Carpinus caroliniana
A heavily armored, very slow Eastern North American native tree that shields your active from the bench and heals allies once matured.
Ironwood is a broadleaf canopy Broadleaf tree that fights as a very slow, heavily armored bench support and wall. It is native to Eastern North America and has no invasive form, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer for your bench (see nativity). Its strength is durability and support, not tempo or damage.
Its starter attack, Raysteal, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 32 damage — a plain hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Shade Tolerance, arrives at level 25: Waits out the dark: heal 40%, and the foe can't heal. The advanced attack, Buttress Bash, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (35 damage) and saps the target, withering it as it strikes. Most of your copies sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
It keeps two always-on traits. Network arrives at full strength on the level 10 riser: as a canopy tree it projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active from the bench. Mycorrhiza arrives on the level 68 riser and heals a benched ally, but it fires only about 60% of the time, so it is an occasional top-up rather than reliable sustain. See Abilities.
It carries no trait keywords and no status chemistry beyond its sap move, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic, with no hazard ring. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear magnifies an already tanky body.
At level 40 it reads 121 HP with ATK of 25 — moderate damage. DEF is 25, high in the broadleaf-tree band, so it shrugs off a lot of punishment. Its tempo is even and very low: turn 1 runs on its initiative (18) and every turn after on its SPD (18), both among the slowest values you will field, so it almost always acts last. Retreat costs 16 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, it climbs to 233 HP and 46 ATK, and its DEF reaches 58 — it hardens into a genuine armored wall, one of the toughest bodies in the game. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it always acts last. Maturing buys near-immovable durability plus the healing riser, at the cost of any speed.
As a broadleaf tree it is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants for ×1.5 and is struck for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants, which hit it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group are neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play it as a native bench wall: the Sun overshield keeps your active alive, its own armor holds the line, and the matured riser heals allies. Its very low speed means it is happiest supporting from the back rather than opening a fight. Its value is also economic: it is inedible, so any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP toward leveling. It fights as a slow, armored skirmisher until about level 1, after which its wall-like bulk takes over — keep leveling it.
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.