Shadow-shroom

Shadow-shroom is the third plant obtained in Modern Day in Plants vs. Zombies 2. It explodes into poison once a zombie eats it; the poison effect deals 45 normal damage shots worth of damage over 30 seconds and ignores all armor, 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.

Almanac entry
Sun cost: 50

DAMAGE: Huge

RANGE:  Touch

RECHARGE:  Mediocre

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

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 then cause an ink explosion, poisoning every zombie (except Imp Cannons and Zombie Kings) on screen. Zombies already poisoned will have the poison effect cured, but receive 45 damage immediately instead.

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 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 totally 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 gets infected with the poison.

Trivia

 * When planting a Shadow-shroom that is not going 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 the boost effect.
 * If Shadow-shroom is planted during Last Stand setup, it appears to be powered, even though the player cannot use Moonflowers.
 * Shadow-shroom and level 2 Endurian in the Chinese version of Plants vs. Zombies 2 are the only plants that ignore zombie armor when attacking.
 * 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.
 * Shadow-shroom is the only shadow plant that is a mushroom.
 * A powered Shadow-shroom is featured on the icon for the achievement The Shadow Family. The Shadow-shroom in the achievement's icon is not poking its tongue out.
 * This is the only time where a Shadow-shroom is seen with its mouth shut.