Giant Brake

Overview

Giant brake is a fern whose spores settle across the enemy bench and whose Ptaquiloside Payload lands a real Poison; it also shields its own growing tip when hurt. It is native to Africa, East Asia, Oceania and South Asia and invasive in eastern North America and South America. That gives it two roles: a native buffer, or an invasive attacker.

Moves

Its kit unlocks in three steps, so most of the time you field it below the level where the whole thing is live. The starter attack, Smothering Spores, is available from level 1 for 2 Sun. It deals 28 damage as a native or 30 as an invasive. A spore mat settles and saps the foe.

At level 25 it gains a free, once-per-battle ability, Spore Rain: Rains spores across the back row — the foe's whole bench sickens. It costs no Sun — its price is that you get one use per fight.

The advanced attack, Ptaquiloside Payload, arrives at level 40 for 6 Sun, dealing 28 damage as a native or 30 as an invasive. Bracken's own carcinogen — Poison the foe.

See Moves and Abilities for how the slots and Sun costs work.

Abilities

A card keeps at most two always-on traits — drawn deterministically, with the rest of its category pool dropped for good. This one draws two, and they arrive at different levels:

• Circinate Vernation (from level 10) — the coiled fiddlehead shields its growing tip for +4 DEF once it falls below half HP.
• Rhizome Mat (from level 68) — a dense rhizome mat regrows a little HP every checkup.

Those are the only two it holds; everything else in its category's pool was passed over. See Abilities for the full trait list.

Features

It carries no special keyword chips — it is not tagged toxic or thorned, and it is not a climber, so a Moss Pole does not fit it.

Soft-bodied cards like this one gain the most from a Calcium/Magnesium soil amendment, which adds flat DEF to a thin armor band. See Field gear for what fits.

Its gear picks shift with its role: as a native buffer, defensive amendments; as an invasive attacker, gear that presses its damage advantage. See Weaknesses & resistances for the matchup context.

Stats

Numbers here are read at level 40, where every slot is unlocked. It reads 2 DEF and retreats for 16 Sun.

It is slow off the mark (opening initiative 25) but faster in the long exchange (sustained Speed 34 from turn two).

As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion — 103 HP versus 89 as an invasive — and while benched it projects a green HP overshield onto your active. As an invasive it trades that cushion for attack: its ATK rises from 28 to 33, a modest step, but it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on every damaging hit and concedes 2 prizes when it is knocked out.

The overshield, the Sun economy and damage-as-a-ratio are explained on Stats.

At Level 100

By level 100 its biomass HP swells to 190, but its soft-bodied armor stays low at 3 DEF — leveling buys it bulk and attack (climbing to 50 native / 63 invasive), not toughness. Retreat climbs to 33 Sun and its already-inverted tempo sinks toward its floor, so it is markedly slower old than young.

Weaknesses & Resistances

In the succession chart its category, Fern, is a Specialist. It deals ×1.5 damage to perennial herbs, vines, shrubs and broadleaf trees, but annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs hit it for ×1.5 and resist its attacks in return (×0.667). Against everything else it is neutral.

The full wheel is on Weaknesses & resistances.

Gameplay uses

It is a status attacker with good reach and a respectable attack for a fern, stronger as an invasive across the Americas. Soft-bodied, so lean on its spores and Poison rather than trading hits.

It has no resolved edible part, so any fertilizer you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — treat it as a growth boost.

One note on leveling: it fights as a faster skirmisher until about level 21, after which its growing bulk and attack take over as the dominant edge. It is stronger overall at higher levels — turn order is only a small lever — so there is no reason to hold it back.