Momordica charantia
Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) is a competitor vine in Supplant — a native buffer and invasive attacker whose game role is set out below.
Bitter melon is a tropical climbing vine grown for its warty fruit. In battle it is a Vine — a Competitor on the succession chart. Native across Africa, Oceania and South Asia, it plays as a defensive buffer; where it has spread as an invasive into East Asia, Europe, eastern North America, western North America and South America, it turns attacker.
Its starter attack, Twist, is available from Lv 1 for 2 Sun and deals about 31 damage as a native and 34 as an invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Inhibition, unlocks at Lv 25: Chokes off recovery — the foe can't heal. The advanced attack, Strangle (Lv 40, 6 Sun), hits for about 23 native and 26 invasive.
From Lv 10 it carries an always-on wilt aura that saps the opposing active each checkup, wearing its attack down over the fight. At Lv 68 a second always-on trait stacks on: Apical Dominance, +5 ATK while it is at full HP.
For field gear, a Calcium/Magnesium amendment adds flat DEF, which a soft-bodied plant like this feels most; feeding it Phosphorus (P), the nutrient matching its edible fruit, pays bonus coins. Its growth habit is not recorded as a climber, so it is not Moss Pole–eligible.
Read at the snapshot level (Lv 40, where its whole kit is unlocked), it shows 103 HP and 28 ATK as a native, or 89 HP and 38 ATK as an invasive, with 8 DEF. As a native it adds a 15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active; as an invasive it trades that for the higher attack ceiling and pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging attack, conceding 2 prizes when it is knocked out. On defence, its DEF stays near the floor, so it relies on tempo and offence rather than soaking hits. Its opening tempo (turn 1) is 51 and its sustained tempo (turn 2 onward) 34 — making it a quick starter that is out-paced as the fight goes on. Retreating it costs 16 Sun. See Stats and Native Strength for the full picture.
By Lv 100 its HP swells toward 190, but its DEF barely leaves its band at 15 — a soft-category plant stays soft no matter how much biomass it puts on. Attack reaches 50, retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its inverted tempo has sunk to a sliver, so the speed it relied on young is spent. It grows bulkier but never becomes a wall.
On the succession chart a Vine is a Competitor. Competitor plants hit Ruderal categories hard (×1.5) and are resisted by Specialist categories (×0.667); against everything else the matchup is neutral. Weird categories are off the wheel entirely, so it trades neutrally with those.
One of the hardest-hitting invaders here: its near-global introduced range pushes its attack far above its native self, and Apical Dominance adds more while it is healthy. Soft on defence and reliant on its Bind-and-choke kit, but a strong invasive coin-earner. Because its edible part (fruit) is recorded, feeding it Phosphorus pays ×1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead.
It fights as a fast skirmisher until about Lv 29 (a little later as an invasive, around Lv 30), after which its growing bulk and attack take over from its early speed edge.
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.