Pumpkin Jack

Pumpkin Jack is an antagonist in Zardy's Maze.

Appearance
Pumpkin Jack has a scarecrow body and hat, very similar to Zardy, albeit being brown colored. Their head is a pumpkin similar to a Pumpkin crawler (as it has vines sticking out of the bottom) but with a different face. They have hand rakes for hands.

Behavior
By default Pumpkin Jack walks slowly, wandering aimlessly through the maze. If a Pumpkin Crawler or Weed is destroyed, they are "summoned" to its location, running quickly and leaping over the corn to get there. If the player is in their line of sight they will run toward them. Shining the flashlight on a Pumpkin Jack immobilizes them but also causes them to turn around to face the player when they can move again.

Pumpkin Jack also gets attracted when weeds get destroyed.

Strategy
The presence of Pumpkin Jacks makes it advisable to get away from the location of a Weed or Pumpkin Crawler after destroying one. One can safely walk behind Pumpkin Jacks if they have not been spotted. If a Pumpkin Jack is pursuing the player, a viable strategy can be to hide in the corn and wait for them to walk/run away.

Trivia

 * Pumpkin Jack's stutter when walking was originally a mistake that was left in the game.


 * There is a giant variant of the Pumpkin Jack that has the same design as the normal Pumpkin Jack but its shaded green. This can only appear in Challenge 7: Pumpkin Army.