Tropaeolum minus
A native-only annual-forb with a weak attack, an initiative rider and pooled bench defence, native to South America.
Bush nasturtium is a trailing Annual forb that fights as a native support piece: it borrows defence from its bench and can seize the initiative to swing early, but its raw attack is the weakest in this batch. It is native to South America, and no invasive form exists, so it plays purely as a native buffer. Value it for the tempo trick and the cushion it lends the team rather than for its damage.
Its starter attack, Superhero, unlocks at level 1 for 2 Sun, dealing about 32 damage. The free once-per-battle ability, Old-Field Takeover, arrives at level 25: Overruns the whole field — the foe's bench withers and sickens. It is a mid-fight mend. The advanced attack, Choke Bloom, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (38 native) and pins the target as it strikes. One of its attacks carries an initiative rider: it seizes the initiative and strikes first in wild encounters, and in the arena it instead finishes a kill and keeps going. Most of your bush nasturtium sit below level 40, where only the starter is unlocked. See Moves.
Bush nasturtium keeps two always-on traits. Duff Stuff arrives on the level 10 riser: while it is active, its effective DEF rises by half the summed DEF of your alive benched ruderals — annual forbs, grasses, aquatics and bulbs — recomputed live, so the cushion shrinks as those allies faint while the donors keep their own DEF. Reseed arrives on the level 68 riser: when bush nasturtium is knocked out, a fresh Seedling token steps up in its place, the annual-forb signature. Both work at full strength from the riser that grants them. See Abilities.
Bush nasturtium is non-toxic, so it carries no contact recoil and no poison rider — nothing punishes an attacker for striking it. Its habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. As a native, defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a calcium or magnesium amendment for a little DEF — shores up its thin armor and suits its buffer role. See statuses.
At level 40 bush nasturtium reads 103 HP and just 16 ATK — the weakest attack in this batch. DEF is 2, low in the soft annual-forb band, so it takes hits with little armor and relies on Duff Stuff to borrow bulk from the bench. Its tempo is front-loaded: turn 1 runs on its higher initiative (51) and every turn after on its lower SPD (34), so it leads off the mark — reinforced by its initiative rider in the wild — but is out-paced in a longer fight. Retreat costs 16 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active, which is where most of its worth lies. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, bush nasturtium climbs to 190 HP and 28 ATK, while its DEF only reaches 3 — a soft forb buys bulk in health and little in armor, so the bench cushion stays its better shield, and even matured its attack stays slight. Retreat rises to 33 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to about 1% of cap, so a mature card acts last against almost anything younger and loses the early jump its initiative once bought.
As an annual forb, bush nasturtium sits in the Ruderal succession group. It hits Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes) for ×1.5 and takes only ×0.667 from them; it is weak to Competitor plants (perennial herbs, vines, shrubs, broadleaf trees), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Ruderal plants and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play bush nasturtium as a native buffer and early mover, not as a hitter — its attack is the weakest here. Keep other ruderals benched to feed Duff Stuff, lean on its overshield to harden the active, and use its initiative rider in wild encounters to strike first, reseeding back in when it falls. It earns its place through tempo and the cushion it lends rather than through damage, and makes a fine family-tree collection piece. It is edible at the leaf, so feeding it Nitrogen pays ×1.25 coins while any other nutrient banks ×1.25 XP toward faster growth. It plays as a fast opener that fades in longer fights and leans harder on its bulk as it levels, crossing over around level 33 — but it is always stronger at higher levels, so there is no reason to hold it back.
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.