The Legacy system is one of the most rewarding mechanics in Umamusume: Pretty Derby, letting you pass down stats, aptitudes, and skills from your trained Veteran Umamusume to fresh Trainees. Think of it as building a family tree of racing talent, where every generation can be stronger than the last. Whether you're aiming to fix a weak aptitude or stack powerful skill hints, understanding how Sparks and inheritance work is the key to competing at the highest levels.
What Is the Legacy System in Umamusume: Pretty Derby?
Legacy is an endgame mechanic that lets a completed Veteran Umamusume (one who has finished a Career) pass on Sparks of Inspiration to a new Trainee. These Sparks can boost starting stats, improve aptitude grades, and provide skill hints that would otherwise take many training sessions to acquire.
Here's the thing: this system isn't something new players need to stress about immediately. Getting comfortable with Career training first is the right call. Once you have a few Veteran Umamusume with solid Sparks, the Legacy loop becomes a powerful tool for building progressively stronger characters.
Three core reasons to invest in Legacies:
- Boost a Trainee's starting stats and aptitude grades before their Career even begins
- Pass down valuable skill hints through Inspiration Events during Classic and Senior Years
- Build a chain of increasingly strong Veteran Umamusume for competitive modes like Champions Meeting and Team Trials
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Don't rush into Legacy optimization as a new player. Focus on learning Career mechanics first, then layer in Legacy building once you understand what stats and skills matter for your target Umamusume.
Legacy family tree selection
How Does Inheritance Work? Step-by-Step
The inheritance process follows a clear sequence. Here's how to set it up correctly every time.
Step 1: Select Your Trainee
Open the Trainee Select screen and choose the character you want to train. Their base stats and aptitude grades will appear at the center of the screen, giving you a clear picture of what needs improvement.
Step 2: Assign Two Legacy Umamusume (Parents)
Below the stat display, fill in the two main Legacy slots with Veteran Umamusume. These are your Trainee's Parents, and they're responsible for the primary stat boosts and skill hints your Trainee will receive during Inspiration Events.
Each Legacy also brings their own Legacies along, called Sub-Legacies (or Grandparents). This means six characters total contribute to the Sparks pool your Trainee can draw from.
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A Trainee cannot serve as their own Legacy (Parent), but they can appear as a Sub-Legacy (Grandparent). Characters used as Parents or Grandparents are not consumed or lost after the process.Step 3: Check the Sparks Screen
After selecting your Legacies, review the Sparks Screen to see exactly what bonuses your Trainee could receive. Each Spark is rated by stars (★), and higher star counts mean stronger bonuses. The Sparks screen tells you upfront what stats, aptitudes, or skills are in play.
Step 4: Sort by Affinity Bonus
In the Legacies List, use the sort option at the lower right and select Affinity Bonus. This filters Legacies by how compatible they are with your Trainee, making it much easier to find the best combination without guesswork.
Step 5: Start Training and Repeat
Once your Legacies and Sub-Legacies are set, hit Next on the Legacy Select screen. An Inspiration Event will fire immediately, granting your Trainee their first round of stat and skill bonuses. Two more Inspiration Events occur during the Career: one in Early April of the Classic Year and one in Early April of the Senior Year.
After your Trainee completes their Career, they become a Veteran Umamusume with their own Sparks, ready to be used as a Legacy for the next generation.
Gold Inspiration Event bonus
What Are Sparks of Inspiration?
Sparks are the specific bonuses a Veteran Umamusume can contribute to a Trainee. They come in four types, each with different effects and activation timing.
Spark Types Comparison
How Many Stats Does Each Spark Level Give?
For Blue (Stat) Sparks, the bonus scales directly with star count:
- 1★: +5 to the relevant stat
- 2★: +12 to the relevant stat
- 3★: +21 to the relevant stat
A Veteran Umamusume can only carry one Blue Spark, so maximizing that Spark's star count matters a great deal when building Legacies for stat-focused Trainees.
Gold vs. Normal Inspiration Events
Not all Inspiration Events are equal. When the cutscene glow is gold, your Trainee receives a higher amount of stats than when it appears white (normal). This is an RNG element, so don't be discouraged if you get a string of normal events. The system is designed with variance in mind.
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Sparks are determined at the end of a Veteran Umamusume's Career. Their final stats and the races they completed during training both influence which Sparks they develop, though there's always a random element involved.
Sparks star ratings overview
How Do Aptitude Sparks Work?
Pink Aptitude Sparks are particularly powerful because they let you reshape a character's strengths. At Career Start, an Aptitude Spark can raise a grade up to A. During the second and third Inspiration Events, a successful activation can push an aptitude all the way to S.
What Star Count Do You Need to Raise Aptitude Grades?
The first grade increase (for example, C to B) only requires 1★ in the relevant Aptitude Spark across all Legacies and Sub-Legacies combined. Every subsequent grade increase requires 3★ more in that same Spark type.
Example: Raising Dirt aptitude from D to A requires 7★ total
- D to C: 1★
- C to B: 3★
- B to A: 3★
- Total: 7★
This means a single well-built Legacy can sometimes cover the entire jump from D to A on their own. For instance, a Veteran Haru Urara with a 3★ Dirt Spark whose own Legacies each carry 2★ Dirt Sparks contributes a combined 7★, which is exactly enough to take a character's Dirt aptitude from D to A in one shot.
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Aptitude Sparks are more likely to activate for aptitudes where the Veteran Umamusume already holds an A grade. If you need a specific aptitude raised, try to find Legacies who naturally excel in that area.
Aptitude Spark Grades at a Glance
How to Get the Best Affinity?
Affinity determines how well a Legacy's Sparks align with your Trainee. Higher affinity means better results. The ◎ symbol marks the best compatibility matches. Several factors influence affinity:
- Parent and Grandparent are the same character: If one Legacy appears as both a Parent and a Grandparent of the other Legacy, affinity may improve.
- All Legacies are unique characters: Using entirely different characters across all six Legacy slots can also push affinity higher.
- Matching Distance or Style aptitude at A: If a Trainee and a Veteran Umamusume both have A in the same Distance or Style aptitude, their affinity increases.
- School year or dormitory connections: Story-based relationships matter too. Classmates or dormmates often have naturally higher compatibility, which you can verify by checking a character's Profile on the Trainee screen.
Sorting Legacies by affinity
Can You Use a Friend's Legacy?
Yes. You can rent a Guest Legacy from players on your Friends List by spending Monies. When you borrow a friend's Veteran Umamusume, they earn a Trainer Medal and Friend Points. If you're in the same Club, you get a Monies discount and they receive Club Points instead.
Each account starts with a maximum of 15 Friend Follows. Additional Follow Slots can be purchased at the Friend Point Exchange if you need access to more Guest Legacies.
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Joining an active Club is worth it purely for the Monies discount on Guest Legacies. If you're regularly borrowing high-quality Veteran Umamusume from friends, those savings add up quickly over many Career runs.
What About Unique Skill Sparks (Green)?
Green Sparks carry hint levels for a Legacy's Unique Skill. Only 3-star characters can generate a Green Spark at the end of their Career. When a Parent's Green Spark activates at Career Start, the Trainee receives hint levels for that Unique Skill.
One important limitation: a Unique Skill inherited through a Green Spark cannot be leveled up further during the Trainee's Career. It functions as a fixed hint, not a fully trainable skill. Sub-Legacies' Green Sparks have a chance to activate during the second and third Inspiration Events.
Building Your Legacy Chain: Practical Tips
Here's what separates players who get decent results from those who consistently produce strong Veteran Umamusume:
- Train with good Support Cards. The skills and stats your Trainee earns during Career directly shape the Sparks they'll have as a Veteran. Investing in quality Support Cards now pays off in future Legacy runs.
- Run races strategically. Race-based White Sparks come from winning specific races during a Career. Completing major race events with your Trainee unlocks those Sparks for future generations.
- Stack Aptitude Sparks across the family tree. Because Sub-Legacies contribute their Sparks too, you can spread Aptitude Spark stars across multiple characters to hit the 7★ threshold needed for a full D-to-A raise.
- Don't ignore 1-star and 2-star Sparks. Even lower-tier Sparks contribute to the cumulative star count for Aptitude raises. A 1★ Dirt Spark on a Grandparent is still one step closer to the grade increase you need.