Helianthus petiolaris
A annual forb that buffers on its native turf and attacks where it is invasive.
The Prairie sunflower is an annual forb in Supplant. It is native to Eastern North America and Western North America and invasive in Europe 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. Superhero is the starter attack, available from level 1 for 2 Sun. The free once-per-battle ability, Germination Flush, unlocks at level 25: The seed bank breaks at once: +4 ATK, kept for the match. The advanced attack, Choke Bloom, comes online at level 40 for 6 Sun — Crowds the foe out, sapping its strength.
Its starter is a utility opener that deals no direct damage; the advanced attack lands for about 42 as a native and 44 as an invasive.
Turn order splits across two stats: initiative (35) decides who moves first on turn 1, and SPD (43) decides every turn after. This one is slow off the mark but relentless once the fight settles — it usually loses turn 1 and then takes the tempo from turn 2 onward. See turn order for how the two interact.
It reads Duff Stuff from level 10, and a second passive, Reseed, stacks on at level 68.
Duff Stuff. While it is the active card it hardens on leaf litter, adding half the pooled DEF of any ruderal allies (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs) benched behind it — so it rewards a ruderal-stacked team and does nothing on a mixed bench.
Reseed. When it is knocked out it leaves a fresh Seedling token that keeps fighting, trading its own body for one more turn on the field. This is what lets a fragile annual punch above its weight on a crowded bench.
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 1, with a retreat cost of 12 Sun and tempo pips of 35 initiative / 43 SPD. Its DEF sits at the soft ruderal 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 32 (against 26 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 stays pinned in the soft band (1) — more mass, no real plate. Retreat rises to 23 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 Ruderal. It hits Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes) for extra damage (×1.5), and takes extra damage from Competitor plants (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs and broadleaf trees). 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. Soft and lightly armored, but Reseed and Duff Stuff give it real staying power on a ruderal bench. It is a fine early coin-earner in single-player rather than a heavyweight. It is edible (the game tags the fruit as the eaten part), so feeding it the matching Phosphorus fertilizer pays ×1.25 coins — a steady earner between battles; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead. 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 27, 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.