Coccineorchis cristata
A fragile South American epiphyte that opens slowly, cruises harder in long fights, and leans on a late self-heal — a weak, native-only card.
Columba is a small Epiphyte that fights as a fragile, slow-opening striker with a late self-heal. It is native to South America, and no invasive form of it exists, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer for your bench. Honestly, it is a weak card on damage and armor, sitting closer to a collectible than a competitive pick — though it regenerates each checkup and carries an overshield bar of its own from level 68.
Its starter attack, Aerial Root, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 29 damage as a native — a plain strike with no rider. The free once-per-battle ability, Aerial Anchor, comes in at level 25: Anchors hard to the bark — Bind and Wither the foe. It raises the plant's own ATK for the rest of the fight. The advanced attack, Aerial Cage, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (19 native) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your copies sit well below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See Moves.
Columba runs a working trait on each riser. Velamen Radicum (level 10) heals 2% of max HP every checkup through the aerial-root sheath. Tank Reservoir (level 68) adds an HP overshield bar the plant supplies itself, so the regen has something to work behind. See Abilities.
It carries no trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin, no spore chemistry — and it is non-toxic, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, general defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a Ca/Mg amendment for a little extra DEF — best suits its stalling, self-healing game.
At level 40 Columba reads 103 HP with ATK of 16 as a native. DEF is only 2, at the soft floor of the epiphyte band, so it takes almost unmitigated hits. Its tempo is uneven: turn 1 runs on its initiative (23) and every turn after on its SPD (34), so it is out-paced on the opening exchange but more relentless in a long fight. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield bar onto your active plant. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, Columba swells to 190 HP and 28 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 3 — as a soft epiphyte it gains bulk in health, never armor, so it stays vulnerable to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature Columba acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys survivability and its self-heal, not punch.
As an epiphyte, Columba is in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, vines) for ×1.5 and is struck for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), which hit it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Specialists and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Columba as a cheap native buffer: its HP cushion and bench overshield can help a stronger hitter survive, but its own offense is too light to close games, so keep it in support. Overall it is a low-tier, mostly collectible card. Its value is economic — it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward growth rather than coins. It fights as a slow-opening skirmisher that only finds its tempo in longer fights, leaning on its bulk from around level 20; it is always stronger at higher levels in raw stats, 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.