The batting center in Yakuza Kiwami 2 gets a lot easier once you stop treating every pitch like a surprise. Most of the courses have fixed locations, and the Serene Bat gives you more room to get the timing right.
Darts has a similar problem at the beginning. You're trying to beat better opponents with the worst equipment, and then the last rival can punish a finish that worked perfectly well against everybody else.
So here's the full batting route, the pitch patterns, the prizes worth getting, and how to finish the darts requirements without making either one harder than it needs to be.
**What the batting checklist actually wants**
Go to Yoshida Batting Center in Kamurocho's Hotel District. For its Completion List entries, you need:
- All three Beginner Challenge Courses.
- All three Intermediate Challenge Courses.
- All three Advanced Challenge Courses.
- Fifty cumulative home runs in Home-Run Course, passing the ten and thirty milestones along the way.
Expert Challenge Courses aren't required for those entries. Neither is finishing an endless series of Home Run Competition sets. The names matter: Home-Run Course, Challenge Course, and Home Run Competition are three different things. [Batting completion entries](https://neoseeker.com/yakuza-kiwami-2/walkthrough/CompletionList)
A Home-Run Course gives you ten pitches. Seven or eight home runs earns A rank; nine or ten earns S. A Challenge Course asks for runs. Singles, doubles, and triples can contribute to that total, so don't mistake its target for a demand to hit that many home runs. [Course rules](https://dswiipspwikips3.jp/yakuza-kiwami2/batting-center/homerun-course.html)
**Get the Serene Bat early**
Exchange 200 points with Manager Yoshida for the Serene Bat. It widens the useful batting area and makes the timing more forgiving. You earn 70% of the normal points, but the easier clear still counts.
The Expert Bat also costs 200 points and pays 150% of the normal points, with less forgiving aim and timing. That's an option for a pattern you're already hitting consistently. It isn't the first thing I'd give somebody who's struggling to make contact.
Save another 1,000 points for the Secret Book of Batting and 2,000 for the Essence of Batting Primer. Use both books and buy their unlocked abilities. The baseball Completion List and the all-skills requirement aren't the same checklist. [Exchange prizes](https://dswiipspwikips3.jp/yakuza-kiwami2/batting-center/)
If you buy the Serene Bat and both books, you're earning 3,200 points in total for those purchases. Don't spend the early points on healing drinks you can buy somewhere else unless you have a reason to.
**How to read the patterns**
I'm using a number-pad layout for the batting box:
Top row: 7, 8, 9.
Middle row: 4, 5, 6.
Bottom row: 1, 2, 3.
So 5 means center, 7 means top-left, and 3 means bottom-right. Read each sequence from left to right, one number per pitch.
These are the final locations where you want the bat cursor, not the first marker before a breaking ball moves. Put the cursor in the listed cell, then concentrate on the shrinking ring and the timing change. Don't chase the ball away from the place you already know it's going to end up. [Aiming and timing](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/218734-yakuza-kiwami-2/faqs/76366/batting-center)
**Home-Run Course patterns**
Beginner:
5, 5, 6, 2, 7, 3, 9, 1, 3, 4.
Intermediate:
6, 4, 2, 1, 3, 7, 6, 2, 1, 4.
Advanced:
7, 2, 9, 4, 1, 3, 8, 2, 1, 3.
Expert randomizes the locations. There isn't one fixed ten-number solution for it. [Home-Run Course patterns](https://dswiipspwikips3.jp/yakuza-kiwami2/batting-center/homerun-course.html)
Use the easiest pattern you can hit reliably for the fifty-home-run counter. Moving to a harder course just because it's available doesn't make your home runs count more.
For anyone farming the rank prizes: Beginner gives Staminan Light at A and a Bronze Plate at S; Intermediate gives Toughness ZZ or a Silver Plate; Advanced gives Staminan XX or a Gold Plate; Expert gives Staminan Royale or a Platinum Plate.
Those plates can help with money, but don't turn an early completion task into an Expert grind if the randomized pitches are taking more time than they're worth.
**Every required Challenge Course pattern**
Beginner 1, three runs:
5, 3, 7, 1, 9, 4, 6, 5, 7, 3.
Beginner 2, three runs:
3, 4, 9, 1, 6, 2, 8, 1, 7, 3.
Beginner 3, five runs:
3, 1, 3, 6, 4, 2, 1, 3, 1, 6.
Intermediate 1, three runs:
6, 2, 5, 3, 7, 1, 3, 1, 1, 6.
Intermediate 2, five runs:
6, 4, 2, 2, 5, 3, 1, 9, 7, 2.
Intermediate 3, five runs:
5, 2, 6, 1, 4, 3, 8, 2, 1, 6.
Advanced 1, seven runs:
6, 6, 1, 3, 7, 9, 3, 3, 4, 1.
Advanced 2, seven runs:
6, 7, 2, 1, 3, 4, 6, 2, 9, 1.
Advanced 3, seven runs:
3, 7, 3, 7, 4, 6, 1, 3, 9, 1.
[Challenge Course data](https://dswiipspwikips3.jp/yakuza-kiwami2/batting-center/challenge-course.html)
Clearing the three courses in one difficulty opens the next difficulty. If you miss a pitch, keep going unless you've made the target impossible. You don't need a perfect ten to clear a course asking for three runs.
One correction worth calling out: the second pitch in Intermediate 1 finishes at bottom-center, which is 2 in this layout. Some lists put it at bottom-left. [Independent pattern check](https://psnprofiles.com/guide/7816-yakuza-kiwami-2-minigame-completion-guide)
**Optional Expert Challenges**
Expert 1, seven runs:
8, 3, 4, 2, 9, 2, 7, 3, 7, 3.
Expert 2, eight runs:
1, 3, 2, 7, 9, 2, 6, 4, 7, 3.
Expert 3 asks for nine runs and randomizes the target positions. [Expert Challenge patterns](https://selphie1999gaming.com/game-guides/yk2-yakuza-kiwami-2-batting-centre-all-modes-guide/)
Expert 1 is worth testing as a repeatable point source once you're comfortable with it. Compare what you earn in a full attempt with the time and mistakes involved. If the Serene Bat lets you clear it much more consistently, its point penalty may still be the better deal.
**Reading the randomized pitches**
For the courses without fixed positions, learn the movement from the first marker:
- Fastball, Freedom Fastball, and American Dream: same cell.
- Slider: one cell right.
- Shootball: one cell left.
- Curve: down-right.
- Sinker: down-left.
- Change-up: one cell down.
- Soaring Eagle: one cell up.
- Cutter: half a cell right.
- Two-seamer: half a cell left.
- One-seamer: half a cell down-left.
- Forkball and splitter: half a cell down.
The half-cell pitches begin around a boundary and finish inside the target cell. American Dream's movement looks much more dramatic than its final position. Freedom Fastball gives you very little time. [Pitch movement](https://dswiipspwikips3.jp/yakuza-kiwami2/batting-center/)
Knowing the destination doesn't make every pitch arrive at the same speed. Keep watching the timing cue instead of tapping at a fixed rhythm.
**Home Run Competition and Haruka**
Earn A rank or better on Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced Home-Run Courses, then talk to Manager Yoshida about the competition. Each set requires eight home runs out of ten, and clearing it sends you into the next set.
For Haruka, you only need one set while her request is active. That first set uses the Beginner 1 Challenge pattern above, with ten fastballs. Use the Serene Bat, get the eight home runs, then let the next set end and return to her. [Competition and request](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/218734-yakuza-kiwami-2/faqs/76366/batting-center)
If you're farming points, the first eight sets reuse Beginner 1, Beginner 2, Beginner 3, Intermediate 1, Intermediate 2, Intermediate 3, Advanced 1, and Advanced 2 in that order.
From set nine onward, the positions become randomized. Set nine uses the Expert Home-Run pitch types, set ten uses Expert Challenge 3's types, and set eleven uses Bob's special sequence. Later sets draw from those advanced sets. [Endurance-set structure](https://dswiipspwikips3.jp/yakuza-kiwami2/batting-center/homerun-compete.html)
Don't keep restarting the whole competition to memorize the part you already know. If it's one particular late pitch causing the problem, learn that pitch's movement and timing.
**Bob's substory challenge**
After clearing all three Beginner Challenge Courses, leave the cages to meet Bob for Living the American Dream. He wants five home runs from ten pitches. The positions vary, but the pitch types follow this order:
Two-seamer, fastball, Freedom Fastball, slider, American Dream, shootball, fastball, Soaring Eagle, shootball, American Dream.
The Serene Bat helps here too. Don't chase American Dream's spiral, and remember that Soaring Eagle rises rather than dropping. Winning gives the Signed Ball. After Clan Creator opens, you can recruit Bob on the batting-center roof. [Bob's challenge](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/218734-yakuza-kiwami-2/faqs/76366/chapter-1-substories)
**Darts: equipment comes from the rivals**
Play upstairs at Club SEGA Theater Square in Kamurocho or at STIJL in Sotenbori. You need to try all three rules, defeat the four rival levels, win ten matches total, and reach five hat tricks.
The equipment progression is:
- Beat Easy for Intermediate Darts.
- Beat Medium for Expert Darts.
- Leave and return for Hard. Beat her for Grandmaster Darts.
- Leave and return again for Legend. Her reward is Hariti's Amulet.
Better darts make the timing more forgiving. Aim first, then throw as the meter crosses the central pink area. Don't go looking for another game's pawn-shop dart upgrade. [Darts progression](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/218734-yakuza-kiwami-2/faqs/76366/darts)
**The three rules**
01 means reducing a starting score exactly to zero. Going past zero busts the turn. Choose 301 for a quick match; you don't need every starting-score variant just to play the three styles.
Count-Up adds your hits over three rounds. The bull is worth 50, so six bulls across the nine darts gets Haruka's 300-point request done at Theater Square.
Cricket uses 15 through 20 and bull. Three marks claim a number; doubles and triples count as two or three marks. Further hits score while the opponent hasn't closed that number. A triple 20 claims 20 immediately. Keep scoring there while it's available, then move when the opponent closes it. [Rules](https://dswiipspwikips3.jp/yakuza-kiwami2/play-spot/darts.html)
You can play solo to register a rule set or work on hat tricks. For the ten victories, go back to a manageable rival rather than replaying Legend every time.
**How to beat Legend in 301**
Six bulls add up to 300. That leaves one point and needs a seventh dart. It works against weaker opponents, but Legend can finish before you get that extra turn.
Use five bulls and a triple 17 instead. Three bulls on the first turn take off 150. Two bulls and triple 17 on the second take off 151. That's 301 in six darts. [Legend strategy](https://dswiipspwikips3.jp/yakuza-kiwami2/play-spot/darts.html)
If you miss, recalculate the remaining score. Don't keep throwing at the original targets when they can no longer finish the match.
For hat tricks, check the counter after a successful round. Three inner bulls can be recorded as Three in the Black rather than the Hat Trick award you need. If the entry isn't moving, include an outer bull instead of putting all three into the inner center. [Hat-trick distinction](https://psnprofiles.com/guide/7816-yakuza-kiwami-2-minigame-completion-guide)
For batting, get the better bat and use the fixed landing positions. For darts, get the better darts and plan the exact finish. Both games become much more manageable once you're practicing the part that actually changes, instead of fighting the equipment and the rules at the same time.
The batting center in Yakuza Kiwami 2 gets a lot easier once you stop treating every pitch like a surprise. Most of the courses have fixed locations, and the Serene Bat gives yo…
· Yakuza Kiwami 2