Diospyros virginiana
A fast-opening armored broadleaf tree that shields your bench and saps its target, playable as an Eastern North American native or a wide-ranging invader.
American persimmon is a heavy Broadleaf tree that fights as an armored front-liner that opens fast and supports the bench. It is native to Eastern North America and invasive across Europe, Western North America and South America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker (see nativity). It is a sturdy, well-rounded card: real armor, a quick first turn, and a draining advanced move.
Its starter attack, Limb Lash, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 40 damage as a native and 44 as an invasive — a plain hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Canopy Recruitment, arrives at level 25: Pushes a sapling into the canopy: heal 35% and +3 ATK. The advanced attack, Buttress Bash, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (34 native / 36 invasive) and saps the target, withering its output as it deals damage. Most of your persimmons sit well below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See moves and statuses.
Persimmon keeps two working always-on traits. Network arrives at level 10 at full strength: as a canopy tree it projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active plant from the bench. Mycorrhiza arrives at level 68 and heals a benched ally, but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so it is a bonus rather than a reliable clock. See abilities.
Persimmon carries no special trait keywords — no thorns, no spore chemistry. It is non-toxic: no contact recoil, no poison rider, and no hazard ring. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear deepens its wall; as an invasive, offensive gear presses its damage edge.
At level 40 persimmon reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with ATK of 24 native versus 28 invasive — a solid invasive jump. DEF is 29, high for the broadleaf-tree band, so it shrugs off most hits. Its tempo is front-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (47) and every turn after on its SPD (17), so it leads the first exchange but is out-paced once a fight drags on. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield bar onto your active; as an invasive it pays self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, persimmon climbs to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 44 / 52 ATK, and its DEF reaches 67 — a proper armored wall, since a tree keeps converting growth into armor. Retreat rises to 34 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so its fast start is gone; a mature persimmon acts late but stands like a wall. Maturing buys durability at the cost of tempo.
As a broadleaf tree, persimmon is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and is hit for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play persimmon as a native wall that opens fast, or as an invasive front-liner that leads the first exchange and then saps its target down. Either way its Network overshield and bench cushion make it a strong support body, and its armor lets it stay in fights other trees would leave. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins, making it a steady growth-earner. It fights as a fast opener early and settles into a durable wall as it levels, crossing over around level 17 — and higher levels only thicken its armor, so 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.