Hippophae rhamnoides
A hard-hitting shrub that punishes contact, can pin its target, and feeds your bench when it dies — strong on stats in either arena role.
Himalayan berry is a Shrub that fights on strong stats and a pinning attack. It is native across East Asia, Europe, and South Asia, and invasive in Eastern and Western North America and South America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. It is a decent card despite lacking any passive: it hits hard for a shrub and can lock a target down.
Its starter attack, Hedge Hammer, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and hits for about 33 native / 35 invasive — a plain strike. The free once-per-battle ability, Nurse Shrub, arrives at level 25: Shelters the whole bench — evens their health, and calls the fallen back. — it buffs its own attack. The advanced attack, Hedge Fund, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (30 native / 32 invasive) and pins the target, keeping it from retreating. Most of your berries sit below level 40, where only the starter is live. None of its moves carry an initiative rider.
Himalayan berry runs two always-on traits. Extrafloral Nectaries (level 10) charges every attacker 3% of its own max HP on contact, ignoring DEF and shields. Drupe Mast (level 68) is the berry crop itself: on this card's knockout, each surviving benched ally recovers 8% of its max HP. See Abilities.
Himalayan berry carries no trait keywords, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic — no hazard ring, no poison rider. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. Field gear builds on what it already has: defensive gear as a native, offensive gear as an invasive, layered over its contact tax.
At level 40 Himalayan berry reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 26 native versus 33 invasive — a strong punch for a shrub, harder still as an invasive. DEF is 11, mid-band for a shrub, so it shrugs off a little of each hit. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on initiative (51) and every turn after on SPD (51), which sit at the same value, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. Retreat costs 13 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield; as an invasive it pays self-damage to its own bench per attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, Himalayan berry reaches 190 HP native / 165 invasive with DEF climbing to 22, and ATK around 47 / 65. A shrub picks up moderate armor as well as health, so a mature one is sturdier than a herb but no wall. Retreat rises to 26 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it always acts late.
As a shrub, Himalayan berry is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants, 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 Himalayan berry as a straightforward beater: buff up with the ability, then use the pin to trap a target it can out-trade so it cannot retreat to safety. As a native it is a sturdy buffer; as an invasive its harder punch makes it a solid attacker, with a contact tax on attackers underneath either role. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster leveling. It fights as an even-tempo skirmisher early and its bulk takes over around level 34 as a native and 35 as an invasive — always worth 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.