Hottentot fern

Overview

The Hottentot fern is a fern in Supplant. It carries no recorded native or invasive range, so the arena never grants it a nativity bonus: it always fights as a plain neutral card, with neither the native HP cushion nor the invasive attacker's edge.

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. Spore Broadcast is the starter attack, available from level 1 for 2 Sun. The free once-per-battle ability, Understory Ecesis, unlocks at level 25: Takes the forest floor: heal 30%, and the foe can't heal. The advanced attack, Crozier Crush, comes online at level 40 for 6 Sun — The unfurling tip closes around the foe.

Its attacks land for about 26 (starter) and 31 (advanced) at the snapshot level — plain base numbers, since no nativity bonus applies.

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 reads Unpalatable from level 10, and a second passive, undefined, stacks on at level 68.

Unpalatable. Its fiddlehead chemistry poisons any attacker that strikes it (a flat 2 stacks of Poison). A Sulfur soil amendment on the attacker neutralizes this one.

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Features

Its unpalatable fiddlehead chemistry poisons attackers on contact, and a Sulfur amendment on the attacker cancels it. 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 89 (its plain, un-cushioned base), DEF 2, with a retreat cost of 16 Sun and tempo pips of 51 initiative / 34 SPD. Its DEF sits at the soft-fern floor. With no nativity bonus its HP and ATK sit at base — no native cushion, no invasive ATK ramp — so it is a middle-of-the-road body on every stat. 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 grows toward 165 while DEF holds in the soft band (3) — a bigger spoiler, not a wall. 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 Specialist. It hits Competitor plants (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs and broadleaf trees) for extra damage (×1.5), and takes extra damage from Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs). Against its own group and the off-wheel "Weird" categories it is neutral. See the type chart.

Gameplay uses

With no nativity role it is a straightforward neutral body — no cushion to lean on, no attacker's edge to exploit. A soft specialist whose value is its contact poison and bench chip, not its body. It is weak in a straight fight and best used as a spoiler. It is inedible in the game's economy, so any fertilizer you feed it banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins — useful as level fodder, not as a coin source. 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 36, after which its power takes over. It is monotonically stronger the higher it goes, so there is never a reason to hold it back.