entrances and for the adjacent-mine achievement; long routes cover more cells, but both endpoints need defensive support. A route built only for maximum length often breaks before it earns that coverage.

Unlike Cherry Bomb or CocoBottle Shine, Potato Mine now plays as a maintainable control line. Its output is not a single clear; it makes zombies slow down as they cross specific cells, then freezes them when congestion keeps them there.

The most stable use is to place the route on required zombie cells, wall-front cells, or cells that movement effects repeatedly send zombies back into. If the player later plants into the route, the line will search again; that can be used as deliberate rerouting, but it can also remove coverage from the exact cells that mattered.

In story terms, Potato Mine is tightly bound to Hurriclover and the Maple Lake side quest. In mechanics terms, it has moved from “bury and wait for a blast” into an area-control plant that asks the player to wire endpoints, maintain them, and plan for occupation time.