Beginner’s Guide
Umamusume: Pretty Derby is a multimedia franchise created by Cygames that mashes horse racing and anime idols, taking inspiration from real-life Japanese horses. The series revolves around Umamusume, or Uma for short, which literally translates to horse girls. In this guide, we will specifically be discussing the mobile gacha game, developed and published by Cygames for the global audience in 2025.
This guide is designed for complete beginners and assumes no prior knowledge of the game or its mechanics. Its purpose is to explain the fundamentals, help new players avoid mistakes, and provide a foundation for developing long-term goals and understanding the remainder of the site.
Why Play Umamusume
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Convenient to pick up and put down | It’s still a Gacha game and therefore P2W |
| Less restrictive Stamina system | Careers are fully manual |
| Interesting cultural relevance | Significant time and effort required to be competitive |
| Easier to play in public than most Gacha games | Lack of banner carryover means that players must be patient to avoid wasting pulls |
| Accelerated Quality of Life updates | Duplicates are necessary for key Support Cards |
| Wide variety of viable playstyles and characters, depth to gameplay mechanics that isn’t just “bigger damage number better” | Your favorite Uma might not be in Global yet |
| Has Sakura Laurel |
Getting Started
The Tutorial
Main Page: Tutorial
This page discusses the very basics taught in the tutorial. If you are familiar with all the basic mechanics of the game, skip this section.
Rerolling
Main Page: Rerolling
Once finished with the Tutorial, we can reroll for a better starting point. Rerolling is entirely optional, but is recommended if you wish to be competitive.
Where to Spend Initial Carats
Main Page: Earlygame Carat Spending
Whether we rerolled or not, we will start off with around 27,000 Carats. As Carats are a limited resource, our Carats must be allocated properly to improve our early-game experience.
URA Basic Career Guide
Main Page: URA Career Basics
Now that we have settled on an account, the next steps are to familiarize ourselves with the game. Here is a simple guide that will get us started off with our first Career runs.
Team Trials
Main Page: Team Trials Basics
Also see: Team Trials
Team Trials is a core gamemode that is necessary to unlock other content, along with providing several critical resources. Check the guide above for brief instructions on how to get started.
Shop
Main Page: Shop
While playing through our Team Trial Races, we may have noticed a Daily Sales shop pop up. As the shop is filled with various goods that can be traded for with different resources, we recommend you read this guide for a first step on what to purchase.
Clubs
Main Page: Clubs
Once we have reached Team Rank E3, we unlock Clubs. Clubs are an important source of Club Points and Carats, along with finding other players that we can socialize with.
Story
Main Page: Story
One of the main appeals of Umamusume is the Story, split between the Main Story and the individual Umamusume Stories. While we recommend everyone gives the Story an honest try, it can also be skipped for the free Carats.
Support Card Recommendations
Also see: Deckbuilding
Once we have pulled on the Support Card Banners, we can begin thinking about which Support Cards to use.
First and foremost, Uncaps and Levels of a Card are the most important. Card comparisons are made with MLB as an assumption: Generally, better Cards with lower Uncaps will be worse than a worse Card with more Uncaps. Recommendations will mainly involve SR and welfare SSR Cards as those are the Cards we will have access to at this point.
| Speed | Stamina | Power | Guts | Wit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SR Shinko Windy | SR Manhattan Cafe | SR Hishi Amazon | SSR Haru Urara | SR Daiwa Scarlet |
| SR Sweep Tosho | SR Mayano Top Gun | SR Marvelous Sunday | ||
| SR King Halo | SR Agnes Tachyon |
Our Borrow slot will be occupied by MLB Kitasan Black for a very long time, as it is THE powerful Speed SSR.
Dailies
Main Page: Daily Tasks
Like every other Gacha game, Umamusume has its own share of Dailies, and other everyday routines that many players follow. The guide above provides a general overview on what an average day involves.
Future Steps
Main Page: Next Steps
Now that we have familiarized ourselves further with the game, we can start to think about our short to mid-term goals.
Champions Meeting
Main Page: Champions Meeting Basics
Champions Meeting, or CM, is one of the main PvP Events of Umamusume. What exactly is it, and how does it work? Why should we care?
How to Get Carats
Main Page: How to Get Carats
Carats are an invaluable resource used for acquiring more Trainees and Support Cards. Here’s how we can maximize our Carat gains, both in the short-term and the long-term.