Spore-shroom

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

## Almanac statistics

### Weakness

Takes randomly between 3 to 15 seconds before shooting for the first time

### Unlocked by beating

NMT-V

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

**Spore-shroom** is the third plant available in Neon Mixtape Tour in *Alternate UniverZ*. 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-shroom's toughness also doubles during nighttime.

Spore-shroom is unlocked after beating NMT-V.

## Almanac entry

**Spore-shroom**

SUN COST: 150

RECHARGE: 15

TOUGHNESS: 150

DAMAGE: 50

FIRING RATE: 2.7

RANGE: Lobbed

Spore-shroom fires spores that create new Spore-shrooms out of defeated zombies.
Special: has twice the toughness at nighttime
Weakness: takes randomly between 3 to 15 seconds before shooting for the first time

"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 Plant Food, Spore-shroom fires three giant projectiles at three different zombies, each doing 1800 damage, and if a spore defeats its target, it will spawn a new Spore-shroom on the tile occupied by the target.

## Costumes

* Costumes
* Skins

## Strategies

Because of its ability to create copies of itself from defeated zombies, Spore-shroom will allow the player to quickly build up defenses without having to spend sun that could be used for more expensive plants such as Winter Melon. Its spores can bypass obstacles like frozen blocks and arcade cabinets (unless these obstructions are right in front of it, blocking its attack), attacking the zombies and eventually defeating them. Another feature of it is to rebuild itself after an ambush attack that would normally thin out your defense.

However, Spore-shroom in actuality will rarely be able to utilize its ability to its full potential, as its spawning mechanic means that newly created Spore-shrooms can be placed right next to the horde and usually get eaten in seconds. Nonetheless, the newly created Spore-shrooms can distract certain zombies and prevent high cost plants like Winter Melon from being destroyed. Or to circumvent this, simply using Escape Root and sacrifiring sunproducers or cheap instas for another Spore-shroom at your defense, quickly building an army of them for a cheap price, a strat that already proved itself useful many times.

In Pirate Seas, Spore-shroom works well as a support plant. Its projectiles can bypass Barrel Roller Zombie's barrel and damage the zombie with no problem. In addition, they are useful against incoming Swashbuckler Zombies, especially when there are Imp Cannons to deal with, as the defeated Swashbuckler Zombies can turn into new Spore-shrooms that allow more attacks to destroy the cannon. Seagull Zombies that reach the player's ship are also transformable into new Spore-shrooms. They can also work with Imp Pirate Zombies that successfully land on the player's ship. You should be careful that a new Spore-shroom will not spawn if any zombies are defeated over the sea. It is recommended that you bring a piercing plant like Laser Bean, Fume-shroom, etc. to support this plant.

In Lost City, Spore-shroom can prove itself useful - not only can it defeat Excavator Zombies, but the newly spawned Spore-shrooms will also serve as distraction as the Excavator Zombie will continue to shovel them up. Spore-shroom can also counter Imp Porters and Bug Zombies because when it defeats them, they, along with what they carry, turn into Spore-shrooms, rather than dropping their equipment. The newly spawned Spore-shrooms can also stall Turquoise Skull Zombie, causing them to waste time destroying them first. Their destruction ability also requires time by stealing sun so this will help give the player time to use other offensive plants to destroy this zombie before he becomes a much bigger threat. Of course, like most lobbed-shot plants, Spore-shroom is ineffective against Parasol Zombies.

In Neon Mixtape Tour, besides destroying Arcade Zombies, Spore-shrooms can be used to distract Punk Zombie as he can only move one plant at a time, while other plants are not affected. Spore-shroom can also counter MC Zom-B as when newly Spore-shrooms are created from a nearby defeated zombie, MC Zom-B will continuously have to pause to spin his microphone. Bassist Zombie's shockwaves will get blocked by the copies of Spore-shroom, making him waste his shots. Hair Metal Gargantuars (during the metal jam) will be delayed from the newly created Spore-shrooms as well, as they will need more smashes for the shockwaves to reach the backmost defenses. The player should however watch out for Boombox Zombies as they can stun all Spore-shrooms on the screen (unless they were planted after the jam or fed with Plant Food).

It is not a good idea to use Spore-shroom on levels with either a limit on present or defeated plants as it can make copies of itself, even on unwanted spots where it will likely get destroyed very fast. Last Stand levels and levels with a sun quota however, are great levels to use Spore-shroom due to the fact making copies of themselves does not count as using sun.

It is also not recommended to use Spore-shroom in Far Future levels as Mecha-Football Zombies will push away spored zombies, which can cause the plants behind them to be pushed away.