Doom-shroom


 * For other uses, see Doom-shroom (disambiguation).

Doom-shroom is a mushroom appearing in Plants vs. Zombies, Plants vs. Zombies: Journey to the West, and Plants vs. Zombies: Great Wall Edition.

When activated either through normal planting in Night and Fog levels, or through waking up via Coffee Bean in daylight levels, Doom-shroom will explode in a 7x5 area (7x6 in the Android version) in a manner similar to Cherry Bomb, dealing 90 normal damage shots worth of damage to any enemy caught in the blast. This is almost the whole lawn, but it is recommended to place it in the middle lane. Doom-shroom will also leave behind a crater afterwards which will prevent further planting for 180 seconds, or three minutes, and any other plant sharing the tile with Doom-shroom, namely Lily Pad, Flower Pot and/or Pumpkin, will be lost. This makes it an environment modifier. Doom-shroom's damage doesn't count as a fire-based effect, so the surviving zombies won't be thawed if they had ice effect on them before.

Origins
The doom in its name refers to its evil look, and how it 'dooms' the zombies, by exploding and defeating a lot in a large radius. The shroom in its name refers to how it is a mushroom.

Suburban Almanac entry
Doom-shroom

Doom-shrooms destroy everything in a large area and leave a crater that can't be planted on.

Damage: massive Range: all zombies in a huge area

Usage: single use, instant Special: leaves a crater Sleeps during the day

"You're lucky I'm on your side," says Doom-shroom. "I could destroy everything you hold dear. It wouldn't be hard."

Cost: 125

Recharge: very slow

Strategies
Doom-shroom proves itself to be worthy of its appearance as the "tactical nuke" of the plant army: An incredibly powerful explosive weapon with great potential, but also with noticeable drawbacks. Thanks to its massive area of effect and damage, Doom-shroom can cover almost every threat present on the screen and wipe out anything short of a Gargantuar, as long as it is planted on the pool rows in Pool and Fog levels, or not on the edge rows in other areas. On the other hand, the resulting crater can be detrimental, as it can practically lock down the tile permanently in normal levels, or for many flags in Survival: Endless, a place where every planting tile is needed and losing one could result in a loss of the level for the player. The slow recharge rate also hampers Doom-shroom somewhat, though Imitater can be used to combat this.

Similarly to Ice-shroom's case, the nocturnal plant mechanic does not necessarily affect Doom-shroom negatively, as it will allow the player to "stockpile" Doom-shrooms and activate them when needed. Stockpiling Doom-shroom however is a far more difficult task however, as Doom-shroom will need to be planted on the frontline in order to fully utilize its potential, unlike Ice-shroom which can be planted anywhere. In this case, Pumpkin can be used to help the player do this more efficiently — while Doom-shroom will destroy its Pumpkin when activated, the tactical value of being able to store powerful explosive weapons is usually worth the additional 125 sun, especially in Survival: Endless.

Trivia

 * When it explodes, the word "DOOM!!" will appear with a purple nuclear cloud (which resembles a mushroom cloud).
 * These are identical to the smoke clouds created when a Lawn Mower destroys a Gargantuar, only colored purple.
 * The Nintendo DS version's phrase of "DOOM!!" is wider than in other versions as well as off the ground.
 * The Java version's phrase of "DOOM!!" is just 2D text unlike other version with 3D text.
 * It is the only mushroom with red eyes and an angry expression.