Paris quadrifolia
A slow-starting, fast-cruising woodland bulb that opens with a poison attack and gains a coin-flip revive as it matures.
Herb Paris is a Bulb-category card, native to East Asia and Europe and invasive nowhere, so it only ever plays the native role. It is a soft, low-armor woodland bulb whose whole appeal is status: its attacks apply Poison, and later in its life it picks up a chance to cheat death. It is a fragile ruderal — a decent coin earner and collection piece, but it needs backup on the bench and will lose a straight slugging match.
None of its moves carries the initiative rider, so turn order is decided entirely on tempo (see Stats). All three are unlocked and at base Sun cost by the snapshot level, 40.
Off its trait schedule, this card keeps two always-on traits — not the whole bulb pool it drew from.
Despite the plant's real-world reputation, its in-game toxicity is recorded as none, so it carries no Toxin contact trait and no hazard treatment — its poison is purely something its attacks deliver, not something biting back when it is struck. It is a bulb, not a climber, so it is not Moss Pole eligible. For field gear, a Calcium/Magnesium amendment is the highest-value pick — it shores up the card's near-absent DEF — and since it only plays native, every gear choice is made for the buffer role. Cross-links: nativity, moves, abilities, statuses.
At the snapshot level (40) it reads HP 103, ATK 26, DEF 2 — bulb-soft armor that lets nearly any attacker through, since damage scales as attack over attack-plus-DEF. Its Poison is the honest threat here: damage-over-time ignores DEF entirely and bypasses the overshield, so it chips down even a well-armored, well-shielded foe.
Its tempo split is the most useful thing to know about it: opening tempo (initiative) is a low 13, but sustained tempo (SPD) is a high 34. That makes it a slow starter and a fast cruiser — it usually acts second on turn one, then out-paces most foes from turn two onward. Lead with something else and let Herb Paris take over the tempo once the fight settles. Retreat costs 16 Sun.
As a native it plays with a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield bar onto your active — but as a Least-Concern species that bar is only a sliver. See stats.
It swells in bulk but never hardens. HP climbs to 190 and ATK to 48, while DEF only reaches 3 — the soft bulb band barely moves off the floor. Retreat rises to 33 Sun as it roots down, and the inverted tempo has fallen to roughly its 1% floor, so the fast cruiser of its youth is much slower at the cap. Maturing buys it a bigger HP pool to poison behind and a live Resprout, not a tougher shell.
As a bulb it is in the Ruderal succession group. It hits Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) for ×1.5 and takes ×1.5 from Competitors (perennial-herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf-trees), dealing only ×0.667 to them. Against other Ruderals and the off-wheel Weird category it is neutral both ways. See weaknesses & resistances.
Play it as a native status-dealer: bring it in after a faster opener, then use its high sustained tempo to land Poison and its ability's control, whittling a tougher card down through its armor and shield. Duff Stuff makes it a passable bench body for other ruderals in the meantime. It is a weak attacker on raw numbers, so lean on the Poison and treat it as a coin earner and collection piece rather than a carry. It is not edible, so fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins. If you level it toward the cap it becomes a bulkier, slower poisoner with a shot at reviving — useful, but never a heavyweight; there is no reason to hold it back at a low level.
Try the matchups in the Battle Lab.
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.