Acer palmatum
A high-HP broadleaf tree that buffs in East Asia and hits notably harder as an invasive, gaining a Sun-overshield trait for allies late.
Japanese maple is a broadleaf tree, carrying a tree's armor wall and sitting in the Competitor succession group. It is native to East Asia, where it takes the nativity buffer role, and invasive across Europe, eastern North America and Oceania, where it becomes an attacker. It is a high-HP, slow card whose native and invasive forms diverge sharply in attack.
Its starter, Branch Slam, unlocks at Lv 1 for 2 Sun: A heavy branch slams down. It deals 32 native / 35 invasive.
At Lv 25 it gains its free once-per-battle ability, Gap Capture: Takes the fallen giant's light: +5 ATK, kept for the match. This is a permanent stat buff for the rest of the match rather than a damage move — a compounding advantage the longer the fight runs.
Its advanced attack, Canopy Closure, unlocks at Lv 40 for 6 Sun: Closes the canopy — nothing below it recovers. It hits for 24 native / 28 invasive and suppresses the foe's recovery. Neither attack carries the initiative rider. See moves.
This card keeps two always-on abilities, arriving far apart. At Lv 10 it gains Tannin Load — defensive leaf-and-wood chemistry, live at full strength from arrival. At Lv 68 it stacks on Network, which lets it project a gold Sun-overshield bar onto your active from the bench (a canopy-tree effect that backs up any active's Sun once its own bar runs dry, regardless of that active's nativity). For most of a player's collection this is a tannin-only card until the late game. See the abilities guide.
As a broadleaf tree it carries no special trait keywords here and is not a climber, so it takes no Moss Pole. Its DEF is already high, so field gear is best spent on Sun economy (native) or attack output (invasive). Its Network trait makes it especially valuable benched behind Sun-hungry allies.
At Lv 40 every move is unlocked. Its DEF is 23 — a tree wall that heavily blunts direct hits. Its HP is large for the snapshot: as a native it reads 140 HP and 16 ATK with the +15% cushion, and projects an overshield bar while benched. As an invasive it reads 122 HP and a much higher 27 ATK — a wide native-to-invasive gap driven by its broad introduced range, so the invasive form hits meaningfully harder. That form pays escalating Faustian self-damage to its own bench per damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes on knockout. On tempo it is slow at both stages, opening at initiative 18 and cruising at SPD 18 — it will usually act last. See stats.
By Lv 100 it becomes a heavyweight wall: HP swells to 276 native / 240 invasive, DEF to 52 on wood density, and ATK to 28 / 54 — the invasive attack pulling well clear. Retreat rises to 38 Sun and its already-low tempo has fallen to roughly its floor, so a mature maple is a slow, massive tank.
As a broadleaf tree it is in the Competitor group: strong (x1.5) into Ruderal cards, weak (x0.667) into Specialists, even against other Competitors. Poison is its main threat, ignoring its armor. See weaknesses & resistances.
Japanese maple is a strong, durable card and a good single-player earner. The native is a high-HP tank and bench-buffer; the invasive is one of the harder-hitting trees thanks to its wide introduced range, though the Faustian bench cost means you should pair it with expendable benchmates. Its Gap Capture ability rewards long fights by permanently raising its attack, and its late Network trait makes it a premium bench anchor for Sun-hungry allies in the arena. It is not edible, so fertilizer banks x1.25 XP rather than coins. As a bulky tree it is power-favored from a very low level, crossing over around Lv 1 native (Lv 4 invasive).
Leveling trades speed for power. A plant’s tempo (SPD + INI, the turn-order edge) fades as it grows, while its power (HP + ATK + DEF, net of the rising Sun cost to retreat) climbs. The crossover is the level where power overtakes tempo: below it the plant is a fast skirmisher, above it a heavyweight. Shown for each stance this plant can actually hold — native adds a HP cushion, invasive an attack edge, neutral neither — with the card at its crossover and fully grown at Lv 100.