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Discover the pitfalls of pulling for Character Banners in Umamusume Pretty Derby and the importance of Support Cards in long-term growth.
The two measures of an account’s strength in Umamusume Pretty Derby are Support Cards and veteran Umas (horse girls). To unlock and train Umas, characters need to be obtained through the Scout feature, which serves as the game’s gacha mechanic. Within Scout, rotating character banners highlight 3-star trainees, encouraging players to try their luck in pulling for them.
However, pulling for characters can become a trap for newer players looking to strengthen their accounts. There are multiple reasons why overinvesting in character banners is suboptimal for progression, with simple solutions to outline a balanced path for obtaining trainees.
Umamusume Pretty Derby: Pulling for Support Cards vs Characters
Support Cards Build Account Strength
While training Uma during Career, your deck of Support Cards is more important for her growth than all the bonuses a 3-star+ character can provide. Training a 3-star Uma versus a 2-star makes a negligible difference in the final result when compared with the bonuses provided by good Support Cards.
The right set of Support Cards improves training efficiency, provides energy boosts to train more without resting, and even adds to mood. These factors make a world of difference during a Career run. Without them, completing a Career run successfully is challenging enough, let alone creating a strong PvP veteran. With a set of meta MLB (Maximum Limit Break) Support Cards, any Uma can be transformed into a powerhouse within her racing category.
Unlocking Characters vs Uncapping Support Cards
Investing Carats to unlock characters gives diminishing returns, while spending on Support Cards magnifies their value. This is because you only need to pull a character once to unlock them and access a majority of their potential, even for 1-star and 2-star Umas.
However, the real potential of Support Cards is unleashed by uncapping them. To fully uncap one specific Support Card, you’ll need to pull it four times. With each uncap, you can raise the level of the Support Card further, adding to its training bonuses.
When To Pull for Character Banners?
Pulling for characters is initially important to create a basic team with three Umas for every racing category. Every account starts with one free random SSR ticket and one SSR character pick ticket. This means you will have two 3-star Umas in your team, one of whom will be your favorite.
Spend all initially available Carats on pulling for Support Cards. If you have bad luck, you can always reroll the account. Once a decent set of Support Cards is unlocked and uncapped, you can quickly gather Carats from early achievements by playing a few Careers.
Then, spending around 50 pulls (7,500 Carats) on character banners will be more than enough to create a good starting roster for the account. Once this is accomplished, invest in powerful Support Card banners like Kitasan Black.
Continue to do so until you have at least five useful MLB SR or SSR cards. After such a foundation is established, you can save and pull for the character banners you like. At this point, you will be confident in your ability to train the new Umas to their full potential.
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