Musa acuminata
A fast-opening, soft perennial herb that can survive a lethal hit and plays either role — a tropical Asian and Oceanian native or a wide-ranging invader.
Dwarf banana is a soft Perennial herb that fights as a quick-opening racer with a survival safety net. It is native to East Asia, Oceania and South Asia and invasive across Africa, Europe, Eastern North America and South America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker (see nativity). It opens fast and hits well as an invader, but has thin armor.
Its starter attack, Stolon Reach, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 31 damage native / 34 invasive and laying a poison status that chips the target over following turns. The free once-per-battle ability, Alkaloid Reservoir, arrives at level 25: Empties a season of alkaloids into the foe — saturating Poison. The advanced attack, Alkaloid Ambush, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (24 native / 26 invasive) and is a plain, direct hit. Most of your copies sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
It keeps one always-on trait: Resprout. Because it draws a single eligible trait, 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 fires only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve. See Abilities.
Beyond its move status effects it carries no trait keywords, so nothing recoils onto an attacker. It is non-toxic, with no hazard ring. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear offsets its thin armor; as an invasive, offensive gear presses its stronger attack.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 23 native versus 31 invasive — a wide gap, so the invasive form hits noticeably harder. DEF is only 4, near the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with little armor. Its tempo leads then fades sharply: turn 1 runs on its high initiative (51) and later turns on its much lower SPD (34), so it opens fast but is out-paced badly in a long fight. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a benched HP overshield; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, it climbs to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 40 / 61 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 8 — a soft herb gains health, never real armor, so it stays exposed. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap. Maturing buys bulk, not protection.
As a perennial herb it is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants for ×1.5 and is struck for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants, which hit it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group are neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
As a native, play it as a fast bench buffer whose cushion, overshield and survival trait prop up a sturdier active; as an invasive, it is a quick, hard-hitting opener that wants to land early damage and poison before its speed drops off. Its thin armor caps its reliability. Its value is also economic: it is edible with a resolved part (fruit), so feeding it Phosphorus pays ×1.25 coins, while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP. As a native it fights as a fast skirmisher until about level 31, and as an invasive the crossover to bulk comes around level 33 — 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.