As a trainer in the world of Umamusume: Pretty Derby, it’s your job and mission to help train an Umamusume to be the best racer she can be, to plan the races she enters, ensure she stays in good health, help when injuries occur, and support her through thick and thin.
Each career lasts years in-game, and it makes sense that a bond would form between trainer and Umamusume if they mesh well together and make a good team. This is measured in an Umamusume’s Bond Level, and the higher the bond between the two of you, the more you’ll end up learning about her.
What Is An Umamusume’s Bond Level?
Bond Level is the relationship between an Umamusume and you in particular, and is separate from the Friendship Level that you gain as you train your Umamusume during Career Mode.
Unlike Friendship Level, your Bond Level stays and continues to grow across multiple careers, and each Umamusume has her own level you’ll work on.
As you level up that Bond, you’ll eventually be rewarded with a variety of extra information about them, more of their Story Episodes, and even unlock their Casual Outfit you see during certain Events, but the extras obtained from the Bond Level aren’t required for progression.
Unlocked information, such as Height and Weight, can be found in the Profile section of the Archives, and you can view the Bond Level and other statistics of all the Umamusume there as well, even ones you haven’t obtained yet.
There is a benefit to reaching at least Bond Level Six, though, as completing an Umamusume’s personal Story Episodes gives you 20 Carats for each one, so it’s an easy way to get a bit of currency, as a set of seven episodes gets you 140 Carats per character.
Besides the stats and Story Episodes, increasing the Bond Level also unlocks new voicelines for an Umamusume that you can hear on the home screen, as well as during events and races during Career Mode.
|
Bond Level |
Points Needed |
What’s Unlocked |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
10 |
Height, Weight, and Birthday Story Episode 5 |
|
2 |
12 |
Likes and Dislikes |
|
3 |
14 |
Ears and Tail Story Episode 6 |
|
4 |
24 |
Shoe Size |
|
5 |
40 |
Family Members |
|
6 |
100 |
Story Episode 7 |
|
7 |
200 |
Additional Voicelines |
|
8 |
400 |
Additional Voicelines |
|
9 |
800 |
Additional Voicelines |
|
10 |
1,600 |
Additional Voicelines |
|
11 |
1,600 |
Casual Outfit Unlocked |
|
12 |
1,600 |
Additional Voicelines |
How To Raise Bond Level
There are two ways to raise an Umamusume’s Bond Level: completing a Career with her and doing Team Trials, the PvP mode.
Between the two, the best method for gaining Bond Level with a character is completing Career Mode with them, as whether you complete all her Goals or not, you’ll get 14 Points per completion, which is the highest amount you can get at one time through either method.
Team Trials give you the ability to gain Bond Level for multiple Umamusume at one time, and are the only way to do so, but the downside to this is that it doesn’t give many points, especially compared to Career Mode.
Like with Career, you’ll get points whether your team wins or loses, with a win giving every Umamusume two points and a loss giving them one point.
The good thing about Team Trials is that, since it’s a team effort and based on total points earned, you can still end up winning even if you take a few losses, and because winning only gives slightly more, you’ll still get some passive improvement towards Bond Level just by doing all the matches you can each day.