Common tussock grass

Overview

The Common tussock grass is a grass in Supplant. It is native to Oceania and is recorded as invasive nowhere, so it plays purely as a defensive buffer: a card that shores up your team rather than 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. Carpet is the starter attack, available from level 1 for 2 Sun. The free once-per-battle ability, Sod Formation, unlocks at level 25: Mats the ground over — Bind and Wither the foe. The advanced attack, Wildfire Spread, comes online at level 40 for 6 Sun — Fire-fed spread that catches the bench.

Its attacks land for about 29 (starter) and 42 (advanced) at the snapshot level.

Turn order splits across two stats: initiative (41) decides who moves first on turn 1, and SPD (56) 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

It reads Duff Stuff from level 10, and a second passive, Spore-drift, stacks on at level 68.

Duff Stuff. While it is the active card it hardens on leaf litter, adding half the pooled DEF of any ruderal allies (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs) benched behind it — so it rewards a ruderal-stacked team and does nothing on a mixed bench.

Spore-drift. Drifting spores chip the enemy bench each turn. This one is dispersal-derived — the engine appends it from how the plant spreads its seed rather than from its category.

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 1, with a retreat cost of 13 Sun and tempo pips of 41 initiative / 56 SPD. Its DEF sits at the soft ruderal floor. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects a green HP overshield bar onto your active — its whole role is defensive support. 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

HP climbs toward 190 but DEF never leaves the soft ruderal band (1) — it swells without ever hardening. Retreat rises to 25 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 Ruderal. It hits Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes) for extra damage (×1.5), and takes extra damage from Competitor plants (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs and broadleaf trees). Against its own group and the off-wheel "Weird" categories it is neutral. See the type chart.

Gameplay uses

Its only role is the native buffer: sit it on the bench to project an overshield, or field it as a body that soaks hits for your carries. A soft ruderal that leans on its Allelopathy wilt aura and relentless sustained speed rather than bulk — a chip-and-outlast card that folds in a straight slugging match. 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 36, after which its power takes over. It is monotonically stronger the higher it goes, so there is never a reason to hold it back.