Shadow-shroom

*For a similar named plant in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, see Poison Mushroom.*

Shadow-shrooms poison zombies who eat them, inflicting damage over time.

### Costumes

Despite being such a poisonous and profoundly inedible fungus, Shadow-shroom is nonetheless a total cutie-pie.

**Shadow-shroom** is the third plant obtained in Modern Day in *Plants vs. Zombies 2*. It explodes into poison once a zombie eats it, and the poison effect deals 900 damage per shot worth of damage over the span of 30 seconds and ignores all armors, such as buckets and ice blocks. When Shadow-shroom is powered by a Moonflower, the zombie who eats it can also spread the poison effect to nearby zombies.

In the Chinese version, its effect no longer ignores all armors. Instead, it directly damages the zombies' armor, effectively making this plant almost useless.

## Origins

Shadow-shroom is based on many *Inkcap* mushrooms from the genera *Coprinus*, *Coprinellus* and *Coprinopsis*, which are known for the black ink-like substance secreted from the bottoms of their mushroom caps.

Its name comes from "shadow", from the fact it's a shadow plant and a "mushroom", the plant it's based on.

Shadow-shroom's poison ability is based on how many Inkcaps are known to be very toxic to humans, particularly after being eaten in combination with alcohol.

## Almanac entry

**Shadow-shroom**

SUN COST: 50

RECHARGE: 10

SPECIAL: Poison

RANGE: Touch

FAMILY: Conceal-mint

Shadow-shrooms poison zombies who eat them, inflicting damage over time.

Usage: single use, on contact
Special: powered Shadow-shrooms make poisoned zombies poison other zombies

Despite being such a poisonous and profoundly inedible fungus, Shadow-shroom is nonetheless a total cutie-pie.

## Upgrades

### Plant Food effect

When fed with Plant Food, Shadow-shroom will take a deep breath then cause an ink explosion, poisoning every zombie (except Imp Cannons) on screen. Zombies already poisoned will have the poison effect cured, but receive 900 non-armor piercing damage immediately instead.

### Conceal-mint effect

When boosted by Conceal-mint, Shadow-shroom's DPS is increased to 60 DPS. If Shadow-shroom is at level 7 or above, its damage won't be affected by Conceal-mint.

It will be powered even if not adjacent to a Moonflower.

### Level upgrades (China only)

 Combat Training
 Cell Activation
 Fighting Power

## Strategies

Shadow-shroom's main role in the player's arsenal is to counter armored enemies by bypassing their armor altogether and damage them directly. While Shadow-shroom's main advantage is its relatively fast recharge rate, it is ultimately not a stellar plant for its job as most other instant use plants of similar recharge rate such as Ghost Pepper and Lava Guava, as they can deal enough damage to render zombie armor not a significant issue. Shadow-shroom also receives a great weakness in its very poor effect radius, which is not addressed at all when powered due to the poison requiring zombies to be close together to spread. In addition, Shadow-shroom's low damage potential and lengthy time required to deal full damage makes it a poor choice against high health enemies without armor, in particular mechanical enemies and Gargantuars.

The player may find great value in Shadow-shroom's Plant Food ability: As it can poison every enemy on the screen, the Plant Food effect will make short work of all armored zombies. Dark Ages and Jurassic Marsh provide prime example of this, as Knight Zombies are frequent sights in the Dark Ages due to Zombie Kings, while the enemy composition in Jurassic Marsh is primarily consisted of armored zombies, meaning only Jurassic Bullies and Jurassic Gargantuars can survive the attack.

A powered Shadow-shroom can benefit from being paired with slowing plants, defensive plants, or speedy zombies. For example, Hurrikale or Chard Guard can knock the poisoned target back into the zombie crowd and spread the effect, while Garlic or Sweet Potato can be used to create choke points for Shadow-shroom to affect more enemies. Shadow-shroom is also a helpful plant for fighting Pharaoh Zombies and Newspaper Zombies, since it can neutralize them without breaking their armor and causing them to accelerate.

Avoid using Shadow-shroom against Jester Zombies while spinning as they're immune to the poison effect. Using Shadow-shroom on hordes of Zombie Chickens or Ice Weasels (unless fed with Plant Food or powered by Moonflower) are also a bad idea as only one Zombie Chicken or Ice Weasel can get poisoned since it's not like Hypno-shroom. Same thing when encountering Healer Zombies, as they will cure zombies and remove the posion from the Shadow shroom as well as being immune to itself.

## Trivia

* When planting a Shadow-shroom that is not going to be powered by Moonflower, the player can briefly see it powered up.
* Recently planted Shadow-shrooms near Moonflowers when eaten by zombies after planting, might not have their boost effect.
	+ This is because shadow plants take around half a second to be powered by a Moonflower when planted within said Moonfloower's 3x3 tile radius.
* If it is planted during Last Stand setup, it appears to be powered, even though the player cannot use Moonflowers.
* If there is a frozen block with a zombie inside on the lawn and the player uses Plant Food on Shadow-shroom, the zombie will be poisoned, but it will not suffer any damage unless the frozen block is destroyed.
* The powered Shadow-shroom in The Shadow Family's icon is not poking its tongue out.
* Despite having a poisonous effect and being a mushroom, it is not in the Ail-mint family.

### Specific to Chinese version (China only)

* Most zombies don't have the visual poison mask when they're poisoned by it.

## See also

* Shadow plants
* Chili Bean

ru:Тенегриб
es:Sombraseta
pl:Shadow-shroom
fr:Champi-noir