Western Azalea

Overview

The Western Azalea is a shrub in Supplant. It is native to Western North America 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. Hedge Hammer is the starter attack, available from level 1 for 2 Sun. The free once-per-battle ability, Facilitation, unlocks at level 25: Shelters its own and starves the rest: heal 50%, and the foe's bench withers. The advanced attack, Coppice Comeback, comes online at level 40 for 6 Sun — Cut it down and it returns — heal 35%.

Its attacks land for about 29 (starter) and 21 (advanced) at the snapshot level.

Turn order splits across two stats: initiative (34) decides who moves first on turn 1, and SPD (34) decides every turn after. The two are close on this card, so it neither dominates nor loses the tempo battle outright. See turn order for how the two interact.

Abilities

Western azalea runs a trait on each riser. Sclerophylly (level 10) blunts each direct hit by a flat 3. Drupe Mast (level 68) heals every surviving ally 8% of its own max HP on knockout. See Abilities.

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 121, DEF 10, with a retreat cost of 14 Sun and tempo pips of 34 initiative / 34 SPD. Its DEF sits in the firm shrub band — better than a weed, well short of a tree. 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

It firms into a solid mid-armor bruiser: DEF around 20 and HP toward 233 — tougher than a weed, still short of a tree. Retreat rises to 27 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 Competitor. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs) for extra damage (×1.5), and takes extra damage from Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes). 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 shrub sits in the middle of the armor table — firmer than a weed, nowhere near a tree. It is a serviceable mid-line body rather than a carry. 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 19, after which its power takes over. It is monotonically stronger the higher it goes, so there is never a reason to hold it back.