Crepis tectorum
Narrowleaf hawksbeard is a fast, fragile annual-forb weed — a cheap tempo piece and coin earner as a native, and a disposable hard-hitting racer where it has invaded North America.
Narrowleaf hawksbeard is an annual-forb: a low-biomass weed built around speed and a hard opening rather than staying power. It is native across East Asia and Europe, where it plays as a support buffer, and invasive in Eastern and Western North America, where it turns attacker. Its soft armor and modest bulk make it a skirmisher — dangerous early, outclassed by anything it cannot finish quickly.
Its starter attack, Quick Bloom, unlocks at Lv 1 and costs 2 Sun, hitting for 42 as a native and 45 as an invasive. It carries the initiative rider — Seizes initiative: first in the wild, acts again on a kill. In a wild encounter that means it takes hard priority and strikes first regardless of either tempo stat; if both sides bring a rider they cancel and normal turn order decides. In the arena the rider works differently: it grants no first strike, it lets the plant seize the turn and act again only when it lands a genuinely killing blow. The once-per-battle ability, Ruderal Rush (Lv 25, free), is pure utility: Weedy haste — a burst of speed, kept for the match. The advanced attack, Floormat Chokeout (Lv 40, 6 Sun), reaches the whole back row — Mats the floor and reaches the whole back row — the foe wilts. — for 29 native / 32 invasive. See moves and abilities.
It keeps two always-on traits, one drawn per growth stage. From Lv 10 it carries Photoblastic, a light-triggered heal that restores about 2% of its maximum HP each checkup — but only in sunny weather. At Lv 68 Soil Seed Bank stacks on: the first time a lethal hit would drop it, there is a 50% chance it clings on and revives at 15% HP. Both are modest — this is a weed, not a bruiser — but the sunny self-heal keeps it ticking through a drawn-out fight and the seed bank buys one extra swing.
It holds no thorns or Toxin trait and no special keyword, so it neither punishes nor poisons an attacker on contact. It is not a climber, so it takes no Moss Pole. With near-zero armor, a Calcium/Magnesium amendment to shore up its DEF or a Cloche to ward contact effects suit the native buffer; an invasive copy would rather push its attack. See field gear.
At Lv 40 (Annual forb) it reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with 26 / 36 ATK — the introduced-range term is what opens that attack gap. DEF is only 1, a soft weed floor, so it relies on ending fights fast rather than tanking. Its opening tempo (initiative) is 32 and its sustained tempo (Speed) is 42 — a quick starter that stays reasonably brisk. Retreat costs 12 Sun. Native, it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active; invasive, it trades that cushion for the introduced-range attack edge, pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging attack, and concedes 2 prizes on a knockout. See stats.
By Lv 100 its HP swells to 190 native / 165 invasive and ATK climbs to 47 / 73, but DEF barely leaves the floor at 1: a soft weed pours its growth into biomass, not armor. Retreat rises to 24 Sun as it roots deeper, and its once-brisk tempo has sunk to near its 1% floor — the seedling speed that defined it early is gone. It matures into a larger, slower body that still cannot take a hit.
As an annual-forb it sits in the Ruderal succession group. Ruderal strikes Specialist categories (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) for ×1.5 and is resisted by Competitors (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees) at ×0.667; against other Ruderals and the off-wheel Weird categories it trades evenly. Its floor-level DEF also leaves it exposed to any heavy attacker, since the damage ratio rewards big ATK against small DEF. See weaknesses & resistances.
Play it native as a cheap early-tempo piece: it strikes first with the rider, chips with a sunny self-heal, and lends an overshield from the bench to a sturdier active. It is edible with a resolved leaf part, so feeding it Nitrogen (the leaf-matching fertilizer) pays ×1.25 coins — a real coin earner in single-player battles; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead. As an invasive it is a disposable racer: hit hard, hit first, and don't expect it to survive a counterpunch. In absolute terms it is a weak card — more a collection piece and coin generator than a battle winner — but its speed makes it a fine skirmisher. It fights as a fast skirmisher until about Lv 25 (Lv 26 as an invasive), after which its growing bulk and attack outweigh its fading tempo.
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.