Vaccinium vitis-idaea
A native-only circumboreal shrub with a tough leaf that blunts every hit and a lignotuber that makes it immune to Burn — a modestly armored body that saps enemy ATK late.
Alpine cranberry is a low, evergreen Shrub that fights as a plain, modestly armored body with a late sapping attack. It is native across East Asia, Europe, and both Eastern and Western North America, and it has no invasive card, so the arena only ever fields it as a native buffer for your bench — there is no attacker version to play. It is an unremarkable card whose main asset is a bit more armor than a soft herb.
Its starter attack, Bramblemaze, unlocks at level 1 and costs 2 Sun, dealing about 31 damage as a straightforward hit. The free once-per-battle ability, Bramble Barrier, comes in at level 25: A wall of thorns — the foe withers against it. It mends the plant. The advanced attack, Hedgerow Havoc, unlocks at level 40 for 6 Sun (28 damage) and saps the target, withering its ATK. Most of your cranberry sit well below level 40, where only the starter is available. No move carries an initiative rider.
Alpine cranberry carries two working always-on traits, one per riser. Sclerophylly comes online at level 10: the tough evergreen leaf takes a flat 3 off each direct hit it receives. Lignotuber comes online at level 68 and makes the card outright immune to Burn — better than immune, in fact, since a Burn applied to it heals it. Against a fire-leaning opponent that flips a threat into a resource. See Abilities.
Cranberry carries no trait keywords — no thorns, no toxin chemistry — so nothing punishes an attacker for hitting it. It is non-toxic: no hazard ring, no contact recoil, no poison rider. Its growth habit is terrestrial, so it is not eligible for a Moss Pole. Defensive field gear — a Cloche, or a Ca/Mg amendment — stacks onto its shrub-band armor to make it a sturdier body.
At level 40 cranberry reads 121 HP and ATK 28 (this is a native-only card, so there is no invasive stat line). DEF is 10, in the shrub band — meaningfully more armor than any soft herb, and its best number. Its tempo is even: turn 1 runs on its initiative (34) and every turn after on its SPD (34), which sit at the same value, so it is neither a fast opener nor a fast cruiser. Retreat costs 13 Sun. As a native it gains a +15% HP cushion and, while benched, projects an HP overshield onto your active. See Stats.
Matured to level 100, cranberry climbs to 233 HP and 52 ATK, with DEF reaching 20 — a shrub firms up toward a sturdier wall, so it gains real armor as well as health, though nothing like a conifer. Retreat rises to 25 Sun, and its tempo has sunk to roughly 1% of cap, so it acts last against almost anything young. Maturing buys it a durable, if unexciting, body.
As a shrub, cranberry is in the Competitor succession group. It hits Ruderal plants (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs) for ×1.5 and is hit for only ×0.667 by them; it is weak to Specialist plants (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), which strike it for ×1.5 while resisting its blows. Against other Competitors and the off-wheel Weird group the matchup is neutral. See Weaknesses & Resistances.
Play cranberry as a plain native buffer: its cushion, bench overshield, and shrub armor let it soak hits for a fragile hitter, and its advanced attack can wither an enemy's ATK late. With only middling damage it is a filler body rather than a card you build around, but a Burn-immune one that blunts every hit. It is inedible, so feeding it any nutrient banks ×1.25 XP rather than coins. It plays as a steady buffer at every level; there is no fast-skirmisher phase, and no reason to hold it back from leveling into a sturdier body.
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.