Citrullus lanatus
A Vine card that suppresses the plant across from it, and one of the widest-spread invaders in the game.
Watermelon is a Vine card with both roles. It is native to Africa and invasive across East Asia, Europe, both halves of North America, Oceania, South America and South Asia — seven regions, which is an unusually wide spread and shows directly in its attacker numbers. See nativity and categories.
The starter attack, Creeping Crush, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, reading 25 native and 30 invasive. Crushes the whole back row under its own weight.
The free once-per-battle ability, Canopy Climb, unlocks at level 25 and costs no Sun. Hauls itself into the light: heal 30% and +3 ATK.
The advanced attack, Thigmo-Trap, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun, reading 22 native and 28 invasive. Coils the instant it touches, before the foe can pull away. It trades raw damage for a control effect, so the starter stays the efficient attack. See moves.
Allelopathy arrives on the first riser at level 10 at full strength. It projects a suppressing aura onto the opposing active plant, wearing down what it faces without spending a turn. This is a front-line effect: it applies to the plant across from your active card, not to anything on the bench.
Structural Load stacks on at level 68. It fires when this card is knocked out, and it reaches the opposing bench rather than the plant that killed it — a liana's weight snapping the limbs around it. It means removing this card costs the opponent something behind their front line.
The species record lists no toxicity and no trait keywords, so no poison rider applies. For field gear, the low armour makes protective gear the priority on the native side, while the invasive side wants to convert its attack advantage before it is removed. Its growth habit is a vine, so a Moss Pole does fit this card.
At level 40 the native side reads 103 HP and 18 ATK; invasive reads 89 HP and 35 ATK. That is a very large attack step, and it comes from the introduced-range term rather than any flat multiplier — a seven-region invader hits far harder than a locally naturalised one. Armour is 8 and retreat is 16 Sun. Opening tempo is 22, which is low, and sustained tempo is 34 — this card generally does not act first. Invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes on knockout. See stats.
By level 100 native reads 190 HP and 31 ATK, invasive 165 HP and 74 ATK, with armour only reaching 15. Biomass swells and plating barely moves — the soft-vine shape. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and the inverted tempo has bottomed out, which stings for a card that was already slow. What maturing buys is the level 68 knockout effect landing off a much larger body.
Vine is in the Competitor succession group: it crowds out Ruderal — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs — and loses to Specialist, meaning succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes. See weaknesses and resistances.
Invasive is the reason to run this card. The attack step is among the largest in its bracket, and the suppression aura means it is chipping the opposing active plant even on turns it does not connect. The problems are real though: it is slow, so it usually takes a hit first, and it is lightly armoured, so that hit lands nearly in full. Pair it with a bench that can absorb both the incoming damage and its own Faustian cost.
Native it is a much flatter card — the aura still works, but the attack is modest and the body is soft. Say plainly that it is a support piece in that role rather than a threat.
It is edible with a fruit economy group, so a phosphorus amendment pays ×1.25 coins, and it is a strong income card. See the battle lab.
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.