Phaseolus coccineus
Runner bean is one of the few vines that is quick off the mark and stays quick, and its starter carries the initiative rider — a fast, edible, nitrogen-fixing racer that still needs backup.
Runner bean is one of the few vines that is quick off the mark and stays quick — its opening initiative (45) and its sustained speed (36) both sit on the high side of the category, where most vines are fast at one end and slow at the other. Its starter reinforces that: Tug carries the initiative rider, so in a wild fight it strikes first outright. It is a soft, climbing vine, native to the Americas — eastern and western North America and South America — where it is a buffer, and invasive across Africa, East Asia, Europe, Oceania and South Asia, where it becomes an attacker.
Its starter, Tug, unlocks at Lv 1 for 2 Sun: Hauls itself in first: first in the wild, acts again on a kill. — about 28 native / 32 invasive. In a wild encounter that rider takes hard priority and the strike lands first regardless of either tempo stat; if both sides bring a rider they cancel and normal order decides. In the arena the rider works differently — it does not grant first strike but lets runner bean act again whenever it lands a killing blow. The free ability, Gap Colonizer (Lv 25), Races into a light gap: +4 ATK and speed, kept. The advanced attack, Girdling (Lv 40, 6 Sun), Rings the stem — the foe wilts and can't heal. — around 28 native, 32 invasive. See moves.
Runner bean keeps two always-on traits. Heteroblasty arrives at Lv 10: it hits harder on the first two turns of a fight — juvenile vigor — then settles to its base attack, which suits its fast-opener identity. Structural Load stacks on at Lv 68: when runner bean is knocked out its collapsing weight chips the enemy bench, a parting hit rather than something it does while alive. Below Lv 10 it has neither. See abilities.
Runner bean is a genuine climber, so a Moss Pole fits it — worth equipping on either side of the board. Beyond that, native play wants protective field gear for its soft body; invasive play wants gear that presses its early, rider-backed strike.
At Lv 40 runner bean reads 103 HP native (89 uncushioned) on DEF 6 — low, though a touch firmer than the softest weeds. ATK is 20 native, rising to 32 invasive. Retreat costs 13 Sun. Native it lends a bench overshield; invasive it pays Faustian self-damage per damaging hit and concedes 2 prizes on a knockout. See stats.
By Lv 100 HP reaches 190 native while DEF climbs only to 10 — it thickens a little but never becomes a wall. Retreat rises to 26 Sun, and the tempo that defines it early sinks toward its floor: the mature card leans on bulk and its rider rather than raw speed. Leveling trades its skirmisher edge for staying power.
Roughly USDA zone 4b — it should come through winters that bottom out near -30 °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 -2.2 °C up to a warm edge around 22.6 °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 runner bean'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.
As a vine, runner bean is a Competitor. It deals extra damage to Ruderals (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) and takes extra from Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes); against the off-wheel Weird categories it is neutral. See weaknesses & resistances.
Runner bean is a fast, aggressive skirmisher that still wants a bench behind it. As a legume it fixes its own nitrogen: roughly one in four caught in the wild arrives with the Nitrogen amendment already applied — a free head start worth a few hundred coins — though that amendment sits in a soil slot and decomposes after about a month, so it is an economy bonus, not combat power. Its bean is edible (a fruit part), so matching fruit fertilizer (phosphorus) pays coins. In battle, run it invasive to make the most of the attack climb and the wild first-strike rider, opening with the rider move to seize the exchange; native, it is a serviceable buffer with a Moss Pole. It fights as a skirmisher until about Lv 29, after which its bulk carries more of the load.
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.