Yakuza: Like A Dragon Money Farming - how to get lots of cash fast

Money makes waves in Ijincho, and it’s something you’re going to need a lot of if you’re going to make progress in Yakuza: Like A Dragon. Luckily, we’ve found plenty of ways to get that cash flowing. 

Before we tell you how to make as much Yen as possible, let’s go over some of the reasons you’re absolutely going to need it. As this is an RPG, you’re of course going to want it for plenty of gear and healing items but there are also some more specialised things you’ll want to keep an eye on. 

A key element of the game is levelling up Ichiban’s personality traits, and one of the best ways to do this is take the vocational tests at Ounubara. These tests aren’t cheap though, ranging from 10,000 Yen to 100,000 Yen to even attempt to pass. There are 21 tests available to the player and they’re going to be one of the things you’ll want to do as soon as possible to improve Ichiban’s stats. 

Another new element to Yakuza is the Poundmates system, which is essentially what the game calls summons. Unlike other RPGs that require MP or one-time consumables for summons, Like A Dragon requires you to spend money each time you want to call for help. These admittedly aren’t too expensive, but some of the best ones are 1 million yen a pop. Help isn’t cheap, you know.

One of the late-game substories will introduce you to a secret black market vendor. This vendor has some extremely expensive weapons for your party that you’re going to want to invest in, as they have some pretty great stats. There are better weapons in the game, but these are the best you can buy. The cheapest weapon there is 450,000 Yen, with most of the weapons being around 1 million each. 

Speaking of substories, there are quite a few of them that require you to put in some money to progress in. Two of them require a million yen each, but one of them actually asks for 22 million to be put towards the Romance Workshop. This is incredibly hard to do and will require you to grind some of these methods. 

Finally, the one money-spend you absolutely can’t avoid comes from Chapter 12 of the main story, where you’ll be tasked with raising 3 million yen to make progress. That’s a lot of money, even at that point in the game, and if you want to see the story through you’re going to need to find the Yen somehow. 

So now you know why you’re going to need lots of money, let’s talk about how to do it. 

Yakuza: Like A Dragon - how to make money 

One of the earliest ways of making some fast money is the Business Management side mission that has you trying to raise Ichiban Confections through the ranks. Every time you raise the company up a certain number of positions, Ichiban will get an executive reward, which can earn you hundreds of thousands with ease. Once you’ve done a few rounds of the mini-game, you’ll start making progress easily and make tons of money. 

The best and most reliable way of making money is unfortunately unlocked fairly late into the game. During Chapter 12 you’ll gain access to the Sotenbori Battle Arena, a 30-floor combat arena that has massive money rewards every time you clear a floor. You get the same money no matter how many times you replay the arena, so you just need to grind this out to earn millions with ease. It’s not very difficult either, with only the last ten floors providing any major challenge. Beyond money, you also get some incredibly powerful gear. 

During Chapter 3 you can clear a substory that unlocks the Benten Pawn shop for Ichiban and the gang. Although there aren’t many items that sell for a lot, it’s a good idea to go over and sell your unused gear as often as you can. There are also two items dropped at the end of Chapter 11 that you can sell for a pretty big profit at the pawn shop, the Luxury Swiss Watch and Luxury Italian Ring. You can’t miss these items, or do anything else with them so make sure to sell them on. 
Chapter 5 will show you the Part-Time Hero line of side-quests, and many of these can offer over 10,000 Yen for completing and can be as simple as just defeating a few enemies. Two of them in particular are incredibly good ways of making money fast, with a cash reward of 2 million yen each. One of those is the "Please Find My Cat” quest, and the other is the Kappa Statue search quest. Complete those as early as possible to get an easy 4 million yen. 

As was the case in other Yakuza games, Like A Dragon features a casino to try and gamble your way to riches. The casino can be found on Breakwater Drive just near Chinatown, which is hidden in a restroom. Talk to the guy guarding it at Style Level 4 and he’ll tell you to go to the end cubicle. Do this to find the hidden casino and try your hand. 

It may sound like an obvious solution to the money problem, but a really easy way is to run around Ijincho and fight as many random encounters as you can. At the start of the game these won’t be offering much, but the further you get the more money you’ll get for each battle. These encounters usually aren’t very difficult either so it’s easy money all around. The substories are also a fantastic way of raising money as well, as almost all of them offer a cash reward once you beat the final battle associated with them. They aren't massive earners on their own, but with 52 of them it's a pretty consistent way of making money.