Like a Dragon: Ishin! Hints & Tips

Hints & Tips

Hints & Tips

General Hints

Don't be afraid to rotate multiple saves. This game has an autosave and manual saving whenever you want it. That said, the autosave can be a bit fickle. Save before a risky gambling game, or a major fight.

Make sure to stock up your Inventory with healing items. It's no fun to be caught in a fight and have to panic as to whether you're going to die.

The Accessibility options are not just for people that aren't you. If you would like to, for example, not have to mash the Light Attack button to spam bullets, consider turning on the "hold down button Rush Combo" option. Your thumb will thank you.

Combat and Upgrading

Look, Brawler Style just isn't all that worth it apart from the curiosity. As you get stronger weapons, you'll easily outpace the damage that can be done in Brawler Style.

For Swordsman, the handy move to unlock is the fourth hit of the Rush Combo and the second hit of the Finisher. It's a good bread-and-butter that can batter the enemies.

For Gunman, you honestly won't have to do much in the way of fancy stuff. The simple shot will carry you through most anything, and even moreso if you get weapons with high rates of fire. Also, don't bother with Special Ammo. it's expensive to make and doesn't really make that much of a difference.

For Wild Dancer, get used to the idea of flow and dodging. Keep yourself moving to avoid attacks and dodge in the middle of combos if you see hits coming. You won't do much damage, but it will add up with multiple strikes and you'll hit everyone around you.

While you don't have to do so for EVERY Orb, it will be to your advantage to pick a Style and put the Orbs in it towards completion. There are these things called Breakthroughs, and if you insist on evenly spreading out your Training Orbs, you're going to find yourself in a pickle as it'll take a lot of XP to get the next one and you might be sitting at maxed Style Orbs. My personal advice is to max out Swordsman or Wild Dancer first, then the other of those two, then Gunman, then save Brawler for last.

The Heat upgrades in general are typically quite useful, regardless of Style.

Weapons and Armor

Okanehira is my recommended sword. Powerful, pierces armor, and sets enemies on fire which basically puts them in a stun state for a few seconds.

Vortex is my recommended gun. Mid-range in power, but with the massive rate of fire, you'll cut the bad guys down.

Divine Dragon Emblem is my recommended Headgear, given the amount of Seal Slots, but if you really want to push experience growth, a Red Headband is just as handy.

Purgatory is likely the best armor, given the blade resistance, but honestly it's kind of a wash between the top ones.

Unbridled Fury Gauntlets may have less Defense, but they have the most Slots.


Money

For some cash early on, you can play the Chicken Races. Save Scum.

Also, as you get late in the game and start needing money for smithing, consider selling stuff you pick up in the Battle Dungeons. If you get high level weapons and armor, they'll sell for quite a bit.

Also, no harm in putting your farm to work. Once you've settled everything you need for the minigame's purposes, have Ginseng in every slot and come back every so often to collect. 99 Ginseng get about 25 ryo.

Virtue

Obviously, you'll be doing the Diligence Records for a lot of them if you're going for 100% completion, but also the very act of selling stuff at Ebisu Pawn will get you Virtue, so it's a handy two-birds-with-one-stone method to sell a bunch of Platinum Plates from Chicken Races and also get some Virtue for your troubles.

During these selling sprees, make sure you equip a Virtuous Hood, as it will get you 30% more Virtue, which is nothing to sneeze at.

As for how to spend it, I'd prioritize the "Virtue Cultivation" upgrades to get more for everything you do. After that, handy stuff includes sprinting, inventory, and the Shinto Priest's Exchange.

Experience

The Battle Dungeons will be where you'll want to start for building up your Level. They progress in difficulty and you'll be going through them anyway as part of completion.

Once you get to mid-to-late game, the Hundred Man Beatdown in the Arena is actually quite a good source of EXP, especially when you've got a fast firing gun that can mow down the enemies.

Style EXP is a matter of using that Style properly. To take each in turn:

For Brawler Style EXP, remember that the boosts happen if you're in War Cry Counter, so get in that, but beyond that, just use the Rush Combo over and over to build up this Style. Since you won't be using it much, it doesn't matter how much damage you don't do. Also, for me, this Style is where I spent my Virtue for Red Diafuku at the Shinto Priest's Exchange.

Swordsman Style EXP is easy enough to rack up EXP with. Just remember the boost is in charged finishers.

For Gunman, you don't even need the boost to get a lot of EXP. Just blast your enemies and it will build up really quick.

For Wild Dancer, make sure you're hitting multiple enemies and using the boost provided by Phoenix Frenzy.

If you're really desperate to rack up Style EXP and don't mind not getting normal EXP, consider the Scarecrow Chateau. That place will register Style EXP. Wild Dancer especially is a good Style to build up here as there are multiple targets to hit at once.