Guard-shroom

When he sees zombies, he goes SPLAT!

This item is only obtainable during certain events. However, it can still be used if you have already obtained it. It is currently available.

They can be tough nuts to crack.

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Guard-shroom
An amphibious mushroom that will spawn mini versions of itself to guard adjacent plants. These Mini-shrooms can gobble up zombies, as well as significantly boost mushrooms and other plants they share a tile with.
Short description
Replicates itself to guard adjacent plants.
Statistics
Sun Cost	200
Recharge	30 seconds
Toughness	1100
Damage	750
Shroom Spawn Count	1
Spawn Cooldown	14 seconds
Plantfood Eat Count	5
Family	Reinforce-mint
Plant Food effect	Main Body - Drags several zombies and pummels them. Mini - Retriggers the Plant Food ability of the host plant.
Hint	Guard-shroom's Minis will grant a significant boost to all shroom type plants and give an extra boost to Sea-shroom, Puff-shroom, Scaredy-shroom and Nightcap.
In-game statistics
Unlocked	250 seed packets
Code name	guardshroom minishroom
Rarity	epic
What does 363.154e+13 and Guard-shroom have in common? When Dave asked, it took Penny more than 4 hours to complete the Guard-shroom census and emerge from the basement. Penny vehemently states this number is accurate and has banned anyone else from going down there.

“	Guard-shroom will clone miniature copies of itself for defense.	”
—Penny

Guard-shroom is a mushroom plant in Plants vs. Zombies 2 introduced in the 11.3.1 update. It is able to spawn miniature versions of itself to protect adjacent plants. These miniature Guard-shrooms will also give a 1.5x damage boost to other mushrooms they guard.

Mini-shroom can provide an additional boost to the following mushrooms: Scaredy-shroom (1.2x attack speed, no longer hide), Puff-shroom & Sea-shroom (lifespan + 30 seconds, become long-range shooter), and Nightcap (attack range + 1 tile). Both mushrooms can live on water, and cannot exist with Lily Pad on the same tile. Mini-shrooms cannot be spawned on any tile with some grid objects or a vine occupying it.

Origins

Shaggy ink cap

Though never confirmed on any official media, Guard-shroom appears to be based on the shaggy ink cap (Coprinus comatus), also commonly known as the shaggy mane or lawyer's wig, a commonly occurring mushroom in Europe and North America. Unlike the in-game Guard-shroom, this mushroom cannot grow in or on water.

Lion's mane mushroom

Guard-shroom may alternatively be based on the lion's mane mushroom (Hericium erinaceus), also known as the bearded tooth fungus, bearded hedgehog, or old man's beard, an edible mushroom native to North America, Europe, and Asia.

Guard-shroom's tall, tower-like shape bears some reference to a Prototaxite, an extinct fungus from the silurian-devonian periods that grew into tall column structures resembling trees.

Its name could be a pun on "mushroom" and "guard dog", referencing its fuzzy appearance and its ability to spawn tiny Guard-shrooms to protect plants and attack oncoming zombies.

Almanac entry

Note: The stats shown below only apply to Level 1.

Guard-shroom
	SUN COST 200 RECHARGE 30 TOUGHNESS 1100 Special 750 SHROOM SPAWN COUNT 1 SPAWN COOLDOWN 14 PLANT FOOD EAT COUNT 5 Reinforce-mint Plant Food: Main Body - Drags several zombies and pummels them. Mini - Retriggers the Plant Food ability of the host plant. An amphibious mushroom that will spawn mini versions of itself to guard adjacent plants. These Mini-shrooms can gobble up zombies, as well as significantly boost mushrooms and other plants they share a tile with. What does 363.154e+13 and Guard-shroom have in common? When Dave asked, it took Penny more than 4 hours to complete the Guard-shroom census and emerge from the basement. Penny vehemently states this number is accurate and has banned anyone else from going down there.

Guard-shroom

SUN COST 200 RECHARGE 30 TOUGHNESS 1100 Special 750 SHROOM SPAWN COUNT 1 SPAWN COOLDOWN 14 PLANT FOOD EAT COUNT 5 Reinforce-mint Plant Food: Main Body - Drags several zombies and pummels them. Mini - Retriggers the Plant Food ability of the host plant. An amphibious mushroom that will spawn mini versions of itself to guard adjacent plants. These Mini-shrooms can gobble up zombies, as well as significantly boost mushrooms and other plants they share a tile with. What does 363.154e+13 and Guard-shroom have in common? When Dave asked, it took Penny more than 4 hours to complete the Guard-shroom census and emerge from the basement. Penny vehemently states this number is accurate and has banned anyone else from going down there.

Upgrades

Plant Food effect

When given Plant Food, Guard-shroom will eat some zombies and spawn Mini-shrooms in a 3x3 area around it. Mini-shroom will retrigger the Plant Food ability of plant on top of it if fed Plant Food.

Reinforce-mint effect

When boosted by Reinforce-mint, Guard-shroom will activate its Plant Food effect, its health is increased by 1000 (level 1-5) or 2000 (level 6-10), its shroom spawn count is increased by 1, its Plant Food Pull Zombie Count is increased by 2. Mini-shroom will allow the plant on top of it to activate its Plant Food effect once again, it has 1.5x health and double damage to zombies it cannot eat, its damage boost is increased by 0.25.

Level upgrades

Level	Seed Packets	Coins	Upgrades
			Sun Cost	Recharge	Starting Recharge	Toughness	PF Damage*	Spawn Count	PF Pull Zombie Count
1	0	0	200	30 seconds	8 seconds	1100 damage	750 damage	1	5
2	50					1300 damage	950 damage
3	100			25 seconds		1500 damage	1150 damage	2
4	200		175			1700 damage	1350 damage		6
5	300					1900 damage	1550 damage
6	400					2100 damage	1750 damage	3
7	500					2300 damage	1950 damage
8	600			20 seconds		2500 damage	2150 damage		8
9	800		150			2700 damage	2350 damage
10	1,000					2900 damage	2550 damage	4

*Damage to zombies it cannot drag.

Level	Upgrades (Mini-shroom)
	Toughness	Expiration Duration Increase*	Eating Cooldown^	Damage&
1	900 damage	30 seconds	16 seconds	300 damage
2	1000 damage			400 damage
3	1100 damage	40 seconds		500 damage
4	1200 damage		13 seconds	600 damage
5	1350 damage	50 seconds		700 damage
6	1500 damage			800 damage
7	1650 damage	60 seconds		900 damage
8	1800 damage		11 seconds	1000 damage
9	1950 damage	80 seconds		1100 damage
10	2100 damage		8 seconds	1200 damage

*Applies to Puff-shroom and Sea-shroom.
^The cooldown time it takes before it can eat a zombie again.
&Damage to zombies it cannot eat.

Mastery upgrades

• Chance to Boost
• Damage Pierce

Strategies

In terms of offense, the Guard-shroom itself does not directly attack; instead, it spawns Mini-shrooms. If the Guard-shroom is destroyed, it will stop producing Mini-shrooms. When given Plant Food, the Guard-shroom can grab and swallow zombies, which is its only offensive capability. The Mini-shrooms, however, are capable attackers. They can consume zombies whole and do so more quickly than other zombie-eating plants like the Snap Pea, Chomper, and Toadstool. Mini-shrooms can even defeat a Gargantuar with minimal effort if that zombie is frozen or stunned. Furthermore, Mini-shrooms can amplify the abilities of certain mushroom plants. Currently, five plants benefit from this effect: Puff-shroom and Sea-shroom gain an additional 30 seconds of lifespan and become long-range attackers; Scaredy-shroom loses its ability to hide; Nightcap gains an extra tile of range; and Fume-shroom has increased damage output. It’s important to note that non-damaging mushrooms, such as Magnet-shroom, Sun-shroom, Puffball, Shadow-shroom, Perfume-shroom, and Hypno-shroom, do not receive these boosts. Mini-shrooms can also duplicate the Plant Food effect of the plants they are inside, giving players an extra use of Plant Food on that plant.

On the defensive side, the Guard-shroom has better toughness than the Mini-shrooms, but it is still relatively weak, making it the among weakest among Reinforce-mint plants with HP around 1100. The Mini-shrooms attack zombies when they are available and enter a recharge phase afterward. The Guard-shroom spawns Mini-shrooms in order from right to left, moving downward in three columns.

For optimal placement, it is recommended to plant the Guard-shroom in the second and fourth rows to maximize the protection area of the Mini-shrooms. The Guard-shroom spawns Mini-shrooms in a 3×3 area, covering 8 tiles except for the center tile. Being an amphibious plant enhances the Guard-shroom's ability to protect aquatic plants like Sea-shroom, Electric Peel, and SeaFlora from zombies since these plants cannot be shielded directly by Pumpkin. Players should also be aware that the Guard-shroom will not spawn Mini-shrooms on vine plants or any plants located inside vines, nor can it be planted on top of a Lily Pad.

Despite its unique advantages, the Guard-shroom is not very reliable. As one among the weakest wall plant, it is generally better to rely on Infi-nut, Wall-nut, or even Endurian if players want a more effective offensive wall plant, especially since these alternatives are all free. Additionally, the Guard-shroom spawns Mini-shrooms slowly. If a Mini-shroom is destroyed, it will respawn in the same tile unless the Guard-shroom is upgraded (allowing it to spawn additional Mini-shrooms at once) or all 8 tiles are fully occupied by Mini-shrooms. Furthermore, the Guard-shroom has a long recharge time of 30 seconds, which is longer than that of traditional Reinforce-mint plants. Notably, the Guard-shroom is currently the most expensive wall plant, costing 200 sun.

In summary, the Guard-shroom is a unique plant with several pros and cons to consider. It is not recommended to bring this plant into levels with the mission “Don't lose more than X plants,” as destroyed Mini-shrooms count as lost plants, or into levels with the mission “Don't have more than X plants,” since each Mini-shroom is counted as an individual plant.

Gallery

Guard-shroom has a gallery!

Visit this page to see it.

In other languages

Please note that only official translations are used.

Language	Name	Description
English	Guard-shroom
Simplified Chinese	守卫菇
French	Champi-garde
German	Wachpilz
Italian	Guardiaporcino
Brazilian Portuguese	Guardamelo	From guarda and cogumelo
Russian	Гриб-страж	lit. "Mushroom-guard"
Spanish	Setaguardia	Guardshroom (Portmanteau of "seta" and "retaguardia")

Trivia

• 363.154e+13 is equal to 3,631,540,000,000,000, or 3.63154 quadrillion.
• Despite being mushrooms, Sun-shroom, Magnet-shroom, Hypno-shroom, Perfume-shroom, and Puffball do not receive any boosts from Guard-shroom's Mini-shrooms (Possibly because they cannot attack or use poison attack). Mini-shroom cannot boost itself or other Mini-shrooms, either.
• In the pre-release, Guard-shroom was able to attack Grid Items with its Plant Food, given that at least one tile in it's 3x3 area is unoccupied. It did very little damage.

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