Who is Nishino Flower and why should you pull her?
Nishino Flower is one of the newest additions to Umamusume: Pretty Derby, and she lands in a strong spot right away. Her unique skill, When the Buds Bloom (「つぼみ、ほころぶ時」), is a late-race acceleration skill that competes directly with top-tier options like Let's Pump Some Iron and Moving Past, and Beyond for Sprint and Mile. She has a 15% growth bonus in both Speed and Power, natural aptitude of A in both Sprint and Mile on Turf, and her default running style fits the Pace Chaser role almost perfectly. According to the Game8 build guide, she is considered a meta parent for Sprint and Mile Umamusume.
How does When the Buds Bloom actually work?
The skill has two parts you need to satisfy before it fires.
First, the prerequisite: Nishino Flower must have been challenged (blocked on a side) on a corner during the mid-race phase. If that blocking never happened, the skill will not activate at all.
Second, the activation condition: once the prerequisite is met, the skill can fire when she is positioned in 3rd place or further back, up to the 40% position of the field (roughly 3rd to 4th in a 9-gate race, 3rd to 5th in a 12-gate race), and she must be in the middle of the final corner onwards in the late-race.
This is exactly why Pace Chaser is her best style. Pace Chasers naturally hover around that 3rd-to-40% positional window, so the conditions line up far more reliably than they would for a Front Runner or End Closer.
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If Nishino Flower is never blocked on a corner during mid-race, When the Buds Bloom will not activate regardless of her late-race position. Keep this in mind when choosing race formats and support setups.
What are the best stats to target for Nishino Flower?
For Team Trials performance, the recommended stat targets according to Game8 are:
The priority order is straightforward: max Speed and Power first, reach a comfortable Stamina floor, then invest heavily in Wit to ensure skills fire consistently. Wit is especially important for Nishino Flower because her unique skill has strict timing conditions, and low Wit makes those windows harder to hit.
If you are only completing a career run rather than competing in Team Trials, you can aim lower across the board.
Target stat spread for Trials
What is the best support card deck for Nishino Flower in Trackblazer?
The Trackblazer (MANT) scenario is the recommended scenario for training Nishino Flower, since it allows higher overall stat totals than previous scenarios. Race Bonus is a priority in this scenario, so you want at least 50% Race Bonus in your deck, with 65% MLB being the ideal target.
Speed-Wit setup (primary recommendation)
Run 2 Speed cards and 3 Wit cards, with 1 Race Bonus filler. This combination covers Nishino Flower's Speed and Power needs through Rainbow and Friendship Training, while the Wit cards ensure she can activate skills reliably.
Recommended cards:
- Kitasan Black (Fire at My Heels) (SSR Speed)
- Sakura Bakushin O (Eat Fast! Yum Fast!) (SSR Speed)
- Yaeno Muteki (Fiery Discipline) (SSR Power)
- Nice Nature (Daring to Dream) (SSR Wit)
- Fine Motion (Wave of Gratitude) (SSR Wit)
- Marvelous Sunday (A Marvelous Plan) (SR Wit, filler)
Speed-Guts-Wit setup (alternative)
Run 1 Speed, 3 Guts, and 2 Wit cards. This deck trains Speed, Power, and Guts simultaneously and recovers energy through Wit training, but it relies more heavily on proper use of Trackblazer items to reach its potential.
Recommended cards:
- Kitasan Black (Fire at My Heels) (SSR Speed)
- Haru Urara (Urara's Day Off) (SSR Guts)
- Yukino Bijin (Dancing Light into the Night) (SSR Guts)
- Sakura Bakushin O (Super! Sonic! Flower Power!) (SSR Guts)
- Nice Nature (Daring to Dream) (SSR Wit)
- Fine Motion (Wave of Gratitude) (SSR Wit)
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If you do not have many SSR cards, the budget deck using mostly SR cards with a borrowed MLB SSR like Matikane Fukukitaru (Touching Sleeves Is Good Luck!) can still perform well in the current scenario.
What skills should you give Nishino Flower?
For a Sprint Pace Chaser build, the skill priority according to Game8 looks like this:
Core skills:
- Pace Chaser Corners (matches her style and distance)
- Pace Chaser Straightaways (same reasoning)
- Sprint Straightaways and Sprint Corners (distance-specific boosts)
- Beeline Burst (available through Potential Level 3 and her SSR Speed support card)
- Turbo Sprint (strong rare skill pick for Sprint)
- Uma Stan, Homestretch Haste, Slipstream, Playtime's Over!, Speed Star, Professor of Curvature, Straight Descent
Situational picks for Team Trials:
- Shooting for Victory! (useful in Sprints where the final corner crosses into late-race)
- Victoria por Plancha (activates only on final straights)
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Late Surger Corners is not recommended even though it is in her Potential kit. Running Nishino Flower as a Late Surger undermines the positional requirements of When the Buds Bloom, which needs her in the 3rd-to-40% range, not pushing from the back.
How far should you raise Nishino Flower's Potential Level?
Potential Level 3 is the practical stopping point for most builds. Beeline Burst at Level 3 gives you a flexible straight-speed skill that works across Sprint and Mile. Level 5 is worth considering only if you plan to run races where downhill sections align with the late-race phase.
What Legacy Sparks should you use?
According to Game8's build guide, the recommended spark priorities are:
- 9 Stamina sparks and 9 Power sparks (core stat needs)
- 3 Sprint sparks (raises Sprint aptitude from A to S for PvP)
- 3 Turf sparks (secondary if space allows)
- 10 Medium sparks (Trackblazer only, unlocks Sprint-Medium race schedule agenda)
The Medium sparks are specifically for Trackblazer runs where you want access to more Epithets like the Triple Tiara. Outside of Trackblazer, Medium sparks are only worth it if you plan to run the Japanese Oaks or want to trigger the Queen Elizabeth II Cup and Takarazuka Kinen hidden events.
How do you unlock Nishino Flower's hidden events?
These events only trigger outside of the Trackblazer scenario. The rewards listed below are base values and scale with your Race Bonus.
Win 6 specific Mile races
Win all of the following races in Nishino Flower's career:
Rewards: Speed +15, Power +15, Wit +15, Updrafters +2, Shifting Gears +2
Note that the Mile Championship is not a goal race, so you need to manually add it to your schedule for both Classic and Senior Year. Missing either run means the event will not trigger.
Pace Chaser Corners after Oka Sho
Win the Oka Sho (Classic Year) and you will receive: All Stats +3, Skill Points +45, Pace Chaser Corners hint, Chairman Bond +4.
Queen Elizabeth II Cup and Takarazuka Kinen events
Both of these races are Medium distance, and Nishino Flower's default Medium aptitude is E. You will need 10 Medium sparks to raise it to A before attempting these races competitively. The Queen Elizabeth II Cup event triggers only once, so winning it in Classic Year means it will not repeat in Senior Year.
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The hidden events above do not occur in the Trackblazer scenario. If you are running Trackblazer, you will not see these events regardless of race results.
What is Nishino Flower's career goal schedule?
The Japanese Oaks only requires participation, not a win, so you do not need to invest heavily in Medium aptitude just for that goal. The real reason to raise Medium is if you want the hidden events or the Trackblazer Sprint-Medium schedule.
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