Plan ultimate weapon upgrades before spending the money

Plan ultimate weapon upgrades before spending the money The weapon with the biggest price tag in a shop is not automatically the end of an upgrade path in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Many of the strongest weapons begin as cheap, unimpressive equipment. You strengthen that specific base weapon at the Romance Workshop, then use a separate high-end weapon as a material when the recipe calls for it. Sell the wrong item and you can turn a useful arena reward into an expensive replacement purchase. Here is how to plan the workshop, choose what to upgrade, and find the important weapons and materials. Late-game equipment and location spoilers follow. **Separate the workshop bill from the weapon bill** The Romance Workshop opens through the Chapter 5 story and Substory 13, Nowhere to Go But Up. It starts at facility rank 1. The upgrades cost: • Rank 2: ¥200,000. • Rank 3: ¥2,000,000. • Rank 4: ¥20,000,000. That is ¥22,200,000 to fully upgrade the facility. It unlocks higher-level recipes. It does not pay the crafting fees or provide their materials. Upgrade the facility when it is blocking the equipment you actually want to make. During the story, spending everything on rank 4 while leaving the party with weak armor and no recovery supplies can make progress harder rather than easier. **Understand the chain before buying ingredients** A weapon can pass through several names as you strengthen it. The original item disappearing from the list may simply mean it has become the next weapon in the chain. The ultimate chains eventually reach an EX version, then EX +1 through EX +8, and finally EX EX. Reaching the first EX stage and fully maximizing EX EX are very different budgets. The fees after the first EX stage are ¥2 million, ¥4 million, ¥6 million, ¥8 million, ¥10 million, ¥12.5 million, ¥15 million, ¥17.5 million, and ¥20 million. That is another ¥95 million in strengthening fees alone, before materials or earlier upgrades. For the story, you do not need a full party carrying EX EX weapons. For the True Final Millennium Tower, getting the party's chosen main-job weapons to EX is a sensible starting goal, then improving them as your money allows. Fully maximizing them adds power, but it does not replace levels, healing, elemental coverage, or status protection. Do not pour the whole budget into a job you only plan to use briefly for one transferable skill. **Keep these base weapons** This is the starting item for each ultimate chain, with a practical acquisition route. The weapon name on the left is what you must start strengthening, not the expensive item eventually consumed by the recipe. Character-specific jobs: • Hero: Self-proclaimed Hero's Bat, obtained through the story. Leads to Legendary Hero's Bat. • Homeless Guy: Rugged Cane, sold at Love Magic for ¥2,000. Leads to Amenohoakari no Mikoto. • Detective: Carbon Police Baton. Look for it in silver safes, including the Red Light District and Yokohama Underground. Leads to Chromium Alloy Club. • Barmaid: Casual Bag, sold at Hustle Boutique for ¥2,500. Leads to Jeweled Bag. • Hitman: Inlaid Gloves, available for 500 casino chips in Chinatown. Leads to Darksilver Fists. • Gangster: Master's Saber, sold at Kai Xin Specialty Store for ¥230,000. Leads to Curved Crystal Saber. • Clerk: Anti-corrosion Boxcutter, available for 50 wooden tags at the Gambling Hall. Leads to Super High Frequency Ruler. Other men's jobs: • Bodyguard: Nameless Katana, available for 500 shogi points. Leads to Demon Blade Muramasa. • Host: Table Sparkling, available for 50 wooden tags at the Gambling Hall. Leads to Snow Sapphire Wine. • Foreman: Rusted Hammer, available for 500 batting-center points. Leads to Heaven and Earth Hammer. • Musician: Vintage Guitar, available for 3,000 Can Quest points. Leads to The Symphonic. • Breaker: Red Anklet, available for 500 batting-center points. Leads to Soul Anklet. • Enforcer: Bulletproof Shield, available for 500 wooden tags at the Gambling Hall. Leads to Special Ops Riot Shield. • Chef: Wooden Flipper, available for 100 Dragon Kart points. Leads to Scorching Spatula. • Fortuneteller: Stone Orb, available for 300 wooden tags at the Gambling Hall. Leads to Diamond Orbuculum. Other women's jobs: • Idol: Pretty Microphone, available for 200 Dragon Kart points. Leads to Celestial Microphone. • Hostess: Cotton Pouch, obtainable from the silver safe in the PIA building. Leads to Shining Pouch. • Dealer: Tarot Cards, available for 500 casino chips. Leads to Fake Ace. • Night Queen: Sadistic Whip, sold at Love Magic for ¥500,000. Leads to Whip of Pleasure. DLC jobs: • Devil Rocker: Thrallmaster's Axe, sold at Chau Ka Long's Armory for ¥2,980,000. Leads to Infernal Crasher. • Matriarch: Lady's Naginata, sold at Chau Ka Long's Armory for ¥3,500,000. Leads to Green Dragon Crescent Blade. Freelancer fights bare-handed and has no weapon chain. The two DLC jobs are optional and unnecessary for clearing the main story or True Final Millennium Tower. **The separate weapons you need to finish the base-game chains** These are consumed when the relevant EX recipe asks for them. Buying or winning one does not replace the need to upgrade your original base weapon. The arena supplies many of them: • Hero: Dragon Soul Bat, normal reward on 30F. • Homeless Guy: Staff of the Five Wisdoms, normal reward on 25F. • Detective: Club of Holy Might, normal reward on 20F. • Barmaid: Leaden Bag, normal reward on 15F. • Hitman: Dragon Knuckles, normal reward on 10F. • Gangster: Liu Chinese Saber, normal reward on 5F. • Host: Prestige, additional reward on 15F. • Musician: Violence Guitar, additional reward on 20F. • Breaker: Beat Anklet, additional reward on 22F. • Chef: Damascus Ladle, additional reward on 10F. • Idol: Revival Microphone, additional reward on 24F. • Night Queen: Electric Whip, additional reward on 26F. Normal rewards are one-time rewards. Additional rewards can be earned again by meeting their floor conditions. The other base-game chains need: • Clerk: Ceramic Boxcutter. Earn Executive Hero rank in Part-time Hero at 300 member points and collect the reward. • Bodyguard: Sakura Storm. Available from Kamulop for 50 Tojo Clan Crests. • Foreman: Starcrusher. Available for 30,000 batting-center points. • Enforcer: Absolute Shield. Available for 150,000 shogi points. • Fortuneteller: Pure Gold Ball. Available for 150,000 Gambling Hall tags. • Hostess: Elegant Pouch. Available from the Can Quest shop for 500,000 points after unlocking the appropriate shop stock. • Dealer: Royal Joker Card. Available for 100,000 casino chips. Le Marche in Chapter 15 Kamurocho sells many of these high-end material weapons for ¥10 million each. Check its actual stock before committing to a long minigame grind. Do not assume that every item appears immediately, or that Le Marche lets you skip the initial Executive Hero reward for the Ceramic Boxcutter. The DLC weapon chains are different: their EX recipes use golden insects rather than a second high-end weapon. Read their individual material lists instead of searching for a donor weapon that the recipe does not require. **Buy common materials and farm the scarce ones** The General Goods Cart in Hamakita Park sells a large selection of common crafting materials. Check it before spending an hour fighting street enemies for basic metal, cloth, wood, glass, or leather. Kao Attack ZERO and Cemedine Super X can be bought at shops such as Welcome Pharmacy. Some late recipes need large quantities, so count the requirement rather than making repeated trips with one or two units. For rarer materials, use the arena: • 11F: High-density Metal. • 12F: Silver Ingot. • 13F: Gold Ingot. • 14F: Pearl. • 16F: Raw Platinum Ore. • 17F: Raw Ruby Ore. • 18F: Raw Sapphire Ore. • 19F: Raw Diamond Ore. Those are additional rewards, so their conditions matter. Winning the fight without meeting the condition will not produce the material you came for. Empty Cough Drop Tins come from additional rewards on 21F, 23F, 25F, and 27F. They are used at important upgrade steps. Keep them. For insects, use Can Quest for common types, the Gambling Hall and shogi exchanges for the silver varieties they stock, and the arena's early floors for repeatable golden insects. Hamakita Park also has insect pickups, but a specific arena reward is easier to plan around than hoping for the right rare spawn. Odd Stones and Mysterious Stones come from exhibitionist-type enemies. Arena floor 26 is a useful repeatable attempt because its Crotchety Geezers can supply these drops and the floor is directly accessible from a checkpoint. Treat Mysterious Stones as drops to farm, not a guaranteed additional reward. **Spend in an order that helps the entire party** Start with the jobs you intend to take into the difficult content. Record each current weapon stage, its next fee, and the exact missing materials. Bring the main damage dealers and healer up to a useful standard before chasing the final few upgrades on one weapon. Weapon stats include Magic and Healing as well as Attack, so the Idol's microphone is not an afterthought just because she spends most turns healing. Keep money for armor, status accessories, consumables, and Poundmates. A slightly stronger attack is poor compensation for entering a long dungeon with no MP recovery. Business Management is a reliable early source of money. The regular Final Millennium Tower becomes useful for larger postgame funds once you can clear it comfortably. Combine that money work with arena material runs rather than assuming one location efficiently supplies everything. Before selling duplicate equipment, check whether your next recipe needs it. Before starting a new chain, check whether that job will actually be in your final party. Those two checks save much more time than trying to recover from an unnecessary ¥10 million purchase.