White Oak

Overview

White Oak is a broadleaf tree in the Competitor group, built as a defensive wall: high HP, low ATK, and real DEF. Its role depends on the arena's region:

• Native: Eastern North America — plays as a buffer (HP ×1.15, and it projects overshields onto the bench).
• Invasive: none. White Oak isn't invasive anywhere in the game, so it never takes the attacker role.

Moves

Its kit is the broadleaf-tree line, unlocking as it levels:

• Oak Slam (starter, L1) — a reliable strike for 2 Sun.
• Mast Year (ability, L10) — a free ability it can use once per battle.
• Oak Heartwood (advanced, L18) — its 6-Sun signature attack.

Because White Oak is toxic, its attacks also carry a Toxin poison-rider that chips even through an enemy's overshield.

Abilities

As a broadleaf tree it runs two always-on passives. Network projects a Sun overshield onto your active plant, and Mycorrhiza heals a linked benched ally a little each checkup. It supports the bench, not just itself.

Features

White Oak carries the toxic trait, so its hits apply a Toxin rider. Being woody is what gives it DEF. The field gear that fits it best is Ca-Mg, which adds more flat DEF and boosts Photosynthesis; it can't take a Moss Pole, since those are climbers-only.

Stats

White Oak is built longevity-first, with high HP and low ATK, and its defining stat is DEF — flat damage subtracted from every hit before it lands. Base DEF is 6, and it now grows with level, reaching 9 by Level 100 (a 50% gain). It pays for that armor by trading away part of its HP growth, so its max HP tops out around 198 instead of the ~220 a non-woody body would reach. Its overall durability is the same as before; it has just been shifted into armor. In practice that makes White Oak tougher against a flurry of small hits, no different against a single big one, and still fully vulnerable to poison, which ignores DEF. Retreating costs a steep 30 Sun.

Weaknesses & Resistances

Broadleaf-tree sits in the Competitor group on the succession wheel. It is strong against Ruderal plants — annual-forb, grass, aquatic, and bulb — for ×1.5 damage, and weak against Specialists — succulent, conifer, fern, and epiphyte — whose defense resists it to ×0.667. It is neutral against other Competitors and against Weird plants. Its real weakness, though, is poison, which bypasses its DEF entirely.

Gameplay uses

Play White Oak as a front-line native wall: it soaks damage while Network and Mycorrhiza keep the bench fueled and healed. Because its DEF scales, a high-level White Oak is harder to chip down than a low-level one. Poison is the main thing that gets through it, so pair it with a plant that can cover that matchup.