Nigella damascena
Love-in-a-mist is an ordinary annual forb by the numbers; what makes it worth owning is a late reseed comeback and its role as an ornamental collection piece rather than a battler.
By the numbers love-in-a-mist is an unremarkable annual forb — it lands mid-pack on attack and sits in the soft, low-DEF band every weed shares, with no stat that marks it out from the category. What makes it worth a slot is not its stat line but a late-arriving comeback trait and its value off the battlefield. It is native to Africa and Europe, where it is a mild buffer, and invasive across East Asia, both coasts of North America and South America, where it becomes a light attacker.
Its starter, Summer Crush, unlocks at Lv 1 for 2 Sun: A season's growth in one shove — the foe is pinned. — roughly 32 native / 35 invasive. The free once-per-battle ability, Ruderal Rush (Lv 25), Weedy haste — a burst of speed, kept for the match. The advanced attack, Floormat Chokeout (Lv 40, 6 Sun), reaches the whole enemy back row — Mats the floor and reaches the whole back row — the foe wilts. — for about 28 native, 31 invasive. See moves.
Love-in-a-mist keeps two always-on traits. Ephemeral Bolt arrives at Lv 10: it hits a little harder while above half HP, fading as it drops — an incentive to press early. Reseed stacks on at Lv 68 and is the reason to level it: when it is knocked out it leaves a fresh Seedling behind. The parent genuinely dies and concedes its prize — this is not a revive-in-place — but a reduced, kit-less seedling token immediately takes the slot, so the card keeps a body on the board. Below Lv 10 it holds neither. See abilities.
It is not toxic, thorny or a climber, so no Moss Pole fits. Native, pair it with protective field gear; invasive, favour gear that adds to its modest attack. See the field gear guide.
At Lv 40 love-in-a-mist reads 103 HP native (89 uncushioned) on DEF 2. Its ATK is 25 native, rising to 34 invasive. Retreat costs 16 Sun. Native it projects a bench overshield; invasive it pays Faustian self-damage each damaging hit and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See stats.
By Lv 100 HP climbs to 190 native while DEF holds at 3 — soft to the end. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and the early tempo has all but vanished. Leveling matters most for the Lv 68 Reseed: a mature copy that dies simply keeps playing through its seedling.
Roughly USDA zone 5b — it should come through winters that bottom out near -24 °C. Colder than that and it wants shelter, a wall, or a winter indoors. In the plant's own terms its comfortable range runs from a cold edge near 1.3 °C up to a warm edge around 25.4 °C, which puts it in a Temperate band. Use that as a guide rather than a promise: the zone is an estimate carrying better than a full zone of error, which is why it reads "roughly."
The chip on the card reports the climate where you are standing, so the reading changes as you travel. Thrives here means your local winter low and summer heat both fall inside love-in-a-mist's range, and it earns x2 battle XP; In range means it survives but sits near one of its edges (the longer label says which), for x1.25; Colder than its range and Hotter than its range mean your season runs past an edge, with no bonus. Battle XP is the only thing climate changes — it touches nothing about damage, stats, growth speed or the economy. A plant that reads "colder than its range" is usually just a tender plant facing a hard winter outdoors, not a weak card.
A Ruderal: extra damage into Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), extra taken from Competitors (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees), neutral against the Weird categories. See weaknesses & resistances.
Love-in-a-mist is chiefly a collection card — a common garden ornamental for the family tree rather than a battler. It is inedible, so any fertilizer you feed it banks the extra XP rather than coins, which makes it a fine target for growing out. In battle it is a weak weed; its one trick is the Reseed comeback, which is only worth much once it reaches Lv 68, and even then a kit-less seedling is a stopgap, not a threat. Play it native as a throwaway buffer or lean on the reseed to soak a hit. It flips from tempo-led to power-led at about Lv 28, but neither edge is large.
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.