Can Openers Top Rated For Seniors

TLDR: Despite Cygames giving away lots of pulls, they're just barely enough for survival thanks to Umamusume's highly predatory game design that drains dedicated players' time and wallets through a hyper-competitive, PvP-focused endgame. For a game where the appeal comes from the characters, you have to pull them in order to experience their stories. However, in order to have a smooth career experience, or have a chance in PvP, the game requires multiple MLB support cards acquired through archaic JP gacha system with severe lack of universal Support card LB resource, and accelerating powercreep that will eventually make old units obsolete in PvP. Then, Torena-san must spend lots of hours going through a brutal, RNG-heavy grind just to get "1 bottle of Uma glue" every 30 minutes. Rather than improving the RNG for free, Cygames monetizes player frustration by selling QoL subscriptions which, combined, cost much more than an MMO subscription, while offering less content than an average MMO. While casual fans can enjoy the game partially as a free, high-quality visual novel, the deep parasocial relationship fostered by cute horse girls & excellent storywriting, combined with Cygames' freebies, further reinforces tribalism, with many players using "fun" as an argument to silence criticisms from dedicated players who got burned out by a time-consuming, expensive, and highly P2W endgame loop. (Disclaimer: English isn't my first language, and my knowledge of the JP servers comes from internet search rather than firsthand experience.) (EDIT: Here are the reactions from r/UmaMusume ) 450+ hours spent making Uma Glue. Perhaps I'm addicted to horse girls. Quick Introduction Umamusume: Pretty Derby is a gacha game where real-life elite Japanese thoroughbreds are anthropomorphized into funny horse girls. The game is renowned for its excellent character design, storywriting & filled with attention to details. The franchise also has top-tier anime, manga, and music production, rivaling Japanese giants like Idolm@ster & Love Live; while breathing new life into horse racing. On top of that, Cygames reinvests back into horse racing through sponsorships & donations. The game won the "Best Mobile Game" award at The Game Awards 2025. The gameplay loop involves training a character in Career mode while reading the stories of that character, from slice of life to all sorts of drama & rivalries inspired by their real-life counterparts' legacy, resembling a Tamagotchi-style raising sim. After that, you use the result of a career run (Veteran Umamusume) to do other content. (Career mode tutorial) We all know that Cygames has the reputation of giving away lots of freebies & randomly throwing pulls out of nowhere (Glory to Cygames!!!). However, game development is a business, and oftentimes such generosity is merely an illusion. If the developers shower you with pulls, there's a high chance they're gonna design the game in a way to drain your savings. Umamusume is no exception. Despite Cygames being "generous" with pulls, the game is still considered unforgiving by many Torena-san. This is the result of multiple intertwined design choices: A highly competitive, PvP-focused endgame Dupe-reliant support cards with a severe lack of universal limit-break currency A bloated gacha pool and typical powercreep A tedious, RNG-heavy gameplay loop "alleviated" by expensive microtransactions and QoL subscriptions (in JP). 1: The PvP Endgame The excitement of winning your first career races will eventually fade away, and once you've read all available stories, the Endgame is there to provide long-term engagement. Besides typical story events there are some gameplay events, but they don't add much in terms of gameplay: Golshi Week, 37.6 pulls login rewards & a more difficult Career mode with 1.2M gold rewards Fuji Kiseki's Show Time, more difficult career mode with random rewards Trainer Aptitude Test, career mode with side objectives Racing Carnival, harder Legend Races & a bunch of repetitive menu clicks Naturally, like many sports games, PvP is the main repeatable content. Watching hyper-optimized umas battle for position, meet skill conditions, and backliners executing late-race overtakes (ft. The Unsinkable Gold Ship) can be an adrenaline-pumping experience. Competition is one hell of a drug. However, as we all know, Gacha + PvP has always been a disastrous combo, especially when premium currency is on the line. Wisdom shared by The Mun Many modern KR/CN gacha games either front-load their rewards on lower ranks & have high-rank rewards mostly just flexing rights (title, small premium currency bonus) so that casuals don't feel bad when losing, or no PvP at all. Here are some examples: Blue Archive director Kim Yong Ha shared at a conference that the importance of PVP elements in BA has been intentionally set low to avoid ruining the players' love for the characters. His development philosophies are also reflected in how premium currency (Pyroxene) rewards are distributed: Pyroxenes in Total Assault (Leaderboard Raid) are frontloaded, with Gold -> Platinum rank netting you only 200 pyroxene (1.67 pulls). Grand Assault gives you a 10-pull ticket regardless of ranks. Unless you're in a club with rank requirements, reaching Platinum is mostly for sense of pride & accomplishment. Joint Firing Drill (Roster check) & Final Restriction Release (Tower Raid) has no pyroxene rewards. Tactical Challenge (PvP) splits the playerbase into brackets. You can reach Top 500 (takes 10 battles every 6 months) & never touch it again, treating it as daily free 20 pyroxenes (0.16 pulls). Many clubs don't have Tactical Challenge rank requirements. PvP is arse anyways. During story events, all 12 event stages can be 3★'d using 3★ students, while difficult challenge stages give only 2 pulls total. He also stated that this is not limited to Blue Archive, other games are also moving in the direction of reducing PVP and even reducing the importance of cooperative play. Genshin Impact is another pioneer example with how the game being intentionally designed towards casual players: There's no combat PvP Domain Co-op is mostly just for fun or to help new players. Most events are very casual-friendly, with all primogems rewards being front-loaded into the easiest objectives. You can 9★ Spiral Abyss floor 12 if you follow the guides on KeqingMains & have good artifacts. Imaginarium Theatre is a roster check that allows you to borrow trial characters & characters from your friends. Stygian Onslaught has rewards front-loaded into the lower difficulties. Umamusume, on the other hand, incentivizes tryharding and spending by giving more premium currency toward high ranks. Below are the PvP modes & their rewards. To summarize: an average player can get about 30 pulls every month from PvP & Clubs, assuming you have good game knowledge & put effort grinding, which is a considerable amount for F2Ps & low spenders. Cygames really wants you to grind PvP. 1.1: Team Trials Game8 Tutorial You form 5 teams of 3 veteran umamusume to run against other players. Your umas accumulate scores by activating skills, placing higher & winning multiple races in a row. Your high score of the week decides whether you get promoted, keep your rank, or demoted at weekly reset. AFAIK the strategy is to activate as many skills as possible. Carats are awarded weekly depending on your Team Trials Class. There's a daily challenge that requires you to play 1 game of Team Trials, and is a pre-requisite for full daily completion rewards. Story events require you to play 40 times. Steam Achievement requires 500. Rewards (x1.5 for Global's accelerated schedule) Class Carats 1 0 2 25 3 50 4 75 5 150 6 250 1.2: Champions' Meeting GameTora Tutorial Monthly competitive 3v3v3 PvP with limited entries per day. Whoever finishes 1st wins. Track layout & conditions are announced weeks prior, so that torena-san can research & prepare specialized umamusume for the event. This is where Umamusume's gameplay truly shines, which involves studying a specific track's layout, understanding how skills interact with the track & with each other, choosing the right Support Cards for the right skills, grinding parent umas that pass down the correct traits,... You can spend hours researching & building your own playstyle. There are 2 brackets: Open League: will be A+ max in Global. There are min-maxxers who use calculators & race simulators to engineer their uma while remaining under the rating cap. (example run by LinhSaky) Graded League: no restrictions, filled with high-rollers & meta slaves Qualifiers (You earn rewards based on the amount of wins in an entry & qualify to group A by winning 3/5 races in a single entry.) Round 0 Wins 1 Win 2 Wins 3 Wins 4 Wins 5 Wins Open Round 1 5 10 15 20 25 30 Open Round 2 Group B 10 15 20 30 40 50 Open Round 2 Group A 15 20 30 40 50 100 Graded Round 1 10 15 20 30 40 50 Graded Round 2 Group B 15 20 30 40 50 100 Graded Round 2 Group A 20 30 40 50 75 150 As you can see, 5/5 wins gives you more carats. The Finals (1 race, may the RNG god bless you) Finals 3rd Place 2nd Place 1st Place Open Group B 500 600 700 Open Group A 700 850 1000 Graded Group B 700 900 1200 Graded Group A 1200 1800 2500 1.3: League Of Heroes (JP) GameWith JP Tutorial Welcome to Torena-san's Rift. What a name choice. Competitive 3v3 (+6 AI) Ranked PvP with limited entries per day similar to Champions' Meeting. Fixed track layout, but weather & track conditions rotate every 5 races. You gain score & rank up depending on placements of your 3 uma. Top 96 players are qualified for an "extra stage". Placement Score 1st 100 pt 2nd 60 pt 3rd 40 pt 4th 30 pt 5th 20 pt 6th - 12th 10 pt Rank up Rewards Rank Total Score Carats Bronze 2 1,000 30 Bronze 3 2,000 30 Bronze 4 3,000 30 Silver 1 4,000 50 Silver 2 5,500 50 Silver 3 7,000 100 Silver 4 8,500 100 Gold 1 10,000 150 Gold 2 12,500 150 Gold 3 15,000 300 Gold 4 17,500 300 Platinum 1 20,000 500 Platinum 2 23,000 500 Platinum 3 26,000 500 Platinum 4 30,000 500 Platinum 4+ Every 2000 points 100 Score Leaderboard Rewards Top Carats 1 5000 2 4000 3 3000 96 1500 300 1200 1000 900 10000 750 30000 500 1.4: Club Leaderboards Game8 Tutorial If you're a dedicated player you may as well join a club, trade dirt shoes & earn some rewards. Every month clubs gets awarded depending on the total amount of "fans" all 30 members earned during that month. Many clubs have specific daily/weekly fan quota required in order to stay in the club, for top clubs it can be 5-7 runs per day. You gain Fans by racing in Career or playing Team Trials. You can just prepare PvP umamusume & earn fans naturally, or do specialized runs aimed to maximize fans earned. Rewards (x1.5 for Global's accelerated schedule) Top Carats & Club Points 10 3000 30 2400 100 2100 500 1800 1000 1500 3000 1200 5000 900 7000 600 10000 300 10001+ 150 2: The Gacha Some basic information about the gacha: 3% for 3-stars/SSRs, with 0.5-0.75% for featured units All units remain in gacha pools 1 pull = 150 carats. There are daily discounted pulls which costs 50 paid carats. No pity. Spark at 200 pulls with no carryover. You can reach spark without getting a single copy of featured unit. Example tweet of Torena-san reaching spark 2 times without having pulled a single featured unit A full spark (200 pulls) in this game costs ~$420 without any purchase bonuses. New banners drop every 2 weeks. Most units only get one rerun; some never get reran at all. 2.1: Umamusume (Pretty Derby) Gacha Once pulled, all characters are immediately playable in Career without needing to upgrade, allowing you to instantly have fun & umapyoi the girls. Most of their power comes from support cards. However, as good as their storywriting is, you cannot experience their career stories without pulling them first. LARPing is a common lifestyle. The banners are also filled with alternate costumes. In JP, more than 50% of the 3★ units are just alts. Each alt only has a new unique skill, a new potential skill set, and 3 new story events related to the costume. Same career & stories as original versions. Pulling an alt costume has minimal value unless you haven't pulled any version of that character, you really like the costume/character, or the alt is strong in PvP. (data from GameTora, change server to Japan) Duplicates grant Star Pieces for the pulled Uma, and Goddess Statues for universal star piece exchange. However, almost all Umamusume are perfectly viable at 3★. Additionally, if you're an Open League min-maxxer, NEVER star up your umamusume beyond 3★. Starring up adds +1 unique skill level (+170 rating), almost equal to a green skill (+174) for negligible bonuses, which cannot be undone. Many min-maxxers avoid upgrading unique skills by avoiding starring up & intentionally failing scenario requirements to ensure their uma remains under the Open League rating cap. At some point after the 3rd anniversary, there will be semi-limited umamusume during anni/half-anni. They can't be acquired from selectors, or selectable in step-up gacha, and have reduced rate of being spooked. Here are all semi-limited umas currently in JP: Jungle Pocket Gentildonna Orfevre Still in Love Cinderella Gray Oguri Cap (Alt) Stay Gold Almond Eye All umamusume are limited by their aptitudes, potential/evolution skill sets, and unique skill conditions. Some will excel on specific tracks while being weak/okay in others. Some are meta for a long time. What about powercreep? While any Uma can theoretically win PvP with a decent support deck & good parents (Example tweet), new Uma/alts in JP are built to be stronger & sometimes even more specialized towards specific tracks/playstyles with better potential skill sets, very specific skill conditions & better activation consistency, especially the semi-limited ones. Here's an example of difference between year 1 & latest JP uma: Christmas Oguri Cap (Year 1 & Year 2 medium/long meta) Unique skill: +Max Speed, Acceleration & HP in 2nd half of the raceafter activating 3 recovery skills, requiring proper skill activation timing. Her potential skill set includes Triple 7s (+HP at 777m left), which can be used to time her unique. "First-hand Christmas Miracle" evolution skill (Long): +Max Speed & HP at final corner while being near the inner fence. Cinderella Gray Oguri Cap (4.5 anniversary, strong in Mile + Arima Kinen) Unique skill: +Max Speed while in between top 20% & 70%, stronger in in Mile races and on the Arima Kinen course with at least 146738 fans (reference to 1990 Arima Kinen) "Undying Flame" evolution skill (Mile, Long): +Max Speed at a random point in Mid-race while being in top 50%. Then, +Max Speed at 200m remaining if you've done at least 1 dueling at final straight. "Let Your Name Shake Heaven and Earth" evolution skill (Pace Chaser・Long・2500 m・Nakayama Racecourse, a.k.a Arima Kinen): +Acceleration at Late race, stronger if she were within 10 lengths from the lead around the end of the Mid race. Basically historic horse racing moments being weaponized to make money. Almond Eye (5th Anniversary, absolute menace in Medium tracks) Unique skill: +Current Speed when in top 50%, stronger in Medium race, instant speed boost without needing to accelerate. Then, +Acceleration in Zenkai Spurt (late-rate acceleration if speed stat is at least 2000) "The Next Phase" evolution skill (Pace Chaser): +Max Speed If you're in top 50% at a random point during the second half of mid-race, stronger if your Speed stat is at least 1200. "Assured Victory" Evolution skill (Pace Chaser): +Max Speed at a random point during the second half of mid-race, then +Acceleration at last spurt Ironically, while the cute horse girls are the franchise's main selling point, in order to have a smooth career experience, complete difficult event challenges, or be competitive in PvP, you need good support cards. 2.2: Support card gacha Unlike character banners where pulling the first copy of an uma is worthy for celebration, for support cards, it is just the beginning. Most support cards require 3LB or MLB to be viable, as crucial stats like Training Effectiveness and Specialty Priority are locked behind dupes. A support deck has 6 cards. You must borrow 1 from other players. There are currently 200+ SSRs in JP, many of which are fillers & niches. Getting "spooked" by an off-banner SSR grants zero benefits unless it miraculously happens to be a card you want. This is why "SSR Guaranteed" tickets and banners are often considered scams by players. (data from GameTora, change server to Japan) You can use Uncap Crystals to limit break any card, requiring 20 Shards to exchange 1 Crystal. However, you still need to pull for duplicates because: You cannot exchange Cleats, the currency acquired from destroying unused duplicates, for shards. Events and battle passes only hand out enough Shards for roughly 4 crystals per year (JP), making those crystals extremely rare & valuable Additionally, there are scenario support cards, designed to be very strong in a specific scenario only. With Cygames releasing new scenarios every 4 months instead of 6, F2Ps/Low Spenders are expected to borrow them instead of pulling. There are free support cards, and here are how to acquire & limit break them: Main story support cards: First copy granted by finishing a story chapter Join a club, trade dirt shoes to get club points, then grind fans to get your club into higher ranks to get more club points, which can be used to exchange for support card duplicates. You get more fans for winning career races -> pull & upgrade support cards for better chance winning Event support cards: Play career mode, level up the event "battle pass" & roll the Prize Derby roulette. Progress depend on your career results + event bonuses from unlocked umamusume & support cards -> pull & upgrade support cards for faster event progression. Your support card collection gains a buff to your Team Trials score, depending on their levels (up to 50%): Card Level Bonus (Per Card) 20 +0.01% 25-35 +0.02% 40 +0.03% 50 +0.05% (Note: In JP, this system was updated to be based purely on the rarity of MLB cards: R cards give +0.03%, while MLB SR and SSR cards give +0.05%.) SR cards are viable for endgame & PvP at the moment in Global, but in the future full MLB SSR decks will become the norm when veterans manage to build a decent support collection. Eventually Support cards will get powercrept with new ones having better stats, skill point bonuses, granting 2 gold skills instead of 1, with many skills having better activation conditions. Even the old "Human Rights" ones like SSR Speed Kitasan Black will eventually fall out of the PvP meta. In the future, cards released during anni/half-anni are usually "Human Rights" tier, pressuring competitive players to pull & MLB them. Your SRs & free welfare SSRs will eventually be obsolete for PvP. You cannot escape the support gacha. 2.3: Free pull events There are daily free pull events during special events like Anniversary, about 100-120 pulls per event. However: Unused free pulls are lost at daily reset. Some events have a system that stores unused free pulls, but only if you didn't login from before the start of the event, essentially functioning as a returning player mechanic. Some events only give 1 pull per day instead of 10 pulls. At that point, why not just give players 150 Carats so they can actually save them? Some events split the free pulls between between 2 different banners with different spark progression. You can't select which banner to use those pulls, which means guaranteeing wasted pulls unless you get incredibly lucky or continue pulling until spark/MLB. 3: The RNG Horse racing is chaotic & unpredictable. A superstar horse with multiple victories may randomly lose for whatever reasons at any time (ft. Gold Ship's 12 billion yen incident & Mejiro McQueen topping with 14 billion yen). Cygames tries to recreate this chaos by making the RNG in this game incredibly punishing: Random mood downs & negative conditions. Some uma have negative conditions baked into their career [e.g. Super Creek's "Under the Weather" (+5% failure chance), Meisho Doto's "Not Ready" (random -5 energy after racing)] Resting may grant less energy, with a Night Owl condition (random energy loss) Your training stat gain is influenced by whether Support cards appear in a training category or not. Sometimes they may not appear in crucial turns like Summer training, then appear when your Uma's energy is low, forcing you to gamble. Failing 1 or 2 important turns can brick your PvP training run. Infirmary does not guarantee removing negative conditions. Support card events' appearance is not guaranteed. Some events require you to gamble for desired skills. Some characters like Gold Ship may randomly restrict your training options. Praying for "Fast Learner" buff (-10% skill points cost) in JP, where average uma has roughly 20-30 skills thanks to scenario stat inflation. Inheriting sparks from parent uma is RNG. Start reaction time is RNG. Skill activation chance is determined by your Uma's Wit stat "If you're blocked, you're blocked." Not placing 1st in a career race costs more energy + grant less skill points, and placing 6th or below in may inflict a purple self-debuff skill. While this unpredictability helps with immersion in casual story runs, it can destroy your PvP Ace training. Imagine 30 minutes wasted because of missing important skills, failed important training turns, or not reaching stat thresholds. Example of support cards appearing when The Mun's energy is low. Luckily this is a casual story run & not PvP Ace training. And there's the infamous Trackblazer/MANT scenario. An average run takes 1 hour, where you're expected to win more than 30 races to collect epithet bonuses, watch a bunch of loading screens & UI animations, while praying for the item shop to drop something good. Deck building is restrictive, requiring stacking Race Bonus to more then 50%, making inheriting skills from parent uma important. Cygames made no adjustments to Trackblazer's global release, so Global players have to suffer through it for 4 months. (Game8 Tutorial) Example of a Trackblazer/MANT run's Race Agenda To make matters worse, just 1 month before Trackblazer was sunset by Grand Live, Cygames dropped The Throne's Assemblage Group card, a very good scenario card for Trackblazer, in hope of draining players' Carat savings before the next scenario. Reddit post for reference What about parent/legacy farming? Think a good parent umamusume as god roll artifacts in Genshin. A Kitasan Black level stud in real-life is rare (she got dried just like BA's Sensei), so Cygames also tries to mimic this with multiple layers of RNG: Blue spark: 20% chance for 1 of the 5 stats, then 5% to get 3★ at 600 stats or 10% at 1200. They direcly give you stats at the start of career & during inspiration events. Having 8★ or 9★ stamina sparks can save you a stamina card slot, and in some Medium distance races can substitute a recovery skill. Red spark: Randomly chosen between your character’s A-rank aptitudes. Track aptitudes affect Acceleration, Distance affects Speed, Strategy affects Wit stat These Can be used to increase an Uma's aptitude, especially ones with B or below, up to A at career start, up to S during inspiration events (and the main way to make Haru Urara win Arima Kinen) White spark: 20% for white skills learned, 25% for ◎ white, 40% for gold, increases by 2.5% (white) to 5% (gold) when grandparents have it. Those sparks grant skill hints and are used for inheriting important skills like Groundwork, strategy/distance corners, Nimble Navigator,... Not to mention that you may have to redo the same thing for different uma, or when a new scenario drops with higher stat limit, forcing everyone to move on to the next scenario while soft-sunsetting your existing trained roster. The result is an MMO-level grind where even with the best support deck, majority of your time will be spent making "Uma glue" while praying your next run will be something decent, but instead of being showered with glue, the game proudly awards you "1 bottle of Uma glue" every 30-minute run, and your veteran umamusume gets soft-sunset every scenario release. (Note: The "Uma glue" joke is a dark community reference to the historical fate of unsuccessful or injured racehorses, as raising them is incredibly expensive and only a fraction ever win a debut race. Here's a Reddit post about why retirement farms need fundraising.) You can borrow parent umamusume by following other Torena-san, but strong parents are highly sought after that they can reach followers cap very quickly. 4: The paid packs Game development is a business, and developers need food on their table. With how competitive PvP is, it can be tempting to swipe your credit card. 4.1 Currency subscriptions Standard light spender goodies in gacha Daily carats pack (980 yen, $6,99) Good old monthly pack. Instant 500 "Paid" carats + 1500 carats drip-fed over 30 days. Unclaimed carats are sent to mail box when expired (JP) X2 career rewards (excluding fans & bonds) (JP) +3 Daily race tickets Cygames doesn't adjust the pack to accommodate global schedule acceleration Premium monthly battle pass (JP) (800 yen, ~$5) Instant 300 "Paid" carats, unlocks premium track of the battle pass. You can get legacy support card tickets, which can be used to exchange featured Year 1 & 2 SSR support cards that have been powercrept (including SSR Speed Kitasan Black) Notable rewards: 1300 free carats 25 legacy support tickets (10 to exchange 1 copy) 4 Uma pull tickets 4 Support pull tickets 1 Crystal shard (20 to exchange 1 Uncap Crystal) 4.2 QoL subscriptions Instead of fixing the stupid RNG I mentioned in section 3 for every torena-san, Cygames decided to monetize QoL features. Having all three of these subscriptions saves you hundreds of hours of parent farming. These are features that would be free baseline QoL updates in almost any other modern video game. Spark reroll subscription (JP) (500 yen, ~$3) Lets you reroll the sparks 3 times for "free" instead of spending 30 Energy -> 30 carats -> 30 carats, basically 4 parent runs in 1. You can select your preferred results. Blue/Pink spark selector subscription (JP) (980 yen, ~$7) Selects which blue/pink spark type you want to get for your Umamusume at the end of their career run for "free" instead of 100 carats. No more praying for RNG to drop your preferred spark category. The stars of those sparks are still RNG Uma Plan (JP) (1980 yen, ~$12) "Sweep" the career mode & instantly get 5 parent-only umamusume daily, 10 with the spark reroll pass. Yes, they're monetizing a basic feature of a gacha game. During Inspiration/Inheritance (Classic/Senior Early April turns) events you can choose 1 of 2 spark rolls, alleviating inspiration RNG. +5 Parent borrows per day Permanent +100 follow slots (probably to lure players into subscribing) There were mixed reactions regarding the Uma Plan subscription. Torena-san defending the new Uma Plan, arguing that paying for QoL advantages is normal Torena-san explaining why Uma Plan is worth it, that paying for time-saving QoLs allows them to play other games Torena-san being against it, arguing that QoL subscriptions shorten the game's life span Torena-san bragging about spending $110 for annual Uma Plan Reddit's reactions 4.3: Selectors/Guaranteed Banners Selector tickets (Uma/SSR) Can be exchanged for 1 copy of an 3★/SSR unit. Because of the bloated banners, these have very high value. The first ones cost $21, standard selector prices. Includes 1500 paid carats. The second ones cost $70, equal to a modern AAA game. Includes 5000 paid carats. The fact that Global players actively map out months of pull plans around these tickets proves how demanding PvP is. Guaranteed 3-star/SSR banners Costs 1,500 Paid Carats ($20). Because there is no duplicate protection against a bloated pool, this is widely considered a scam. Step-up gacha (JP) Available during anni/half-anni Costs 5000 paid carats total. You can buy a $70 selector ticket & dump the bonus carats on this. Select 10 units for rate-up, then do 5 steps of 10-pulls: 1 (500 paid carats): Guaranteed 2★/SR 2 (700): Guaranteed 2★/SR 3 (1000): Guaranteed 3★/SSR 4 (1300): Guaranteed 3★/SSR 5 (1500): Guaranteed Selector 3★/SSR Overall, If you're a dedicated PvP player, you're expected to buy all 5 subscriptions (total $30+ monthly), plus selector tickets & step up gacha. EX: What if I'm F2P & ignore PvP? If you step away from PvP, you will save a massive amount of money and sanity. In fact, a considerable portion of the playerbase treats Umamusume purely as a casual game. Support card requirements are low for story enjoyers. Rental decks will come in 4th anniversary. URA Finale is the fastest scenario for story runs with no extra gimmicks (yet). You can ignore farming parent uma Until Autoplay comes to global, you can do a botched run to complete dailies: Pick any uma with a fan objective as second career objective Win debut race Spam recreation until the 2nd objective deadline and lose career Or slot 4 speed cards, turn your brain off & Bakushin Bakushin Bakushinshin. There are players who focus on self-made achievements like grind 1 billion fans for their oshi, collect epithets, or pulling off the legendary feat of making Haru Urara win the Arima Kinen career race. It's not everyone's cup of tea, though. [Note: Haru Urara is a Dirt umamusume specialized in Sprint & Mile distances. Her final career objective requires participation in the Arima Kinen, where her Turf & Long aptitude is G (-90% Speed & Acceleration), which is basically a guaranteed loss, and then you'll watch this cheerful girl break down & cry for the first time. Many Torena-san consider winning the Arima Kinen with Haru Urara a legendary feat, because it requires not just parents with at least a total of 7★ Turf & 7★ Long sparks, but also luck in inheritance (she has low affinity with every single character), and luck in the race itself (You can't retry the race)] In the long term, not caring about PvP means you won't have much motivation to deep dive into the game's mechanics. The game essentially transforms into a high-quality visual novel with raising-sim elements where you mostly log in just to do dailies, and maybe eventually become a Cygames seasonal player. However, keep in mind that you still need to pull the characters in order to experience their career stories, and PvP accounts for a considerable amount of repeatable carat income. 5. When "Fun" becomes an excuse to silence criticism If you combine all the information, it's obvious that the game's trying to suck players into the PvP grind, then milk dedicated players & whales as hard as possible. But wait. It gets worse. Umamusume, like many idol and gacha franchises, is fundamentally built on fostering relationships with their characters. You read their backstories, help them through personal struggles, watch them cry when they lose, all while doing your best being the guiding light towards their success. Eventually you've followed the franchise for so long that it becomes part of your life. You can't image a day without getting pampered by Super Creek, squishing The Mun, or hearing Mejiro Ardan's alluring ASMR voice. Then, the "Glory to Cygames" meme erupts when the devs continue to hand out free pulls, or do something good to IRL horse racing, further reinforcing Tribalism. When players express their frustrations about the game (e.g. This tweet), it creates cognitive dissonance for the fans who are still having fun, acting as if criticizing the bad parts of the game is the equivalent of attempting to take their beloved horse girls away. The result is that oftentimes there'll be responses like "Umamusume isn't just PvP", "Try playing more casually", "You're expecting too high", "Just quit if you're not having fun". Yes, you can have fun with Umamusume in various ways. It's still a great franchise, after all. However, "fun" should never be used as a shield to deflect valid criticism. Game companies are not your friend. Blindly defending the game means you're implicitly allowing them to exploit you even futher for their shareholders' demands. You can love Umamusume, but the game & the real-life horses will never love you back. The accelerating powercreep, the QoL subscriptions (especially Uma Plan), and the barebones $45 spinoff with just 4 minigames called Party Dash, should be the warning shots for everyone. If Cygames can accelerate milking the game without major backlash, they'll do it. I recently watched a video ranking predatory gacha game monetization tactics. The #1 worst tactic wasn't FOMO or the Gacha system itself. It was Tribalism: passively training the community to defend the multi-million dollar corporation on its behalf. This phenomenon isn't unique to gacha games. The Destiny 2 community suffered from a similar divide, where casual players routinely shrugged off the complaints of hardcore veterans because they were having fun in different ways (reddit complaint for example). What used to be the king of looter shooters has gone downhill since The Final Shape expansion, from 250K+ players peak during expansion releases & average 50K~80K players daily to less than 10K players daily (Steam charts), due to Bungle's greed & incompetence. Here's a Video made by Aztecross, a veteran Destiny content creator, roasting D2's microtransactions. Closing Words Gacha games are predatory by nature, but many players usually tolerate it to a certain extent when the game is good. It seems like Cygames is testing how far they can cross that line without making players too angry. There's no VIP system at the moment, but considering that Cygames isn't shy about being P2W & is ramping up the monetization, who knows? The franchise is still a faithful adaptation of Japanese horse racing with great characters, stories, attention to details, anime, manga & music. so as a F2P you can still get some enjoyment out of it. Let the tryhards, whales beat each other & fund the game. Go buy some merch instead. Your Super Creek shrine will still be there long after the game went EoS. On the opposite site, the game is constantly trying to lure you into grinding PvP with lucarative rewards back-loaded into high achievements. Falling into PvP rabbit hole means you will have to deal with a tedious & repetitive grind with multiple layers of RNG, where the winners are those who not just whale the hardest, grind the hardest for those god roll umas & parents, but also blessed by RNG. On top of that, Cygames will not stop milking you through powercreep, PvP meta shifting, expensive packs & multiple subscriptions in typical JP gacha fashion. Generosity is an illusion. The freebies are just enough for survival. Thank you for coming to my UMA Talk. submitted by /u/xXinsertCoDGMtagXx to r/gachagaming [link] [comments]

2.33 - De'Zhaun Stribling (WR, Ole Miss) Stribling was an outside receiver, primarily to the left of the formation, in former offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr.’s scheme (also used on motions and in the backfield). The Hawaii native spent two years at Washington State and another two at Oklahoma State before helping Ole Miss to the College Football Playoff in 2025 (averaged 92.7 receiving yards in three Playoff games). With his tall, muscular frame, Stribling quickly accelerates to his top speed and has quickness out of route breaks, even if he didn’t put the most versatile route inventory on film (hitches and go routes accounted for 57 percent of his route frequency in 2025). He has dependable hands (1.9 percent drop rate in 2025) and plays strong to the football, but needs to do a better job with his positioning downfield to finish tight-window throws. His smarts and willingness to do the dirty work are coach-pleasing qualities. Overall, Stribling isn’t the most well-rounded in terms of his route success, but he is a big-bodied athlete with strong ball skills and a pro mindset. He has the talent and competitive toughness to settle into a WR2/3 role for an NFL offense. 3.70 - Romello Height (LB/Edge, Texas Tech) Height formed a dynamic pass rush duo with fellow transfer David Bailey and posted 62 pressures in 2025, which ranked No. 2 in the Big 12 (behind Bailey) and No. 7 in the FBS. On the hoof, Height looks more like a stack linebacker than edge defender, and his measurables fall below NFL thresholds. But keeping him blocked is easier said than done. His combination of initial quickness, sudden feet and active hands helps him slither around roadblocks and close in a flash. He flashes speed to power to put blockers in reverse, although he needs a runway to create enough force. He will be overwhelmed at times in the run game but does offer the versatility to peel off and cover zones or wheel routes. Overall, there aren’t many edge rushers with Height’s slender size profile who find sustained NFL success, but his twitchy get-off and rush movements can be weaponized by the right defensive play caller. He projects as a sub-down designated pass rusher in the NFL. 3.90 - Kaelon Black (RB, Indiana) After four seasons at James Madison, he followed Curt Cignetti to Bloomington, where he emerged as a vital part of Indiana’s national title run. He and Hemby each topped 1,000 rushing yards in 2025, making them the only FBS pair to accomplish that feat, and Black led the Hoosiers in rushing yards in each of Indiana’s final four games (Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon and Miami). A short, well-built back, Black runs balanced, low to the ground and consistently finds cracks at the line of scrimmage. Instead of gearing down ahead of impending contact, he bursts to accelerate into flat-footed defenders, and his physical run style helps him maximize each touch. Though mashing the gas pedal helps him produce, he could benefit from added patience to eliminate false-stepping cuts. Overall, Black runs with light feet and punches above his weight class to consistently get more yards than expected. Once in an NFL camp, his ability to prove himself as a pass catcher will be critical to carving out a part-time role. 4.107 - Gracen Halton (DT, Oklahoma) Halton played multiple alignments across the front in head coach Brent Venables’ scheme. While sharing defensive tackle duties with Jayden Jackson, he made his presence known in different ways (his 30 pressures in 2025 were the second most on the Sooners), despite not playing a high snap count (32.5 defensive snaps per game in 2025; 31.0 in 2024). Halton is a win-early and clean-up-late player. He has outstanding get-off quickness for early disruption when he times the snap. (Alabama center Parker Brailsford called him the toughest player he faced in 2025, because of his initial quickness.) When he doesn’t do that, he switches to an edge-to-edge attacking mindset that leads to clean-up stops or sacks. He plays strong at the point in the run game, although he is inconsistent in shedding blocks. Overall, Halton is sawed off and can be overwhelmed at times, but he moves with big-man twitch and his initial quickness and closing speed can be weaponized. A part-time role that keeps his battery charged will be his best NFL fit. 4.127 - Carver Willis (OG, Washington) A one-year starter at Washington (and three-year starter overall), Willis lined up at left tackle in head coach Jedd Fisch’s offense. He didn’t have draftable grades based on his play at right tackle at Kansas State, but he joined the Huskies in 2025 and changed the narrative with his fit and performance as a super senior. A fluid blocker, Willis shines on the move, when he can reach or steamroll defenders in the run game. He skillfully surfaces blocks in zone but can also be a lunger at times. He reaches proper depth in his kick slides, but his reaction quickness and hand use must improve on the interior, where everything is a little bit faster. Overall, Willis is at his best sealing and finishing in the run game, but his ability to stay on an NFL field will depend on how he protects his edges and anchors in pass protection. He projects as a backup swing lineman, with the upside to be more. 4.139 Ephesians Prysock (CB, Washington) A two-year starter at Washington (and three-year starter overall), Prysock was an outside cornerback (left and right) in defensive coordinator Ryan Walters’ scheme. After starting his career at Arizona, he followed his coaches to Seattle, where he became a solid starter for the Huskies and ultimately played his best ball as a senior. A tall, long-limbed athlete, Prysock can carry receivers vertically or close on throws with linear burst. He uses his length to affect the catch point but tends to be handsy through routes and isn’t natural playing the football. He doesn’t consistently trust his technique or speed, which is the root of several of his issues, leaving him unbalanced and tardy to react. Overall, Prysock has rare physical traits that are hard to find at the position, although he is still learning how to maximize those tools in coverage. He will appeal to both press-heavy and zone-based schemes as a developmental dart throw. 5.154 Jaden Dugger (LB, Louisiana) A zero-star recruit, Jaden Dugger started to receive interest from FCS programs and committed to Georgetown. After two seasons as a safety, he wanted to challenge himself and move up to FBS, so he transferred to Louisiana. He moved to dime linebacker and edge (Sam and Jack) as a junior and then moved inside for his senior year in 2025, when he grabbed the attention of NFL scouts. Dugger has remarkable size, with a lean, filled-out build and go-go gadget arm length. His instincts and communication skills as a Mike ‘backer are still maturing, but he adapted quickly to the new position because of his ability to see ball-get ball. When he keeps himself clean, he has sideline range and can open and run. He explodes through his hips as a tackler, although he has to improve the consistency of his details as a flow tackler. He hasn’t yet fully realized how to weaponize his long arms to combat blockers, but he plays with toughness to battle through contact. As a former safety, he looks comfortable dropping in space and has match-man potential against tight ends. Overall, Dugger is an ascending player with a blend of size and reactive athleticism worth developing on the back end of an NFL roster or practice squad. 5.179 Enrique Cruz, Jr (OT, Kansas) A one-year starter at Kansas (and a starter for two-and-a-half years overall), Cruz locked down the right tackle role in offensive coordinator Jim Zebrowski’s balanced scheme. He showed promise as an underclassman left tackle at Syracuse, but he lost his starting job under a new staff in 2024. He transferred to Kansas for his final season of eligibility and moved to right tackle, where he earned All-Big 12 honors and an NFL Combine invite. Barely graded by NFL teams entering the 2025 season, Cruz forced evaluators to take notice with his steadying play. More quick than explosive, he reaches landmarks well and has the size and length to tie up rushers. He flashes vice-grip hands when he connects, but his punch timing and overall hand usage are works in progress (see his reps versus David Bailey and Romello Height on the 2025 Texas Tech tape). He has functional strength, although it can be negated by spotty technique. Overall, Cruz is still green in areas and learning how to use all his tools in unison, but the encouraging play on his 2025 tape gives NFL teams optimism. He could be an interesting Day 3 flier for a team running a zone scheme. submitted by /u/AnalAttackProbe to r/49ers [link] [comments]

Been following this situation closely since mid-March. Took time to go through the actual documents and news pieces. Putting it all together in one place because most coverage is either too surface level or too scattered. Quick Background :- What Are AT-1 Bonds Additional Tier-1 bonds are instruments banks use to raise capital. They offer higher returns than regular bonds but carry one brutal condition if the issuing bank faces financial stress, these bonds get written off completely before equity holders take any hit. . They are not safe instruments. In March 2023, Credit Suisse collapsed and was taken over by UBS. Swiss regulators wiped out $17 billion worth of Credit Suisse AT-1 bonds overnight. Investors across the world lost everything. How HDFC Gets Dragged In HDFC Bank's Dubai and Bahrain branches were selling Credit Suisse AT-1 bonds to NRI clients. That by itself isn't illegal. What allegedly happened around those sales is the problem. Documented allegations from named victims with supporting documents published by Khaleej Times: A Dubai-based NRI named Varun Mahajan had his KYC profile altered —declared net worth changed from $400,000 to $2.4 million to classify him as a "professional client." Under DFSA regulations, AT-1 bonds can only be sold to professional clients with significant assets. He wasn't one. The documents were changed to make him qualify. Pankaj Sinha, who lives in India, stated that he lost more than $200,000 after purchasing Credit Suisse and Standard Chartered AT1 bonds through HDFC’s Bahrain branch. In a police complaint filed in Gurgaon, he alleged that the bank misrepresented the bonds as "capital-protected" with fixed maturity. Multiple Bahrain branch clients say they were told these were "fixed maturity assured return" bonds essentially pitched as better fixed deposits. They were never told the principal could be wiped to zero. FCNR deposits among the safest instruments available to NRIs, with guaranteed returns and full principal protection were moved from India to Bahrain specifically to fund these purchases. Safe money was converted into zero. This is not mis-selling in the conventional sense of giving bad advice. Altering a client's declared net worth on a regulatory document to make them eligible for a product they otherwise couldn't buy is document forgery. Asking someone to sign a blank form is fraud. The Regulatory Response September 2025 DFSA, Dubai's financial regulator, bars HDFC Bank's DIFC branch from onboarding any new clients while its investigation runs. This is a significant action. HDFC's Dubai branch is a critical channel for the NRI banking business. January 2025 HDFC initiates an internal probe. Two senior executives are suspended Harsh Gupta, who headed the Middle East, Africa, and NRI onshore business, and Payal Mandhyan, Senior Vice President. The Dubai and Bahrain branches fell directly under Gupta's responsibility. October 2025 Bloomberg asks the bank for comment. HDFC's official response: "The bank has not come across any instances of mis-selling till now." March 2026 Everything Accelerates March 18 Atanu Chakraborty resigns as part-time non-executive chairman. His resignation letter says: "Certain happenings and practices within the bank that I have observed over the last two years are not in congruence with my personal values and ethics." The internal probe concludes on the same day the resignation arrives. March 21 Three executives are fired. Harsh Gupta, Payal Mandhyan, and Sampath Kumar, Head of Branch Banking India. March 24 HDFC acknowledges it found "gaps in client onboarding and compliance procedures" at its DIFC branch. Five months after saying no mis-selling was found. March 30 Chakraborty speaks publicly on CNBC-TV18. He says the Dubai issues trace back to 2018. He specifically calls out the bank's "incentive frameworks" as the root problem — meaning the way relationship managers were incentivized to sell products was structurally flawed, not just individually abused. Same day Reuters publishes an investigation based on nine sources including board members and current and former staff. Key findings: sustained boardroom conflict between Chakraborty and CEO Jagdishan running for two years, clashes over HR policy, Chakraborty allegedly altering performance ratings of senior executives, opposition to a strategic investment deal with Japan's MUFG, and growing concern about limited gains from the $40 billion HDFC Ltd merger in 2023. The Chief HR Officer left quietly in June 2025. Executive Director Bhavesh Zaveri, considered a likely CEO successor, is not seeking reappointment. The Sampath Kumar Question This is the detail most coverage glosses over:- Sampath Kumar headed domestic branch banking in India. The Dubai and Bahrain branches are international operations they don't fall under his remit. So why is the head of India branch banking fired in an overseas mis-selling investigation? The Nagpur Economic Offences Wing received a complaint from an India-based investor a senior advisor associated with the Asian Development Bank naming CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan along with other executives. The pipeline ran both ways. NRI clients were identified and approached through onshore relationship managers at Indian branches, then routed to Dubai for the actual product sale. The domestic branch network was the origination engine. That is likely why the head of domestic branch banking is in the firing line despite having no direct Dubai role. The Stock HDFC Bank was trading around ₹990 in October 2025. It closed at ₹735 on March 30, 2026. That is a 28% decline erasing roughly ₹1.35 lakh crore in market cap. The decline isn't purely governance-driven. FIIs hold approximately 47% of HDFC and have been selling Indian equities broadly through March. Oil spiked above $119 per barrel mid-month on geopolitical concerns, creating a macro headwind for Indian banking stocks generally. But the governance discount is real and is visible in the valuation. HDFC now trades at 1.6x FY27 adjusted book a 20% discount to ICICI Bank, which historically traded at a discount to HDFC. Every bounce since March 18 has been sold into. The pattern is consistent with institutional holders using relief rallies to reduce exposure rather than accumulate. What Actually Matters From Here RBI's decision on Jagdishan's CEO term renewal. His current term ends October 2026. RBI approval is required. Given that the CEO is named in an EOW complaint and presided over the period when the Dubai conduct issues allegedly developed from 2018 onward, the renewal is not automatic. This is the single largest binary for the stock. The external law firm audit. The board approved appointment of domestic and international law firms to review the circumstances around the chairman's resignation. When their report comes and what it says determines whether this chapter closes or expands. DFSA formal enforcement outcome. A fine with a specific number attached is actually better for the stock than an ongoing open investigation. Known liability gets priced in. Unknown liability creates permanent uncertainty discount. April 18 earnings. Q4 FY26 results. If NIM recovery and loan growth numbers are strong, the market can partially separate the governance story from the fundamental business story. Bigger concern The most important point isn’t just Dubai. It’s this: If aggressive sales incentives led to rule-breaking even in a strict market like Dubai, what could be happening in India where enforcement is weaker? That’s the real unanswered question. Right now we have proven malpractice in one geography, one product, documented with named victims and forged documents. That's serious and should result in serious consequences. Whether it's systemic across the bank is still an open investigative question. But : the size of the institution and its systemic importance should not be a shield against accountability for how it treats individual customers. Too big to fail cannot mean too big to be held to conduct standards. The story is still developing. Share Your Thoughts on This and correct me where i am wrong TL;DR HDFC Bank got caught in a big scandal. Its Dubai and Bahrain branches allegedly tricked NRI customers by selling risky Credit Suisse AT-1 bonds (which got wiped out in 2023) as "safe fixed deposits". They even faked documents to make customers eligible. What happened: Dubai regulator banned new customers. Chairman resigned saying he saw unethical practices. Several top executives (including India branch head) got fired. Bank admitted compliance failures. Stock fell 28% (lost ₹1.35 lakh crore). Big worry: If this happened in strict Dubai, what’s going on in India? CEO’s future and investigations will decide next moves. Story still unfolding. Story still developing. "I have used AI for better structuring and phrasing of the post" submitted by /u/TheStratifiedKFold5 to r/IndianStockMarket [link] [comments]

Hope this is allowed because I am not asking FOR medical advice, I’m asking how to GET medical advice. Genuinely, what am I supposed to do in this situation. I’ve had three GP appointments, three A&E visits, and two 111 calls in the last two weeks, and yet no conclusive diagnosis or treatment plan. This is for chest related symptoms: shortness of breath that almost always happens during/after exercising and at its most severe makes me lightheaded to the point I worry I’ll collapse, hissing and rumbling/rattling sounds in my lungs that appear after exercising and are loud enough for those around me to hear, intermittent central chest pain, pain in mid right back that’s worse when breathing in (has been going on for a few weeks longer than other symptoms), heart rate that’s normal at rest but often does weird things like going to 130-150 just going upstairs, and most recently a heart rate that stayed between 110-120 at rest for five consecutive hours. Below is a more detailed summary of what’s happened, if you don’t have time to read it skip to TL;DR at the bottom. The first time I had only chest pain, I called 111 who told me to see my GP the next day. I see my GP, they say they don’t have the facilities to test for anything but if it happens again to go straight to A&E, I get more chest pain that day so go to A&E. A&E do an ECG (which is clear) and shuffle me over to the urgent care centre next door. Urgent care say it’s gastritis and tell me to take Gaviscon and 80mg omeprazole daily. The second time, I’d been taking the stomach meds for four days, and had a moment of really severe central and right sided chest pain combined with breathlessness. I take an extra omeprazole and double the max dose of Gaviscon and it does nothing. I call 111 who after five hours ring back and tell me to go to A&E. They do another ECG, it’s clear again, they do an ultrasound of the very top of my lungs (which was normal), and tried to ultrasound my gallbladder but couldn’t see it because I’d had a biscuit in the waiting room after the pain became less intense. The emergency doctor said it wasn’t gastritis if I’d taken that many antacids without seeing a difference, but they didn’t know what it was, and sent me home. I had a follow up appointment with my GP a few days later, who shrugged and said it WAS gastritis, even though they day after A&E I took no stomach meds and also had no symptoms, and that I should just gradually taper off omeprazole. The next week I begin having more and more shortness of breath after exercising and showering, as well as new hissing and rumbling/crackling sounds in my lungs that appear after exercising and that I’ve never had before. Stomach medications have had zero impact. I’m still getting intermittent chest pain but thankfully it’s not as bad this week. After a week or so of the breathing problems I see a GP (this was yesterday). By this point I’d already had one episode of shortness of breath so severe I really thought I might collapse because I was that lightheaded. People around me have noticed the sounds in my lungs and expressed concern, and asked if I’m asthmatic. My GP checks my vitals and listens to my lungs, then brings in a more senior doctor who does the same, and they send me to A&E to rule out a pulmonary embolism because my heart rate was 130 at rest and both lungs have sounds indicating airway narrowing. The GP appointment was at 2pm. By 5am the next day, I am discharged from A&E after having had ANOTHER ECG (clear aside from high heart rate), a clear D Dimer, normal full blood count, and a clear chest X ray. The only thing that was off was slightly elevated CRP. The A&E doctor was kind but said since I wasn’t dying, they couldn’t diagnose anything here, and I’d need to go back to my GP. Which is fair enough, but I’ve already gone to my GP! THREE TIMES! For related symptoms, and they just keep sending me to A&E! So now it’s 6.30am and I’m in the hospital concourse writing this, I haven’t slept since yesterday, and I’m intending to go to urgent care when they open at 8am to see if there’s anything they can do. I am 90% sure the main cause of these symptoms is adult onset asthma, as I have a family history of asthma and it would make sense with the exercise induced shortness of breath and lung rattling. I am scared to go home without at the very least instructions on what to do if I have another episode of severe shortness of breath that lasts for more than 15 minutes and that doesn’t improve when lying down. I can’t emphasise this enough, when it’s bad, I’m not just feeling a little winded, I feel like I’m suffocating, like most of the oxygen has been sucked out of the air. I have had panic attacks in the past but they had different symptoms and also happened when I was stressed about something, rather than after physical exertion, and my lungs didn’t make loud noises either. TL;DR - GP keeps sending me to A&E who keep sending me back to my GP, neither A&E or GP will diagnose and treat my issue. Every further week that it goes untreated I risk ending up in A&E again because of the severity of my symptoms, which would take away resources from seriously ill patients. What am I meant to do to get either A&E, or my GP, or somewhere else, to give me a diagnosis and treatment plan? Edit: after reading everyone’s replies I’ve gone home instead of to urgent care, and will try and see my GP on Monday and ask specifically for a referral to an asthma service. In the meantime I will avoid any strenuous activity, and when shortness of breath comes on during minor exertion like showering or cleaning I’ll just stop whatever I’m doing as soon as possible until it goes away, so I hopefully I’ll avoid a really bad episode of shortness of breath. ALSO - no I am not American, I used the word “concourse” because that’s literally what it’s labelled on signs around the hospital 😂 submitted by /u/_imnotactuallyreal_ to r/AskUK [link] [comments]

Hi everyone, I’d really value some honest feedback from experienced freelancers here. I’m currently: • Top Rated Plus • 100% Job Success • ~$40k+ earned • 1,600+ hours • 3 long-term clients • $50–60/hr I work in Full Stack + GenAI systems (React, Next.js, Node, LangChain, RAG, automation systems). Since the UMA “Suggested Profiles” update, I’ve noticed a clear drop in profile views and invites. Previously I used to get consistent inbound messages. Now it feels significantly quieter. I’m trying to understand what might be hurting my discoverability: Is my positioning too broad (Full Stack + AI together)? Should I split into more niche specialized profiles? Is my headline not keyword-dense enough for UMA search? Does rate impact search ranking more now? Are hybrid profiles being deprioritized? I’m not looking for generic advice like “send more proposals.” I’m specifically trying to understand how to optimize for UMA visibility and inbound invites. If you’ve adjusted your profile post-UMA and saw improvements, what changed for you? Appreciate any blunt feedback. submitted by /u/praveen-me to r/Upwork [link] [comments]

Reposting this because I got no less than 8 separate DMs yesterday asking for this after mods deleted it. Why did mods delete? "Poster doesn't have requisite experience for their posted opinion". Insane. The icing on the cake is they ghost their mod mail when I send proof. Mods - check your messages. I think this info is valuable and doesn't need to be deleted. LinkedIn, drivers license, biz cards. I got what you need. Genuinely thought this would be a good sub to share a wealth of career info, but power-trippy mods seem to have ruined most subs. I've been in high finance for ~10 years, working in equity research, IB, and hedge funds. I broke into 'high finance' from a non-target with a piss-poor GPA just through constant networking. Here's what I've learned, consolidated in one spot - maybe it can help some people in their search. 1. IB Pros: Best immediate pay right out of school, outside of niche opportunities like quant at Citadel/Jane Street. Provides a great foundation for whatever you want to do next - essentially acts as an MBA program, pre-MBA. Good opportunities to network, deal experience is invaluable, and the best exit opportunities. Can lateral pretty much anywhere because everyone else views it as 'if he/she can do IB, they'll succeed here'. Good placement into MBA programs, Cons: Atrocious hours, have to deal with some awful personalities. MBA associates are often the worst to deal with, as well as some VPs that don't have deal-making chops and try to make up for it by acting as slave drivers. Experience as an analyst can vary heavily depending on the bank/team - if you have good deal-flow at a prestigious group in a good bank, you have a significant leg up. This is ~10% of IB roles - difficult to get into without a pedigree. If you're not on a team that does deals, you're going to spend most of your time waiting around for your MD to turn comments over to you at 6PM so you can align logos and change fonts until 4AM, all to find out you guys don't sniff the deal. 2. Sales & Trading Pros: Teaches you how to build a network. Specialist sales at an investment bank is a very unique role where you have more freedom to write about stocks / get a pulse on the buy side without the regulatory issues research analysts face. On the trading side, good comp opportunities. One strong exit opportunity for sales is BD at a hedge fund (glorified recruiter earning some really solid money). Cons: In structural decline - fewer and fewer sales seats out there every year. Every place I've been, sales has complained heavily about being understaffed. This leads them to ignore most research analysts other than top-tier ones in good sectors. Fewer exit opportunities than research or banking. 3. Equity Research Pros: Most 'stimulating' work right out of school. Still some grunt work, but if you prove you can do the basics, you'll move up faster here than banking. I've seen people in their 20s launch coverage with 3 YOE and be very successful, at a solid bank. Strong exit opportunities, pretty solid pay, decent WLB (team-dependent) during non-earnings periods. Best exposure to C-Suite. Top-tier analysts can have amazing career opportunities (check out someone like Anthony Noto, Sarah Friar, Charles Phillips). Pay at MD level is typically 7 figures, seen some great II analysts covering bio/pharma earning 5m+. Cons: Lower pay than banking, worse exit opps than banking, your success is heavily tied to your analyst, which is always a crap shoot. I've met amazing analysts/bosses, and just dreadful ones. It's more pronounced here since you only have one senior, whereas in banking you may report to a few MDs/directors. Private equity, growth equity, and VC are pretty much out of the question outside of a top-tier MBA program, connections, or luck. If you want to move up to a senior analyst role, you have to get lucky and have a sector open up that you can lateral to, or have your boss retire/move firms. Once you're a senior analyst, your entire job is basically just a sales role - schmoozing c-suite and investors. And your investors are mostly 24 year-old kids at pod shops asking you if Google is going to miss the opex guide that qtr., because the long-onlys have largely moved research in-house and rarely use the sell side. 4. Corporate finance, strategic finance, corp dev Pros: Probably the most 'cushy' of the finance roles, typically a 40-50 hour a week role, decent pay, some stock comp, good benefits, less risk of layoffs than banks (normally, but not currently). Cons: insanely heavily dependent on the company you're at. At somewhere like Nvidia in 2017? You're set. At somewhere like American Airlines or FedEx? Your role is going to India within the next 5 years, best of luck. 5. Investor relations Pros: Also cushy, pays well, you become very close with your c-suite. Probably the role in finance least at risk of automation/AI/offshoring. I've seen people stay at the same company for 30-50 years. You get wined and dined by the sell side and buy side. Can also get involved in FP&A, strategic finance, corp dev while in IR (joint roles). IR at stellar companies can get looked at for CFO roles (Google was notorious for this - lots of IR exits to CFO). This is also the role most likely to be allowed to be remote or flexible on location. Cons: Can be very boring to only cover the same company indefinitely. Very few exit opportunities other than more IR roles. 6. PE Pros: Better pay than banking, potential to come with carry, if you're at a megafund you can work on some amazing deals. Career longevity. Prestige. Cons: You work in a sector that adds basically no value to society. You can make the argument here about every other sector that they provide something useful to society, in some sense - PE doesn't. Your hours are basically banking hours. Washout rates are decently high if you're working towards getting more senior with carry. Can end up pitching dozens of deals without any traction. 7. HFs (primarily pod shops) Pros: Most meritocratic, easily the highest upside potential out of any of these careers. I've seen PMs I've worked with get $50-100M pay packages in one year for stellar performance (e.g. up ~$500M on a 2B GMV book). Probably the most interesting work - talking with c-suite constantly, always following markets, being courted by the sell side. Can be even more cushy at a very exclusive role - handful of funds out there I know pay incredibly well with good cultures and almost no turnover. Cons: Essentially no exit opportunities - you call quarters for a living. If you go try and join a corporate after a HF, they won't understand what type of work you did. Wildly variable comp, while you could see 7 figures with 2-3 years out of school, you can just as easily only get base pay (which is relatively low), or worse yet - they cut your pod. Smaller funds aren't hiring as much, or they're downsizing / shuttering. This leaves pod shops, where the average tenure is 1 year at most. Once you get bounced out more than 2x, you won't get another shot. I've seen top-performers go from on track to PM to out the door and back to the sell side, or try to lateral to IR/corporate. Career length is very short - not a lot of 40+ year old PMs out there at the large pods, it really is a young person's game. If you don't make enough to retire in 10 years, you're going to have to pivot out. 8. LO / asset mgmt Pros: Great WLB, decent pay - not as much as HFs, but far, far less stress. Amazing career longevity, not uncommon to see someone at the same fund for 20-30 years. The elite roles (e.g. PM at Capital Group) are insanely difficult to get into, but probably the best seat on wall street - 40 hour weeks, running a huge amount of capital, amazing longevity, and $10M comp per year. But again, highly difficult to get those roles. C-suite LOVES you and will be far more willing to meet with you than another pod shop monkey. Cons: Active fund outflows. Fewer and fewer seats every year - this is the job most ripe for AI automation. Comp/pay is in decline. Essentially 0 exit opportunities. Feel free to ask me anything about career, networking, opportunities, etc. I've been fairly lucky to work in / have exposure to most of these on this list in some form or fashion. I mostly wrote this to show that there's not one career path that's better than all the others, it all heavily depends on your personality, talents, strengths/weaknesses, stage in life, education pedigree, etc. Anyone can be wildly successful in any of these paths, and with enough skill and effort can start something on their own or lateral somewhere that's a better fit. Edit: should probably add VC 9. VC Pros: probably the most interesting work in high finance. Blends networking, operations, and investing into one role. Lots of focus on the new and 'up and coming' technologies. Comp not as high as PE/IB/HF, but better WLB and more upside if you have enough carry. Decent exit opportunities, very easy to go work at a portfolio company or strategic VC at a large corporate. Cons: Insanely competitive. Every MBA grad and their mother wants to break in. There's a small number of top-tier firms looking for pedigree where pay is great but very competitive to get in (a16z, Sequoia, etc), but a huge number of smaller, 3-5 person shops where pay is lackluster and almost entirely dependent on you staying a while and finding the next Uber/Stripe. submitted by /u/Gullible-Shine4515 to r/FinancialCareers [link] [comments]