Ceylon Bowstring Hemp

Overview

Ceylon Bowstring Hemp hits harder than almost any other succulent: fewer than 1 in 20 succulents in the game reach its ATK of 26 at Lv 40. Its DEF stands out too: fewer than 1 in 10 of the category sit as low as 4.

Ceylon Bowstring Hemp fights as a succulent (categories) in the Specialist succession group. It has no recorded native or invasive range, so it plays neutral wherever it turns up, with neither the native HP cushion nor the invasive attack edge (nativity).

Moves

Every card has three move slots (moves): a starter attack from Lv 1, a free once-per-battle ability from Lv 25 and an advanced attack from Lv 40. Damage is the expected hit at Lv 40, before the target's DEF and the succession wheel.

• Deadly Surprise — starter attack, 2 Sun. Looks harmless right up until it isn't — Poison. Expected damage: 30.
• Barb Priming — ability, free once per battle. Raises its barbs — Poison and Wither the foe.
• Drought Stand — advanced attack, 6 Sun. Endures and mends — heal 15%. Expected damage: 33.

Drought Stand carries a heal rider that lands 75% of the time, and the heal is paid for in Sun.

Always-on traits

Always-on traits arrive on two trait risers, Lv 10 and Lv 68, one trait on each; anything else its category offered is dropped for good (abilities).

• Succulence — from Lv 10. Each checkup, in any weather, it has a 60% chance to heal 1.5% of its max HP, paid for in Sun.
• Caudex Reserve — from Lv 68. While it is the active plant it carries its own green overshield bar worth 8.3% of its max HP, which direct hits drain before its HP.

Items and economy

• It is not edible, so an N/P/K amendment on it earns 25% more battle XP.
• A Ca/Mg amendment adds +2 DEF.

Stats

Every number here is the card without per-card genetics, which nudge HP, ATK, sustained tempo, initiative, retreat cost and DEF on the plant you actually own (stats). HP, ATK, DEF and retreat climb in a straight line from Lv 1 to Lv 100, while both tempo stats fall.

Stat	Lv 40	Lv 100
HP (neutral)	88	161
ATK (neutral)	26	47
DEF	4	8
Initiative	12	0.19
Sustained tempo (SPD)	12	0.19
Retreat cost (Sun)	13	26

• DEF is diminishing armour: a hit is scaled by ATK ÷ (ATK + DEF), so a strong attacker pushes through armour a weak one can't, and Poison ignores DEF entirely.
• Tempo: initiative decides who acts first on turn 1 and sustained tempo decides every turn after. In a wild battle, a tie goes to you. Both fall as it grows, and by Lv 100 every plant is down to a fraction of a point — which is why the Lv 100 tempo column reads in decimals while the rest are whole numbers.
• Retreat: switching it out costs 13 Sun at Lv 40, and after it enters the active slot it must stay 1 turn before it can switch out.
• Sun is what attacks cost. Its bar holds 120, and an empty bar leaves it unable to attack, though its free ability still works.
• Refilling: out of battle it regains one Sun every 15 minutes at Lv 1, rising to 3 times that pace by Lv 45. Above Lv 52 it also regains Sun during battle, up to 4 a turn at Lv 100, and from Lv 85 its starter attack is free and its advanced attack costs 2 Sun.

Hardiness

Roughly USDA zone 10a — it should come through winters that bottom out near -1 °C. Colder than that and it wants shelter, a wall, or a winter indoors. The zone comes from a regression with an error of about one full zone, so treat it as a guide rather than a promise.

Its measured range runs from a cold edge of 15.4 °C to a warm edge of 29.3 °C, in the tropical band. These are not the same kind of number as the zone above, which is why they look so far apart: the cold edge is how cold the coldest month typically gets across the places it grows, while a hardiness zone is quoted on the extreme annual low, and that runs far below any month's figure. The card's climate chip compares this measured range with where the player is standing, and the only thing it affects is battle XP.

Chip	Meaning	Battle XP
Thrives here	the local winter low and summer heat both sit inside its range	×2
In range	it survives here, but near one of its edges	×1.25
Colder than its range	winters here go below what it tolerates	no bonus
Hotter than its range	summers here run past its warm edge	no bonus

Succession matchups

Ceylon Bowstring Hemp is in the Specialist group (weaknesses and resistances). Its hits land at ×1.5 on Competitor plants (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs and broadleaf trees) and at ×0.67 on Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatic plants and bulbs). In return, Ruderal plants hit it at ×1.5 and Competitor plants at ×0.67. Everything else is neutral.

Playing it

• Neutral everywhere, it brings its base stats, its kit and its traits, with no stance bonus either way.
• Over its life, its power leads its tempo from Lv 1, so it plays as a heavyweight from the start. The Total power gallery below shows each crossover, with the card at that level and fully grown.