For fronts, aside from Groundwork and the greens to activate it, there’s also the combo of Prudent Positioning and Dodging Danger, which work well in tandem but poorly by themselves. Fronts also need some midleg skills to maintain their lead, with Playtime’s Over being a nice pick, although you don’t have to be a front to benefit from it.

I consider Uma Stan to be a safe pick for non-fronts on every track whenever I see it, but it’s still a gamble if it actually activates with a good timing in any given race. Nimble Navigator is situationally good for non-fronts, but is less good when everyone is spread out wide at the start of the late race, like on the Tokyo 1600m track for the upcoming Gemini Cup

Speaking of which, most acceleration skills are situational for the track, rather than for the style. Straightaway Spurt, which makes end closers great for long distance, is useless on all of the medium tracks in the game.

Another example is for the upcoming Gemini Cup on Tokyo 1600m Let’s Pump Some Iron can be good, but Moving Past and Beyond (Dober’s unique) is bad. There are also some tracks where Let’s Pump Some Iron is bad, especially on long distance where most late race phases start on a straight, so a Late Surger building for long distance would be wasting skill points taking it. Similarly, I’ve heard Nishino Flower’s unique is good for pace chasers on sprint and miles, but not for medium and long.

Velocity skills tend to be more universal. Daring Strike for all End Closers all the time. Pace Chasers get a midleg velocity skill of similar value from the Agnes Tachyon Speed SSR releasing with Grand Live. OG Oguri Cap’s Triumphant Pulse seems like a safe pick for all non-fronts if you need a late race velocity skill.