Pineapple

Overview

Pineapple opens faster than any other epiphyte in Supplant — barely one epiphyte in forty matches its opening initiative of 51 — yet its sustained speed of 13 is among the slowest in the same category, so it leads turn one and is out-paced every turn after. That split is the whole card: strike first, hit hard, and close before the tempo runs out. It is an epiphyte — a Specialist — native to South America and invasive across Africa, East Asia, both North American coasts, Oceania and South Asia, so it genuinely plays the invasive attacker, its ATK climbing from 23 native to 33 invasive.

Moves

Canopy Smother unlocks at Lv 1, dealing 24 native / 27 invasive for 2 Sun. The free ability Hemiepiphytic Descent arrives at Lv 25: Drops roots to the ground and takes over — the foe is driven out and pinned. — a control tool that drives the foe out and pins it. The advanced attack Aerial Cage comes in at Lv 40, dealing 21 native / 25 invasive for 6 Sun. It has no initiative rider, but its raw initiative already wins most openings in a wild fight, where the faster card acts first.

Abilities

From Lv 10 it holds Canopy Anchorage: its aerial roots grip, making it immune to Bound and to forced swaps, so control moves that would pin or shove it simply fail. At Lv 68 CAM Idling stacks on — a small heal each checkup that keeps working even through Blight. Both are always-on.

Features

It carries no special trait keywords. Despite being placed in the epiphyte pool, its growth habit resolves as terrestrial, so it is not a climber and a Moss Pole does nothing for it. A Calcium/Magnesium amendment adds flat DEF to a paper-armoured body. See field gear.

Stats

Read at Lv 40. Native HP is 103 (a +15% cushion) against a base of 89; ATK runs 23 native to 33 invasive. DEF is a floor-level 2. The tempo split is the headline: opening initiative 51 against sustained speed 13. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As an invasive it pays "Faustian" self-damage to its own bench on each damaging hit (10 + level − 1, so it grows as it levels) and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out; as a native it instead lends a benched HP overshield.

At Level 100

The invasive edge is deferred onto the cap, so the attacker identity only fully shows late: ATK reaches 68 invasive against 41 native, on 190 / 165 HP. DEF stays a token 3. Its tempo, though, sinks to roughly 1% of cap — so the opening-speed advantage that defines it at Lv 40 is gone by Lv 100, leaving a hard hitter that no longer strikes first. Retreat rises to 33 Sun.

Hardiness

Roughly USDA zone 9a — it should come through winters that bottom out near -5 °C. Colder than that and it wants shelter, a wall, or a winter indoors. Its range runs from a cold edge of 12.8 °C to a warm edge of 27.3 °C, a Tropical band — a warm-climate plant that reads as a houseplant across most of the temperate world. Treat the zone as rough; the estimate carries an error of just over one full zone.

The card's climate chip is the player-facing form of that range, and it only changes battle XP — nothing else:

Chip	What it means	Battle XP
Thrives here	your local winter low and summer heat both sit inside its range	x2
In range	it survives where you are but sits near one of its edges	x1.25
Colder than its range	your winters drop below what it tolerates; outdoors it needs protection	no bonus
Hotter than its range	your summers run past its warm edge	no bonus

A "colder than its range" reading is a fact about your winter, not a verdict on the plant, and it shifts as you travel.

Weaknesses & Resistances

As an epiphyte it is a Specialist on the succession wheel: ×1.5 into Competitors (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees), and resisted to ×0.667 against — and ×1.5 hit by — Ruderals (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs). Weird-group cards are neutral both ways.

Gameplay uses

Play it invasive as a fast opener and racer: get the first hits in while the initiative holds, and back it with a bench, because its paper DEF and fading tempo mean it will not carry a long grind alone. It is edible with a resolved fruit part, so feeding it phosphorus (the fruit fertilizer) pays ×1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead — a genuinely useful coin earner. In the Total power gallery it fights as a fast skirmisher until about Lv 23 native / 23 invasive, after which its bulk and attack take over; that marks which edge dominates, not a level to avoid.