Judgment: All 18 Skill Books, What to Buy First, and How to Finish the SP Grind

Judgment: All 18 Skill Books, What to Buy First, and How to Finish the SP Grind Getting a skill book does not teach Yagami the move. It removes the lock in the Skills menu. You still have to buy the skill with SP, and some upgrades also need an earlier skill first. This covers the first Judgment, including the remaster. The five skill QR codes are separate from these 18 books. THE THREE STORY BOOKS Grab these during their missions if you can. If you miss one, Onodera eventually sells it for 650 SP. That is the book price, with the skill purchase still separate. • Rush Training → Double Quickstep, 750 SP. Chapter 1, KJ Art. During the drone reconnaissance, inspect the man reading a book through the fourth-floor window. This is the step that makes the book appear. Later, enter the fourth-floor combination-locked room using 8919 and collect it. Knowing the code without inspecting the reader is not enough. • Secret Technique: Reverse Beatdown → EX Reverse Beatdown, 100 SP. Chapter 6, Honmaruen. In the red-carpeted hallway with side rooms, enter the first locked room on the right/west side. Open the next locked door inside with the thumb-turn bypass. Collect the book in the small passage beyond. Do this before continuing upstairs. • Secret Technique: Front Beatdown, also listed as Frontal Beatdown → EX Frontal Beatdown, 100 SP. Chapter 12, the Monsieur Lee secret laboratory. On the second floor, take the second side room along the right-hand corridor near the cell door. Look behind the bed. Both Beatdown skills are EX Boost actions. Front requires a front grab; Reverse requires holding the enemy from behind. Buying them does not make them normal grab attacks. THE SIX QUICKSTARTER BOOKS Quickstarter opens during Chapter 6 through Shin Fujimori. Funding completion and collecting the reward are separate steps. Check the mailbox beside Yagami's office after a project finishes. The yen amounts below are each project's total funding target, not an extra SP fee. Other backers can contribute, or you can cover the remaining amount yourself. • Cipher Secrets: Mind over Matter: ¥100,000 project → Boost EX Gauge Lv. 1, 1,000 SP. • Cipher Secrets: Brains over Brawn: ¥100,000 project, available after Mind over Matter → Heart of a Champion, 1,600 SP. • QR Code Compendium: Electronic Eye: ¥200,000 project → Code Hunter, 500 SP. • Unofficial Dice and Cube Strategy Guide: ¥100,000 project → High Roller, 1,500 SP. • Unabridged Dice and Cube Strategy Guide: ¥200,000 project after Unofficial → Elevated Roller, 3,000 SP; buy High Roller first. • Ultimate Dice and Cube Strategy Guide: ¥300,000 project after Unabridged → Exalted Roller, 4,500 SP; buy Elevated Roller first. The three Roller upgrades increase your starting dice allowance progressively to one, two, then three extra dice. They do not give you six extra dice when added together. Code Hunter helps locate QR codes. You can scan the codes before owning it, so do not wait for a ¥200,000 project before collecting an accessible combat skill. THE THREE GAMBLING EXCHANGE BOOKS • Spiritual Awakening → Enhance EX Boost Lv. 1, 1,000 SP. Buy the book from L'Amant's prize exchange for 1,500 chips. This is the underground casino beneath Koi Bride. • Ironclad Self Defense → Re-Guard, 450 SP. Buy it from Dragon's Palace, second-floor casino exchange, for 1,500 chips. • Crisis Preparedness → Danger Display, 200 SP. Buy it from Dragon's Palace, third-floor gambling hall exchange, for 1,500 tags. Chips and tags are different currencies. Buying casino chips does not fund the third-floor tag exchange. Dragon's Palace opens through the Chapter 5 story introduction to Iyama and extracts. He gives you the key, which also opens access to the casino and gambling hall. THE THREE FRIEND/ACTIVITY BOOKS • Art of the Thunder Fist → EX Running Wall Smash, 100 SP. Complete Shun Isaka's friendship, available from Chapter 10. First experience a police pursuit by letting a street fight last long enough for officers to arrive. Look for his friendship marker on Shichifuku Street, then complete his two chase challenges. The move requires EX Boost and a running approach to an enemy near a wall. • The Art of Gluttony → Bottomless Stomach, 5,000 SP. Max Haoyu Xiu's friendship at Akaushimaru on Tenkaichi Street. Continue eating there until the dine-and-dash incident, then pursue the fleeing customer and finish the event. Bottomless Stomach lets you order food even at full health. It is an excellent restaurant-completion purchase, but an expensive early combat purchase because it does nothing for your moveset. • Secret Technique: Bat Appropriation → EX Bat Appropriation, 100 SP. Clear every regular Challenge and Home Run course at Yoshida Batting Center. Speak to Yoshida when his event appears to unlock his advanced courses. Complete the Chaotic Challenge course for the book. Unlocking the extra courses alone does not award it, and the Home Run course is a different challenge. The resulting EX Action is used against an enemy holding a bat. THE THREE PARADISE VR BOOKS These are specific safe rewards on specific Dice & Cube boards. A different safe on the same course will not substitute for the correct one. Before starting, save outside Paradise VR. Buy the Roller skills you can afford, inspect the map before committing to a branch, and leave enough dice to reach the goal after collecting the book. Finish the course successfully so the book is awarded outside VR. Do not treat opening the safe as the end of the job. • Spirit of Steel → Resolute Counter, 1,000 SP. Select Middle Course, Challenge Rule. On the central east-west stretch of the board, find the safe between two red battle spaces, with another safe farther to its right. It is the western of those two nearby safes on that horizontal stretch. Land on it and complete its lock challenge, then finish the course. • Secret Technique: Running Palm Strike → EX Running Palm Strike, 100 SP. Select Long Course, Normal/Standard Rule. The target is on the isolated rectangular loot loop on the right/east side of the board. Reach it through the purple warp door on the main route to the loop's left. After warping into the loop, the book safe is immediately to the right of the destination purple door along its bottom edge. It is not one of the other safes higher up the loop. • Secret Technique: Running Assault → EX Running Assault, 100 SP. Select Long Course, Challenge Rule. Find the green Goal on the right/east side of the board. Trace the final horizontal approach back to the left: three red battle spaces sit between the Goal and the safe you need. That safe is four moves before the Goal. It is on the main route, not one of the isolated treasure islands. Running Palm Strike requires running near an enemy in EX Boost. Running Assault requires running near two or more enemies in EX Boost. Resolute Counter is a recovery attack when Yagami has been hit and is flinching, not a universal answer to every boss animation. EARLY SKILLS TO BUY These are useful early purchases before you start saving for the expensive upgrades: • Boost Health Lv. 1: 900 SP. Gives you more health for early boss fights. • Boost Combo Speed Lv. 1: 1,000 SP. Speeds up your normal combos. • Quickstep Cancel: 300 SP. Lets you dodge out of a rush combo. • Double Quickstep: 750 SP once Rush Training is collected. Adds a second consecutive dodge. • Wall Jump Finisher: 100 SP, and Wall Jump Throw: 200 SP. Cheap tools for creating openings and handling dangerous attacks. • Charging Tiger: 600 SP. A useful way to pressure a blocking single target. • Flux Fissure: 1,000 SP. Learn the hold-and-release timing instead of treating it like another button mash. Flux Fissure: Resonance, Amplitude, and Unleashed cost 1,000 SP each. Resonance makes the timing more forgiving, Amplitude improves damage, and Unleashed adds EX gain on a correctly timed hit. Practice the release timing on ordinary street enemies before relying on it against a boss. Add Boost Attack Lv. 1 at 2,000 SP as funds allow. Later attack and combo-speed upgrades are worthwhile, but their final levels have prerequisites in the Tiger upgrade chain. Read the locked skill's requirements before saving up for a purchase you cannot make yet. For long fights, the fridge upgrades increase medicine capacity from three to four, five, then six per type. Nice Fridge costs 500 SP, Sweet Fridge 1,000, and Badass Fridge 1,500. More room for recovery is practical preparation for Amon and Legend. For side activities, the four dating boosts cost only 50 SP each: Thoughtful Gifter, Dating Whiz, Smooth Talker, and Postmodern Poet. Buy those before working through all four romances. Bottomless Stomach becomes valuable when restaurant cleanup is the current job. Precision Press costs 12,000 SP, so treat it as a dedicated VR investment rather than an opening purchase. FARMING SP LATE IN THE GAME Side cases, friendships, street fights, and easy KamuroGo goals provide SP throughout the story. Finish those before spending money on the final skill cleanup. For the final skill cleanup: 1. Finish the Hug Bomb upgrade projects through Quickstarter until Hug Bomb Omega is sold at Poppo. 2. Build money through completed Dice & Cube runs. Long courses become much more sustainable with extra starting dice, course familiarity, and the Free Pass once obtained. 3. Buy Hug Bomb Omega for ¥140,000 each. 4. Use a Growth Extract before drinking them if you have one available. 5. Buy the remaining skills, checking prerequisites and missing book/QR locks rather than assuming the problem is always SP. In the first Judgment, Omega gives 770 SP normally, or 847 with the ordinary Growth Extract boost. Ten bottles cost ¥1.4 million and give 7,700 SP, or 8,470 with that boost active. Do not use Lost Judgment's Hug Bomb values for this game. They are different. Save before each VR run. Once you have enough money for the remaining skills, buy the drinks and check the Skills menu for any books, QR codes, or prerequisite upgrades you still need.