Rubus hispidus
A thorny shrub that starts slow and grinds relentlessly, guarding itself with thorns and withering foes, playable as an Eastern North American native or a Western invader.
Swamp dewberry is a low, thorny Shrub that fights as a light attacker with a defensive bite: modest armor, respectable damage, and thorns that punish anything hitting it. It is native to Eastern North America and invasive in Western North America, so the arena can cast it either way — as a native buffer for your bench or as an invasive attacker. It is a scrappy, mid-tier card that pairs pressure with a little recoil defense.
Its starter attack, Drupe Drop, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 27 damage as a native and 27 as an invasive — a straightforward strike. The free once-per-battle ability, Thicket Formation, comes in at level 25: Closes into thicket — Bind, and the foe can't heal. The advanced attack, Coppice Comeback, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (24 native / 24 invasive) and saps the target, withering its strength as it hits. Most of your dewberries sit below level 40, where only the starter is available, and none of its moves carry an initiative rider, so it never seizes a turn.
Swamp dewberry keeps a single always-on ability: thorns. It draws only one eligible trait, so thorns arrives at full strength on the level 10 riser and returns a little contact damage to anything that strikes it. It is not dropped once earned. It has no second always-on trait at the level 68 riser.
It carries the thorns keyword, which recoils on attackers, but no other trait keywords, and as a terrestrial shrub it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. It is non-toxic, so it shows no hazard ring; only its thorns punish contact. As a native, defensive field gear stacks with the recoil to make it painful to attack; as an invasive, offensive gear leans into its higher ATK.
At level 40 it reads 103 HP as a native and 89 as an invasive, with ATK of 25 native versus 25 invasive — a modest invasive edge. DEF is 12, in the light shrub band, so it takes hits with limited armor. Its tempo is back-loaded: turn 1 runs on a lower initiative (20) and every turn after on a higher SPD (35), so it is out-paced off the mark but quicker in a long fight. Retreat costs 14 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto 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, swamp dewberry climbs to 190 HP native / 165 invasive and 45 / 45 ATK, but its DEF only reaches 24 — as a shrub it firms up modestly and never becomes a true wall, so a real hitter still gets through. Retreat rises to 28 Sun and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so even its late-fight speed is gone and it acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys health and a bigger thorn bite, not heavy armor.
As a shrub, swamp dewberry is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which hit 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 swamp dewberry as a scrappy attacker that makes itself annoying to trade with: its thorns punish attackers, its withering advanced attack blunts a hard hitter, and its rising SPD lets it out-cycle a tiring opponent. As a native its bench overshield helps a fragile ally; as an invasive its higher ATK pushes damage, though its own bench pays for it. Its real strength is economic: it is an edible-fruit plant, so feeding it Phosphorus pays ×1.25 coins, while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP toward growth. It fights as a slow-then-quicker skirmisher until about level 14 as a native (around level 17 as an invasive), after which its health carries it further — 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.