Picea abies
A conifer that leads turn one and slows after, healing in the sun and shielding your bench, playable as a European native or a Northern-Hemisphere invader.
Norway spruce is a hardy Conifer that fights as a durable healer: solid armor, modest damage, and a habit of leading the first turn before settling into a grind. It is native to Europe and invasive across East Asia, Eastern North America, and Oceania, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. It is a reliable, unflashy defensive card.
Its starter attack, Whomp, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 38 damage as a native and 42 as an invasive — a straightforward strike. The free once-per-battle ability, Resin Seal, comes in at level 25: Seals the wound with resin: heal 40%. The advanced attack, Resin Trap, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (34 native / 38 invasive) and both mends the plant as it strikes and pins the target. Most of your spruces sit below level 40, where only the starter is available, and none of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
Norway spruce keeps two always-on abilities. Photosynthesis arrives on the level 10 riser and heals it in the sun, but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so the mend is likely rather than guaranteed. Network arrives on the level 68 riser: as a canopy tree it projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active from the bench. Neither is dropped once earned.
It carries no special trait keywords and, as a terrestrial conifer, is not eligible for a Moss Pole. It is non-toxic, so it shows no hazard ring and nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. As a native, defensive field gear suits its stalling game; as an invasive, offensive gear helps its aggression land before its tempo drops off.
At level 40 it reads 140 HP as a native and 122 as an invasive, with ATK of 24 native versus 33 invasive — a real but moderate invasive edge. DEF is 17, in the conifer band, so it takes hits well. Its tempo is front-loaded: turn 1 runs on a higher initiative (22) and every turn after on a lower SPD (7), so it leads the opening exchange and is out-paced in a long fight. Retreat costs 20 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, Norway spruce climbs to 276 HP native / 240 invasive and 43 / 66 ATK, and its DEF hardens to 37 — as a conifer it becomes a real armored wall. Retreat rises to 42 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so its early lead is long gone and it acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys toughness at the cost of that opening initiative.
As a conifer, Norway spruce is in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, trees) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), which hit it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Specialists and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Norway spruce as a defensive anchor that uses its turn-one lead to land the first blow, then digs in behind its armor and self-heal. As a native it is a fine buffer, its bench overshield keeping a fragile hitter alive; as an invasive its damage climbs enough to threaten, though its bench pays for the aggression. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward growth rather than coins. It fights as a quick skirmisher until about level 1 as a native (around level 1 as an invasive), after which its bulk takes over — there is no reason to hold it back.
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.