Statuses & Keywords

The 9 Statuses

Statuses tick each checkup (the end-of-turn resolution). Six are negative, three are positive.

Status	Type	Effect
Poisoned	Negative	Damage over time: each stack costs 1 HP plus 0.9% of the target's maximum HP every checkup, so it bites hardest on the bulkiest plants. It ignores DEF and bypasses the overshield. Stacks have no hard ceiling, but they diminish: the first dose lands in full and each re-application adds half as much as the one before, so a rider thrown turn after turn settles at about twice its opening dose and then stops landing. A plant's once-per-battle ability is exempt from that chipping — its dose lands in full however many times an attack rider has already been applied, so saving a big one is never punished by the chipping that came before it. The exemption keeps its own count, though: the first ability dose on a target lands whole, a second one from another plant's awakening adds half as much, and so on, so several carriers cannot stack it without limit. A full cleanse clears the diminishing and the next dose lands whole again; trimming only some stacks does not.
Burned	Negative	Poison's twin — the same damage-over-time curve and the same diminishing re-application, but its own separate stack pool and its own diminishing count, so a plant can burn and be poisoned at once and neither weakens the other. The once-per-battle ability exemption applies here too. A Cloche does not block it (a bell jar traps heat); a Watering Can does.
Withered	Negative	ATK reduced ("wilt"), up to a cap.
Bound	Negative	Can't retreat; ticks down on its own. A Bind rider isn't guaranteed: it takes hold 75% of the time, on a damaging move and on a pure-lockdown (no-damage) one alike — otherwise the target shrugs it off. A retaliation trait that Binds whoever struck it rolls once per hit, so a multi-hit attack is more likely to end up Bound than a single-hit one.
Dormant	Negative	Skips its next attack.
Blighted	Negative	Cannot be healed for a few checkups.
Warded	Positive	Blocks new above-ground statuses (poison, blight, dormant) for 2 checkups. From a Cloche.
Staked	Positive	Bind immunity for 2 checkups. From a Stake.
Doused	Positive	Burn immunity for 2 checkups — Burn's answer to Staked. From a Watering Can.

A key trap: poison bypasses the overshield entirely, so a plant behind a full shield can still be poisoned to death.

The 4 Trait Keywords

Keywords are baked into a species and are always on.

• Toxic — attacks force a poison rider, and the plant triggers the invasive toxic guardrail (see below).
• Thorns — deals recoil damage (~8) back to any attacker that hits it.
• Carnivory — attacks lifesteal ~50% of damage dealt, and the plant permanently fertilizes itself. Covers these plants, which digest their prey: sundews and the Venus flytrap, tropical pitcher plants, North American pitcher plants, bladderworts and butterworts, rainbow plants, the Albany pitcher plant and the dewy pine — plus the two lone carnivores of otherwise ordinary families, Triphyophyllum and Philcoxia. Plants that trap insects without digesting them, like Roridula, are not carnivores.
• Succulence — regenerates ~1.5% max HP each checkup in any weather, metered against Sun (the aloe, cactus, and agave families).

Status immunities (a separate kind of resistance)

Apart from the damage type chart (the succession wheel), a few effects grant immunity to specific statuses:

• Warded (Cloche) blocks new above-ground statuses — but not Burn, since a bell jar traps heat.
• Staked (Stake) grants Bind immunity.
• Doused (Watering Can) puts out an existing Burn and grants Burn immunity.
• Sulfur (field gear) grants spore/spore-drift immunity.
• A handful of always-on traits refuse a status outright — Buttress Roots, Deep Taproot and Canopy Anchorage refuse Bound; Anoxic Tolerance refuses Poison; Lignotuber and Waterlogged refuse Burn (Lignotuber heals from it instead).
• Blighted denies the target's own healing — a kind of anti-resistance you inflict.

Native vs Invasive

An invasive plant's ATK edge is its introduced-breadth aggression, baked into its ATK ceiling and realized as it matures — not a flat multiplier. (Cards still show a legacy ×1.75 / ×1.4-if-toxic badge, but it no longer gates combat on its own.) A toxic plant's real combat interaction is contact recoil: biting it poisons the biter, dosed by its toxicity tier (mild / toxic / deadly). Statuses themselves are nativity-blind — anyone can be poisoned, withered, or warded.

Related

See Moves for which attacks apply these statuses, Abilities for passives like spores and allelopathy that inflict them, and Categories for which pools carry each keyword.