Zanthoxylum schinifolium
A native-only shrub that heals heavily, chips attackers on contact, and pressures the enemy bench — a durable staller with a soft attack.
Sichuan pepper is a shrub — a mid-armor, sturdy category. It is native to East Asia and invasive nowhere, so it plays a native-only buffer role. Its attack is modest, but strong self-healing, a contact counter, and bench pressure make it a resilient staller rather than a damage dealer.
Its opening attack, Chipmunk Horde (level 1, 2 Sun), hits the enemy bench for 25: "Sends the hoarders through the foe's whole bench." The ability Facilitation (level 25) does "Shelters its own and starves the rest: heal 50%, and the foe's bench withers." — a large heal plus bench Wither. Its advanced attack, Coppice Comeback (level 40), costs 6 Sun for 23 and heals: "Cut it down and it returns — heal 35%."
From level 10 it carries Extrafloral Nectaries — a contact chip: an attacker that strikes it takes a small hit back, as nectar recruits ant bodyguards. At level 68 it adds Drupe Mast: when it is knocked out, it heals your living bench on the way down. Below level 68 it has only the contact chip.
No thorns, no toxin. Not a climber, so no Moss Pole. Between its category DEF, its heavy move-heals, and its contact chip, it is built to sit in and outlast; it appreciates gear that extends fights.
At level 40 it reads HP 103, ATK 20 (low), DEF 13 — firmer than a weed, climbing toward its shrub cap — with retreat 16 Sun. Its opening tempo is 13 (low) and its sustained tempo 34: it is slow off the mark and moderate after, so it usually takes the first hit and relies on healing through it. As a native it lends a +15% HP cushion and a bench overshield.
By the cap, DEF reaches 28 — firm shrub armor, well above a weed but short of a tree — with HP 190 and ATK still low at 36. Retreat rises to 33 Sun and its tempo sinks near floor. Maturing buys a durable staller; the soft attack remains its ceiling.
Sichuan pepper is a Competitor: ×1.5 into Ruderals (annual forbs, grasses, aquatics, bulbs), ×1.5 taken from Specialists (succulents, conifers, ferns, epiphytes), even with fellow Competitors.
Play it as a native staller: heal through incoming damage, chip attackers on contact, and grind the enemy bench with its Wither. Its low attack makes it a mediocre solo coin-earner — it wins by attrition and pairs best with a real hitter. It is edible with a fruit you eat, so a Phosphorus amendment pays ×1.25 coins (any other fertilizer banks ×1.25 XP). Its shrub bulk makes it power-favored from a low level (crossover near level 11); level it up.
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.