Ricinus communis
A deadly-toxic herb with a punishing contact recoil and a chance to survive one lethal hit — an African native or an invader across the Americas.
Castor bean is a fast-growing Perennial herb that fights around its deadliest asset: a contact recoil that hits attackers hard. It is native to Africa and invasive across Eastern North America and South America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. It is a card you field for that recoil and its Resprout, not for its own damage.
Its starter attack, Volatile Oils, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 24 damage as a native and 30 as an invasive, as a straightforward hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Autogenic Reaction, comes in at level 25: Remakes its own ground: +6 ATK and heal 25%. It mends the plant. The advanced attack, Herbaceous Assault, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (29 native / 35 invasive) as a plain, harder hit. Most of your castor bean sit well below level 40, where only the starter is available. No move carries an initiative rider.
Castor bean keeps a single always-on trait: Resprout. Because it draws only one eligible trait, Resprout arrives on the level 68 riser. When it works it lets the plant survive one otherwise-lethal hit at roughly a quarter of its health — but it triggers only about 60% of the time, so treat it as a coin-flip reprieve, not a guarantee. See Abilities.
Castor bean holds the Toxin trait at the deadly tier — its strongest feature. Striking it Poisons the attacker hard, and that recoil fires in player-versus-player (PvP) too. Sulfur soil does not neutralize it, though a Cloche-warded attacker absorbs it. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear leans into its recoil-and-survive game; as an invasive, offensive gear props up its otherwise modest damage.
At level 40 castor bean reads 84 HP native / 73 invasive, with ATK of 17 native versus 34 invasive — a big jump from a low native ATK to a workable invasive one. DEF is 4, a step above the perennial-herb floor. Its tempo is a slow starter but a faster cruiser: turn 1 runs on its initiative (18) and every turn after on its SPD (48), so it is out-paced early and relentless later. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and a benched HP overshield for your active; as an invasive it pays Faustian self-damage to its own bench on each damaging attack and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, castor bean climbs to 147 HP native / 128 invasive and 30 / 74 ATK, and its DEF reaches 8 — modest armor for a soft herb, so most of its growth is in health. Retreat rises to 24 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys it the bulk to keep its deadly recoil in play through a long fight.
As a perennial herb, castor bean is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and is hit for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), 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 castor bean as a body that makes attacking it expensive. As a native it is a strong buffer — HP cushion, bench overshield, deadly contact recoil, and a Resprout reprieve — so a fragile hitter can shelter behind it. As an invasive its own damage is only middling even after the ATK jump, so it still leans on that recoil. It is inedible, so feeding it any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins. It fights as a fast skirmisher until about level 28, after which its growing bulk takes over, so there is no reason to hold it back from 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.