Ratibida pinnata
An even-tempo perennial herb that opens with poison and can cling to life late, playing either arena role but soft throughout.
Grey-headed coneflower is a low Perennial herb that fights as a steady poisoner. It is native to Eastern North America and invasive in Europe, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer or as an invasive attacker. It is a middling card: it opens with a status and has a late survival trick, but it is soft and never gains armor.
Its starter attack, Taproot Anchor, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and hits for about 29 native / 30 invasive, leaving poison on the target. The free once-per-battle ability, Allelochemical Priming, arrives at level 25: Primes root chemistry — Poison the foe. — it mends the plant. The advanced attack, Bitter End, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (29 native / 30 invasive), a plain hit. Most of your coneflowers sit below level 40, where only the starter is live. None of its moves carry an initiative rider.
Coneflower keeps a single always-on trait: Resprout. Because it draws only one eligible trait, Resprout comes in 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 fires only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve. See Abilities.
Coneflower carries no trait keywords, so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. Its poison comes from a move, not the plant — it is non-toxic, with no contact hazard ring and no passive poison rider. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear suits it; as an invasive, offensive gear presses its damage.
At level 40 coneflower reads 103 HP native / 89 invasive, with ATK of 24 native versus 25 invasive — a modest invasive edge. DEF is just 1, at the soft floor of the perennial-herb band, so it takes hits with almost no armor. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on initiative (37) and every turn after on SPD (37), which sit at the same value, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a bench HP overshield; as an invasive it pays self-damage to its own bench per attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, coneflower swells to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 43 / 46 ATK, but DEF stays at 1 — a soft herb gains health and no armor, so it stays fragile against any real hitter. Retreat rises to 24 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature one acts last against almost anything young.
As a perennial herb, coneflower is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants, which strike 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 coneflower as a cheap poisoner that trades and stalls: land the status early, then let it tick while Resprout offers a late reprieve. As a native it is a passable buffer; as an invasive its slightly harder punch makes it a serviceable early aggressor, though its thin armor limits how long it lasts. It is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks ×1.25 XP toward faster leveling. It fights as an even-tempo skirmisher early and leans on bulk later, crossing over around level 27 as a native and 30 as an invasive — always worth leveling.
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.