Uma Musume Inheritance Guide
Inheritance (often called breeding) is one of the most important mechanics when it comes to training your uma musume (horse girls). Understanding it properly is important if you want to be successful in character building. This article aims to cover all the information about inheritance.
Table of Contents
Basics
Before you start any training, the game will ask you to choose two characters that will serve as "parents" of your trainee. Any of the characters you've previously trained can be selected for this, except for the trained uma herself (a girl can't be her own parent, that makes sense).
Parents of the parents will also be shown here. We'll call her the trained character's grandparents, and they will affect inheritance bonuses as well. As I mentioned before, a girl can't be her own parent, but she can be her own grandparent (let's not make this any weirder and just accept the fact).
Initial bonus
When you choose the parents, several bonuses will be immediately applied to the character. These are determined by the parents' and grandparents' inheritance factors, which will be discussed later.
The first of them is a bonus to stats. Blue numbers come from the left parent's lineage, pink numbers refer to the right parent.
The second bonus improves the character's affinity in track type, track length, or racing strategy. In the previous picture, you can notice several values being highlighted in yellow - these are affinities improved by inheritance.
Inheritance events
Inheritance events happen twice every training, during the first half of April in years 2 and 3. They will start with a short cutscene where the character you're training runs after her parents. After the cutscene ends, you will receive additional bonuses that depend on the inheritance factors of the girl's parents and grandparents.
You will always get extra stats, which depend on the blue inheritance factors of the parents and grandparents. The number of stars they have in these genes will directly affect the stats received.
You can also randomly inherit green, white, and pink factors (the different types of factors are explained below in the Inheritance factors section). The chance of inheriting those will be affected by the overall compatibility of the character (triangle, circle, or double circle).
Character compatibility
After selecting parents, you will probably notice a new symbol in the top right of the screen - that's compatibility. It has three tiers, ranging from worst to best - triangle, circle, and two circles (double O).
Compatibility will affect the bonuses you get in inheritance events, so having at least good compatibility is always a good idea. How is it calculated will be explained in the advanced section, but in general, it's usually a good bet to use girls with the same track length affinity (e.g. both parent and child having A in Middle distance).
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ◎ | Great compatibility |
| 〇 | Good compatibility |
| △ | Poor compatibility |
Inheritance factors
Inheritance factors (sometimes colloquially called genes) are a set of attributes generated for every character at the end of their training. They affect what stats, affinities, and skills will the girl be able to pass on a child when she's selected as a parent.
When you finish a training, at the very end you'll see a screen similar to the picture below.
Every factor will have either one, two, or three stars. Every character is guaranteed to get one blue factor and one pink factor, while green and white factors have more specific conditions. Let's have a look at all of the types.
Blue factors
Blue factors affect stats (e.g. speed) passed to the child and are arguably the most important factors in general situations (and the most desired ones). Every character will get exactly one blue factor at the end of the training.
| Japanese name | English name |
|---|---|
| スピード | Speed |
| スタミナ | Stamina |
| パワー | Power |
| 根性 | Guts |
| 賢さ | Intelligence |
The type of blue factor an uma gets is random, and so is the number of stars. A 1200 speed character can get 1☆ speed, and an 800-speed character can get 3☆ speed - or they could, of course, get 1☆ guts or something else that you didn't want at all.
However, while the number of stars is random, you need at least 600 in a stat to have a chance of getting 3☆ at all. So if you're aiming for 3☆ stamina, be sure to get at least 600 points in stamina during the training.
The chance of getting a 3☆ blue factor seems to be around 5% with at least 600 points in the stat, and around 10% with 1100 or more points.
At the start of training, blue genes from the parents and grandparents will be added to the new character's stats as a bonus.
| ☆ | Stat bonus |
|---|---|
| 1☆ | +5 |
| 2☆ | +12 |
| 3☆ | +21 |
This bonus is additive for every parent and grandparent. For example, if one of the parents has 3☆ in speed, the other parent has 2☆ in speed, and all four grandparents have 1☆ in speed, the total bonus to speed will be 21+12+5+5+5+5 = 53.
Pink factors
Pink factors improve either track type aptitude, track length aptitude, or race strategy aptitude. Every girl will get one pink factor, and it will be randomly chosen from one of the three categories. Also, the rolled factor will always be something actually preferred by the character - for example, if a girl has a G rating in turf, it will never show up.
| Japanese name | English name |
|---|---|
| 芝 | Turf |
| ダート | Dirt |
| 短距離 | Sprint |
| マイル | Mile |
| 中距離 | Middle distance |
| 長距離 | Long distance |
| 逃げ | Runner |
| 先行 | Leader |
| 差し | Betweener |
| 追込 | Chaser |
Like blue factors, pink factors can also give a bonus before the training starts. For example, Haru Urara has a B rating in mile racing, but with inheritance, this can get improved to A at the beginning. You can also roll a pink factor randomly during an inheritance event, and it can increase the affinity even further - from A to S.
The number of stars you get at the end of training seems to be completely random. A horse girl losing at the first possible opportunity without doing any training at all can still get 3☆ on her pink factor.
Green factors
Green factors are a special type of genes that can grant characters access to their parents' unique skills. Unique skills are those with special animation and a rainbow background in the skill list (for example Maruzensky's LP1211-M).
The green factor will only appear if the character's rarity is at least 3☆ at the start of training, and it's guaranteed. 1☆ and 2☆ won't get them, but you can eventually raise their rarity with shards.
Green factors from parents will always be inherited at the start of training. You can also roll it again during an inheritance event, in which case you'll receive a discount for the skill (if you haven't purchased it yet). You can also get grandparents' green factors in inheritance events.
White factors
White factors come in two variants - let's call them skill factors and race factors.
Skill factors are pretty straightforward - they represent one of the character's normal rarity skills. You have a chance to get one or more skill factors randomly at the end of the run. If you inherit one of these during an inheritance event, the skill will become available with a discount (that will depend on the ☆ of the factor).
You have a chance to get race factors from winning G1 races - it's still random, but you finally can directly affect the RNG, because you have to win a race to have a chance at getting one.
Functionally, they are similar to skill factors. The difference is that they will grant two bonuses if you inherit them - usually a skill hint and a small boost to one stat, or a small boost to two different types of a stat.
Unlike the previous types of factors, there is a huge amount of race factors, so they are listed on a separate page.
Advanced
If you've read everything so far and started thinking that it's mostly just pure randomness, then... You wouldn't be wrong. Getting a girl with desirable factors and high stars on them is a pain and you'll be at the mercy of the dice often. However, proper knowledge of the mechanics will significantly help you fight the unyielding tides of RNG.
What to aim for
When you're starting out, almost any combination of characters that's not downright horrible will do. However, if you keep playing the game past the honeymoon period, you'll probably want to raise a powerful steed of horse girls.
Blue factors are often regarded as the most important ones because the amount of stats you can get from them over the course of the training is very significant (more so when your support card pool isn't that great yet). Of course, in an ideal world, you'd have 3☆ factors across the board, but don't expect an ideal world when farming inheritance. So focusing on getting 3☆ blue factors is a good start.
Stamina and Power are the most popular blue factors. Speed is almost always heavily focused during training and doesn't need the extra help, while Guts and Wisdom are often just not as valuable.
Your end goal, for now, should be having a 3☆ blue factor character whose parents both also have a 3☆ blue factor. If you've ever heard some saying that they want a "3x3*", it's referring to this. 3x3 characters give the highest possible amount of stats (63 at the start and a lot more during the inheritance events), so having one of these will make further training much smoother. Or, well, two of these, preferably.
When it comes to pink factors, length-based ones are what you usually want. Getting an S rank aptitude in your distance type during an inheritance event is great because it gives a lot of raw speed.
Surface-based pink factors are pretty good too - they're not as game-changing as length factors, but they're more "universal", because there are only two of them, compared to four length factors.
Strategy-based factors are usually not as good, but they are still useful if you need to train a character for a strategy she doesn't inherently excel in.
For white factors, the URA Scenario factor from winning URA Finals is the most desirable one. After that, generally just aim for quantity (by having lots of skill and winning lots of G1 races).
Borrowing friend characters
Don't forget (because a lot of people do) that you can borrow characters from your follow list as parents. If you can follow someone with a desired 3☆ blue factor, and get one yourself, you can use them together as parents to try and go for a 3x3☆ girl.
Yes, you can only try that three times per day, but, well, this is a gacha game, so you're probably used to stuff like that.
Factor farming
Eventually, after playing the game for a while, you might want to target specific factors on specific umas for breeding purposes. For example, your goal could be something like Mejiro Ryan with three medium distance factors and full 9☆ stamina (or power).
Farming specific builds like this will never be exactly easy, but you can still streamline the experience a little bit.
First, as mentioned in the previous section, always use borrowed characters when possible. To do a "full" build, you'd need to train two parents before training the desired character herself. By finding an ideal friend parent, a third of the work is already done - and it will most likely be a better build than someone you'd train yourself.
Another important thing is having 600 in the stat you want to get a blue factor of - and if you don't exactly care which blue factor you get (as long as it's 3☆), it's even easier. Just make sure you have 600 stats across the board, and hope for a high roll. Also, you need enough stats to actually win the training, which might vary from uma to uma!
After you're satisfied with the stats, you can focus on racing (G3 or higher, preferably G1). Not only does this give you a chance at rolling (hopefully multiple) race factors, but it will also increase the final compatibility bonus (as explained in the compatibility calculator).
Because your stats don't need to be perfect during factor farming runs, you can also change your support card setup a bit. Maybe include a card with interesting skill hints, because if you buy the skill and get it as a white factor, it will make the character even more valuable as a parent.
Getting double O compatibility
In the Basics section, we talked about compatibility affecting inheritance events. But how is it calculated?
Every pair of characters in the game has a set compatibility rating, and the higher it is, the better their compatibility will be. When you select the parents for a character, the game will crunch several numbers together (the exact process is described in detail on the compatibility calculator page).
If the final number reaches the first threshold, the total compatibility will be single O. If it reaches the second threshold, it will be double O.
In general, characters will similar affinities will usually have good compatibility - so if you're training a long-distance specialist, her parents (and grandparents too, if possible) should specialize in long distance as well. This is just a rule of thumb, but it will apply in most situations.
If you want concrete numbers, go check out the compatibility calculator!
Inheritance loop
Note: The rest of the article will describe a strategy that was very popular around the game release, but mostly fell out of favor ever since. It's left here for historical reasons and you might still learn something from it, but you will most likely not be doing any of this.
Inheritance loop or breeding loop refers to the strategy of finding several (usually four) characters with high compatibility and then inbreeding them (without using any other characters as parents) until you reach satisfying builds on all of them.
Why use breeding loops?
Loops don't affect the inheritance factors you get at the end of a training, and you still need to walk through RNG hell to get your 3☆ factors. So why would you even consider them?
Let's get a little bit philosophical first. There are two types of "good" training runs you can reach in Uma Musume.
The first one is, obviously, getting a horse girl with amazing stats and skills. You can then use her to compete in PvP and other game modes outside of training. This one goes without saying.
The second one would be characters that manage to get desired inheritance factors at the end of the run. In that case, it doesn't matter if you failed the run before finals with terrible stats.
If you raise characters at random, chances are you will end up with amazing inheritance factors eventually... On two incompatible characters. And good luck getting double O compatibility on anyone with them.
Loops just put everything into one package. When using loops, all four characters will have high compatibility. You can farm the desired inheritance factors first, and when you get them, doing high stat runs for your PvP team will be a breeze, because you will never fall below double O on any of the girls.
So no, breeding loops definitely aren't vital, and most of the time you can just get by with using characters with the same track affinity together. But if you want to raise four compatible characters at the same time, a loop can be an amazing tool to organize such a feat and save you some time in the process.
Loop example
Most guides tend to demonstrate the loop as a tree, however, some people have a problem visualizing it that way. Let's try using a simpler way to memorize the process.
We're gonna use the well-known combo of Vodka, Daiwa Scarlet, Grass Wonder, and El Condor Pasa. Imagine the four characters in a list, ordered A to D. In the first round, A and B (Vodka and Daiwa) will be the parents, while C (Grass Wonder) will be the child.
| ↓ Parent ↓ | ↓ Parent ↓ | ↓ Trained ↓ | |
 |  |  |  |
After the first round, we'll move all the markers one position to the right. So B and C (Daiwa and Grass Wonder) will be the parent, and D (Condor) will be the child. Remember to use the version of Grass Wonder that you trained in the previous step.
| ↓ Parent ↓ | ↓ Parent ↓ | ↓ Trained ↓ | |
| | | |
After that, we're gonna continue moving the markers to the right. Because we're at the end of the list, simply loop back to the beginning.
| ↓ Trained ↓ | ↓ Parent ↓ | ↓ Parent ↓ | |
| | | |
Moving to the right once again.
| ↓ Parent ↓ | ↓ Trained ↓ | ↓ Parent ↓ | |
| | | |
And when you move right after the fourth step, you'll notice that you have looped all the way back to the beginning. There you have it, an inheritance loop!
After you've successfully looped twice, you don't have to keep using the characters trained in a previous step. Use the strongest version you've gotten so far. After all, that's the main point of using loops - continuously making your lineage stronger.
When you reach the land of constant double Os, you also don't have to shuffle the child/parent setup all the time. Feel free to train one character with the same parents until you get whatever genes you want. After that, just move on to the next step.
