Pilosella cymosa
A native-only Eurasian perennial herb that poisons, self-heals, and can cheat one lethal hit — a soft, defensive support card.
Hawkweed is a low Perennial herb that fights as a defensive attritionist: it chips with poison, mends itself, and occasionally shrugs off a killing blow. It is native to East Asia and Europe, and no invasive form of it exists, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer for your bench. It is a serviceable support card rather than a heavy hitter.
Its starter attack, Rhizome Creep, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 30 damage as a native and applying poison that damages the target over several turns. The free once-per-battle ability, Allelochemical Priming, comes in at level 25: Primes root chemistry — Poison the foe. It restores a chunk of HP. The advanced attack, Crown Division, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (40 native) and mends the plant as it strikes. Most of your copies sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. None of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn. See Moves.
Hawkweed keeps a single always-on trait: Resprout. It draws only one eligible trait, so Resprout arrives at half strength on the level 10 riser and matures on the level 68 one. When it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter health — but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve, not a guarantee. Read more at Abilities.
It carries no trait keywords and is non-toxic in contact, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it (its poison comes only from its attack, not a hazard ring). Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear such as a Cloche suits its stalling, self-healing game.
At level 40 Hawkweed reads 103 HP with ATK of 25 as a native. DEF is just 1, at the perennial-herb floor, so it takes hits with almost no armor. Its tempo runs turn 1 on its initiative (34) and every turn after on its SPD (40): out-paced early, more relentless in a long fight. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active plant. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, Hawkweed reaches 190 HP and 46 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 1 — as a soft herb it gains bulk in health, never armor, so it stays vulnerable to any real hitter. Retreat rises to 23 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys survivability and full Resprout, not damage.
As a perennial herb, Hawkweed is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and is struck for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which hit it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play Hawkweed as a native buffer that grinds: its poison and two heals let it trade patiently while the bench overshield protects a stronger hitter, and Resprout occasionally steals a free turn. Its offense is only modest, so keep it in support rather than expecting it to finish games. Its economy is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward growth rather than coins. It fights as a slow-opening skirmisher that finds its tempo in longer fights, leaning on its bulk from around level 25; it is always stronger at higher levels, 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.