Like a Dragon: Ishin! Trooper Guide: Recruiting, Building a Squad, and Upgrading Your Cards

Like a Dragon: Ishin! Trooper Guide: Recruiting, Building a Squad, and Upgrading Your Cards Troopers become available during Chapter 5 alongside the Battle Dungeons. In the 2023 remake, their abilities work in regular combat too. They aren't just a side system you equip for dungeon runs and forget about afterward. Setting up your squads Open Troopers, then Formation. Each fighting style has its own squad. You start with three slots per squad: one corporal and two other troopers. Certain corporal traits add a fourth slot. The corporal position matters. A card's Trooper Ability is the move you activate during combat. Its Corporal Trait is a separate passive benefit that only applies when that card leads the squad. Putting a card with a useful leadership trait in an ordinary slot doesn't activate that trait. Read the actual condition on a trait before building around it. If a bonus depends on particular weapons or troop types in the squad, filling the remaining slots with unrelated cards may waste it. What the card types do • Offense: attacks or damage increases. • Defense: defensive bonuses. • Medical: healing. • Assist: boosts other trooper abilities. • Support: helps abilities recharge. • Instructor: especially useful as fusion material for experience. Weapon compatibility is separate from those categories. Sword troops suit Swordsman or Wild Dancer; gun troops suit Gunman or Wild Dancer. Spear and unarmed troops suit Brawler. Check both the ability and the weapon instead of treating every card of the same color as interchangeable. A sensible first squad has a heal, an ability that helps against groups, and something that supports the style you actually use. Later, you can specialize. Don't replace a useful healer with a higher-rarity card just because the new card has a fancier border. Using abilities Once a card is charged, hold L2/LT and press its indicated D-pad direction. Changing fighting styles changes the squad available to you. Switching styles doesn't erase a card's charge, and remaining charge carries between fights. Formation also lets you choose manual or automatic activation. Manual gives you control over when a heal or buff happens. Automatic activation is convenient, but it can spend an ability before the moment you would have chosen. Try the setting in a manageable fight before taking it into a boss battle. Knowing which button heals you is more useful than owning a powerful card you keep forgetting to activate. Getting new cards After the system unlocks, look for hooded enemies in street encounters. Defeating them can lead to recruitment. Dungeon enemies can also become recruits after a clear. Some substory characters will wait outside the Shinsengumi Barracks after their stories are finished. Speak to them there to add them to your roster. Completing their story and actually collecting the card are separate steps. You can also use Enlistment at the Mission Receptionist. The prices are 5,000 mon, 1 ryo, 5 ryo, and 10 ryo. The 5-ryo option unlocks in Chapter 8; the 10-ryo option in Chapter 11. Higher-priced recruitment improves your chances of getting rarer cards, but it doesn't guarantee the particular one you want. Set aside your crafting money before spending heavily here. Getting several duplicates is possible, and a stack of random recruits doesn't automatically solve the problem with your current squad. Levels and rarity The normal level caps are: • Common: 40. • Uncommon: 60. • Rare: 80. • Epic: 90. • Legendary: 99. Cards assigned to your squads gain experience in combat. Leveling improves their health and charge speed. Assigned troops also add to Ryoma's health, so remember to fill the other squads rather than only the style you use most. Fusion In Troopers, choose Fuse Troopers, select the card you're keeping, and then select the cards you're feeding into it. You can use up to ten materials in one fusion. Fusion supplies experience. Feeding a card with the same Trooper Ability also improves ability proficiency; Instructor cards are useful for experience gains. Check the selection before confirming. The material cards are consumed. Don't sacrifice a rare card or the only copy of a useful ability because you were clearing duplicates too quickly. Corporal Trait upgrades Choose Corporal Traits in the Troopers menu. Select the leader you want to improve and offer the weapon the menu requests. Higher upgrade levels can require better-quality weapons. Before giving one up, check whether it's equipped or needed for crafting. It is worth buying or making a replacement rather than accidentally sacrificing something you were building toward another upgrade. Promotion At a card's level cap, a Promotion Jewel lets it restart at level 1 while retaining its existing stats. You can then build those stats further by leveling it again. This is not a way to turn a Common card into a Legendary card. A troop can be promoted once. Promotion Jewels are available from the Shinto Priest's exchange for 10,000 Virtue when that stock is unlocked. Use one on a card you intend to keep rather than spending it just because the option becomes available. Morale Keep the troops fed. Eating restores morale, while using abilities lowers it. If you abandon or fail dungeon missions, troops can desert; check Mukurogai for missing recruits. If a squad suddenly feels less useful, review morale, its corporal, and its actual members before spending more money on replacements. A card being in your collection is not the same as having it assigned and ready to help.