Haworthia retusa
A native-only African succulent with huge health, almost no armor, and two self-heal traits that keep it topped up between hits.
African emeralds is a Succulent built to soak damage and slowly stitch itself back together. It is native to Africa and has no invasive card, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer — there is no attacker version to build. It is a modest card: low damage and paper-thin armor, but a lot of health and steady regeneration make it a fine early wall to hide a hitter behind.
Its starter attack, Dryground, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 26 damage — a plain hit with no rider. The free once-per-battle ability, Water Reservoir, arrives at level 25: Opens the whole store: heal 50%, and the foe can't heal. The advanced attack, Water Hoard, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (21 damage) and mends the plant as it strikes, so it can trade and heal in one action. Most of your emeralds sit below level 40, where only the starter is open. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
African emeralds keeps two always-on traits, both self-heals. Photosynthesis arrives on the level 10 riser and heals it in sun; succulence arrives on the level 68 riser and regenerates it in any weather. Each triggers only about 60% of the time, so the recovery is real but streaky — some turns it mends, some it does not. Together they make it hard to grind down once it is on the field. See Abilities.
African emeralds carries no special trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin. Non-toxic: no contact recoil, no poison rider. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native it wants defensive field gear: a Cloche or a Ca/Mg amendment to shore up its dismal armor while the heals do the rest.
At level 40 it reads 121 HP, with ATK of 15 (native-only, so there is no invasive variant to compare). DEF is just 2, at the soft floor of the succulent band, so it takes hits almost unarmored and leans entirely on health and healing. Its tempo leads then fades: turn 1 uses its initiative (25), every turn after its SPD (21), so it opens quickly but is out-paced in a long fight. Retreat costs 19 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, African emeralds swells to 233 HP but its DEF only reaches 3 — as a succulent it becomes a huge-health, near-zero-armor sponge, so any real hitter still cuts deep; it just takes many blows to fell. ATK climbs to 25 and retreat to 41 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys survivability, not punch.
As a succulent, African emeralds is in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Ruderal plants, which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Specialists and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play African emeralds as a native stall wall: send it out to absorb hits, let the two heals and the big health bar buy turns, and use the benched overshield to keep a fragile attacker alive. Its offense is an afterthought, so it works as a shield, not a finisher. It is inedible, so any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP, making it a reliable growth-earner while you level it. It fights as a quick opener that settles into a health-heavy grind, crossing over around level 10 — always stronger higher up, 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.