China root

Overview

The China root is a vine in Supplant. It is native to East Asia, Oceania and South Asia and is recorded as invasive nowhere, so it plays purely as a defensive buffer: a card that shores up your team rather than an attacker.

Moves

Its kit fills in across three slots, and most of your copies will be well below the snapshot level of 40 where all three are live — the plant unlocks them as it grows. Creeping Crush is the starter attack, available from level 1 for 2 Sun. The free once-per-battle ability, Liana Loop, unlocks at level 25: Loops around the foe — Bind and Wither. The advanced attack, Girdling, comes online at level 40 for 6 Sun — Rings the stem — the foe wilts and can't heal.

Its attacks land for about 26 (starter) and 29 (advanced) at the snapshot level.

Turn order splits across two stats: initiative (51) decides who moves first on turn 1, and SPD (34) decides every turn after. This one is the quicker starter — it tends to land the opening blow on turn 1, then cede the pace as the fight wears on. See turn order for how the two interact.

Abilities

It has a single eligible passive, Allelopathy, which arrives at half strength on its level 10 riser and matures at level 68 — a real difference for most of the card's life.

Allelopathy. An always-on wilt aura that saps the enemy active a little every turn it stays in — passive chip damage that rewards a stalling game.

Features

For field gear, a Calcium/Magnesium amendment adds flat DEF (most worthwhile on a bulky front-liner, least on a soft body), and the N/P/K fertilizers drive its economy (see Gameplay uses). This species is not Moss-Pole-eligible: that gear is keyed on a climbing growth habit (vine, epiphyte or hemiepiphyte), and its species record carries no growth-habit tag.

Stats

At the snapshot level (40) it reads roughly HP 103, DEF 8, with a retreat cost of 16 Sun and tempo pips of 51 initiative / 34 SPD. Its DEF sits in the soft-to-mid vine band. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects a green HP overshield bar onto your active — its whole role is defensive support. Sun refills at +1 every 15 minutes up to a cap of 120; an empty bar attack-locks the plant. From level 52 it regenerates Sun mid-battle, and a level 85 capstone drops its starter to free. See stats.

At Level 100

HP climbs toward 190 while DEF settles in the soft-to-mid band (15). Retreat rises to 33 Sun (an older plant is more rooted and costlier to pull), and the inverted tempo has sunk to its floor by now — the fast opening it had as a seedling is gone, so a mature copy leans entirely on power rather than turn order.

Weaknesses & Resistances

In the succession wheel it is a Competitor. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs) for extra damage (×1.5), and takes extra damage from Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns and epiphytes). Against its own group and the off-wheel "Weird" categories it is neutral. See the type chart.

Gameplay uses

Its only role is the native buffer: sit it on the bench to project an overshield, or field it as a body that soaks hits for your carries. A vine sits at soft-to-mid armor with damage-capped attacks, so it will not burst anything down. Treat it as a supporting body, not a carry. It is edible (the game tags the root as the eaten part), so feeding it the matching Potassium fertilizer pays ×1.25 coins — a steady earner between battles; any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP instead. In the Total power gallery below you can watch it trade a fast-skirmisher opening for raw bulk as it levels: it leans on speed until about level 30, after which its power takes over. It is monotonically stronger the higher it goes, so there is never a reason to hold it back.