Shiitake

Shiitake is a special-edition plant in Plants vs. Zombies 2. As a master of dark arts, Shiitake casts its own haunting shadow on the lawn, employing his ancient sword every 2.5 seconds(20 damage), it targets the furthest zombie on its lawn or the adjacent ones as long as the zombie is 4 tiles ahead, this attacks pierces through and can damage any zombies in between Shiitake and the zombie.
Shiitake also does a melee attack with its sword, attacking the zombies in the tile in front of him(200 damage), this attack takes 5 seconds to be usable again.
With Moonflower's effect Shiitake gains the ability to summon enchanted fungi spores when using its sword attack. These spores remain in the tiles around Shiitake(Except the ones behind him) and stun them for 12 seconds, this attack takes 18 seconds to be usable again.
Additionally, if Blover, Hurrikale or Draftodil is used, they can make Shiitake's spores fly through the lawn paralyzing zombies.
==Origins==
Shiitake is based on the Shitake, which is an edible mushroom native to East Asia(originary from China and Japan). It's design is based in the clothing of the ancient Japanese warriors(or people in general), not the battle clothing but the clothing they wore casually, in other words a kimono, a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan and a kasa which is a traditional japanese hat. The helmet from its costume is based on the Samurai armors though.
==Almanac Entry==
==Upgrades==
===Plant Food effect===
When fed with Plant Food, Shiitake emanates a haunting aura that engulfs all zombies on the lawn. This spectral aura slows the speed of random 30 zombies for 20 seconds, leaving them vulnerable to the relentless strikes of other plants. Then he swings off its empowered blade instantly killing all zombies on its lawn and the adjacent ones,
===Conceal-mint effect===
When boosted by Conceal-mint, Shiitake will do an additional 450 damage on his shadow attacks, its spores will do 100 damage to zombies that step on them, an additional 2000 damage on its sword melee and an additional 2500 damage on his Plant Food ranged attack. He will be powered even if not adjacent to a Moonflower.
===Level upgrade===
Level	Seed Packets	Coins 	Upgrades	Upgrades 	Upgrades 	Upgrades 	Upgrades 	Upgrades 	Upgrades 	Upgrades 	Upgrades	Upgrades
Level	Seed Packets	Coins 	Sun Cost	Recharge 	Toughness 	Shadow Damage	Sword Damage	Sword Damage (Powered)	Spore Effect	Plant Food Aura's effect	Shadow's
Velocity	Range
1 	0 	0 	175 	10 seconds 	300 damage	25 damage 	200 damage 	300 damage 	12 seconds 	22 seconds 	Normal 	Multi-hit
2 	10 	1,000 	175 	10 seconds 	350 damage	30 damage 	250 damage 	400 damage 	14 seconds 	22 seconds 	Normal 	Multi-hit
3 	25 	2,500 	175 	9.5 seconds	400 damage	30 damage 	250 damage 	400 damage 	14 seconds 	25 seconds 	+ 1.3x 	Multi-hit
4 	50 	5,000 	150 	9.5 seconds	450 damage	35 damage 	300 damage 	450 damage 	17 seconds 	25 seconds 	+ 1.3x 	Multi-hit
5 	100 	10,000 	150 	9 seconds 	550 damage	35 damage 	300 damage 	450 damage 	17 seconds 	25 seconds 	+ 1.3x 	Multi-hit
6 	200 	20,000 	150 	9 seconds 	600 damage	40 damage 	350 damage 	500 damage 	20 seconds 	30 seconds 	+ 1.3x 	Multi-hit
7 	400 	30,000 	150 	8.5 seconds	650 damage	45 damage 	350 damage 	500 damage 	20 seconds 	30 seconds 	+ 1.6x 	Multi-hit
8 	800 	50,000 	125 	8.5 seconds	700 damage	50 damage 	400 damage 	550 damage 	20 seconds 	30 seconds 	+ 1.6x 	Multi-hit
9 	1,200 	75,000 	125 	8 seconds 	800 damage	50 damage 	400 damage 	550 damage 	23 seconds 	30 seconds 	+ 1.6x 	Multi-hit
10 	1,600 	100,000	125 	8 seconds 	900 damage	55 damage 	450 damage 	600 damage 	23 seconds 	35 seconds 	+ 1.6x 	Multi-hit
===Level Upgrades===
====Costumed====
Shiitake's plant food attack now will also kill another 10 random zombies in the non-targeted lawns.
==Strategies==
The Wall-nut Triangle: You can take advantage of Shiitake's shadows range by placing a Wall-Nut in front of him and then another two in the adjacent lawns 3 tiles ahead from Shiitake, this will make him attack the furthest zombie in the adjacent lawns and allow piercing damage if there's zombies in front of the Wall-Nut protecting Shiitake that weren't killed by his close-range sword attack, additionally you can add plants like Spikeweed or Spikerock for additional damage while Shiitake's close-range attack reloads.
You can use plants like Stallia, Iceberg Lettuce or Stunion just to get you some time to allow Shiitake to reload its powerful sword attack.
Shiitake's damage output, especially from its shadow attacks, may not be sufficient to deal with high-health zombies quickly. He might struggle against tough, armored, or heavily buffed enemies, requiring other plants to cover Shiitake's vulnerability, such as Blooming Heart to deal high damage to a single target, making it useful against tough zombies that get too close to Shiitake or Chard Guard, using its knockback effect to push high-health zombies away from Shiitake, giving him more time to deal with them.
While Shiitake's shadow and melee attacks are strong and can pierce, they only target one zombie at a time. This can make it less effective against large groups of zombies, especially when compared to plants that cover a large area, that's why plants like Dusk Lobber with its splash damage or Cherry Bomb's explosion can be quite useful, you can also try luck with Electric Blueberry.
By incorporating Blover, Hurrikale, or Draftodil alongside Shiitake, you can take full advantage of the spores' stunning effect immobilize groups of zombies across the lawn. This combo is especially useful when dealing with levels that have a mix of ground and flying zombies. Shiitake's spores will stun the ground zombies, and Blover will clear the flying ones, leaving the lawn temporarily zombie-free. You can take advantage of stunned zombies with Electric Peashooter or Lighting Reed for example.
As for Shiitake's plant food ability, you can try to use Garlic to direct the zombies to the lawns you want to use it in, Garlic can also be useful in general for Shiitake's ability.
== Gallery ==
Shii in game.png|Shiitake in game
Shii in game 2.png|Shiitake attacking in game
Shii HD.png|HD Shiitake
Shii eyes HD.png|Shiitake looking at the enemy
Shii attack HD.png|Shiitake attacking position
Shii attack.gif|Shiitake preparing to attack
Shii costume.png|Shiitake costume
Shii seed packet.png|Shiitake Seed Packet
Shii shadow.png|Shiitake shadow attack
Shii moon.png|Shiitake powered by Moonflower
Shii moonpower.png|Shiitake powered by Moonflower in game
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