Persicaria punctata
A aquatic that buffers on defence at home and turns attacker where it is invasive.
A high-attack water weed with a bench-sickening ability and almost no armor. It is a aquatic in battle. It is native to Eastern North America, Western North America and South America, where it plays as a defensive buffer, and invasive in Oceania and South Asia, where it turns attacker.
The starter attack Surge unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun: A surging wave of growth. It deals about 43 damage as a native and 43 as an invasive.
The free once-per-battle ability Algal Dominion arrives at level 25: Takes the whole water column — the foe's bench sickens and withers. It costs no Sun — its price is being usable only once per battle.
The advanced attack Hydrophyte Headlock opens at level 40 for 6 Sun: Wraps the foe up in weed and holds. It hits for about 26 native and 26 invasive.
Most cards you field sit well below level 40, so introduce these slots in order — a young plant has only its starter.
This card keeps two always-on traits, drawn from its category pool; the rest of that pool was dropped and it never gets it. Aerenchyma (from level 10) fills the tissue with buoyant air spaces, shaving 3 off every incoming direct attack.
A second, different trait stacks on later: Waterlogged (from level 68) saturates the tissue: it cannot be burned and has no sap to drain, so it is immune to Burn and to HP-stealing attacks — but the same waterlogging means it can never be healed, by an item or a passive. So for most of its playable life — including at the level 40 snapshot the stats below are read at — this card runs its first trait alone, and only a fully levelled specimen holds both.
This card carries no special trait keywords, and as a aquatic it is not eligible for a Moss Pole (that is for climbers — vines and epiphytes). A Calcium/Magnesium soil amendment adds flat DEF, useful on a soft card like this. Playing native, lean into bench support that feeds the overshield; playing invasive, a Cloche helps by absorbing incoming contact poison. See field gear for the full list.
Read at level 40, it carries 103 HP as a native (a +15% cushion) against 89 as an invasive, with DEF 2 and a retreat cost of 16 Sun. At level 40 its attack reads the same in both roles (29 native versus 29 invasive) — this plant's recorded spread is narrow, so the invasive edge is deferred almost entirely onto the level cap and only shows as it matures.
It is slow off the mark but relentless after: a low opening tempo (13 initiative) but a higher sustained tempo (34 SPD), so it often loses turn 1 and then out-paces the foe from turn 2.
Playing native, it and any benched natives project a bench overshield onto your active; playing invasive, it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack (growing as it levels) and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See stats.
As a soft aquatic it swells in HP to 190 native / 165 invasive with ATK to 53 / 54, but almost no armor — DEF caps at just 3. Retreat rises to 33 Sun as it roots down with age, and its once-brisk tempo has sunk to near its floor — the tempo pips in Stats above are as fast as this card ever moves. Levelling buys raw bulk and reach; it costs turn-order speed.
In the succession type chart this aquatic is a Ruderal. Its attacks hit Specialist cards (succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes) for ×1.5, while Competitor cards (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs and broadleaf trees) hit it for ×1.5 and shrug its own blows down to ×0.667. Matchups against the off-wheel Weird categories (carrion-aroids, carnivorous plants, mycotrophs and vascular parasites) are neutral both ways. See weaknesses & resistances.
Play it native as a buffer — soak hits, feed the bench overshield, and lean on its defensive trait. Play it invasive as an attacker, where its higher attack cap does the work, but mind the Faustian bench chip. It is not tagged with a resolved edible part, so fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP rather than paying a coin bonus — feed it to level, not to earn. As a soft, fast card it stays tempo-favored — leaning on speed — until roughly level 11, after which its bulk and attack take over; it is still monotonically stronger the more you level 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.