Ribes spicatum
A native-only shrub with a firmer body than the herbs, bind-and-block control, and an edible fruit that pays coins.
Downy currant is a shrub card native to East Asia and Europe and introduced nowhere, so it plays purely as a native buffer -- there is no attacker form, and the page reads through the native (or neutral base) profile. Its category places it in the Competitor succession group (see categories).
Numbers are read at the snapshot level 40, where every slot is unlocked.
The starter, Hedge Hammer, unlocks at Lv 1 and costs 2 Sun for 32: The whole hedge comes down on it — the foe weakens. The free once-per-battle ability, Thicket Formation, unlocks at Lv 25 and deals no damage: Closes into thicket — Bind, and the foe can't heal. The advanced attack, Thicket, unlocks at Lv 40, costs 6 Sun for 35: Hems the foe in. No move carries the initiative rider. See moves.
This card keeps two always-on traits, one per riser. At Lv 10 it gains extrafloral-nectaries: whenever an attacker lands a damaging hit on it, the recruited ant bodyguards chip that attacker for about 3% of its max HP. At Lv 68 lignotuber stacks on top, making it immune to Burn -- and better, a Burn that would land instead heals it for about 4% of its max HP, as a chaparral shrub is released by fire rather than spared. Below Lv 68 only the extrafloral-nectaries retaliation is active.
It holds no Thorns, Toxin or Unpalatable contact trait, so striking it costs an attacker no recoil. As a shrub it already sits in a firmer DEF band than the herbs, and a Calcium/Magnesium amendment (flat DEF) hardens it further. As an edible with an edible fruit, a Phosphorus fertilizer is the economy pick (fruit pairs with P). Its growth habit is not a climber, so it is not Moss Pole eligible. See field gear.
At 40 it reads 103 HP and 25 ATK on a firmer 13 DEF -- the shrub band gives it real armor the herbs lack. Retreat costs 16 Sun. Opening initiative 35 is slightly ahead of sustained SPD 34, so it starts a hair quick and settles into a steady, middling pace. As a native it carries a +15% HP cushion and a bench overshield. It is invasive nowhere, so it never pays bench self-damage and concedes no extra prizes. See stats.
Fully grown, HP climbs toward 190 and DEF hardens to 28 -- as a shrub it ends firmer than any herb here, though well short of a tree wall. ATK reaches 45, retreat rises to 33 Sun, and the inverted tempo sinks to roughly its 1% floor, so the mature plant is slow but genuinely sturdy.
As a shrub it is a Competitor: ×1.5 into Ruderal (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), resisted to ×0.667 by Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), neutral into other Competitors and the Weird group. See weaknesses & resistances.
This is a solid native buffer with more staying power than the herbs: its firmer DEF and control ability -- which Binds and blocks the foe from healing -- let it lock down a target while your bench does the finishing. Its damage is average, so it wants a harder hitter alongside it, but it holds a line well. Because its edible part (fruit) is resolved, feeding it Phosphorus pays the ×1.25 coin bonus; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead. On the total-power gallery its bulk is favored from a fairly low level (about Lv 21), reflecting a shrub's early size -- which edge dominates, not a reason to avoid 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.