Picea rubens
A slow, sun-healing conifer that plays only as an Eastern North American native, hardening into a defensive wall that mends itself and shields your bench.
Eastern spruce is a slow, sturdy Conifer that fights as a defensive healer: low tempo, middling damage, and a steady drip of self-repair. It is native to Eastern North America and has no invasive range, so the arena only ever casts it as a native — a wall and buffer for your bench, never an attacker. It is an unspectacular but dependable defensive card that wants a real hitter beside it.
Its starter attack, Needle Rake, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 34 damage; it splashes a little onto the enemy bench. The free once-per-battle ability, Allelopathic Duff, comes in at level 25: Sours the whole forest floor — the foe's bench sickens and withers. The advanced attack, Resin Flood, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (24 damage) and both mends the plant as it strikes and pins the target in place. 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.
Eastern 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 treat the mend as 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. Since it only ever plays as a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche or a Ca/Mg amendment for extra DEF — suits its stalling, self-healing game best.
At level 40 it reads 140 HP and 23 ATK. DEF is 17, squarely in the conifer band, so it takes hits far better than a soft herb. Its tempo is even but low — turn 1 runs on its initiative (22) and every turn after on its SPD (22), both the same and both slow — so it usually acts last. Retreat costs 19 Sun. Because it always plays as a native, it gains the +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, Eastern spruce climbs to 276 HP and 41 ATK, and its DEF hardens to 37 — as a conifer it becomes a genuine armored wall, not just a bag of health. Retreat rises to 41 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature spruce acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys real toughness at the cost of ever moving first.
As a conifer, Eastern 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 Eastern spruce as a defensive anchor: a slow, self-healing wall that soaks hits while its bench overshield keeps a fragile hitter alive. Its damage is only middling, so it wins by outlasting, not by killing. It is an edible-leaf plant, so feeding it Nitrogen pays ×1.25 coins; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP toward growth instead. It fights as a stubborn skirmisher early and leans harder on its armor as it levels, crossing over around level 4 — and it is always stronger in raw stats higher up, 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.