1# Lessons from the Future

As we’ve played the Japanese server for many years, we can look back and think about what we would have done

Support Cards

There are very few must-pull support cards early in the game. Kitasan Black, Fine Motion, Super Creek are the earliest ones - and Fine Motion doesn’t even get a banner. A bit later, Maruzensky and Fuku Speed, Nice Nature and CB Wits are good though style-specific. The card quality really starts going up around the fifth scenario, Grandmasters. So, you have a lot of leeway to pull on umas you like early on.

Friend and Group cards are an interesting thing. They are usually the most powerful cards in their scenario. In scenarios 2 (Aoharu) and 4 (Grand Live), the Rare version of them is perfectly serviceable, but after that, the SSRs start becoming mandatory. You can either pull them yourself, or borrow them for 4 months. Having them yourself means you can borrow other things so is generally advised starting in scenario 5, Grandmasters. The initial banners for scenarios also usually have a lot of free pulls to help you reach the pity.

Throne is a Group card that released about 2 weeks before the end of scenario 3. She was extremely meta defining for those two weeks, but then disappeared off the face of the earth. If they release her near the start of scenario 3 this time around, maybe you want her.

Umas

Don’t chase the meta racing umas. Even if you pull the uma with the longest streak of dominance, Christmas Oguri, winning a Champion’s Meeting event is only +1500 Carats over coming in last. With a pity costing 30,000 Carats, it takes far too many wins to offset the potential investment. Most of them are only good on a few tracks, too. And with the accelerated Global pace, they’ll probably have even less places to shine. Chasing meta umas is for whales.

So, pull the umas you like. I (Erzzy) built Mejiro Dober for every single Champion’s Meeting after her release, and I know people who did the same for Haru Urara. Though, Christmas Oguri is a unique and fun uma to build…

You can also aim for the good parent umas, to strengthen the umas you like. Ones with acceleration ultimates tend to be best early on, such as Seiun Sky, Mejiro Dober, and so on. There are often two+ ultimates you want to inherit, so having them yourself is good, and they last longer than racing-focused umas. Many of them are added as Daily Legend Races though, so you can get them from that instead of pulling for them.

Ideal Support Card Banner Pulls

Some of the competitive Uma JP players looked through the past banners to see what they would pull on as free to play players, in retrospect. The banners on EN may not be exactly the same, but this can give you an idea of what to look out for. Unless otherwise noted, Roll generally means 400 pulls or until MLB, whichever comes first.

★: We had 50~100 free pulls on this banner on the Japanese server

Umas to Watch For

Here are notable umas that released throughout the game, mainly ones that are good parents for a long time. Meta racing umas are replaced frequently. Parent umas have better value for free to play players. Note that there are many ways to get umas. Daily Legend Races, pick tickets, and sometimes banners where you can spark (almost) any uma. So, you don’t have to roll for them when they come up. Plus, you can borrow parents, or work them into your legacies as grandparents. You don’t need every parent uma yourself.

These are umas that are still used as parents even today on the Japanese server, five years into the game’s life. There are other good parents, but they get replaced by better options or are only used once ever. An uma in italics is just notable as being a particularly strong racing uma.

- UAF
Sigma Agnes Tachyon - Basically the same as NY Nice Nature, also strong as a racer
Jungle Pocket - Semi-limited* uma. Medium Late parent and strong racing uma

*Semi-limited umas can still be pulled from the gacha even when not on rate up, but aren’t available in things like pick tickets. This makes them harder to acquire outside of their banner, so if you like these umas, definitely go for them when they show up.

How Bad is the Power Creep?

The scenarios definitely power creep each other. They want you to always be playing the most recent few scenarios, with more stats, higher caps, better skills, and so on available in the more recent ones. Sometimes they’ll be distance specific, like GFF being for Sprint/Mile umas and then Mecha being for Med/Long, but for the most part you’ll be playing the most recent scenario if you want to make the best umas. Though, this does mean skipping a scenario isn’t a big deal.

On the left is an uma made by an active competitive JP player with some of the most recent powerful cards in the DYI scenario, the eleventh one. On the right is an uma I trained with cards from Kitasan and before. I’m no DYI expert, this was actually my first DYI run (though it is quite similar to URA in gameplay) so you might be able to push it higher with more experience.

As you can see, the stats aren’t all that different. I brought two Speed cards instead of including a Guts card, while the others are comparable.

But, the big difference is in the skill quality. I actually ran out of skills to buy on this Dober. She ended with 5200 SP, and I had to buy various Sprint, Mile, Medium, Long, Late, and Pace skills just to spend them all. They’re all over the place. The ones she has bad aptitudes for contribute less score on top of, of course, being useless in actual races.

Even of the useful skills, there are obvious improvements. Super Creek gives a gold heal, but Shakur (the Stamina on the left) gives a gold heal that also provides a speed boost. Some support cards even give two gold skills these days, and/or let you choose between two options.

But, overall, I’d say it’s not too bad. If I wanted to catch back up, it would be about 6 months of playing. Cards worth pulling tend to last 4-12 months before being replaced by better options. Though, Creek is somehow still usable as a second Stamina card.

On the Uma side, I stopped playing during Grandmasters, and apparently I still have good enough umas to raise for the competitive events, if I updated my cards. The top tier umas get replaced frequently, but the “good enough” ones remain good enough.

One of the competitive players gave me the lists of umas they used in the past year of Champion’s Meeting events, which is seen as the most competitive PvP format:

2000m Tokyo

Jungle Pocket (2 months old), TM Opera O (42 months old), Yaeno Muteki (28 months old)

2500m Nakayama

Ball Seiun Sky (31 months), Valentine’s Mihono Bourbon (33 months), Christmas Mejiro Palmer (11 months)

2400m Hanshin

Mecha Narita Taishin (1 month), Win Variation (new), Satono Crown (12 months)

1600m Hanshin

Yamanin Zephyr (28 months), Bamboo Memory (30 months), Durandal (5 months)

3200m Kyoto

Orfevre (1 month), Win Variation (4 months), Narita Taishin (48 months)

2400m Tokyo

Orfevre (3 months), Loves Only You (new), Neo Universe (26 months)

“I very easily made A finals in all of those, won some of them, and the old umas contributed to all of those instead of just being fodder.”

Don’t use this as a guide for what umas to pull, but rather as more evidence towards pulling what you like instead of chasing meta umas.

How Long Do I Have To Wait For X Uma?

Here’s an estimation of when every new uma will release. Maybe don’t look at this list if you’re a Biko fan. It takes their release date on the JP server, reduces the number of days it took them to release by a third, then adds that to Global’s release date.

With this method, Curren is estimated at an 07-29 release date, but she actually released on 07-27, so it’s not exact, but it’ll give you an idea.

Umamusume: Estimated Release Date (Year - Month - Day)

TM Opera O: 2025-06-30
Mihono Bourbon: 2025-07-04 🤖 (Actual: 2025-07-02)
Biwa Hayahide: 2025-07-10 🐑 (Actual: 2025-07-10)
Curren Chan: 2025-07-29 ❤️ (Actual: 2025-07-27)
Narita Taishin: 2025-08-05 💢
Smart Falcon: 2025-08-12 ❤️
Narita Brian: 2025-08-19 👑
Seiun Sky: 2025-09-04 🐟
Hishi Amazon: 2025-09-12 🍳
Fuji Kiseki: 2025-09-26 🙏
Gold City: 2025-10-01
Meisho Doto: 2025-10-16 🩹
Eishin Flash: 2025-10-22 ⚔️
Hishi Akebono: 2025-11-05 🍰
Agnes Digital: 2025-11-11 📕
Kawakami Princess: 2025-11-25 💪
Manhattan Cafe: 2025-12-01 ☕
Tosen Jordan: 2025-12-14 💅
Mejiro Dober: 2025-12-21 ♀️🎉
Fine Motion: 2026-01-07 ☘️
Tamamo Cross: 2026-01-12 ⚡
Sakura Chiyono O: 2026-02-01 🐶
Mejiro Ardan: 2026-02-13 🥛
Admire Vega: 2026-02-19 🌠
Kitasan Black: 2026-02-24 🥁
Matikanetannhauser: 2026-02-24 🎵
Satono Diamond: 2026-03-03 💰
Mejiro Bright: 2026-03-11
Nishino Flower: 2026-03-27
Yaeno Muteki: 2026-04-01
Ines Fujin: 2026-04-15
Mejiro Palmer: 2026-04-22
Inari One: 2026-05-06
Sweep Tosho: 2026-05-12 🧹
Air Shakur: 2026-05-26 💻
Bamboo Memory: 2026-06-15
Copano Rickey: 2026-06-21 🥠
Yukino Bijin: 2026-07-07 ❄️
Seeking the Pearl: 2026-07-13
Aston Machan: 2026-07-27 🧸
Yamanin Zephyr: 2026-08-01
Nakayama Festa: 2026-08-15
Wonder Acute: 2026-08-20 👵
Zenno Rob Roy: 2026-09-06 📚
Hokko Tarumae: 2026-09-25
Daitaku Helios: 2026-10-02
Shinko Windy: 2026-10-18 🦷
Twin Turbo: 2026-10-25 🔥
Mr. C.B.: 2026-10-25 👑
Daiichi Ruby: 2026-11-04
Symboli Kris S: 2026-11-10
Sakura Laurel: 2026-11-24
Neo Universe: 2026-11-30 🚀
Hishi Miracle: 2026-12-14
Tanino Gimlet: 2026-12-20
Marvelous Sunday: 2027-01-10
Katsuragi Ace: 2027-01-24
Sirius Symboli: 2027-01-31
Narita Top Road: 2027-02-23 🙅‍♀️
K.S.Miracle: 2027-03-13
Mejiro Ramonu: 2027-04-01 👸
Tap Dance City: 2027-04-23
Satono Crown: 2027-05-07
Cheval Grand: 2027-05-13
Vivlos: 2027-06-02
Biko Pegasus: 2027-06-19
Duramente: 2027-06-26
Ikuno Dictus: 2027-06-26
Transcend: 2027-07-07
Rhein Kraft: 2027-07-13
Sounds of Earth: 2027-08-01
North Flight: 2027-08-22
Jungle Pocket: 2027-09-07
Dream Journey: 2027-09-16
Calstone Light O: 2027-10-01
Gentildonna: 2027-10-25 👸
Cesario: 2027-11-05
Durandal: 2027-11-12
Bubble Gum Fellow: 2027-11-26
Air Messiah: 2027-12-21
Win Variation: 2028-01-05 🍎
Furioso: 2028-02-01
Tsurumaru Tsuyoshi: 2028-02-18
Orfevre: 2028-02-25 👑
Gran Alegria: 2028-03-06
No Reason: 2028-03-12
Fenomeno: 2028-04-02
Verxina: 2028-04-16
Loves Only You: 2028-04-22
Chrono Genesis: 2028-05-07

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