Campanula trachelium
A perennial-herb card that buffers on the bench when native and hits noticeably harder as an invasive attacker.
Nettle leaved bellflower is a perennial-herb card. It is native across Africa, East Asia and Europe, where it plays as a soft buffer, and invasive in eastern North America, where it becomes a trait-sourced attacker. As a perennial herb it belongs to the Competitor succession group and carries a low armor band.
Its starter attack, Rhizome Creep, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing 30 damage as a native and 32 as an invasive — Creeps underground into the foe's back row. Its free once-per-battle ability, Perennating Bud, unlocks at level 25: Breaks a stored bud: heal 40%. The advanced attack, Perennial Problem, arrives at level 40 for 6 Sun, hitting for 43 native or 45 invasive — It was always going to come back. No move carries the initiative rider. See moves.
Reading its trait schedule, it keeps two always-on traits. From level 10 it has bitter-principle: whenever an attacker lands a damaging hit on it, its bitter sesquiterpene lactones Wither that attacker, dropping the foe's ATK by two stacks of the debuff. At level 68 it adds vernalization-memory, a slow-burn attacker trait — it does nothing on turns 1 and 2, then grants a flat +5 ATK from turn 3 onward, rewarding a drawn-out fight. Neither is one of the roughly 60%-of-the-time sustain heals, so both are on continuously once unlocked; for most of the card's life it runs on bitter-principle alone. It holds no Toxin trait, so contact does not poison an attacker. See abilities.
It carries no confirmed keyword traits and is not toxic. Its habit is not a climber, so it is not Moss Pole-eligible. For useful field gear: as a native buffer a Calcium/Magnesium amendment shores up its thin DEF, while as an invasive attacker a Nitrogen fertilizer banks the leaf-edible coin bonus (see Gameplay uses).
At the snapshot level of 40 the native card reads 103 HP (with the +15% cushion) and 26 ATK; the invasive card trades bulk for aggression at 89 HP and 31 ATK — a clear step up in attack that reflects its introduced range. DEF is only 4, soft as expected for a perennial herb. Opening tempo (initiative) is 34 and sustained tempo (SPD) is 34, so it is roughly even off the mark and a touch faster on the sustain. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack (10 plus its level minus one) and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. Benched natives project an HP overshield; this card's is a sliver, being Least-Concern. See stats.
By level 100 its HP swells to 190 as a native (165 as an invasive) but its DEF barely leaves the floor at 8 — a soft herb that grows in mass, not armor. ATK reaches 47 native and 60 invasive, where the introduced-range edge finally shows in full. Retreat climbs to 33 Sun, and its once-lively tempo has fallen to about 1% of cap.
As a perennial herb it is a Competitor: strong ×1.5 against Ruderal cards (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), and weak against Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), who hit it for ×1.5 while its own hits on them are resisted to ×0.667. Neutral against other Competitors and the Weird group. See weaknesses & resistances.
As a native it is a modest bench buffer with a self-heal in Perennating Bud, but its thin DEF means it will not tank; as an invasive it is the more interesting build, with a real jump in ATK that makes it a serviceable single-player attacker — just mind the Faustian bench damage. Being edible with a leaf part, Nitrogen fertilizer pays ×1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP. It leans on speed early and on power later, crossing over around level 23 as a native — a note about which edge dominates, not a reason to hold it back, since it only gets stronger with levels.
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.