Dissected hogweed

Overview

Dissected hogweed is a tall Perennial herb that fights as a poisoning skirmisher: its opening hit leaves the target poisoned, and it heals through the exchange. It is native to East Asia, and no invasive card exists, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer. Its raw damage is modest — its edge is the poison it stacks and its ability to outlast.

Moves

Its starter attack, Steady Growth, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 34 damage and leaving the target poisoned. The free once-per-battle ability, Chronosequence, arrives at level 25: Time on its side: +3 ATK and speed, kept. It is a mid-fight mend. The advanced attack, Herbaceous Assault, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (31 damage) as a plain, harder strike. Most of your dissected hogweed sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.

Abilities

Dissected hogweed keeps one always-on trait, Resprout. It arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 riser, so the weaker version is what you get for most of the card's life. When it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter of its health, but it fires only about 60% of the time — a lucky reprieve, not a guarantee. See Abilities.

Features

Dissected hogweed does not hold the Toxin trait: striking it inflicts no contact recoil, and it carries no poison rider on defense — the poison it deals comes from its starter attack, not from being touched. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment for a little DEF — offsets its thin armor. See statuses.

Stats

At level 40 dissected hogweed reads 103 HP with 23 ATK. DEF is just 4, at the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with almost no armor and relies on its poison and heal instead. Its tempo is split: a low initiative (24) is out-paced turn 1, but a higher SPD (34) grinds relentlessly once a fight settles. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.

At Level 100

Matured to level 100, dissected hogweed swells to 190 HP and 41 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 8 — as a soft herb it buys bulk in health and almost none in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts last against almost anything younger.

Weaknesses & Resistances

As a perennial herb, dissected hogweed sits in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from 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.

Gameplay uses

Play dissected hogweed as a native buffer that opens with poison and heals through the fight while its damage-over-time does the grinding — its own hits are light, so the poison is the point. Bench it to project its HP overshield onto your active. On economy, it is edible with a resolved leaf, so feeding it Nitrogen pays ×1.25 coins while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth. It plays as a slow-opening, relentless poisoner that leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 19 — but it is always stronger at higher levels, so there is no reason to hold it back.