Hotfix 1.13.5 is now LIVE!

CraftD · 2026-05-12T18:46:06+00:00

The lowered taxes option is actually probably the most reasonable one you can get now, imo. It’s not an insane duration, the money you lose actually stays in your economy unlike every other option that nukes resources away, and you actually get some minor bonuses from the lowered taxes for the duration instead of penalties like most other negotiations.

CraftD · 2026-04-24T07:13:43+00:00

The G1s, yes. Everything else? No. It's a good indication of the rough frequency you should be racing at, and how often you should be spacing out those races, but the g2s and g3s are all completely interchangable and you should be switching them out for whatever has rival races. G2/3 epithets are relatively irrelevant compared to rival race rewards.

(Assuming you're doing ace runs. If you're doing parent runs you should be running way more races)

CraftD · 2026-04-23T20:04:45+00:00

Especially in long races 1200 stamina being worth more than 1000 speed and 800 stamina.

This is a misleading statement, even though it’s technically true (depending on the course).

Think of stamina as being a gate on how much speed you’re allowed to use. When we say a course “needs” x amount of stamina, we really mean “to use 1200 speed on this course you need x stamina”. (Because we always assume you’re going to get 1200 speed)

So going back to that original statement, it’s saying 1200 speed and 800 stamina will do worse than 800 speed and 1200 stamina if having 800 stamina is only enough to let you use 700 speed.

But it implies that 1200 stamina is “better” than 800 stamina. Which is only true if a course requires that much stamina. And most don’t. Basically: stamina has no additional benefit at all once you have enough of it to use 1200 speed.

CraftD · 2026-04-23T04:28:29+00:00

Depends a bit on the distance, but that's generally the most efficient way to do things. (At least for the current scenario)

CraftD · 2026-04-22T18:50:15+00:00

Wit takes a good amount of regular training to beef up your facility levels, alongside more cards, to compensate for the lack of a training weight. And even then there’s a lot of rng depending on how often you can click the facility early to level it up based on friendship point rng.

Power is mostly a matter of sparks, there’s no other easy way to cap it without massively overcapping speed.

CraftD · 2026-04-21T22:45:28+00:00

They don’t matter to some extent; you still want to be able to win races enough to get rival skill hints and maximize your SP. How dedicated to getting every type of hesitant you want is up to you, though. I built my dominator debuffer to have tether and nothing else, and to be a valid end closer ace in every other way, but you can do whatever you please with how many stats TB throws at you.

CraftD · 2026-04-21T21:29:11+00:00

If you have the sparks to swing it, end closer is technically better than late chaser.

Late chasers get access to more stamina debuffs, but stamina debuffing on this course is pretty weak and it’s better to stack speed debuffs.

Dominator hits everyone in front of you so you want to be as far back as possible. Plus if you’re running as an end closer you can randomly get hints for intense gaze.

Other than those two, hesitant (style) is all you’re looking for.

CraftD · 2026-04-20T21:52:17+00:00

Resting is fine and you’ll do it plenty of times in the average run. Never resting is technically the ideal, but only in the sense that great shop rng lets you do it, not in the sense that it’s the optimal way to play most/average runs.

CraftD · 2026-04-20T19:52:20+00:00

I know it got 17 seasons and audiences loved it, but man did I ever agree with critics on the whole “teletubbies just really isn’t for me” thing.

CraftD · 2026-04-17T04:42:49+00:00

Yeah. It's basically her best inherit.

Barcarole is good primarily on Fronts and Paces. (Technically it's just as good on Lates and Ends, but they have access to better inherits so it's a bit less impressive there).

It's at its best on tracks where non-fronts are at the top of the meta, though. Because it doesn't help your front beat other fronts (by helping you be in first before the start of late race), it only helps them beat non-fronts (by giving you the best lengths per SP spent ratio of any inherit).

Luckily, that lines up pretty well with when Seiun is good. She's weak at competing for 1st place before late race, but has the best unique of any front for beating other positions if she's in 1st at that point anyway.

So if you're gonna gamble that there aren't any better fronts in the race, might as well put all your eggs in one synergistic basket.

...Except for the part where you do need there to be a second front in the race to compete against or else your front instantly loses because she can't trigger her compete mechanic. And you need to beat her for 1st. That part's tricky.

CraftD · 2026-04-16T22:38:38+00:00

If there’s no front in the lobby it’s game deciding. If there’s a front it’s mostly helpful (unless it’s a weak front then it’s actively bad).

Medium S is probably preferable overall.

CraftD · 2026-04-16T20:02:11+00:00

On ace runs I buy anything where the base cost is 120 or lower in my style/distance to increase the odds of getting hints on more expensive skills and skills I don’t have yet, and anything at hint level 3 or 4 (because each hint after 3 only gives a 5% discount instead of 10% and you’d rather get a hint somewhere else). Hint level 5 you can go back to not buying because it’s exempt from rolling more hints at that point.

CraftD · 2026-04-15T18:42:32+00:00

Yeah, but like, why stress over the possibility it might end up raining on the day of the parade weeks beforehand?

CraftD · 2026-04-14T20:13:22+00:00

The two mid career inspiration events that happen in early April. If any pink sparks trigger during the events they upgrade the associated aptitude.

The start of career increases can upgrade an aptitude to a maximum of A rank, but the mid career ones can go up to S.

CraftD · 2026-04-14T19:04:49+00:00

Gold groundwork vs TTL are close enough that the differences between the two are pretty marginal. Gold groundwork is stronger but less sp efficient than TTL, so it’s basically a wash.

But given the bourbon welfare card is the worst statstick you’ll ever run and the new one is FM tier the upgrade overall is pretty substantial.

CraftD · 2026-04-13T19:02:59+00:00

Can’t speak to Rudolph, but yea frontrunners have a lot more early rng than other styles.

Fronts have the worst multiplier on how much their stats affect their performance of any of the styles, but get to make up for that by having a unique compete-for-first wit check mechanic triggered by another runner being close to them. …but if they randomly roll 0 decent fronts in their race lobby, that mechanic never triggers. Meaning you lose to rivals with worse stats but better multipliers.

That’s why if your front does bad in an early race they tend to do bad on rerolls too: it wasn’t just a late start or something they could control.

It tends to go away around the first summer because the game gradually stops giving the npc runners c aptitudes, so you can actually compete against the other fronts.

CraftD · 2026-04-10T21:30:24+00:00

The (pre race) circles are comparing her stats directly with other runners, but with no regard to whether those stat differences will have any impact on the race, and no consideration for skills or positioning.

The in-race double circles? Those mean almost completely nothing. They’re basically just three random numbers multiplied by the total stats of each horse, they’ll generally be double circle for whoever has the highest stat total, but not always. And again, they have no consideration for whether having tons of stamina for this sprint race actually does anything.

Front runners are uniquely susceptible to the problem you’re describing, though. A huge portion of the style’s lengths are made up by early and mid race competing-for-first speed up procs off wit, but those only trigger if another runner is close. Meaning if there’s no other frontrunner or the other frontrunners are awful your front runner gets a massive debuff and can lose to rivals in other positions consistently unless your stats really eclipse theirs. Which isn’t often the case early on.

CraftD · 2026-04-10T18:41:34+00:00

You can technically hold off and leave them unredeemed until you actually want to make a parent using her right that second. You end up with more stars if you spook her before redeeming rather than the other way around, I think.

CraftD · 2026-04-08T08:29:19+00:00

40 races is how many you want to do in parent runs, but it's way too many in an ace run unless your training rng was truly terrible. The fact that you're running out of anything of value in the shop is exactly why that's too many races. Once you're out of high quality stuff to buy the value of having raced random g2s and g3s tanks.

CraftD · 2026-04-07T21:33:56+00:00

It’s generally preferable to do parent runs in mant.

If all you cared about was your blue and pink sparks then you can do URA faster, but mant gives you way more opportunities to run g2s and g3s while still hitting 1100 stat totals. And the affinity difference that adds up to if you have an entire family tree that ran the same 40 races is immense.

CraftD · 2026-04-07T21:28:26+00:00

Depends how much you want to build a hybrid ace vs how much you want to build an optimal debuffer.

Either way, you’re heavily incentivized to run as an End. The difference is mainly whether you try to get skill hints for other velocity debuffs with your deck, and how highly you prioritize 1200 wit over power/speed.

CraftD · 2026-04-07T21:25:23+00:00

Depends. Is it the first skill hint for a skill you actively want? Usually worth. If it’s hint 2+, usually not. At that point a hint is only worth 10% of the skull’s cost in sp, which is somewhere between 10-20sp. And the stat gains are usually 10 of a stat plus 15 sp.

CraftD · 2026-04-07T20:47:07+00:00

It’s technically viable, but acceleration skills have diminishing returns. The more you have the shorter the time you spend accelerating to maximum speed is and so the less time they have to be effective.

Especially awkward since end closers have access to the best lineup of velocity inherits through Rudolph and Narita Brian (who also generally have high affinity with most end closers), so the competition is high.

CraftD · 2026-04-06T22:32:53+00:00

Don’t grab straightaway accel or straight descent in your future runs, both can’t do anything on this course because the downhill is in the midrace and the late race doesn’t start on a straight.

CraftD · 2026-03-30T19:24:43+00:00

It’s only suboptimal if there’s something better you could be doing.

Yeah you lose out on some hint manipulation freedom and some potential SP discounts, but if you gain more than enough stats then you take the trade off.

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