Fragaria vesca
A widespread thorny herb with a strong ATK jump and an early contact recoil — native across much of the world, invasive in Oceania and South Asia.
Alpine strawberry is a small Perennial herb that fights as a thorny attacker: solid damage for a herb and a contact recoil that arrives early. It is native across Africa, East Asia, Europe, and both Eastern and Western North America, and invasive in Oceania and South Asia, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. Its thorns make it more than the usual soft filler.
Its starter attack, Steady Growth, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 36 damage as a native and 39 as an invasive, as a straightforward hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Perennating Bud, comes in at level 25: Breaks a stored bud: heal 40%. It mends the plant. The advanced attack, Deep-Seated Grudge, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (39 native / 41 invasive) as a plain, harder hit. Most of your strawberry sit well below level 40, where only the starter is available. No move carries an initiative rider.
Strawberry keeps two always-on traits, one per riser. Thorns arrives on the level 10 riser and makes contact hurt attackers from early on. Resprout arrives on the level 68 riser; when it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter of its health — but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve, not a guarantee. See Abilities.
Strawberry carries the Thorns keyword: striking it deals recoil back to the attacker. It is non-toxic, so that recoil is blunt physical damage rather than Poison — no hazard ring, no poison rider. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear leans into its punish-on-contact game; as an invasive, offensive gear makes its strong ATK count.
At level 40 strawberry reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 29 native versus 36 invasive — one of the better ATK jumps among these herbs. DEF is 2, just above the perennial-herb floor, so its thorns do more defending than its armor. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (38) and every turn after on its SPD (38), which sit at the same value, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. Retreat costs 14 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a benched HP overshield for your active; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, strawberry climbs to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 53 / 71 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 4 — a soft herb gains bulk in health and little in armor, so it stays fragile to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 27 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys it health and a harder hit while its thorns keep punishing contact.
As a perennial herb, strawberry 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 strawberry as a thorny attacker that also punishes being hit. As a native it is a capable buffer — cushion, overshield, and early thorns — while as an invasive its strong ATK jump makes it one of the better herb racers here, though it stays thin-skinned. It is inedible, so feeding it any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins. It fights as an even-tempo skirmisher until about level 25, after which its growing HP starts to carry it, so there is no reason to hold it back from leveling.
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.