Juniperus rigida
A conifer that starts slow and grinds relentlessly, healing itself and its bench in the sun, playable as an East Asian native or a North American invader.
Needle juniper is a sturdy Conifer that fights as a supportive healer: decent armor, modest damage, and heals that reach both itself and its bench. It is native to East Asia and invasive across eastern and western North America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. It is a dependable defensive support card with an unusually generous heal package.
Its starter attack, Deathshadow, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 25 damage as a native and 26 as an invasive; it splashes a little onto the enemy bench. The free once-per-battle ability, Terpene Fog, comes in at level 25: A haze of volatile resin — the foe is saturated and stalls. The advanced attack, Pitch Fire, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (25 native / 26 invasive) and both mends the plant as it strikes and pins the target. Most of your junipers sit below level 40, where only the starter is available, and none of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
Needle juniper keeps two always-on abilities. Photosynthesis arrives on the level 10 riser and heals it in the sun, but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so the mend is likely rather than guaranteed. Network arrives on the level 68 riser: as a canopy tree it projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active from the bench. Neither is dropped once earned.
It carries no special trait keywords and, as a terrestrial conifer, is not eligible for a Moss Pole. It is non-toxic, so it shows no hazard ring and nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. As a native, defensive field gear suits its supportive stalling; as an invasive, offensive gear helps its late-fight tempo convert into damage.
At level 40 it reads 140 HP as a native and 122 as an invasive, with ATK of 20 native versus 22 invasive — a modest invasive edge. DEF is 22, in the conifer band, so it takes hits well. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on a lower initiative (19) and every turn after on a higher SPD (32), so it is out-paced off the mark but relentless in a long fight. Retreat costs 20 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, needle juniper climbs to 276 HP native / 240 invasive and 36 / 40 ATK, and its DEF hardens to 49 — as a conifer it becomes a genuine armored wall. Retreat rises to 44 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so even its late-fight speed is gone and it acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys toughness at the cost of speed.
As a conifer, needle juniper is in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, trees) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), which hit 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 needle juniper as a defensive healer: guard it through the slow opening, then let its heals and rising SPD grind down a tiring opponent while its bench overshield protects your active. As a native it is a strong buffer, keeping a fragile hitter standing; as an invasive its higher ATK pushes damage, though its own bench pays for it. Its damage is modest, so it supports better than it finishes. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward growth rather than coins. It fights as a slow-then-relentless skirmisher until about level 8 as a native (around level 11 as an invasive), after which its bulk takes over — there is no 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.