Puff-shroom

Puff-shroom is the first mushroom appearing in the Plants vs. Zombies series. Although it has an incredibly short range, it is free, since sun is much harder to collect in night time levels. They deal the same amount of damage as Peashooters, but they only have a three column shooting range.

Plants vs. Zombies
Puff-shroom is unlocked after the player beats Level 1-10. It is the first mushroom in the game. Puff-shrooms are good for early defense in any nighttime levels because they are free and no sun falls from the sky. There is an aquatic counterpart called Sea-shroom.

Plants vs. Zombies 2
Puff-shroom makes its return in Plants vs. Zombies 2 as the second plant to be obtained in the Dark Ages with the same sun cost as the first game. In this game, Puff-shroom will flicker and disappear after a minute, but all Puff-shrooms on the lawn will have their timer reset if Plant Food is used on one of them.

In Plants vs. Zombies
Puff-shroom 

Puff-shrooms are cheap, but can only fire a short distance.

Damage: normal

Range: short

Sleeps during the day

"I only recently became aware of the existence of zombies," says Puff-shroom. "Like many fungi, I'd just assumed they were fairy tales or movie monsters. This whole experience has been a huge eye-opener for me."

Cost: 0

Recharge: Fast

In Plants vs. Zombies 2
Sun cost: 0

DAMAGE: Normal

RANGE: 3 Tiles

RECHARGE: Fast

Puff-shrooms are short-range shooters that last for a limited time.

Special: lives for a limited time

Puff-shroom is hip to all the latest social networks. He loves to surf Sporebook, FungusedIn and ShroomstaGram. But he sometimes misses the simple camaraderie of a good ol' fashioned Lawn Area Network party.

Plant Food
When fed Plant Food, it will unleash 30 spores for three seconds, three spaces in front of it. Every Puff-shroom on the screen is also activated, which is a bit similar to Power Tiles. This also resets the duration time of all the Puff-shrooms on the field, allowing them to last longer. If some of the Puff-shrooms are planted on Power Tiles, the effect will last longer and green outlines will be coming out from the Power Tiles. In Chinese version, the spores can shoot through the lawn.

Costumed
Puff-shroom deals twice the damage and its plant food projectile travels farther.

Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars
Penetration Spray: Hits all zombies on its lane twice, needs Brave Plant Food to activate.

Plants vs. Zombies
Because of their short range, they can only handle basic zombies, unless used in multiple columns, so more effective plants should be added to the player's defenses mid-level. These are very reliable plants for the beginning of the game. Another strategy is to fill the stage from column four with Puff-shrooms and replace the back ones when the player can. These plants can also be used to distract Gargantuars and Giga-gargantuars in Survival: Endless, due to the free cost allowing players to sacrifice them to force the Gargantuars to stop and smash them. Puff-shrooms work well in conjunction with defensive plants, as the Puff-shroom has plenty of time to fire at the zombies before getting eaten. These may also be helpful in ZomBotany and ZomBotany 2, as they are too short for the zombies to hit them with peas, making them a good choice for both attacking and stopping Squash Zombies. However, they need Coffee Beans to be waken up, removing one of its biggest advantages - being free.

One of the most well-balanced defenses for the Night levels uses two columns of Puff-shrooms (in columns three and four from the right, although a third can be added in column two or five) behind which one or two columns of Fume-shrooms are planted. Behind these are planted two rows of Scaredy-shrooms for long range attacking, with a row of Sun-shrooms to produce sun. They can also be used to stop the Pole Vaulting Zombies that come in the early game in the night levels when replaying Adventure Mode, but unless the player has three columns of them, they still have a chance to get by his or her Puff-shrooms. What Puff-shrooms lacks in range, he makes up for in both cost of sun and numbers.

Photosensitive
In order to gain the Nintendo DS achievement Photosensitive, Puff-shrooms are extremely important. The rest of the selected plants are not important, since the player cannot plant them. Wall-nuts, Potato Mines, and Scaredy-shrooms can be used, but the player can only plant either one Wall-nut or two of the others. The easiest level to achieve this is on Level 2-1, as the only zombies that appear are the regular Zombie and the Newspaper Zombie. Simply plant three to four columns of Puff-shrooms at the back of the lawn (the player should not plant Sunflowers, as they may be tempted to collect sun, therefore failing this achievement). Due to their free sun cost, the player should not worry if the zombies eat his or her Puff-shrooms and instead continue to plant and replace his or her Puff-shrooms, and he or she should easily achieve Photosensitive.

Plants vs. Zombies 2
Since Puff-shrooms disappear after 60 seconds, do not rely on them as your only offensive plant. However, using Plant Food on a Puff-shroom will reset the duration of all the Puff-shrooms on the lawn. This method can both damage zombies and save the Puff-shrooms together. Note that Puff-shrooms can have problems with even regular Zombies, and may get eaten by several zombies attacking in rapid succession.

With its zero sun cost and fast recharge, Puff-shroom is great for early-game strategies. They can be used to set a temporary defense line in the process of planting sun producing plants and collecting sun for mid-late game defenses. They can be used in the place of stalling plants like Iceberg Lettuce, Stunion and Potato Mines to fight off the first zombies until the prominent defenses are set. They can also used in the place of Grave Busters. As their placement and quantity would not cost any sun to the player, they can be used in Endless Zones along with expensive plants like Winter Melons and Banana Launchers to save money for the latter while simultaniously defending the lanes with no loss.

They can also be kept and placed in the front lines to support the other plants in order to cause further harm to zombies. Since their plant food effect is shared with every Puff-shroom in the field, it can be extemely devastating in high consantrations and can be considered in order to keep all Puff-shrooms alive while doing massive damage in every lane where Puff-shrooms are placed.

However they are not recommended in Big Wave Beach levels and Dark Ages levels with Jester Zombies since Jester Zombies deflect the spores of Puff-shrooms too. As Puff-shroom cannot be planted in the water, its biggest advantage "being free" cannot be used effectively, given that it needs lily pads to be planted on in order to be safe.

General

 * Puff-shroom is the smallest plant in the series, apart from a non-grown Sun-shroom.
 * It slightly resembles Foongus from the Pokémon series. However, this cannot be a reference, as Pokémon Black and White, where Foongus debuted in, was released after Plants vs. Zombies.
 * Puff-shroom and the Sea-shroom are the only shooters with a three-column range.
 * The spores that it shoots in Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars are green and in a translucent ball-shape, like a pea.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies

 * Puff-shroom, Sea-shroom, and their Imitater forms are the only plants in Plants vs. Zombies that cost no sun.
 * A Puff-shroom is too small for a Pumpkin, but when it shoots a spore, the spore passes through the Pumpkin's shell and still damages the zombies.
 * Puff-shroom, Sun-shroom, Spikeweed, and Spikerock are the only plants which, when planted, may not be in the center of a square on the lawn. They may get planted slightly to the left, right or up.
 * Puff-shroom, Fume-shroom, Gloom-shroom, and Sea-shroom are the only short-ranged shooters.
 * Puff-shroom is one of the two cheapest plants in Versus Mode, requiring only 25 sun for the cost of the Coffee Bean with the other being the Potato Mine.
 * Even if Puff-shroom is at the edge of the red line in Versus Mode, it cannot shoot the Target Zombies, as the distance is just slightly over three squares long. The only time it can shoot the Target Zombie, however, is if its spore goes past a dead zombie about to fall down.
 * On the iPad version of Plants vs. Zombies, the spore range increases to four squares.
 * On the Nintendo DS and online versions of Plants vs. Zombies, if a Puff-shroom shoots an already dead zombie (after falling), the spore will pass through the entire lawn.
 * The player will receive a warning for refusing to bring Puff-shrooms on the first night level. The warning will say "This Level will be extremely difficult without Puff-shrooms. Are you sure you wish to continue without them?"
 * Puff-shroom, Twin Sunflower, Sunflower, Sun-shroom, and Sea-shroom are the only plants that cannot be used in Last Stand and the iOS puzzle mode variation.
 * Puff-shroom, Peashooter, Wall-nut, and Jalapeno are the only plants referred in another plant's Suburban Almanac entry. In this case, the Puff-shroom is mentioned in Fume-shroom's Almanac entry.

Specific to Plants vs. Zombies 2

 * Puff-shroom is free of charge along with Grave Buster, Iceberg Lettuce, Hot Potato, Stallia and Tile Turnip (only on the first planting).
 * It is currently the only plant that initiates a chain reaction of Plant Food ability even if there are no Power Tiles from Tile Turnips or from Far Future to aid it from doing so unless there is only one Puff-shroom present on the lawn.
 * It is the first non instant plant that lasts for a limited time. The second is Ghost Pepper.
 * Puff-shroom and Magnet Plant are the only plants that can be eaten in two bites. Hypno-shroom and Sun Bean, however are eaten in only one bite (technically) to easily initiate their ability.
 * On June 19, 2014, Puff-shroom was featured in a Piñata Party along with Cherry Bomb, Potato Mine, and Lightning Reed. On June 22, 2014, it appeared in another Piñata Party along with Hypno-shroom and Threepeater.
 * Puff-shroom slowly fades away before disappearing. When it is about to disappear, it will start flashing and then disappear into the ground in a puff of purple smoke. If the level has been completed but the reward has not been collected and the Puff-shroom is about to fade, it will stay on the lawn instead.
 * Puff-shroom is the only plant that is known to be fond of social networking sites, as stated in its almanac entry.
 * Sporebook is a pun on Facebook, Shroomstagram is a pun on Instagram, FungusedIn is a pun for LinkedIn, and Lawn Area Network is a pun on Local Area Network.
 * Puff-shroom is bigger than in the first game.
 * In Dark Ages - Night 12, if the player lets the endangered Puff-shrooms disappear, instead of the usual game over text, the game over text says "PUFF-SHROOM DID NOT SURVIVE!".
 * If the player uses its Plant Food upgrade when there are at least 20 Puff-shrooms on the lawn, the player will get an achievement called Fungus Humongous.
 * Puff-shroom, Tile Turnip, and Split Pea's back head are the only plants to have horns as their costumes.
 * In the 2.9 update, Puff-shroom now has an "about to open its mouth" sprite when fed with Plant Food.
 * If watered in the Zen Garden, it will jump around and spin in an excited manner.