Like a Dragon Ishin Best Weapons Guide: How to Get, Upgrade, & More

While weapons aren’t a new element to Ryu Ga Gotoku games, Like a Dragon Ishin puts them at center stage. Three out of the four combat styles make use of swords, guns, or both, and their stats will be a determining factor for whether or not you escape battles fine and dandy or on death’s door. Figuring out which weapons are the best is a little more complicated than choosing the one with the highest number though, which is why we’ve compiled this guide on the best weapons in Like a Dragon Ishin.

Best Weapons in Like a Dragon Ishin

While decent weapons can be unlocked and obtained automatically by progressing the story of Like a Dragon Ishin or completing specific side content, the best weapons can only be obtained through crafting.

Weapon Crafting can only be done at Kurogane Smithing on the southern edge of Rakunai. You’ll be introduced to the location automatically after progressing the story to a certain point, and one of the Palanquin fast travel points is situated right next to the shop.

After gaining access to it, you’ll be able to craft and enhance equipment at this location whenever you wish. Or at least, you will so long as you have the necessary materials: The creation of any given weapon will require a weaker blade or gun to use as a base, materials that need to be combined with the armament, a Hammer to make the weapon with, and a decent amount of money to fund the process.

The better the material and Hammers used, the more expensive the weapon will be to craft. In exchange though, you’ll get a better weapon variant that will give you an edge in combat.

How to Get Base Weapons

Most of the base blades and guns can be found at the weapons dealers found throughout Kyo. One is located in Rakugai across from the Shady Bar, while the other is located in Mukurogai. We’ve included screenshots of their locations down below for your reference.

Others, meanwhile, can only be obtained through by winning the Prize Ticket Raffles and buying from the merchants who wander along Shijo Street in Rakunai during the day. Both are tied to RNG, so you may need to use a save exploit to nab the weapon you desire.

How to Get Materials Fast in Like a Dragon Ishin

For Materials, you’ve got a few different options for amassing a nice amount of them.

The first is to peruse the shop set up by the priest at Rakunai Shrine. He’ll open it after you purchase the Shinto Priest’s Exchange, Now Open! Virtue Reward from any larger Shrine in the game, and will offer to sell you items in exchange for Virtue. He’ll offer better materials if you purchase the upgrades for his shop from the Virtue Reward menu too, so it’s well worth investing the 31,500 Virtue to unlock his full stock before spending Virtue on the stock he has on hand.

Kurogane Smithing also has a shop which you can buy materials from for regular money. These materials are a bit more limited in terms of value and rarity, but they’re great for creating the first few weapons in the early game.

After that, your next best bet is to battle enemies that wander around Kyo. Most all of them drop either a material or seal after they’re defeated in battle, and the groups who harass citizens are guaranteed to drop something after you successfully trounce them. The Golden Sneaks who show up more often at night will have guaranteed rare drops too, so be sure to spend some time grinding for Materials at different times of day for the best results.

Last but not least, there’s the Arena. When battling enemies in the Knock Out mode, you’ll be rewarded with a material upon victory so long as you earn a high enough Combat Rating. It’s worth noting that this is a generally slow way to gain materials though, so we wouldn’t recommend using it unless you need a specific item dropped by a combatant.

How to Get Hammers

As for getting Hammers in Like a Dragon Ishin, it depends on which variant you’re looking to nab. The rarer the Hammer, the more limited and difficult the options are for obtaining one.

• Iron and Bronze Hammers can be purchased from the shop at Kurogane Smithing or found in item Pots scattered around Kyo, and offer the least amount of enhancement to your weapons.
• Silver can be found in Item Pots and as drops from enemies on rare occasions, or as the First Place prize from the Standard Prize Wheel.
• Gold Hammers can be obtained as a super rare drop from enemies or as the second place prize from the Rare Prize Wheel.
• Kiwami Hammers can only be obtained by clearing the more difficult side content, such as completing the Satow Substory line.

Using a rarer Hammer will provide your weapon with better stats overall and more Seal slots to work with. It will also give your weapon a higher Rarity rating, raising its overall value and allowing you to access certain side content.

How to Craft and Enhance Weapons in Like a Dragon Ishin

Once you have all of the necessary materials and items needed to craft weapons in Like a Dragon Ishin, you can then get to crafting and enhancing them.

Doing so is as simple as visiting Kurogane Smithing, speaking to the NPC at the front counter and selecting the option to Craft. You’ll then be able to make any weapons which are currently unlocked via your Smithing Level. If your weapon of choice isn’t unlocked yet, you can increase your Smithing level by creating new weapons or providing the Blacksmith with weapons to learn from via the Donate option.

You can also improve weapons via the Enhance option. Through this, you can apply Seals to weapons with open Seal slots to improve your overall stats or gain special effects when a given weapon is equipped. Whether or not a Seal is added to a weapon is determined by RNG though, and your chances are improved by having a better Smithing Level. The best Seals to use largely come down to your personal preference, and different seals can be obtained as drops from enemies.

It’s also worth mentioning that you won’t lose a Seal by applying it to a given weapon. You can reassign or remove Seals from a weapon at any time so long as you have the money needed to do so, and you can Disassemble weapons entirely to gain Smithing experience and regain Seals assigned to a weapon.

That covers everything we have to share regarding the best weapons in Like a Dragon Ishin. For more on the game, check out any of our related articles down below.