Capsicum chinense
A non-toxic perennial herb that heals through fights and clings on with a survival trait, playing either arena role — a South American native or an invader in Africa and Eastern North America.
Habanero is a low Perennial herb that fights as a healing staller: modest damage, a mid-fight mend, a healing advanced hit, and a survival trait to hang on. It is native to South America and invasive across Africa and Eastern North America, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. Its attack is low, so it wins by outlasting rather than out-hitting.
Its starter attack, Steady Growth, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 32 damage as a native and 35 as an invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Alkaloid Reservoir, arrives at level 25: Empties a season of alkaloids into the foe — saturating Poison. It is a mid-fight mend. The advanced attack, Rhizome Lock, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (19 native / 22 invasive) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your habanero sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Habanero keeps one always-on trait, Resprout, which arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 riser — so it works at reduced strength for most of the card's life. When it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter of its health, but it fires only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a lucky reprieve rather than a guarantee. See Abilities.
Habanero is non-toxic in play: it holds no Toxin trait, so nothing recoils onto an attacker and its hits carry no poison. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment for a little DEF — offsets its thin armor; as an invasive, offensive gear pushes its aggression. See statuses.
At level 40 habanero reads 103 HP native and 89 invasive, with ATK of 17 native versus 26 invasive — the invasive role lifts its attack, though it is a low hitter even so. DEF is just 4, at the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with almost no armor and relies on its healing and survival trait instead. Its tempo is front-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (50), which leads the field, but every turn after runs on its lower SPD (34), so it is a quick starter and a slower cruiser. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, habanero swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 30 / 53 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 8 — as a soft herb it buys bulk in health and almost none in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature habanero acts last against almost anything younger.
As a perennial herb, habanero sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), 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 habanero as a healing staller: lead with it, mend through the fight, and lean on Resprout to hang on while it grinds — its own attack is too weak to close quickly. As an invasive its higher ATK helps it press; as a native it is a fine buffer whose bench overshield props up a stronger active. On economy, it is edible at the fruit, so feeding it Phosphorus pays ×1.25 coins while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth. It plays as a quick-starting staller leaning harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 32 as a native and 34 as an invasive — but it is always stronger at higher levels, so there is no reason to hold it back.
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.