Mentha × piperita
A fragile, hard-hitting herb that poisons on contact and can survive one lethal blow — a glass attacker as an invader, a weak buffer at home.
Peppermint is a low Perennial herb that fights as a glass attacker: sharp damage, a poison bite, and almost no armor to fall back on. It is native to East Asia and Europe and invasive across Africa, Eastern and Western North America, Oceania, South America, and South Asia, so the arena can cast it either way — a native buffer or, far more usefully, an invasive attacker. As an invader it hits hard for a herb; as a native it is fragile and only a light support.
Its starter attack, Steady Growth, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and lands about 34 damage native / 39 invasive, leaving the target poisoned so it keeps losing health. The free once-per-battle ability, Hemicryptophyte Hold, arrives at level 25: Hunkers at ground level — Bind and Wither the foe. The advanced attack, Deep-Seated Grudge, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (37 native / 42 invasive) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your peppermint sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. See Moves and statuses.
Peppermint keeps one always-on trait: resprout. It draws only one eligible trait, so resprout arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 one. When it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter health — but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve, not a safety net. See Abilities.
Peppermint carries no special trait keywords — its poison comes from its starter attack, not a contact trait — and it is non-toxic to the touch, so hitting it causes no recoil. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear barely papers over its fragility; as an invasive, lean fully into offense so its high attack lands before it dies.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive and 24 / 37 ATK — a large jump from native to invasive, which is where its damage really comes alive. DEF is just 1, at the very floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with essentially no armor. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (35) and every turn after on its SPD (35), which match, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. Retreat costs 11 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a benched HP overshield for your active; as an invasive it draws its higher ATK from traits but pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. Link Stats.
Matured to level 100, peppermint swells to 190 / 165 HP and 43 / 76 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 2 — as a soft herb it gains health and never armor, so it stays a glass cannon that any real hitter can drop. Retreat rises to 21 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature peppermint is slow and acts last. Maturing buys HP and bigger hits, never survivability.
As a perennial herb it 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, but 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 Peppermint as an invasive striker: open with the poison hit, chip with the lingering damage, and lean on resprout for one extra swing — but never expect it to trade blows, because it folds to a single solid attack. As a native it is a weak buffer, better left benched. Economically it is an edible leaf plant, so feeding it Nitrogen pays ×1.25 coins (any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead), making it a dependable coin-earner. It fights as a fast, even-tempo skirmisher and leans on HP as it levels, crossing over around level 24 as a native (about 25 as an invasive) — always stronger at higher levels, so keep leveling it.
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.