Helianthus maximiliani
The Maximilian sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani) is a Perennial herb that plays as a defensive buffer where native and an attacker where invasive.
The Maximilian sunflower is a tall clumping prairie perennial with edible tubers. In battle it plays as a Perennial herb. It is native to Eastern North America and Western North America, where it takes the defensive buffer role, and invasive in Europe, where it becomes an attacker.
Its kit unlocks in three stages. The starter attack, Taproot Anchor, is available from Level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing 30 as a native and 30 as an invasive. Its effect: Anchors deep and holds the foe with it.
The free ability, Autogenic Reaction (Level 25), costs no Sun because it is once per battle: Remakes its own ground: +6 ATK and heal 25%.
The advanced attack, Deep Root Strike (Level 40, 6 Sun), deals 43 native and 43 invasive: Draws on deep roots for a heavy blow. Most cards you meet are well below the Level 40 snapshot these numbers are read at, and unlock their kit slot by slot as they level.
This card actually keeps two always-on traits, drawn from its category pool with the rest discarded. From Level 10 it carries Bitter Principle, so striking it Withers the attacker and cuts its ATK. From Level 68 a second, different trait stacks on top: Vernalization Memory, extra ATK from the third turn onward — a slow starter that bolts late. Both are working traits — there are no inert abilities in the game — and each arrives at full strength on the riser shown, so for much of the card's life it plays with only the earlier of the two.
It carries no Toxin or Thorns trait, so it inflicts no contact recoil on an attacker. Because its body is soft, a Cloche is a valuable ward against the damage-over-time Poison that bypasses its overshield, and a Cal-Mag amendment shores up its thin armor. Its edible root means the matching Potassium (K) fertilizer pays bonus coins (see Gameplay uses). See field gear for the full item list and nativity for how region sets its role.
Read at the Level 40 snapshot, its DEF is 1 — a low-to-middling band — firmer than a weed but no wall. It retreats for 12 Sun. Turn 1 is ordered by its initiative (53) and every turn after by its SPD (53). Its opening and sustained tempo sit close together, so its turn order holds roughly steady through a fight. By nativity it splits two ways. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion (103 HP against 89 invasive) and, from the bench, projects an HP overshield bar onto your active. As an invasive its aggression is built from how widely it spreads plus an introduced-range term — compare 26 native ATK against 26 invasive — and it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging attack, conceding 2 prizes when it is knocked out. The overshield is a bench-built extra ring: up to four green HP bars from benched natives (drained by direct damage first, but bypassed by poison, recoil and splash) and up to two gold Sun bars from benched Network trees.
By Level 100 its DEF has crept up its modest band to 1 while HP grows toward 190; retreat rises to 23 Sun and the brisk early tempo sinks to roughly 1% of cap. It matures into a sturdier body that no longer strikes first.
It is a Competitor on the succession wheel: it crowds out Ruderals (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs), hitting them for 1.5× and resisting their blows, but is outlasted by Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes), which turn its 1.5× disadvantage against it. The Weird categories (carrion-aroids, carnivores, mycotrophs and vascular parasites) sit off the wheel and trade neutrally with it. See weaknesses & resistances and categories.
A perennial herb with heavy Deep Root Strike damage and an edible root. Better on offence than most herbs here, and its root earns coins on potassium fertilizer. Because its edible part is a resolved root, feeding it Potassium pays ×1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead. On the total-power curve its crossover falls around Level 37 native and 41 invasive: below it the card leans on speed, above it on bulk and attack. It only grows stronger with level, 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.