Scaredy-shroom


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

Scaredy-shroom is a mushroom appearing in Plants vs. Zombies. Normally, Scaredy-shroom performs identically to Peashooter in terms of damage and range, while requiring only a fraction of Peashooter's sun cost. However, Scaredy-shroom will hide when a zombie is in a 3x3 area around it, preventing it from shooting until the threat is gone.

Origins
Scaredy-shroom's name is a combination of "scaredy cat," a term usually used to refer to a easily frightened person, and the suffix “-shroom”, meaning that it is a mushroom.

Suburban Almanac entry
Scaredy-shroom 

Scaredy-shrooms are long-ranged shooters that hide when enemies get near them.

Damage: normal Special: stops shooting when enemy is close Sleeps during the day

"Who's there?" whispers Scaredy-shroom, voice barely audible. "Go away. I don't want to s ee  anybo  dy.  Unless it's the man from the circus."

Cost: 25

Recharge: fast

Strategies
In levels without sunlight, Scaredy-shroom will find most of its use as an early- to mid-game offensive plant. Its low cost of 25 sun means that the player can rapidly amass firepower early on, while its weakness can easily be mitigated by placing it at the back of the player's defense. This is of great importance to the player's success, as sun is much harder to gather in nighttime levels, so low cost offensive plant will be more important than usual.

On the other hand, the situation is completely different in daylight levels: Because of its reliance on Coffee Bean, Scaredy-shroom will actually function worse than a Peashooter, as it can neither shoot at close range nor benefit from Torchwood, plus the cost of both (Coffee Bean is 75 sun and Scaredy-shroom is 25 sun) is the exact amount for a normal Peashooter but takes twice as much slot room (2 slots, unless of course, you are using the Coffee Bean on another mushroom as well.). Because of this, the player should not use Scaredy-shroom in daytime levels. The main exception however, is when the player wishes to get the Good Morning achievement, in which case Scaredy-shroom can be used as the replacement for Peashooter.

Trivia

 * Bungee Zombies can scare it from two spaces away horizontally, because they stretch their arms out to the sides.
 * It can be considered as the opposite of Puff-shroom, as it can only attack zombies at a long range, while Puff-shroom can only attack zombies at a short range.
 * It is the first mushroom encountered in the original Plants vs. Zombies that does not make any appearances in Plants vs. Zombies 2.
 * The others, in order, are Ice-shroom, Doom-shroom, Sea-shroom, and Gloom-shroom.
 * It shares the same trait as the Shamrock, both hiding when zombies gets close.