Hairy mock orange

Overview

The Hairy mock orange is a shrub in Supplant. It is native nowhere in the game's regions but invasive in Europe, so it plays purely as an attacker.

Moves

Its kit fills in across three slots, and most of your copies will be well below the snapshot level of 40 where all three are live — the plant unlocks them as it grows. Frère Brer is the starter attack, available from level 1 for 2 Sun. The free once-per-battle ability, Facilitation, unlocks at level 25: Shelters its own and starves the rest: heal 50%, and the foe's bench withers. The advanced attack, Bramble Scramble, comes online at level 40 for 6 Sun — Two passes through the brambles.

Its attacks land for about 31 (starter) and 44 (advanced) at the snapshot level.

Turn order splits across two stats: initiative (38) decides who moves first on turn 1, and SPD (52) decides every turn after. This one is slow off the mark but relentless once the fight settles — it usually loses turn 1 and then takes the tempo from turn 2 onward. See turn order for how the two interact.

Abilities

Hairy mock orange holds two always-on traits. Sclerophylly (level 10) is a flat 3 off each direct hit. Drupe Mast (level 68) turns the card's knockout into a bench heal of 8% max HP per surviving ally. See Abilities.

Features

For field gear, a Calcium/Magnesium amendment adds flat DEF (most worthwhile on a bulky front-liner, least on a soft body), and the N/P/K fertilizers drive its economy (see Gameplay uses). This species is not Moss-Pole-eligible: that gear is keyed on a climbing growth habit (vine, epiphyte or hemiepiphyte), and its species record carries no growth-habit tag.

Stats

At the snapshot level (40) it reads roughly HP 103, DEF 11, with a retreat cost of 12 Sun and tempo pips of 38 initiative / 52 SPD. Its DEF sits in the firm shrub band — better than a weed, well short of a tree. As an invasive its ATK is the story: it rises toward 29 as it matures, and it pays "Faustian" self-damage to its own bench on every damaging hit. Sun refills at +1 every 15 minutes up to a cap of 120; an empty bar attack-locks the plant. From level 52 it regenerates Sun mid-battle, and a level 85 capstone drops its starter to free. See stats.

At Level 100

It firms into a solid mid-armor bruiser: DEF around 21 and HP toward 190 — tougher than a weed, still short of a tree. Retreat rises to 24 Sun (an older plant is more rooted and costlier to pull), and the inverted tempo has sunk to its floor by now — the fast opening it had as a seedling is gone, so a mature copy leans entirely on power rather than turn order.

Weaknesses & Resistances

In the succession wheel it is a Competitor. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs) for extra damage (×1.5), and takes extra damage from Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes). Against its own group and the off-wheel "Weird" categories it is neutral. See the type chart.

Gameplay uses

Its only role is the invasive attacker: field it to push damage, accepting the Faustian bench self-damage and the 2 prizes it concedes on a knockout. A shrub sits in the middle of the armor table — firmer than a weed, nowhere near a tree. It is a serviceable mid-line body rather than a carry. It is inedible in the game's economy, so any fertilizer you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — useful as level fodder, not as a coin source. In the Total power gallery below you can watch it trade a fast-skirmisher opening for raw bulk as it levels: it leans on speed until about level 33, after which its power takes over. It is monotonically stronger the higher it goes, so there is never a reason to hold it back.