Rhipsalis paradoxa
A native-only South American succulent that saps the enemy and heals itself, a huge-HP but near-armorless staller.
Chain cactus is a trailing Succulent that fights as a draining staller: it soaks damage on a deep health pool, saps the target, and regenerates itself between blows. It is native to South America and has no invasive card, so it only ever plays as a native buffer — there is no attacker version. It is a durable but low-damage card, valued for the time it buys.
Its starter attack, Deadly Surprise, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 27 damage — a plain hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Desert Pavement, comes in at level 25: Bakes the ground to stone — the foe stalls and withers. It saps and withers the target, sapping its strength. The advanced attack, Glochid Storm, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (48 native) and heals as it strikes. Most specimens sit below level 40, where only the starter is available. No move carries an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn; see Moves.
Chain cactus keeps two always-on traits. Photosynthesis arrives at full strength on the level 10 riser and heals the plant in sun, firing about 60% of the time. Succulence arrives on the level 68 riser and regenerates it in any weather, again on roughly a 60% chance. Together they make it hard to grind down, though neither is reliable turn to turn. See Abilities.
Chain cactus carries no trait keywords beyond its self-healing passives — no thorns, no toxin chemistry — so nothing extra punishes an attacker for hitting it. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. Non-toxic: no contact recoil, no poison rider. As a native-only card, general defensive field gear such as a Cloche best complements its self-healing stall.
At level 40 it reads 121 HP as a native (the invasive figure 106 never applies, since no invasive card exists). ATK is 17 and native-only, so there is no attacker column to compare against. DEF is just 1, at the floor of the succulent band, so despite its bulk it has essentially no armor and relies on HP plus regeneration to survive. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (44) and every turn after on its SPD (44), which sit at the same value. Retreat costs 13 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, chain cactus reaches 233 HP native (invasive 203 unused) and 30 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 1 — as a succulent it becomes a huge health pool with near-zero armor, absorbing hits by bulk rather than deflecting them. Retreat rises to 25 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so a mature plant acts last. Maturing buys enormous HP and its second heal, never real toughness.
As a succulent, chain cactus is in the Specialist succession group. It hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, shrubs, broadleaf trees) for x1.5 and takes only x0.667 from them; it is weak to Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), which strike it for x1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Specialists and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play chain cactus as a native wall that wears the enemy down: sap the target to blunt its damage, stack the two regeneration traits and the striking heal, and let its deep HP pool outlast attackers that cannot burst it. Its own damage is low, so pair it with a real hitter and use it to buy turns. Economically it is inedible, so any nutrient you feed it banks x1.25 XP toward faster leveling. It fights as a fast skirmisher until about level 29, then its bulk takes over — 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.