Osmunda japonica
Asian royal fern (Osmunda japonica) is a specialist fern in Supplant — a native-only buffer whose game role is set out below.
The Asian royal fern (zenmai) is a deciduous fern whose young fiddleheads are a traditional edible. In battle it is a Fern — a Specialist on the succession chart. It is native to East Asia and South Asia and invasive nowhere, so it only ever plays the native buffer role — there is no attacker version of this card.
Its starter attack, Spore Cloud, is available from Lv 1 for 2 Sun and deals about 26 damage. The free once-per-battle ability, Spore Rain, unlocks at Lv 25: Rains spores across the back row — the foe's whole bench sickens. The advanced attack, Crozier Crush (Lv 40, 6 Sun), hits for about 31.
From Lv 10 it carries Circinate Vernation, +4 DEF once it falls below half HP as the coiled fiddlehead shields the growing tip. At Lv 68 a second always-on trait stacks on: Thiaminase, so an attacker that strikes it is Blighted, denying it healing.
For field gear, a Calcium/Magnesium amendment adds flat DEF, which a soft-bodied plant like this feels most; feeding it Nitrogen (N), the nutrient matching its edible leaf, 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 23 ATK with 2 DEF. As a native it carries a 15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield bar onto your active. 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 13 and its sustained tempo (turn 2 onward) 34 — making it slow to open but relentless once it gets going. 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 3 — a soft-category plant stays soft no matter how much biomass it puts on. Attack reaches 41, 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 Fern is a Specialist. Specialist plants hit Competitor categories hard (×1.5) and are resisted by Ruderal categories (×0.667); against everything else the matchup is neutral. Weird categories are off the wheel entirely, so it trades neutrally with those.
A soft chip-and-sicken fern with no invasive range, so it only ever plays the native buffer. Its leaf-edibility makes it a steady coin-earner, and its late Blight recoil gives attackers something to think about. A supporting collection piece more than a heavy hitter. Because its edible part (leaf) is recorded, feeding it Nitrogen pays ×1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead.
It fights as a fast skirmisher until about Lv 13, 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.