Acid Mushroom

The Acid Mushroom is a type of life form belonging to the flora category. It can be used as a raw material.

The player can either pick it up by hand or by using the knife in order to harvest its spores.

Appearance
The Acid Mushroom resembles real life mushrooms, having a very thick cap that appears to constantly pulsate.

There are two types of Acid Mushrooms: a small one with a purple hue, and a larger one featuring a bright magenta cap with rest of it fading to a dull violet color.

It seems to emit faint bioluminescent glows at night.

Behavior
The Acid Mushroom stays completely immobile on the seabed or other firm structures as a base, forming many clusters.

As for a defense mechanism, it bursts with acid, capable of harming the player upon being knifed. Knifing an Acid Mushroom may also lead to the bursting of its surrounding mushrooms.

When farming mushrooms, the best strategy is to pick up all nearby mushrooms before knifing a mushroom for its spores. Since each mushroom drops 4 spores, one can pick three mushrooms and collect spores from the fourth to restock their mushroom supply.

Data Bank Entry
A common, spore-bearing fungi species, with developed defense mechanisms. The flesh contains a highly acidic compound which leaches into the water if the outer skin is penetrated. Fluctuations in the local water pressure may also cause it to shrink.

It is not clear which predator species necessitated such extreme counter-measures, but the acid mushroom's numbers suggest it has successfully deterred most of them.

Assessment: Inedible, but exploitable in battery fabrication if picked carefully

Trivia

 * The Acid Mushroom has a subspecies called the Deep Shroom, which can be found in the Blood Kelp Zone.
 * The Acid Mushroom used to shrink upon approach, but this was removed.