Uma Musume Reviews
This section will rate each uma and tell you how they’re ideally built. There will be many different categories they can be rated for: Style, Team Trials, Debuffer, and Parent. Aside from the Team Trials category, the rest will be aimed towards Champion’s Meeting.
The ranking criteria is as follows:
Runners:
1 - Pet Pick. There’s no reason to use this character except for character love.
2 - Usable. Worse than umas in 3, but can still compete.
3 - Average. More or less the same strength as Summer Maruzensky in the best case.
4 - Strong. Significantly stronger than Summer Maruzensky on certain tracks.
5 - Meta. In the top 5 umas for at least one track, or has similar strength to them.
Other styles are the same, except OG Oguri Cap instead of Summer Maruzensky. Summer Maruzensky releases later and is a strong Front Runner, but with nothing special going for her. Basically becoming the default choice when nobody else works particularly well.
Team Trials:
1 - This uma’s unique and both golds are inconsistent.
2 - This uma’s unique is inconsistent but one gold is consistent. (1200 points)
3 - This uma’s unique is consistent or both golds are consistent. (2400 points)
4 - This uma’s unique and one of her golds are consistent. (3600 points)
5 - This uma’s unique and both golds are perfectly consistent. (4800 points)
Parents:
1 - This skill isn’t worth buying.
2 - The skill is a consistent 0.15 speed or equivalent usefulness.
3 - The skill is a consistent 0.25 speed or equivalent usefulness.
4 - The skill is highly desirable for some umas, but not among the best available.
5 - The skill is the best inherit for some style on some track, basically mandatory.
Debuffer: Separated into the different types of debuffers, then a number given to show the total reduction the debuffer can provide with her kit.
While reading, use the character pages on Gametora as reference for what their skills, aptitudes, and bonuses are. These entries are currently ordered by release date. You can use CTRL+F to find the uma you’re looking for easier. Note that any mention of special events won’t occur in the MANT or Arc scenarios.
These reviews will frequently mention carry-over. If you don’t know what that is, check this section. If you’re not sure why acceleration is significant, check How Races Work.
Notes on Terms
These reviews are from later in the game’s life (around Scenario 5 for most of them), so there are some things that aren’t present in the current version of the game. Some umas also received buffs to their ultimates during one anniversary or another.
Evolutions - The gold skills umas start with later get special pink versions, which are more powerful and unique to the uma. This makes some umas much better. It happened around the second anniversary, with the Grandmasters scenario.
Parents - There are key parent umas that frequently get compared to, such as Dober and Nishino Flower who aren’t yet in the game. They’re meta defining as parents once they do release.
Christmas Oguri - This uma triggers her unique after using 3 healing skills. She’s one of the most dominant competitive umas for a long time, with the puzzle being finding which heals to use to make her unique trigger at the best time. Umas with healing ults will frequently be looked at through the lens of her. She does fall off after evolutions come out though, as she doesn’t get good ones.
Gambler - An uma who stacks up a bunch of random acceleration skills and hopes one of them triggers at a good time.
Oonige - A fifth racing style, which is Front Runner taken to a new extreme. Technically added during MANT, but not really usable until Grand Live.
Daily Legend Race - A feature added later where you can get 1 piece for certain umas each day. 150 pieces lets you get the uma, so this feature allows you to get an uma of your choice every 5 months. (plus 2x events)
1* Umas
Sakura Bakushin O (1*)
Ratings: Pace Chaser 4 (Sprint), Team Trials 4 (Sprint), Parent 2
Bakushin’s Staggering Lead gold is pretty much impossible to activate as a normal Front Runner, you don’t have to awaken her all the way to potential lv5. Since she has Pace Chaser Straightaways and Countermeasure, it’s better to just make her a Pace Chaser. Her unique skill is also more difficult to activate as a Front Runner. Turbo Sprint is a great skill for Sprints, though other umas can get the gold from her card.
Mejiro Ryan (1*)
Ratings: Late Surger 2, Team Trials 2, Parent 5
Ryan is exclusively used as a parent. On tracks where the spurt starts on a corner, she’s almost always used for all Late Surgers and End Closers. Even though Dober outshines her on some tracks, with two uniques to inherit, it’s usually Ryan + Dober as your parents. Killer Tunes is for Pace Chasers/Front Runners, so it’s not something that helps her. You’d rather run her as a Late Surger for Rising Dragon and the chance of triggering her unique. Though, her unique is way too specific to be consistent in Team Trials (need exactly 8th place).
Agnes Tachyon (1*)
Ratings: Pace Chaser 3, Team Trials 5 (Medium), Parent 5, Speed Debuffer (-0.25)
Tachyon isn’t used universally as a parent, but on some tracks, her unique is used by Christmas Oguri as a fourth heal, which improves her consistency. For Team Trials, her debuff evolves into a perfectly consistent skill. Her heal and unique are both consistent enough, too. Having a unique heal and a gold heal means you get to skimp on Stamina while training her. However, she’s not amazing in a CM context.
Nice Nature (1*)
Ratings: Late Surger 1, Team Trials 4, Parent 2, Stamina Debuffer (-6%)
Nice Nature is the quintessential Stamina Debuffer, having both important golds. That’s basically her only use in Champion’s Meeting. See the Debuff Builds section for details. Her evolution skills are both bad, but the All-Seeing Eyes evolution is more consistent for Team Trials.
King Halo (1*)
Ratings: Late Surger 2, Team Trials 2, Parent 1
OG King Halo is an unfortunate uma. Her unique is essentially OG Oguri’s but worse. Her vision gold is consistent but unusable outside of Team Trials. Jolt of Energy is inconsistent and weak when Turbo Sprint exists. An uma that’s entirely outclassed.
Winning Ticket (1*)
Ratings: Late Surger 3, Team Trials 3, Parent 1
Winning Ticket has nothing exciting in her kit. A speed unique on the final straight combined with one useless and one decent gold. At least the golds are consistent. Her unique might be more consistent in Mile, but she starts with Mile F. “blocked_side” final corner uniques are difficult ever since First Anniversary added the spreading on final corner.
Matikanefukukitaru (1*)
Ratings: Late Surger 1, Team Trials 4 (Long), Parent 1
Fuku’s unique is more consistent in longer tracks. However, she has no built-in gold heals, so it’s harder to build her for them. Her long gold is consistent but her green gold is anything but. In CM, it triggers 2/9 times, and in Team Trials, it triggers 2/12 times.
Haru Urara (1*)
Ratings: Late Surger 1, Team Trials 4 (Dirt), Parent 2
Urara is full of recoveries. Since Dirt Team Trials is all Mile, and she has Medium G anyway, they’re not very useful. However, they are fairly consistent, and for free-to-play players, she’s one of the only options for Dirt Team Trials. You can make her an End Closer if you want her unique to be a bit more consistent, maybe. Her unique isn’t normally something you want to inherit, however, there are some edge cases where you can inherit it on a Late Surger/End Closer Christmas Oguri. She’s also sometimes used for weird strategies that involve having one very bad uma due to her bad aptitudes.
2* Umas
Gold Ship (2*)
Ratings: End Closer 4, Team Trials 4 (Medium/Long), Parent 1
Gold Ship is a good baseline End Closer. When End Closers are good, she’s a fine option to bring, but she’ll always be outclassed by at least one other End Closer. Her vision buff is a consistent gold for Team Trials but does nothing in CM, as always with vision skills. Downhills for her recovery happen more in Medium Team Trials (68%) than in 2500~2600 Long Team Trials (57%).
Vodka (2*)
Ratings: Late Surger 3, Team Trials 4 (Mile), Parent 1
In CM, Vodka’s Furious Feat evolution makes her a good gambler. If it triggers well she’ll have a good chance to win. Pair it with other gambling skills like On Your Left!. In Team Trials, the 6 NPCs make it very hard to trigger. Her heal is consistent in both cases. Her unique is a worse version of OG Oguri’s.
Daiwa Scarlet (2*)
Ratings: Front Runner 4, Pace Chaser 4, Team Trials 4 (Medium Front Runner), Parent 1
Daiwa’s unique has accel on it, which is always a sign that you should look to see if you can take advantage of it. For Daiwa, she used to be known as the “Daiwa Rocket” in Medium. She triggers Killer Tunes, gains speed, and that triggers her unique, which makes her accel, ideally near the start of the spurt. If it’s a bad track for Front Runners, she can be a Pace Chaser. She’s a great F2P option in Medium CMs. For Team Trials, her unique is much more consistent as a Front Runner, so just make her a Front Runner and ignore her heal.
Grass Wonder (2*)
Ratings: Late Surger 3, Team Trials 4 (Medium), Parent 2, Speed Debuffer (-0.25)
Grass Wonder is generally used as a combination Speed Debuffer and Gambler in CM. With her built-in On Your Left!, she can sometimes get lucky and steal a win. On the races she doesn’t get lucky, Monopolizer slows down the enemies to help your other umas win. In Team Trials, On Your Left! can be a bit inconsistent, but her Monopolizer evolution is perfectly consistent.
El Condor Pasa (2*)
Ratings: Front Runner 4, Pace Chaser 4, Team Trials 4 (Dirt), Parent 5
Pasa is a really weird uma. Her unique is great for CM Front Runners when the spurt starts on or near the final straight. However, she has Front Runner E, so it’s really difficult to raise her for that herself. She’s usually relegated to a parent for that reason, but she can get lucky as a Pace Chaser if there are few or no Front Runners. In Team Trials, she’s generally used for Dirt due to the lack of umas for that, but she has a Medium gold. But, in Medium, she needs more Stamina so she can use her unique, and her unique will only work if she’s actually winning. Just use her as a Dirt uma until you get someone better.
Air Groove (2*)
Ratings: Pace Chaser 1, Team Trials 4 (Late Surger) 3 (Pace Chaser), Parent 2
Air Groove’s awakenings and unique don’t quite match. Her unique requires her to be 4th or worse and pass someone, which is hard for a Team Trials Pace Chaser, but she has a Pace Chaser gold. It’s better to make her a Late Surger, since uniques are worth two golds. In CM, she has nothing going for her over other umas, but she does come with two End Closer debuffs. She’s a low-effort option if you want to debuff End Closers.
Mayano Top Gun (2*)
Ratings: Anything 4, Team Trials 2?4? (Front Runner/Pace Chaser), Parent 1
Mayano has great awakenings. Breath of Fresh Air is a consistent heal and No Stopping Me! is a strong skill on many CMs. Her aptitudes mean she can race on anything as anything, though Dirt Mile is a bit difficult. If Pace Chasers are good, she can be a Pace Chaser, if End Closers are good, she can be an End Closer. Her Shapeshifter event (win a G1 as each style) even gives her a good accel for every style. She’s definitely an uma you want to invest in as a F2P player. In Team Trials, No Stopping Me! isn’t consistent. Her unique is also a final corner “blocked_side” unique, which is difficult to achieve after the First Anniversary change to make umas spread out on the final corner. I’m not sure how consistent it is in Team Trials.
Super Creek (2*)
Ratings: Pace Chaser 3, Team Trials 3 (Long/Medium Pace Chaser), Parent 4
Super Creek has a crazy amount of recovery in her kit. Her unique and evolved Maestro total to be nearly 3 golds worth. However, her unique is inconsistent, requiring her to be 3~4 in CM or 3~5 in Team Trials at a random point in the middle leg. If there end up being a lot of Front Runners / Pace Chasers it’s difficult to trigger. It’s still a good heal when inherited though, so she’s sometimes used as a parent for Pace Chasers who want some safety vs debuffs. Pace Chasers often don’t have good things to inherit, especially if it’s not a Nishino track, so she’s a good parent to have around.
3* Umas
Rice Shower (Original)
Ratings: Pace Chaser 2, Team Trials 5 (Long), Parent 2
Rice is a very popular uma, but not a very good one. Her unique and golds are all consistent enough for Long Team Trials though, and since she has a built-in recovery, training her for it isn’t difficult. Her bonuses can sometimes make training painful. She has Determined Descent which is good on some tracks, but the other umas with it are much better, and others can just inherit the white or get the gold from a card.
Symboli Rudolf (Original)
Ratings: Late Surger 3, Team Trials 5 (Medium Late Surger), Parent 3, Speed Debuffer (-0.25)
Rudolf’s evolutions mean that her unique and both golds are perfectly consistent, making her a great option for a Medium Team Trials. Though, one of those golds is Professor, which you get from the very popular Kitasan Black Speed card, as well as the popular Tokai Teio Wisdom card. If you regularly use either of those cards, she loses value and can be considered Team Trials 4 due to having a duplicated gold. Her unique is very consistent and decently strong for Late Surgers and End Closers. She can be a good parent when Dober and/or Ryan aren’t good parents for the track, such as in Long Distance, or as a grandparent. As a Debuffer, Rudolf isn’t desirable as she can’t use her own card, which is the best card for Debuffers. In CM she’s just average.
Mejiro McQueen (Original)
Ratings: Late Surger 4, Team Trials 5 (Long Pace Chaser), Parent 3
McQueen received a bit of redemption with her evolutions, but not enough to make her generally good in CM. However, everything is consistent for Team Trials. There is a very specific strategy with McQueen as a Late Surger in CM which is fairly strong. You pair her with Urara or a similar poor performer to make her unique always trigger. Her unique is also pretty good for Front Runners when the final corner is in the middle leg. In Long where it’s stronger, the final corner is later than you want a Front Runner skill for, but it could be used on Pace Chasers.
Taiki Shuttle (Original)
Ratings: Pace Chaser 5, Team Trials 3 (Mile Pace Chaser), Parent 5
Taiki’s unique is very strong on certain tracks, and it gives acceleration, so she’s a highly desirable parent. On tracks where she’s good, her ult is paired with Nishino Flower’s, taking up both parent slots. Because of this, if you don’t have either of them, you should consider prioritising Taiki from daily legend races. However, her unique isn’t consistent enough for Team Trials. Also, when she’s good, it’s often the case that other umas with her unique inherited are stronger than her. But, sometimes, it only lasts long enough on her herself.
Oguri Cap (Original)
Ratings: Pace Chaser 3, Late Surger 3, End Closer 3, Team Trials 5 (Pace Chaser), Parent 3
Oguri is a great all-rounder uma. She’s decently strong in basically any track, and her unique can be inherited on non-Front Runners for a consistent 0.25 speed. Using Oguri is never a bad choice. In Team Trials, everything is consistent, and you can put her anywhere you need her. Of course, that’s usually Dirt, but if you have Dirt umas and lack Sprint umas, she can fill that. Her great flexibility and good strength is why she’s recommended for the initial pick ticket, even though other umas are sometimes stronger. Her heal is consistent when she’s a Pace Chaser and her acceleration skill can sometimes be used for gambling.
Maruzensky (Original)
Ratings: Front Runner 2, Team Trials 5 (Mile Pace Chaser), Parent 5
Maruzensky is primarily a parent uma. For Front Runners and Pace Chasers, she’s good for Osaka Hai, Oaks, Japan Derby, and Japan Cup. These are all Medium tracks, so she herself isn’t very good on them. She doesn’t have the skills required to keep first. On other final corner tracks, her unique typically triggers too early to do anything, but she can be inherited on Late Surgers/End Closers, who can pass into 5th to trigger it later and get the accel. On such tracks, Dober isn’t a good inherit, so she can replace Dober as a parent. In Team Trials, she has consistent skills and a consistent unique, just don’t evolve Accel Full Throttle. It requires first place when evolved, which isn’t consistent even for Front Runner. Her inherited unique is also very consistent for all styles and can be inherited on anyone in Team Trials for points.
Tokai Teio (Original)
Ratings: Pace Chaser 5, Team Trials 5 (Medium Pace Chaser), Parent 3
Tokai Teio used to be basically unusable, but the evolutions and a buff to her unique saved her. Now she’s a very strong uma in Medium distance. Her winrate in competitive matchmaking rivals NY Kitasan and Christmas Oguri in some CMs. As a parent, she’s a consistent 0.25 speed. She also has strong Secret Events for winning the Triple Crown and the Spring Triple Crown.
Silence Suzuka (Original)
Ratings: Front Runner 5, Team Trials 5 (Mile Front Runner), Parent 2
Suzuka is used for her Oonige ability. In Team Trials, this means she has an extra gold skill. Concentration is also a great skill in Team Trials since it gets you more good start bonuses. In CM, she’s used often, as Front Runners are frequently strong and an Oonige makes it much harder for Front Runners to win. When the spurt is on the final corner, her Unrestrained skill can help her win. Her inherited unique basically only works on other Oonige and there are better options.
Special Week (Original)
Ratings: Pace Chaser 4, Team Trials 5 (Pace Chaser), Parent 4
Special Week is pretty plain. Her unique has accel, but it requires you to pass someone, so it’s hard to trigger early enough to be good. However, the Current Speed aspect of it means you’ll always be getting a benefit. Everything is consistent for a Team Trials Pace Chaser.
TM Opera O (Original)
Ratings: Pace Chaser 4+, Team Trials 5 (Medium Pace Chaser), Parent 2
Opera has a heap of consistent skills for Team Trials. In CM, she can be strong when the spurt starts after the final corner starts and both of her evolutions are great. Her unique and Speed Star both trigger on the final corner. If they give her carryover, she’s strong. Tracks that fit this are… Tennosho Autumn and that’s it I think. Also keep in mind her Fall Triple Crown secret event both years, which gives all stats up and is affected by Race Bonus.
Mihono Bourbon (Original)
Ratings: Front 2, Team Trials 5 (Medium Front Runner), Parent 3
Bourbon is outclassed by many Front Runners in a CM context, but in Team Trials, her skills are pretty consistent. You’d want to get Concentration on her to improve her unique’s consistency, or at least Focus. Her unique won’t trigger if she has a bad start, and Concentration prevents those. Having a Medium Distance Recovery built in makes her easy to train.
Biwa Hayahide (Original)
Ratings: Pace Chaser 2, Team Trials 5 (Long Pace Chaser), Parent 2~3
Biwa’s similar to Super Creek. She has an insane amount of recovery, almost three golds worth with both her evolutions, and everything is consistent for Team Trials. However, she has nothing exciting in her kit for CM except maybe carryover on her unique in Tennosho Fall.
Mejiro McQueen (Anime)
Ratings: Front 2, Pace 2, Stadium 5 (Long Front/Pace), Parent 2
Bird McQueen doesn’t really have anything going for her in CM, but at least she’s consistent in Stadium and has a heal for Long. She’s outclassed when her unique carries over and can’t compete in Long CMs against the meta Pace Chasers or Fronts until her buffs which come much later. Though, after those buffs, she is quite strong.
Tokai Teio (Anime)
Ratings: Pace 3, Stadium 5 (Medium Pace), Parent 3
Red Teio is a little better than OG Oguri, but has nothing to make her exceptional. Everything is consistent for Stadium and her unique can be inherited on Pace Chasers for 0.25 speed. Two gold recoveries in Medium means you get to skimp on Stamina quite a bit.
Curren Chan (Original)
Ratings: Pace Chaser 4, Team Trials 5? (Sprint Pace Chaser), Parent 1, Speed Debuffer (-0.25)
Curren is a gambler in Sprints. If her unique triggers late enough to bring the accel into the spurt, she’s pretty strong. However, Sprint CMs tend to be dominated by Front Runners and End Closers, so she’s not quite meta. She’s probably good in Team Trials, her golds are consistent and her unique should trigger most of the time.