Dryopteris dilatata
A fern that buffers on its native turf and attacks where it is invasive.
The Broad Buckler Fern is a fern in Supplant. It is native to Africa, East Asia and Europe and invasive in Oceania and South America, so it can take whichever role the arena hands it — a defensive buffer on its home turf, or an aggressive attacker where it counts as an introduced weed.
Its kit fills in across three slots, and most of your copies will be well below the snapshot level of 40 where all three are live — the plant unlocks them as it grows. Frond Whip is the starter attack, available from level 1 for 2 Sun. The free once-per-battle ability, Carboniferous Revival, unlocks at level 25: The age when ferns ruled: heal 70% and +4 ATK. The advanced attack, Fiddlehead Flail, comes online at level 40 for 6 Sun — Two coiled tips whip out at once.
As a native its attacks land for about 35 (starter) and 40 (advanced); as an invasive those rise to 35 and 42 as the introduced-range aggression matures.
Turn order splits across two stats: initiative (51) decides who moves first on turn 1, and SPD (34) decides every turn after. This one is the quicker starter — it tends to land the opening blow on turn 1, then cede the pace as the fight wears on. See turn order for how the two interact.
It reads Unpalatable from level 10, and a second passive, Spore-drift, stacks on at level 68.
Unpalatable. Its fiddlehead chemistry poisons any attacker that strikes it (a flat 2 stacks of Poison). A Sulfur soil amendment on the attacker neutralizes this one.
Spore-drift. Drifting spores chip the enemy bench each turn. This one is dispersal-derived — the engine appends it from how the plant spreads its seed rather than from its category.
Its unpalatable fiddlehead chemistry poisons attackers on contact, and a Sulfur amendment on the attacker cancels it. For field gear, a Calcium/Magnesium amendment adds flat DEF (most worthwhile on a bulky front-liner, least on a soft body), and the N/P/K fertilizers drive its economy (see Gameplay uses). This species is not Moss-Pole-eligible: that gear is keyed on a climbing growth habit (vine, epiphyte or hemiepiphyte), and its species record carries no growth-habit tag. Played native, favor defensive gear; played invasive, favor anything that pushes its attack.
At the snapshot level (40) it reads roughly HP 103, DEF 2, with a retreat cost of 16 Sun and tempo pips of 51 initiative / 34 SPD. Its DEF sits at the soft-fern floor. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects a green HP overshield bar onto your active. As an invasive its ATK rises toward 27 (against 25 native), and it pays "Faustian" self-damage to its own bench on every damaging hit it lands. Sun refills at +1 every 15 minutes up to a cap of 120; an empty bar attack-locks the plant. From level 52 it regenerates Sun mid-battle, and a level 85 capstone drops its starter to free. See stats.
HP grows toward 190 while DEF holds in the soft band (3) — a bigger spoiler, not a wall. Retreat rises to 33 Sun (an older plant is more rooted and costlier to pull), and the inverted tempo has sunk to its floor by now — the fast opening it had as a seedling is gone, so a mature copy leans entirely on power rather than turn order.
In the succession wheel it is a Specialist. It hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs and broadleaf trees) for extra damage (×1.5), and takes extra damage from Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs). Against its own group and the off-wheel "Weird" categories it is neutral. See the type chart.
Play it native as a defensive buffer — the HP cushion and bench overshield make it a body that protects the rest of your team. Play it invasive as an attacker, remembering it concedes 2 prizes on a knockout and bleeds its own bench with Faustian self-damage each hit. A soft specialist whose value is its contact poison and bench chip, not its body. It is weak in a straight fight and best used as a spoiler. It is inedible in the game's economy, so any fertilizer you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — useful as level fodder, not as a coin source. In the Total power gallery below you can watch it trade a fast-skirmisher opening for raw bulk as it levels: it leans on speed until about level 31, after which its power takes over. It is monotonically stronger the higher it goes, 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.