Coleus barbatus
The Ajwain Plant (Coleus barbatus) is a Perennial herb that plays as a defensive buffer where native and an attacker where invasive.
The Ajwain Plant is Indian coleus (forskohlii), an aromatic medicinal mint with an edible root. In battle it plays as a Perennial herb. It is native to Africa, East Asia, and South Asia, where it takes the defensive buffer role, and invasive in South America, where it becomes an attacker.
Its kit unlocks in three stages. The starter attack, Herbal Draught, is available from Level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing 29 as a native and 31 as an invasive. Its effect: Brews its own remedy — strike and heal 12%.
The free ability, Seral Persistence (Level 25), costs no Sun because it is once per battle: Refuses to be replaced: heal 60%, and the foe can't heal.
The advanced attack, Tonic (Level 40, 6 Sun), deals 34 native and 36 invasive: Strikes and mends — heal 15%. Most cards you meet are well below the Level 40 snapshot these numbers are read at, and unlock their kit slot by slot as they level.
This card actually keeps two always-on traits, drawn from its category pool with the rest discarded. From Level 10 it carries Basal Rosette, a flat DEF bonus from a grazing-resistant rosette. From Level 68 a second, different trait stacks on top: Contractile Roots, a little DEF gained each checkup as its roots pull the crown deeper, up to a cap. Both are working traits — there are no inert abilities in the game — and each arrives at full strength on the riser shown, so for much of the card's life it plays with only the earlier of the two.
It carries no Toxin or Thorns trait, so it inflicts no contact recoil on an attacker. Because its body is soft, a Cloche is a valuable ward against the damage-over-time Poison that bypasses its overshield, and a Cal-Mag amendment shores up its thin armor. Its edible root means the matching Potassium (K) fertilizer pays bonus coins (see Gameplay uses). See field gear for the full item list and nativity for how region sets its role.
Read at the Level 40 snapshot, its DEF is 1 — a low-to-middling band — firmer than a weed but no wall. It retreats for 11 Sun. Turn 1 is ordered by its initiative (34) and every turn after by its SPD (34). Its opening and sustained tempo sit close together, so its turn order holds roughly steady through a fight. By nativity it splits two ways. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion (103 HP against 89 invasive) and, from the bench, projects an HP overshield bar onto your active. As an invasive its aggression is built from how widely it spreads plus an introduced-range term — compare 23 native ATK against 28 invasive — and it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging attack, conceding 2 prizes when it is knocked out. The overshield is a bench-built extra ring: up to four green HP bars from benched natives (drained by direct damage first, but bypassed by poison, recoil and splash) and up to two gold Sun bars from benched Network trees.
By Level 100 its DEF has crept up its modest band to 2 while HP grows toward 190; retreat rises to 21 Sun and the brisk early tempo sinks to roughly 1% of cap. It matures into a sturdier body that no longer strikes first.
It is a Competitor on the succession wheel: it crowds out Ruderals (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs), hitting them for 1.5× and resisting their blows, but is outlasted by Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes), which turn its 1.5× disadvantage against it. The Weird categories (carrion-aroids, carnivores, mycotrophs and vascular parasites) sit off the wheel and trade neutrally with it. See weaknesses & resistances and categories.
A perennial herb built around self-healing — its starter, ability and advanced hit all mend it — with an edible root for coins. A sticky, attritional buffer that grinds fights out. Because its edible part is a resolved root, feeding it Potassium pays ×1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead. On the total-power curve its crossover falls around Level 23 native and 26 invasive: below it the card leans on speed, above it on bulk and attack. It only grows stronger with level, so there is never a 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.