Lychnis coronata
An East Asian native herb that fights as a poisoning buffer, leaving the target poisoned on its opening hit, healing through fights, and clinging on with Resprout.
Chinese Lychnis is a Perennial herb that fights as a poison-and-heal buffer: its opening hit leaves the target poisoned, it mends itself through its kit, and it can survive a lethal blow when its trait fires. It is native to East Asia, with no invasive card, so it only plays the native buffer side. Its armor is thin and its damage modest; the poison and healing carry it.
Its starter attack, Stolon Reach, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 31 damage and leaving the target poisoned. The free once-per-battle ability, Perennating Bud, arrives at level 25: Breaks a stored bud: heal 40%. It is a mid-fight mend. The advanced attack, Tonic, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (33 damage) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your Chinese Lychnis sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. None of its moves carry an initiative rider. See Moves.
Chinese Lychnis keeps one always-on trait, Resprout, which arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 riser — so it works at the weaker half for most of the card's life. When it fires it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter of its health, but only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a lucky reprieve rather than a guarantee. See Abilities.
Chinese Lychnis does not hold the Toxin trait, so touching it carries no contact recoil; its poison comes only from Stolon Reach landing on the target, not from the plant itself. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native buffer, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium/magnesium amendment for a little DEF — offsets its thin armor. See statuses.
At level 40 Chinese Lychnis reads 103 HP with ATK of 21. DEF is just 4, near the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with almost no armor and leans on its poison, its heal and Resprout instead. Its tempo is front-loaded: turn 1 runs on its initiative (51), which leads, but every turn after on its lower SPD (34), so it opens fast and is out-paced in a long fight. Retreat costs 16 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, Chinese Lychnis swells to 190 HP and 37 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 8 — as a soft herb it buys bulk mostly in health and barely any in armor, so it stays exposed to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so it acts last against almost anything younger. Maturing brings its Resprout to full strength.
As a perennial herb, Chinese Lychnis 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 Chinese Lychnis as a native poison buffer: lead with it to poison the enemy active, mend through the fight, and let Resprout buy an extra turn when it fires, while lending its HP overshield from the bench. Its own attack is modest, so the poison does much of its real work. On economy, it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth rather than coins. It plays as a quick opener that leans on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 31 — 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.