Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth: Julie’s Gearworks, Weapon Upgrades, and Ultimate Weapons

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth: Julie’s Gearworks, Weapon Upgrades, and Ultimate Weapons All right, I want to go into more detail on the weapons, because there’s a lot more to this than getting Julie’s shop upgraded and buying whatever looks good. You need the right starting weapon, the materials, and enough money left to actually make the thing. Some of those starting weapons come from your relationships with the party. Others come from specific enemies that you could easily walk right past. I’m going to cover how the shop works, where those weapons come from, and how to get the materials without spending forever wondering where the hell an empty cough drop tin is supposed to come from. Getting the shop open You unlock Julie’s Gearworks in Chapter 4 through A Better Bat. That’s where you make the Hero’s Bat. Keep it. It looks pretty unimportant once you’ve found something stronger, but it’s the starting weapon for the True Legendary Hero’s Bat later. Crafting turns a particular weapon into another one. Enhancement raises the stats of a weapon you already have. Material Exchange lets you dismantle weapons and convert crafting materials. Those are separate options, and dismantling the wrong weapon can leave you having to go find another copy. The Weapon Crafting app on your phone lets you check recipes while you’re out. So if you’re collecting materials, you can check the actual list instead of trying to remember whether you needed ice or electric crystals. You still go to the workshop to craft. Upgrading Julie’s shop The facility goes up to rank 4. The listed investment amounts are $2,000 for rank 2, $20,000 for rank 3, and $200,000 for rank 4. Crafting and enhancement also contribute, so look at the amount still needed before putting money straight into it. Rank 4 opens the ultimate recipes, but the investment doesn’t include the cost of making those weapons. Most of the job ultimates cost another $140,000 each to craft. That gets expensive fast when you’re trying to outfit several characters. I wouldn’t rush the final investment while the rest of the party is struggling with outdated equipment. Get through the fights you’re actually doing, keep improving the shop, and start making the expensive weapons when you’ve got the money and materials together. Enhancement, metals, and brands Enhancement uses metal materials and money. Iron Fragments are the basic end of it, while things like Pure Steel and Lustrous Steel provide more upgrade value. You’ll collect these through fights, exploration, rewards, and dungeon runs. The maximum enhancement is +50. Brand slots open at +10, +30, and +50. Once a slot is open, you can pay to apply an extra effect. Brands can be changed later for a fee, so you aren’t permanently stuck with an early choice. There’s an important detail here: upgrade value carries over when you use that weapon as the base for crafting another one. You don’t have to leave a weapon completely unenhanced just because you intend to craft its next version. That carryover is tied to using it in the recipe, though. Buying an unrelated weapon doesn’t transfer your investment over to that one. For brands, look at what the character actually does. An elemental bonus makes sense when you’re regularly using that element. Critical damage helps a build that can land critical hits. Read the conditions instead of assuming every bonus applies to every attack and spell. Also compare both Attack and Magic when changing weapons. The biggest Attack number isn’t automatically the right choice for somebody you’re using primarily for spells. Look at the weapon’s effects too, especially when changing an element could affect the fight you’re preparing for. What an ultimate recipe needs The usual job-ultimate recipe calls for: - The specific base weapon for that job. - 15 crystals of the listed type. - One Empty Cough Drop Tin. - One Shark Fin or one Squid Tentacles material, depending on the recipe. - Facility rank 4 and $140,000. The True Legendary Hero’s Bat, for example, needs the Hero’s Bat, 15 Electric Crystals, an Empty Cough Drop Tin, and a Shark Fin. There are exceptions. Ichiban’s other seven-star bat, Ultima Egesta, uses a Metal Bat and 100 Ethereal Egesta instead of that usual material combination. It still needs rank 4 and $140,000. The Metal Bat is sold at Panthera Sports Kingdom in Honolulu. Ethereal Egesta can be collected from toilets, which is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. Freelancer, Dragon of Dojima, and Sujimancer don’t use conventional equipped weapons, so don’t waste time trying to find a matching ultimate weapon for those jobs. The weapons from Drink Links For these eight characters, get the bond to level 50 and finish the final Drink Link. Story progress can still hold up an event, so reaching the number doesn’t necessarily mean every conversation is immediately available. - Tomizawa: Cabbie’s Wrench. - Chitose: Heiress’s Choker. - Adachi: Detective’s Baton. - Joon-gi Han: Hitman’s Knuckle Dusters. - Nanba: Homeless Guy’s Cane. - Seonhee: Assassin’s Needles. - Saeko: Barmaid’s Bag. - Zhao: Gangster’s Saber. These are the crafting bases, not the finished ultimate versions. Take the reward to Julie’s and check its recipe. If you already got rid of one, replacement copies become available after the relevant Drink Link is finished. Check Treasure Select Pawn on River Street for Ichiban’s team and Benten Pawn in Ijincho for Kiryu’s team. Finding the other job weapons For enemy drops, you’re looking for the stronger street bosses with the crown marker. A weaker version of an enemy at the same location may not drop the weapon. The Honolulu encounters depend on the later increase in street-enemy strength, so don’t spend the early chapters repeatedly fighting a low-level version and expecting the endgame item. In Honolulu: - Action Star’s Nunchaku: Championship Wrecker, near River Street, west of Crystal Aloha Resort. - Aquanaut’s Board: Jaws of Death, near the showers at the eastern end of Aloha Beach. - Breaker’s Anklet: Abstracted Defiance, in the alley east of Black Hibiscus. - Desperado’s Revolver: Death Sentencer, in the parking area by the Little Japan ABC Store. It’s also available for 21,000 Shogi points. - Geodancer’s Maracas: Dancing Madman, around the parking area east of Hip Hop Shrimp. - Pyrodancer’s Axe: Pleatherface, in the alley east of House of Wushu. In Ijincho: - Chef’s Ladle: the crowned chef encounter near the pagoda east of Heian Tower in Chinatown. - Host’s Sparkling Wine: Heavenly Host, in the alley east of Ichiban’s apartment, north of the Seiryu Clan office. - Housekeeper’s Mop: The Dark Sweeper, near Carriage Highway and Bayside Street. - Kunoichi’s Sword: King of Thieves, in the upper parking area above Can Quest. You can also exchange 70,000 Suji League points at the Sujimon Stadium for it. - Night Queen’s Whip: the crowned encounter with Pornogra-Pharoah near Ohama Street, northwest of Rose Blossom Cabaret. - Samurai’s Katana: Forsaken Samurai, on the elevated walkway west of Hamakita Park. In Kamurocho: - Idol’s Microphone: Angel of Megadeath, near Theater Alley. For the optional DLC jobs: - Linebacker’s Wristband: 3,000 Robo Disks at the Hawaiian Haunt exchange. - Tennis Ace’s Racket: 3,000 Geomijul’s Survey Data at the Yokohama Underground exchange. If the correct enemy isn’t there, leave the area and return. Check that you’ve reached the stronger encounters before assuming the drop is broken. And save before taking on a crowned enemy that’s a lot higher level than your party. Crystals and the material exchange Lava, ice, electric, and rainbow materials have their own grades. Ten fragments convert into one geode, and ten geodes convert into one crystal. That means a single crystal takes 100 fragments if you’re starting from the bottom. The General Goods Cart in Hamakita Park sells fragments. It’s a useful way to fill a shortage, but buying enough for an entire ultimate weapon can get expensive. At ¥8,000 per fragment, converting enough purchased fragments into 15 crystals costs ¥12 million, equivalent to $120,000, before the weapon’s crafting fee. So check your existing geodes and crystals first. Dungeon drops and exchanges may already have covered a lot of what you need. There’s no reason to buy 1,500 fragments when you’re only short two crystals. Empty Cough Drop Tins The dungeon exchanges are the dependable option. An Empty Cough Drop Tin costs 2,000 of the appropriate dungeon currency. Hawaiian Haunt uses Robo Disks; Yokohama Underground uses Geomijul’s Survey Data. They aren’t interchangeable. You can also find tins through late-game loot, but if you need one to finish a recipe, the exchange gives you a specific target instead of hoping the next enemy drops it. Shark Fins and Squid Tentacles At Hawaiian Haunt, a Shark Fin costs 15,000 Robo Disks. At Yokohama Underground, Squid Tentacles cost 18,000 Geomijul’s Survey Data. That’s a lot more than the tin, so check the recipe before spending. Later dungeon runs and their rewards can supply rare materials too, meaning it’s worth checking what you picked up before buying another one. Fishing is another way to obtain these materials, but the catches are random. I wouldn’t promise somebody a fin after a certain number of attempts. If you’d rather know exactly how much work you have left, collect the dungeon currency. You’re getting experience and other materials during those runs as well. Before you spend everything Check the job you intend to keep the character in, get its base weapon, and look at the full recipe. Then collect the exact materials and leave enough money for the craft. Once it’s made, equip it, enhance it, and fill the brand slots you’ve opened. You don’t need to finish every ultimate weapon before going back to the story. I’d get the main party equipped first and then work through the other jobs as needed. And don’t forget armor and recovery items while you’re doing all this. A great weapon won’t do much for a character who spends the whole boss fight unconscious.