Echinacea purpurea
An even-tempo Eastern North American herb that heals once per battle and can cheat death, but has no armor — a resilient native skirmisher.
Purple coneflower is a Perennial herb that plays as a steady, self-reviving skirmisher: even tempo, a once-per-battle heal, and a survival trait that lands early. It is native to Eastern North America and has no invasive card, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer for your bench (see nativity). It is a dependable, low-drama card that outlasts more than it out-hits.
Its starter attack, Steady Growth, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun for a plain strike of about 34 damage as a native (37 invasive, though no invasive card exists). The free once-per-battle ability, Allelochemical Priming, arrives at level 25: Primes root chemistry — Poison the foe. The advanced attack, Rhizome Lock, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (21 native / 24 invasive) for a heavier plain hit. Most of your coneflowers sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. See Moves.
Purple coneflower keeps a single always-on trait: Resprout. It comes in at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures at level 68. When it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter health — but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve rather than a guarantee. See Abilities.
Purple coneflower carries no trait keywords and is non-toxic — no contact recoil and no poison rider, 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, defensive field gear like a Cloche helps its thin frame survive long enough for Resprout and its heal to matter.
At level 40 coneflower reads 103 HP with ATK of 24 (native-only, so the 32 invasive figure never applies). DEF is just 1, at the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with almost no armor. Its tempo is even: turn 1 on its initiative (38) and every turn after on its SPD (38), both the same value, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. Retreat costs 13 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and projects an HP overshield onto your active while benched. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, coneflower swells to 190 HP and 43 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 1 — as a soft herb it gains bulk in health, never armor. Its matured Resprout and once-per-battle heal make that health last, but a real hitter can still push through. Retreat rises to 26 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so it acts last. Maturing buys health and full-strength Resprout; it never buys toughness.
As a perennial herb, coneflower sits in the Competitor group. It hits Ruderal plants for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants, which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play coneflower as a native attrition skirmisher: trade evenly, use the once-per-battle heal to stretch fights, and rely on early Resprout to survive a burst you would not otherwise walk away from. Its zero armor means it is support, not a wall — keep a Cloche on it and a stronger hitter beside it. Economically it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins. It fights as a fast skirmisher until about level 27, then its bulk takes over as much as a herb's can — always worth leveling for the extra survivability.
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.