In Resident Evil 2, Plant 43 appear in five variants based on health value, ranging from 69 to 119 HP. Below are the chances of encountering Plant 43s of each health value.[1]
The upper body arches up as the ivies stretch out.
Grab (つかみ)
20
Mucus (粘液)
20
Small ivy (小ツタ)
5
Strategy[]
Ivies are very slow to move, and can be fought at range with a handgun in most of the games they appear in. In a close range fight however, they are weak against fire and will die quickly when attacked with a Flamethrower or Flame Rounds from a Grenade Launcher.
Mucus From afar, Plant 43 can launch a glob of acid at player for moderate damage and can also inflict poison status if performed by a red ivy (the mutated variant that will replace all the standard ones if the player decided to release the P Epsilon gas). Plant 43's spit attack has no telegraphed movement and can be performed even in the middle of its walking animation. But as long as the player is not running directly towards the plant, they can walk to the side and out of the way with ease due to its somewhat slow projectile speed.
Ivy At medium range, Plant 43 will dramatically arches back before lash its vines out at player in a straight line, the ivy is completely defenseless and is safe to touch during its arching animation. This attack has a very long startup time and very bad side tracking, allowing the player to easily circle around or run past it, providing there is enough room for maneuver.
Grab At close range, an ivy can grab a player and spitting multiple glob of acids directly on their head. The grab works the same way as normal zombie grab however with many more restrictions: an ivy grab has a much shorter range and can only connect with an enemy standing directly in front. The player can also escape from an ivy grab with no damage taken if they mash buttons fast enough, Claire and Leon will quickly back away before the first glob of acid can hit their head. This attack can also trigger a unique death scene, in which the ivy petals closed in on Lean/Claire's head before melting their entire heads off.
Small Ivy If killed by any weapons other than a flamethrower or a grenade launcher with flame rounds, Plant43 will not completely die and may perform one last revenge by whipping a player walking over its corpse for a miniscule damage. Fortunately, this attack may not reduce the player HP below 1, i.e.; cannot kill. Ivies can perform this attack only once and since they are technically already dead much like a crawling zombie torso, a player may simply exit the room and erase their corpses, preventing the attack.
Ivies cannot instantly perform a 180 degree turn to face the player and instantly grab them like zombies can. Due to their plantoid physiology, they can simply "flipping" back to face the player. However just like the whip attack, this process is extremely long and the ivy is completely safe to touch, the player standing behind can bait them into repeating the process over and over by simply running to its opposite side then back again.
Ivies display a unique weak spot, gunfire to the center of the opened flower will kill it instantly. It's actually possible to kill an Ivy with two handgun shots. The first will cause it to rear back, and then open its flower-head for a moment, and a second into the weak spot will kill it immediately. This only works in Umbrella Chronicles due to its aiming system
