Shadow-shroom

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

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

**Shadow-shroom** is a plant in *Plants vs. Zombies 2: Reflourished* and the third plant obtained in Modern Day. It is unlocked at Modern Day - Day 10.

Shadow-shroom explodes into poison once a zombie eats it, and the poison effect deals 900 damage 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, Gloom Vine, or Noctarine, the zombie who eats it can also spread the poison effect to nearby zombies.

## Almanac entry

**Shadow-shroom**

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.

## Plant Food effect

When fed with Plant Food, Shadow-shroom will take a deep breath, and 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.

## Strategies

For a single-use plant, Shadow-shroom is quite easy to use. With a relatively fast recharge and fairly low cost, it can be reflexively dispatched to handle any armored zombies and many kinds of special zombies, one at a time. Shadow-shroom also possesses a considerably powerful Plant Food effect, applying poison to all zombies on the field. Just one Plant Food can be enough to clear the board of most zombies, with only hardy and poison-immune targets able to survive the damage - an extraordinary capability, for such a cheap plant.

Combined with Shadow-shroom's status as a shadow plant, its traits make for a great early game with Moonflower. Planting Shadow-shroom next to Moonflower can increase early sun production, while poisoning away early zombies at the same time - just be careful with planting Shadow-shroom directly in front of your fragile Moonflowers, as zombies may be able to eat both before succumbing to poison.

While difficult to pull off, Shadow-shroom's powered form can elevate the plant from poisoning one zombie, to poisoning several at once. Zombies must be closely packed to get the full effect - even tighter packed than when using plants like Squash. Wall plants and lane-redirecting plants like Murkadamia Nut, Sweet Potato and Void Orchid can bunch zombies together to help pull off the feat.
Out of the options for powering Shadow-shroom in the first place, Noctarine is the best by far, as his instant-use planting allows both him and Shadow-shroom to be planted deep into zombie territory. Moonflower can also work when packed groups invade the defense, albeit with the aforementioned limitations. Do not use Gloom Vine to power Shadow-shroom, as zombies will prioritise eating the vine before the shroom, stripping away the powered effect.

With everything above in mind, it is important to note that not all zombie types are vulnerable to Shadow-shroom's poison. Mechanical threats have more than enough health to survive the poison, while zombies like Excavator Zombie and Gargantuar can move or destroy Shadow-shroom without being poisoned. Some zombies are downright immune to poison, such as Kid Zombies and Rock Carrier Zombie. To get around these weaknesses, consider bringing the zombies' respective plant counters, and/or substituting Shadow-shroom for similar plants such as Chili Bean, Hypno-shroom or Squash.

## Trivia

* Shadow-shroom's "Pinky" costume's hair changes appearance when powered. Something the other Shadow-shroom costume doesn't do.
	+ Additionally, this costume is based on Mina Ashido from *My Hero Academia*, as well as being a developer costume for Giratina Killer, one of the developers of *Reflourished*.
* Shadow-shroom's "Galactic Schwaffle" costume is one of the Harvest Festival Costume Contest winners, submitted by arcticblue and redrawn to fit the game's art style.

## See also

### Shadow plants

* Moonflower
* Nightshade
* Dusk Lobber
* Grimrose
* Noctarine
* Murkadamia Nut
* Shadow Peashooter
* Gloom Vine