Rubus fruticosus
Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) is a shrub that buffers your team where it is native and attacks where it has become invasive.
Blackberry is a bramble shrub — a firm defender at home and a wide-ranging invader. It is native to Europe, where it plays a defensive buffer, and has become invasive in Africa, East Asia, Oceania, and South America, where it fights as an attacker.
Its kit unlocks in three stages. Its starter attack, Chipmunk Horde (unlocked at level 1, 2 Sun), deals 26 as a native or 28 as an invader: Sends the hoarders through the foe's whole bench. Its once-per-battle ability, Bramble Barrier (level 25, free), is pure utility: A wall of thorns — the foe withers against it. Its advanced attack, Sucker Punch (level 40, 6 Sun), deals 34 native or 36 invasive: Comes up from the roots before the foe sees it.
These are the always-on traits this card actually keeps, and the level each one arrives at (a plant draws at most one trait per growth stage). From level 10, Sclerophylly reduces incoming direct-attack damage by a flat few points — tough, leathery leaves shedding part of every blow. From level 68, Lignotuber makes it immune to Burn, and more: fire does not merely fail to burn it but releases the lignotuber, healing the plant instead.
On the field it draws on field gear to shore up its weaknesses. A Calcium/Magnesium amendment adds flat DEF that suits its firmer frame. Native and invasive copies want different gear — the native buffer favors defensive and healing picks, the invader favors damage and speed.
Read at level 40, where every move is unlocked, it holds 103 health and 23 attack as a native, with 12 DEF. That is a firm mid-tier armor — armor is diminishing rather than flat, so it shaves a real fraction off small and medium attackers, though a heavy hitter still punches through. Its retreat costs 15 Sun. On tempo it opens at 42 initiative (which orders the first turn) and cruises at 32 speed (which orders every turn after). It is a quick starter but a slower cruiser — it tends to land the first hit and then get out-paced. As a native it carries a 15% health cushion (103 versus 89 as an invader), and while benched it projects a green overshield bar onto your active plant, sized by how threatened it is. As an invader its attack identity is built from how widely it has spread, so its 29 attack outstrips its native 23; it pays for that aggression with self-damage to its own bench on every damaging attack, and concedes 2 prizes when knocked out.
Grown to level 100, its health swells to 190 and its attack to 42, and its armor firms up to 25 DEF — genuinely tough, though never a tree-class wall. Retreat rises to 30 Sun as the older plant grows more rooted, and its once-quick tempo has sunk to a sliver — it goes late in turn order now. Maturing buys it raw bulk and hitting power; it costs it the speed edge it had as a seedling.
In the succession type chart, Blackberry's category (shrub) belongs to the Competitor group. Ruderal, Competitor, and Specialist form a wheel: Competitor hits Ruderal plants (annual-forbs, grasses, aquatic plants, and bulbs) for 1.5× damage, and takes 1.5× from Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, and epiphytes), resisting each the other way at about two-thirds. The off-wheel Weird categories are neutral both ways.
A strong shrub: solid armor, a leathery buffer, fire-released healing late, and a real attacker role across much of the world. Its fruit also earns coins. A dependable pick in either role. Off the battlefield it earns money: it has an edible fruit, so feeding it Phosphorus fertilizer pays 1.25× coins (any other nutrient banks 1.25× experience instead). On the power curves below, it fights as a fast skirmisher until about level 24 as a native (level 26 as an invader), after which its growing bulk and attack take over from its fading speed — a shift in which edge dominates, not a sign it is weaker when grown.
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.