Spore-shroom

*Spore-shroom fires spores that create new Spore-shrooms out of defeated zombies.*

## In-game statistics

### Codename alias

sporeshroom

**"My favorite arithmetic operation?" wonders Spore-shroom. "I guess I'd have to say, um, addition. Hang on, no... multiplication."**

**Spore-shroom** is a plant in *Plants vs. Zombies 2: Reflourished* and the fifth plant obtained in Neon Mixtape Tour. It is unlocked at Neon Mixtape Tour - Day 21.

When a zombie is killed by Spore-shroom's projectile, its body will shrink and disappear and another Spore-shroom will be spawned in its place, provided that the tile it died on is unoccupied by other plants or lawn obstacles. Spore-shrooms spawned in this method do not provide sun when dug up.

## Almanac entry

**Spore-shroom**

Spore-shroom fires spores that create new Spore-shrooms out of defeated zombies.

"My favorite arithmetic operation?" wonders Spore-shroom. "I guess I'd have to say, um, addition. Hang on, no... multiplication."

## Plant Food effect

When fed with Plant Food, Spore-shroom fires three giant projectiles at three different zombies, each doing 1800 damage. If a spore defeated its target, it will spawn a new Spore-shroom on the tile that the target was on, provided that said tile is unoccupied by other plants or grid items.

## Strategies

Spore-shroom's self-duplicating capabilities make for a curiously cost-effective plant. While a single Spore-shroom provides fairly basic firepower, even a single duplication allows it to provide more firepower than even a Red Stinger, a great trait for helping to defend the early-to-mid game. Plus, its style of attack and instant transformation of zombies can counter various zombies, from bypassing Shield Zombie shielding, to preventing zombies like Imp Porter and Rock Carrier Zombie from dropping a grid item, to preventing Bug Zombie from dropping its zombie passenger.

Instead of paying in sun, the main cost for using Spore-shroom comes in the consumption of space. Not only does each Spore-shroom need its own space to be spawned on, but Spore-shrooms will often be spawned within close proximity to the zombie horde. This makes it easy for unfortunate spawns to be quickly eaten, though this also serves to provide temporary meatshields that can slow the horde down. Escape Root can be used to counteract the wasting of new spawns; pulling rightward Spore-shrooms into the confines of the main defense, then saving even more sun by recovering Escape Root's sun cost through shovel upgrades.

Since Spore-shroom relies on single target damage and must land the killing blow to transform a zombie, Spore-shroom becomes difficult to use against denser hordes - it will be easily overwhelmed by a large number of zombies and require support from area of effect or multi-hit plants, but other sources of damage can prevent Spore-shroom from successfully landing the killing blow. Often, it will be best to trade Spore-shroom for more powerful plants as the level progresses; if choosing to rely on it, however, Spore-shroom can be combined with plants that deal low or no damage, such as Lightning Reed, Fanilla and Sap-fling. Single-use plants may also come in handy, with options such as Electrici-tea and Ghost Pepper being great for assistance against denser hordes.

## Trivia

* Spore-shroom's "True Shroom" costume originated from *Alternate UniverZ*, making its way into *Reflourished* in the UniverZ Collides event.