Unity Cup is the new Career mode in Umamusume: Pretty Derby, and it has brought certain advantages to the player that can allow you to train your Umas more effectively. But, how exactly is it any different from the Ura Finale mode that had already existed in the game since launch? We’ll be discussing it right here.
Difference Between Ura Finale And Unity Cup
Ura Finale is the most basic game mode, where you train your Uma under the guidance of Director Yayoi Akikawa. However, in Unity Cup, you’ll have to raise not only your trainees, but your teams as well, to win the Unity Cup alongside the Ura Finale at the end, all that under the authority of the Acting Director Riko Kashimoto.
Team Battles
Riko Kashimoto brings her own team for the Unity Cup, and you’ll need a team of your own to compete with her. The Unity Cup tournament progresses side by side with your Uma’s career, and you’ll have to play in five team matches as part of it. You can see how many turns are left before your next team match to the left of your energy bar on the screen.
At the start of any career, your team will be ranked No. 30, and as you continue to win the team matches, you’ll receive stat bonuses, and your Team Rank will go up until you’re ranked No. 2. You will then have to face Rko Kashimoto’s team, which is ranked No. 1 in the Unity Cup’s final. The final takes place after the Arima Kinen in the Senior Year, right before the Ura Finale sequence.
You can afford to lose the initial team matches, but you’ll miss the stat bonuses. What matters is that you win the final match against the Team Zenith, the ranked No. 1 team. Winning against Team Zenith will give you a ton of skill points, as well as hints for some powerful skills, such as It’s On.
However, even if you don’t win the Unity Cup or the team battles, you’ll still be able to complete the career with ease if you manage to win the Ura Finale sequence at the end, just like you had to do in the regular Career mode.
Your Team And Levelling Up Your Umas
Since you need a team of your own to participate in the team matches, all the Umas that are present on your Support Cards will become part of your team. Furthermore, the career mode also assigns several Umas to your team as the career progresses and you participate in team battles.
These random and Story Umas can help you fill the gap if you don’t have a certain type of race track runner. For example, just so you’re not lacking a Dirt Track runner, you’ll get Haru Urara as a guaranteed team member. The game also gives you Rice Shower for the Long Track as part of the Unity Cup’s Story.
Now, in order to strengthen these Umas, you’ll have to train with them. You can spot the arrow on the training icon on the right side of the screen. If an Uma has an arrow icon and it’s going up and down, then you can perform the Unity training with them, and that would result in their stats getting drastically enhanced.
Training with these Umas isn’t only beneficial for the team battles, because you’ll also receive additional stat bonuses every time you complete a Unity training. This allows you to strengthen your Umas further and reach a rating that you couldn’t get in the regular Ura Finale Career mode due to the limited stat bonuses.
Director Yayoi And Acting Director Riko Kashimoto
In the Unity Cup, Director Yayoi won’t be available as a training partner to provide you with skill points every time you train with her. You’ll also not receive skill hints and events that could trigger with Yayoi Akikawa.
Additionally, you won’t receive a +15 stat bonus for filling the friendship bar with the director after winning the Ura Finale at the end of a Career in Unity Cup. Instead, in the Unity Cup, you’ll receive a maximum bonus of +10 stat from Director Yayoi if you’ve maxed out the friendship bar with Riko Kashimoto.
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