Shenmue: Where to Find the Sailors

Where to Find the Sailors in Shenmue

One of the earliest and most memorable quests in the first Shenmue is the one where you have to find the sailors. Apparently, the sailors may have information leading to the identity of the killers of Ryo’s father. This mission also acts as a tutorial of sorts, having you explore the city, interview pedestrians, and get used to the QTEs. It’s a neat little mission that encompasses a lot of the gameplay found in Shenmue. Here’s where to find the sailors in Shenmue.

Once you’re free to roam around in Dobuita Street within Shenmue (after you finish the Three Blades quest), you’ll be instructed to find the sailors. After asking around, it seems like the sailors are found in bars at night and you’re advised to go to the MJQ Jazz & Bar or Heartbeats bar. You should start this quest at 7PM once the bars are all open.

The bars are close to one another – You can start by heading to the northeastern most part of the map, close to the Bar Yokosuka. MJQ is just to the right of Yokosuka. If you go to MJQ first, you’ll be challenged to make a shot during a quick game of pool in exchange for information. Sinking the shot will get you nothing. This turns out to be just a tutorial on where and how to play pool, although the game doesn’t do a great job of explaining the how part.

You can experiment with how to play those billiards on your own at this point – as this is a guide for the sailors and winning the challenge doesn’t really net you anything useful for that. Thus, we will move on to the other bar: Heartbeats.

To find Heartbeats, head to the left of the MJQ bar and around the bend till you reach a biker shop – the Knocking Motorcycle Shop and look diagonally across the street. You’ll see an alley to the left that leads downstairs.

If you head down the alley, a cut-scene will commence. You’ll come across two goons who aren’t letting you pass. Better beat the heck out of them! This will be one of the first QTE segments of the game. To defeat them, quickly press the button prompts as they appear on screen. The order is Circle and X for PS4 players or B and A if you’re on Xbox One.

After you defeat them, you can continue along and enter the new bar.

Upon entering, you’ll be greeted with a glass of milk and a bartender with a bad attitude. Defeat the next group of enemies and the bartender will give you the information you’re looking for. The correct QTE sequence is Circle, then X, then Circle, then X or the combination of B, then A, then B, then A.

Oddly, the quest’s resolution has nothing to do with sailors, instead the bartender tells you about a guy named Charlie – nonetheless, save your game and you can move on to Charlie.

That’s all there is to where the sailors in Shenmue are! If you need any more help with Shenmue, be sure to use our search bar up top for help. You can also leave a comment down below and we’ll do our best to help you out.