Betula populifolia
A native-only broadleaf tree that heals your bench and shields your active, maturing into a durable armored support wall.
Gray birch is a durable Broadleaf tree that fights as a defensive support piece. In this game it exists only as a native — of Eastern North America — so you always play it as a native buffer for your bench; there is no invasive attacker version. It is a solid team card: its worth is in what it does for the rest of your bench, not in raw damage.
Its starter attack, Branch Bash, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and hits for about 29 as a native, splashing some damage onto the enemy bench. The free once-per-battle ability, Canopy Recruitment, arrives at level 25: Pushes a sapling into the canopy: heal 35% and +3 ATK. — it mends the plant. The advanced attack, Crown Shade, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (34 native) and saps the target as it hits. Most of your birches sit below level 40, where only the starter is live. None of its moves carry an initiative rider.
Gray birch keeps two always-on traits. Mycorrhiza arrives on the level 10 riser: it heals a benched ally, but only about 60% of the time, so treat it as an occasional top-up. Network comes in on the level 68 riser and, from the bench, projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active — a canopy-tree effect that makes it a strong benched supporter.
Gray birch carries no trait keywords, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic — no hazard ring, no poison rider. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native support piece, defensive field gear helps it stay alive to keep feeding your bench. See Field gear.
At level 40 gray birch reads 121 HP as a native, with ATK around 23. DEF is 20, solidly in the broadleaf-tree band, so it shrugs off part of each hit — much tougher than the soft herbs. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on initiative (35) and every turn after on SPD (50), so it is out-paced off the mark but steadier later. Retreat costs 14 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, gray birch becomes an armored wall: 233 HP with DEF climbing to 45, and ATK around 42. A tree turns its growth into armor as well as health, so a mature one is hard to remove. Retreat rises to 29 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it always acts late — the trade for that durability.
As a broadleaf tree, gray birch is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants, which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play gray birch as a benched anchor: Network feeds a Sun overshield to your active while Mycorrhiza tops up a wounded ally, and its own bulk lets it tank a turn if it must step up. It is a support card first, a fighter second. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster leveling. It fights as a slow skirmisher early and its bulk takes over around level 23, after which its wall and buffs carry the bench — always worth leveling.
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.