You've finally pulled that 3-star character you wanted. You spend hours in the URA Finals or Grand Masters, hitting the "Train" button until your thumbs ache, only to realize your speedster is getting dusted in the final straight of a Room Match. It’s frustrating. Honestly, it’s enough to make anyone want to close the app. But the problem usually isn't your support cards or even your RNG during the run. The problem started before you even hit start. It’s your genes.
Parent farming in Uma Musume Pretty Derby is the invisible backbone of the entire game. It’s the difference between a Rank B horse that struggles in mid-tier races and a Rank UF monster that dominates the Champions Meeting. If you aren't obsessively looking at those blue, red, and white stars in the inheritance screen, you aren't really playing the game; you're just watching a very expensive screensaver.
The Brutal Reality of Blue Factors
Let's get the basics out of the way because people overcomplicate this constantly. Blue factors are your raw stats. Speed, Stamina, Power, Guts, Intelligence. When you finish a training scenario, the game rolls a dice. If your stat is SS or higher, you have a better chance of landing a 3-star factor.
But here’s the kicker: it’s still mostly luck. You can have a 1200 Speed stat and still walk away with a 1-star Speed factor. It’s brutal. This is why "farming" is the correct term. You are tilling the soil. You are doing hundreds of runs of the same girl just to get one "9-star" parent—that’s a girl who has a 3-star blue factor herself, and whose parents both have 3-star blue factors.
Why do we care so much? Because inheritance happens three times. Once at the start, once in April of Year 2, and once in April of Year 3. If you have 18 stars of Power across your inheritance tree, you're gaining massive chunks of stats for free. You basically start the race at the finish line.
Red Factors and the Distance Meta
Red factors modify your "Aptitude." This is where things get technical and where most casual players mess up. You see an "A" in Turf and think you're good. You're not. In high-level PvP, you need an "S."
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An "S" rank in Distance gives you a hidden speed multiplier during the last spurt of the race. If you’re running a Mile race and your opponent has Mile S while you have Mile A, you lose. Period. To get that S, you need red factors from your parents. This makes parent farming in Uma Musume Pretty Derby a targeted exercise. You aren't just farming for "good" girls; you're farming for a "Long Distance 3-star" parent so you can finally make your Mejiro McQueen viable for the Tenno Sho Spring.
It’s a rabbit hole. You start needing specific combinations. Maybe you want a girl with 3-star Stamina (Blue) and 3-star Dirt (Red). The odds of hitting that specific combo are astronomical. That's why the community relies so heavily on the "Follow" system. You find that one Japanese whale who spent six months grinding a perfect Maruzensky and you cling to them like a lifeline.
Building the Compatibility Bridge
Compatibility (the little circle or double-circle icons) determines how likely factors are to actually trigger during those April inheritance events. If your parents don't "like" each other, those 9 stars you worked so hard for might just... not happen.
Cygames uses a hidden "Compatibility Point" system. It’s based on the shared history of the horses in real life. Horses that ran the same races or are from the same bloodlines tend to have higher compatibility. For example, members of the "Mejiro" family often play nice together.
G1 Racing for G-Factor
Here is a tip that most people miss: The "G1" victory overlap. If two parents have won the exact same G1 races during their training, their compatibility score increases. This is why serious players don't just win the races required by the scenario. They go out of their way to win the "Triple Crown" or the "Spring Senior Triple Crown" even if the training rewards are mediocre. You're doing it for the "Inheritance Point" bonus. You're building a legacy.
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White Factors: The Secret Sauce of Champions Meeting
If Blue factors are the engine and Red factors are the tires, White factors are the turbocharger. These are the skills and scenario-specific bonuses.
"URA Scenario" or "Grand Masters" white factors provide huge stat boosts. If you stack enough of these across your parents, a single inheritance event can grant you +50 to two different stats. That is massive. Then there are the skills. Getting a "Corner Proficiency" or "Straight Venting" white factor means your trainee can learn those skills at a massive discount.
In the current meta, farming for specific white factors like "Umanari" or specific "Track Condition" buffs is what separates the top 1% from everyone else. It’s tedious. It’s exhausting. You will delete 99% of the girls you train. But that 1%? That's the one that wins you the platinum trophy.
The "Grand Masters" Shift
With the introduction of newer scenarios, the way we approach parent farming in Uma Musume Pretty Derby has shifted. We used to just care about raw stats. Now, we care about "Scenario Factors." The "God of Wisdom" or "God of Speed" factors from the Grand Masters scenario are so powerful that old parents from the URA era are almost obsolete.
You have to keep moving. The meta doesn't stand still, and neither should your stable. If you're still using parents from two years ago, you're handicapping yourself.
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Actionable Steps for Efficient Farming
Stop aimlessly training. If you want to actually see results in your parent farming, you need a workflow.
First, pick a "Core." This should be a girl with a high base compatibility with a wide range of others, like Oguri Cap or Grass Wonder. Use your daily rentals to borrow a 9-star Blue factor parent from the top of the leaderboards. Your goal isn't to make a racer; it's to make a "Bridge."
Train this girl specifically for G1 wins. Hit the Japan Cup, the Arima Kinen, and the Takarazuka Kinen. Even if your stats suffer slightly, the goal is the "Trophy Room." When you finish, check the factors. If it's not a 3-star Blue, it’s probably fodder, unless it has an insane 3-star Red factor for a difficult distance like Short or Dirt.
Second, understand the "Two-Generation" rule. Your trainee inherits from their parents AND their grandparents. When you look at a rental, look at the ancestors. If the grandparents have garbage factors, the 3-star parent is only half as effective.
Third, use your items. In newer scenarios, there are often ways to tilt the scales or get more skill points. Use them to ensure you hit those SS thresholds for the stats you want factors in. If you want Power factors, you must ensure Power is at least 1100 before the final race.
Finally, be ruthless. Your stable will fill up with "almost good" girls. They have 3-star Speed but 1-star Red factors. Or they have great White factors but only 2-star Blue. Unless you are a brand new player, these are distractions. Keep the best, delete the rest, and keep hitting that "Start Training" button. The math eventually swings in your favor.