Spore-shroom

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

## Almanac statistics

### Special

Shrinks small zombies into oblivion on one hit (does not produce Spore-Shrooms that way)

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

**Spore-shroom** is a Tier II plant that fires lobbed spores. If a spore deals the final hit to a zombie, a new Spore-shroom is created on that tile (assuming a Spore-shroom can be planted on that tile). It shrinks small zombies (Imps and small animals) to oblivion but doesn't produce Spore-shrooms that way.

## Plant Food effect

Spore-shroom fires three big spores at all of the closest zombies, dealing gigantic damage to the zombies hit.

## Strategies

Spore-shroom is a cheap attacking plant in the early game. It spawns more of itself from killing zombies, provided a Spore-shroom could be placed in the tile in which the zombie dies. While a new Spore-shroom will not be generated if the tile is occupied by a plant, Spore-shrooms can be spawned in vine plants or on Lily Pads. Zombies killed by the shrinking effect such as Imps do not generate new Spore-shrooms.

Due to the nature of this spawning method, Spore-shrooms will often be spawned towards the right of the lawn, limiting their usefulness. Zombies with higher health may also cause problems for Spore-shroom, as the spawning ability is harder to utilize. (Thus, levels with leveled zombies are not ideal for Spore-shroom.)

As of version 2.1, Spore-shroom got a buff that makes its shrink effect linger briefly. This can allow it to boost the damage of other attackers, but this is unreliable for most attackers.

Spore-shroom is especially strong when paired with Escape Root, since it can bring spawned Spore-shrooms towards the left of the field. Typically, a cheap plant like Iceberg Lettuce is used as well, with Escape Root swapping with a Spore-shroom to bring it to the left of the board, then swapping with an Iceberg Lettuce in the left of the field to return. Escape Root can also move Spore-shrooms between lanes, making the most use of the spawning ability. With good timing, manually activated plants like Banana Launcher or Magnifying Grass can make use of Spore's shrinking ability to deal additional damage to high health single targets.

Pirate Seas is Spore-shroom's best world by far. They can shrink Swashbucklers permanently *(see Trivia)*, instakill imps from Imp Cannons and Barrels, instakill Seagull and Pelican Zombies, and even make Barrel Rollers stop rolling their barrels.

## Trivia

* Arcade Zombies and Troglobites are unable to push arcades and ice blocks respectively if they are shrunken. As a result, if a spore-shroom hits such a zombie while it is in its pushing animation, the brief shrink will cause its animation to reset. If multiple spore-shrooms or a staller are present such that the zombie can never complete the animation, it can effectively be stalled indefinitely.
	+ Barrel Rollers are also disrupted by spore-shroom for the same reason, but they simply continue without their Barrel after being shrunk once.
* Due to a bug, zombies which swing onto the lawn, such as Relic Hunters and Swashbucklers, are shrunk permanently if they are hit by spore-shroom before they land.
* Killing the bug of Bug Zombies triggers Spore-shroom's multiplication ability. This prevents the bug from dropping its zombie.

## Level Changes

**Spore-shroom**

SUN COST: 125

RECHARGE: 10

TOUGHNESS: 70

DAMAGE: 16

FIRING COOLDOWN: 4

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

Special: shrinks small zombies into oblivion on one hit (does not produce Spore-shrooms that way)