Lindera benzoin
Northern spicebush (Lindera benzoin) is a broadleaf tree that plays as a native-only buffer in Supplant.
Northern spicebush (Lindera benzoin, Lauraceae) is a broadleaf tree in Supplant's battle system. It is native to eastern North America and invasive nowhere on record, so it is a native-only card: a buffer, never an attacker. Like other trees it is built to be a slow, high-HP, hard-DEF wall. Read on for its exact kit at Lv 40.
Raysteal (starter, unlocks at Lv 1, 2 Sun) — Takes the light by force — strike and heal 10%. It hits for about 32.
Stand Replacement (ability, Lv 25, free once per battle) — A fire that takes the whole stand — the foe burns, and so do its neighbours. An ability deals no damage; it is pure utility.
Leaf Me Tree (advanced attack, Lv 40, 6 Sun) — Sheds and regrows — heal 25%. It hits for about 32.
The numbers above are read at Lv 40, the level its whole kit is unlocked; a card you catch far below that has only the moves whose levels it has reached.
This card keeps two always-on traits, drawn from its category pool and locked in for good — the rest of the pool was dropped. They arrive on the level risers, one at a time, so for most of a card's life it is playing with just the first.
From Lv 10: Tannin load — oak-style tannins that Wither any attacker on contact, sapping its healing.
From Lv 68: Heartwood core — a dense wooden core worth flat DEF, and more of it the taller the tree grows.
Read these off the card's own trait schedule; the category pool lists more, but this plant carries only these two. Learn more at Abilities.
No Moss Pole here — that fits only climbers (vines and epiphytes), and this is a broadleaf tree. A Calcium/Magnesium soil amendment adds flat DEF, which suits a card that already wants to hold ground. A Cloche wards off Poison if you expect a toxic opponent. See Field gear for the full kit.
At Lv 40 this card reads 121 HP and 25 ATK, with 20 DEF and a 16-Sun retreat. It has no invasive range, so there is no attacker split to show — it plays as a native buffer only.
Its opening tempo (30) sits above its sustained tempo (15): it is a quick starter that fades — likely to land the first hit on turn 1, then get out-paced from turn 2 on. Play it to open, not to grind. Both tempo stats fall as the card levels.
Benched as a native, it projects an HP overshield bar onto your active, sized by its rarity.
See Stats and the overshield for how these bars work.
By Lv 100 this is a wall. HP climbs to 233, ATK to 45, and — because DEF is category-plus-wood-density — its armor hardens to 45, far past the soft floors a weed ever reaches. Retreat rises to 32 Sun (older means more rooted), and the inverted tempo has sunk to roughly its 1% floor, so the quick-versus-slow story from the Stats section is a young-card affair — a mature tree is slow whatever it started as. Growing it up trades speed for sheer staying power.
Roughly USDA zone 3b — it should come through winters that bottom out near -36 °C. Colder than that and it wants shelter, a wall, or a winter indoors. Its measured climate envelope runs from a cold edge near -6.2 °C to a warm edge near 26.4 °C — a Cool-temperate band. Treat the zone as a rough guide rather than a promise: it comes from a regression whose error runs a little over one full zone, which is why the reading says "roughly."
On a card you will see one of four climate chips, read for wherever you are standing (so it shifts as you travel). Thrives here means your winter low and summer heat both sit inside its range, and it earns x2 battle XP. In range means it survives but sits near an edge, for x1.25 XP. Colder than its range or Hotter than its range means your winters or summers run past what it tolerates, for no bonus — and "colder than its range" is usually just a fact about the winter outside, not a verdict on the plant. Climate changes battle XP and nothing else: not damage, stats, growth speed or the economy.
As a broadleaf tree it belongs to the Competitor succession group. It hits the Ruderal categories — grasses, annual forbs, aquatics and bulbs — for ×1.5 and shrugs their blows down to ×0.667. The Specialists reverse that: succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes strike it for ×1.5 while resisting what it deals. Against other Competitors, and against the off-wheel Weird categories (carrion-aroids, carnivores, mycotrophs and parasites), the exchange is even. See Succession & weaknesses.
This is a defensive card. Native, it anchors the bench as a high-HP wall and shields your active; it is slow, so it wins by outlasting rather than out-racing.
Its value is durability, not tempo — a dependable wall for the bench and a steady coin-earner, if never a fast finisher.
It is edible (fruit), and its part is tagged, so feeding it the matching fertilizer — Phosphorus — pays ×1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead.
One framing note: it fights as a fast skirmisher until about Lv 6, after which its rising bulk and attack take over from its falling tempo. That is about which edge dominates, not about being stronger young — a card is always stronger in raw HP, ATK and DEF at higher levels, so level it up. The Total power gallery below the article shows the crossover and the fully grown card.
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.