Solidago hispida
Hairy goldenrod is a native-only perennial-herb with a strong opening attack, rosette armor and a free poison — one of the more playable native buffers in this group.
Hairy goldenrod is a perennial-herb: a persistent card that hits hard early and grinds through armor with poison. It is native to Eastern and Western North America and invasive nowhere, so it only ever plays the native buffer role — there is no attacker scenario to build for it. Of this group of native-only weeds it is among the more genuinely useful in a fight.
Its starter, Crown Split (Lv 1, 2 Sun), splits at the crown and strikes from both for 44 — a strong opening number, and it carries no initiative rider. The free once-per-battle ability, Allelochemical Priming (Lv 25), primes root chemistry to Poison the foe — Primes root chemistry — Poison the foe. — damage-over-time that ignores DEF and bypasses the overshield, its answer to tanks. The advanced attack, Deep Root Strike (Lv 40, 6 Sun), draws on deep roots for 43. See moves.
Two always-on traits, one per stage. From Lv 10 it carries Basal Rosette, a flat +3 DEF that firms up an otherwise floor-level herb. At Lv 68 Vernalization Memory adds +5 ATK from turn 3 onward, so a fight that runs long tilts in its favor. Neither rides the 60% sustain chance — both are steady, unconditional effects, which makes this card's plan reliable.
It holds no thorns or Toxin trait, so its offense is the applied Poison rather than contact recoil. It is not a climber, so no Moss Pole. A Calcium/Magnesium amendment stacks onto the rosette for a firmer native build. See field gear.
At Lv 40 (Perennial herb) it reads 103 HP and 26 ATK — a respectable attack for a herb, backed by a strong starter. Its displayed DEF is 1, the soft herb floor, with the Basal Rosette adding a further flat +3 in combat. Opening tempo (initiative) is 41 and sustained Speed 46 is a touch higher, so it holds up reasonably in both phases of turn order. Retreat costs 12 Sun. As a native it gains the +15% HP cushion and projects a bench overshield onto your active. See stats.
By Lv 100 HP reaches 190 and ATK 46, while its displayed DEF stays at 1 — no wall, though the Basal Rosette's flat +3 still applies in combat. Retreat rises to 23 Sun and the inverted tempo sinks to roughly its 1% floor, so the mature card leans on its bulk, its poison and the late-fight attack bump rather than turn order. Maturing turns a fast opener into a heavier grinder.
As a perennial-herb it is a Competitor: ×1.5 into Ruderals (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), ×0.667 against Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), even into other Competitors and the Weird categories. Its free poison is its counter to armored tanks it cannot out-hit. See weaknesses & resistances.
Play it native as an aggressive buffer: a strong opening attack, a DEF-ignoring poison for armored foes, rosette armor and a late-fight attack bump give it a real plan, and it still lends a bench overshield behind a bigger threat. It is not edible, so fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — but as a battler it earns its slot better than most of the soft weeds around it. It fights as a fast skirmisher until about Lv 31, after which its bulk and attack take over.
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.