Sicyos edulis
A cultivated tangling vine that holds no nativity anywhere in the game, so it always fights on its neutral base line β a control-leaning card and a reliable coin earner from its edible fruit.
Chayote is a vine card. It is a widely cultivated crop with no recorded native or invasive range in the game's regions, so it is neither native nor invasive anywhere β it always fights as its neutral base card, with no +15% native HP cushion and no invasive attacker edge. What it brings instead is a control kit built on tangling and binding.
The starter attack, Tangle, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun and hits for 26, snarling the foe in growth. The free once-per-battle ability, Liana Loop, comes at level 25: it loops around the foe to Bind it and wither its attack β pure utility, no damage. The advanced attack, Stranglehold, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun, dealing 34 as it binds the foe in place and then squeezes. No move carries an initiative rider, so turn order rests entirely on its tempo.
Its trait schedule keeps two always-on traits. Allelopathy arrives at level 10: a wilt aura that shaves the enemy active's ATK every checkup β a chemical suppression that works in both single-player battles and player-versus-player (PvP). It fires every round, not on a chance. Apical Dominance stacks on at level 68, granting +5 ATK while the card is at full HP β the auxin surge of an unbroken leading shoot. Both come in at full strength. The card holds no Toxin or thorns trait, so striking it draws no recoil.
Chayote is a genuine climbing vine, so it is Moss Pole eligible β the pole is its natural fit and a good early equip. A Calcium/Magnesium amendment adds a little DEF to a soft-bodied card. Because it never takes a nativity, there are no native-versus-invasive gear splits to weigh; build it around its control kit.
At the snapshot level 40, where every move is unlocked, it reads roughly HP 103, ATK 22 and DEF 8 on its base line. Retreat costs 16 Sun. Its opening initiative is 32 and its sustained SPD is 34, so it is a slightly slow starter that holds tempo a touch better from turn two onward. Remember that with no nativity it collects neither the native HP cushion and bench overshield nor the invasive ATK identity and Faustian self-damage that other cards split on β it simply plays as its neutral self.
By the cap its biomass HP climbs to about 190 while its DEF, damage-capped as a soft vine, only reaches 15 β it never hardens into a wall. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and its tempo has fallen to around one percent of cap, so the grown card no longer leans on speed the way it did young.
As a vine it is a Competitor in the succession wheel: strong (Γ1.5) into Ruderal categories (annual-forb, grass, aquatic, bulb), resisted (Γ0.667) by Specialists (succulent, conifer, fern, epiphyte), and neutral against other Competitors and the Weird categories.
Chayote is a middling battler that earns its place through control rather than raw force: its Allelopathy aura chips the foe's ATK every round, and both Liana Loop and Stranglehold Bind a target in place, which is useful for pinning a foe your bench can finish. Its real strength is economy β it is edible with a resolved fruit part, so feeding it Phosphorus (the fruit-matching nutrient) pays Γ1.25 coins, while any other nutrient banks Γ1.25 XP. That makes it a dependable coin earner and grow-out. Lacking any nativity it never gets the cushion or attacker edge, so treat it as a control-and-coins vine, not a front-line heavyweight. It plays as a faster skirmisher until about level 26, after which its bulk edges ahead.
Leveling trades speed for power. A plantβs 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 β native adds a HP cushion, invasive an attack edge, neutral neither β with the card at its crossover and fully grown at LvΒ 100.