Kernera saxatilis
A small rock-dwelling perennial herb that fights as a soft, self-mending staller with a single lucky survival trait — native-only, fielded only as a European native.
Kernera is a small, rock-dwelling Perennial herb that fights as a soft, patient staller: cheap even hits and a couple of self-heals to stretch a fight out. It is native to Europe, and no invasive card exists — the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer for your bench. It is a weak, unspectacular card that wants a stronger hitter beside it and leans on healing to earn its keep.
Its starter attack, Taproot Anchor, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and lands a reliable, even hit for about 29 damage. The free once-per-battle ability, Perennating Bud, arrives at level 25: Breaks a stored bud: heal 40%. It is a mid-fight mend that suits its stalling game. The advanced attack, Bitter End, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (29 damage) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your kernera sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn — it wins, when it wins, by outlasting. See Moves.
Kernera keeps a single always-on trait, Resprout, and because it draws only one eligible trait, that slot is all it gets: Resprout arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 one. When it works it lets kernera survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter of its health — but it fires only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve rather than a guarantee. See Abilities.
Kernera carries no special trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin, no spore chemistry — so nothing punishes an attacker for striking it; it is non-toxic, so nothing chemical bites back either. 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 extra DEF — suits its stalling game and props up its thin armor.
At level 40 kernera reads 84 HP and 22 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 healing to stay upright — damage is diminishing armor (ATK ÷ (ATK+DEF)), not flat subtraction. Its tempo splits across two clocks: turn 1 runs on initiative (29), every turn after on SPD (48); whichever is higher tells the story — a higher SPD means a slow opener that cruises, a higher initiative means a fast start that fades. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, kernera swells to 147 HP and 39 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 8 — as a soft herb it gains bulk in health and almost none in armor, so it stays vulnerable to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 24 Sun as it roots in, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature kernera acts last against almost anything younger.
As a perennial herb, kernera 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.
Play kernera as a cheap, self-healing filler that trades evenly and buys time. As a native it is a passable buffer — the HP cushion and bench overshield help a fragile hitter survive — but its own damage is slight, so it is support, never a finisher, and its lone half-strength Resprout is a bonus you cannot plan around. On economy, it is not an edible-part plant, so fertilizer earns no coin bonus — any nutrient instead banks ×1.25 XP, a growth boost that levels it a little faster. It fights as an even-tempo skirmisher early and leans on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 32 — but it is always stronger at higher levels in raw stats, so 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.