Picea brachytyla
A native-only armored conifer that splashes the enemy bench, heals in sun, and shields the bench with Sun late.
Sargent's Spruce is a Conifer that fights as an armored wall with reach: its starter splashes damage onto the enemy bench, and it heals in sun. It is native to East Asia (and listed as Vulnerable in the wild), and the arena only ever casts it as a native — no invasive card exists — so it plays as a durable buffer for your bench. It is one of the sturdier cards here, valued for defense and bench support rather than raw offense.
Its starter attack, Needle Rake, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 32 damage and splashing a share of it onto the opponent's benched plants. The free once-per-battle ability, Mother Tree, comes in at level 25: Channels the grove: evens the bench's health and revives the fallen; a matured canopy also shares Sun. The advanced attack, Sappy Ending, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (27 damage) and lands a straightforward, heavier hit. Most of your spruce sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
Sargent's Spruce keeps two always-on traits. Photosynthesis arrives on the level 10 riser and heals it in sun, though it triggers only about 60% of the time. Network arrives on the level 68 riser: as a canopy tree, from the bench it projects a gold Sun overshield bar onto your active plant every turn, making a benched spruce a strong support piece late. See Abilities.
It carries no offensive trait keywords, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic: no contact recoil, no hazard ring. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. Its natural bulk pairs well with DEF-boosting field gear to make it an even harder wall.
At level 40 the spruce reads 140 HP and 18 ATK. Because it is native-only, there is no invasive variant, and its attack is low — this is a defensive card. DEF is 17, high in the conifer band, so it soaks hits far better than the herbs and succulents around it. Its tempo is front-loaded: turn 1 runs on a higher initiative (27) so it opens first, then every turn after runs on a much lower SPD (18), so it is out-paced once a fight settles. Retreat costs 19 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield bar onto your active — stacking with its Network Sun overshield late. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, the spruce climbs to 276 HP and 31 ATK, and its DEF reaches 37 — a conifer grows into a true armored wall, the payoff of the category. Retreat rises to 41 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it acts last but survives long enough for that not to matter. Maturity buys real durability and its bench Sun overshield at the cost of speed, not damage.
As a conifer, the spruce is in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants for x1.5 and is hit for only x0.667 by them; it is weak to Ruderal plants, which strike it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Specialists and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Sargent's Spruce as a defensive backbone: up front, soak hits, heal in sun, and let the bench-splash starter pressure the whole enemy board; on the bench late, its Network Sun overshield and HP overshield shield your active hitter. It holds up especially well against Competitor-group foes. Its low attack means it protects and enables rather than finishes. Its economy is growth-only — it is inedible, so any nutrient banks x1.25 XP rather than coins. It fights as a wall that only gets harder to move as it levels, crossing over around level 5 — and higher levels always improve its stats, so 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.