Lolium perenne
An even-tempo grass that pins on its opener and pools bench defence, playing either role — an Old World native or an invader across the Americas and Oceania.
Perennial ryegrass is a tough, tufted Grass that fights as an even-tempo skirmisher: light on armor, it borrows defence from its bench, pins on its opener, and once mature drifts spores onto the enemy bench. It is native across Africa, East Asia, Europe and South Asia and invasive in North America, Oceania and South America, so the arena can field it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. Its damage is fair as an invasive and low as a native.
Its starter attack, Blade Cut, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 42 damage as a native and 47 as an invasive while pinning the target. The free once-per-battle ability, Tillering, arrives at level 25: Throws new shoots from the crown: +4 ATK and speed, kept. It is a self-buff that raises its attack. The advanced attack, Tussock, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (42 native / 47 invasive). Most of your perennial ryegrass sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Perennial ryegrass keeps two always-on traits. Duff Stuff arrives on the level 10 riser: while it is active, its effective DEF rises by half the summed DEF of your alive benched ruderals — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs — recomputed live, so the cushion shrinks as those allies faint while the donors keep their own DEF. Spore Drift arrives on the level 68 riser: dispersal-derived, it chips the enemy bench, wearing down the opponents waiting behind their active. Both work at full strength from the riser that grants them. See Abilities.
Perennial ryegrass is non-toxic, so it carries no contact recoil and no poison rider — nothing punishes an attacker for striking it. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium or magnesium amendment for a little DEF — offsets its thin armor; as an invasive, offensive gear pushes its aggression. See statuses.
At level 40 perennial ryegrass reads 103 HP native and 89 invasive, with ATK of 28 native versus 41 invasive — the invasive gap is wide, though the native attack is low. DEF is just 1, at the soft floor of the grass band, so it relies on Duff Stuff to borrow bulk from the bench rather than on its own armor. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (56) and every turn after on its SPD (56), which match, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. Retreat costs 12 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, perennial ryegrass swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 50 / 84 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 1 — as a soft grass it buys bulk in health and almost none in armor, so its own defence stays paper-thin and the bench cushion matters more than ever. Retreat rises to 24 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature card acts last against almost anything younger.
As a grass, perennial ryegrass sits in the Ruderal succession group. It hits Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Competitor plants (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Ruderal plants and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play perennial ryegrass as a steady, pinning skirmisher. As a native it makes a solid buffer: keep other ruderals benched to feed Duff Stuff and let its overshield harden the active. As an invasive its higher ATK gives it real pressure — pin on the opener, buff its attack, and let Spore Drift chip the enemy bench once mature, accepting the self-damage it pays its own bench. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. It plays as an even-tempo skirmisher leaning harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 38 as a native and 39 as an invasive — but it is always stronger at higher levels, 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.