Want to find out how to upgrade and craft even better weapons in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth? This guide is for you.
The massive RPG by RGG is finally out, with newer and older fans enjoying everything the streets of Honolulu and Yokohama have to offer in what's sure to become a fan-favourite title in the series with the amount of content it offers and an emotional story on top of that.
Crafting and making your weapons stronger will be key to success, especially if you're planning on playing on the harder difficulties. In this guide, we'll tell you all you need to know about the process.
While you're here, you should check out if Infinite Wealth has New Game+ in case you're wondering if you'll be able to do a second run with all your upgraded weapons.
How to craft weapons in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
The first thing you need to know is that the ability to craft gear will be unlocked during Chapter 3. That's a few hours into the game so you'll have to be a bit patient and wait until Ichiban can start roaming the streets of Honolulu, Hawaii.
There are two locations, the main shop where you'll be able to talk to Julie and give her gifts near the area where you start exploring and a secondary one at the Anaconda Shopping Center located west side of the map.
To craft a weapon, talk to Julie or any other employee and select the Craft Weapon option from the menu, this will open a sub-menu with the different jobs available for all characters. After selecting a job, you'll get to see a few options for weapons to craft.
Here, you'll be able to see which weapons you are able to craft depending on your Facility Rank. If you have the right materials you can craft the weapons for a small fee, Rank 1 weapons are relatively cheap ($60-250) but they get increasingly more expensive the higher the Facility Rank needed.
To craft, you will need a weapon with no damage type or an attribute associated with it, and some materials.
How to upgrade weapons in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
To upgrade existing weapons, select the Weapon Upgrades and Brands option. Again, you'll see weapons segmented by jobs, after picking a job you can see all weapons available in your inventory for it.
After selecting a weapon, you'll get two options — Strengthen Weapon and Brand.
Strengthen Weapon
To make a weapon stronger, select this option, you'll be able to see a tab with your available resources, known as Reinforced Steel, you'll get these from different methods, such as defeating enemies, picking up from the streets, as rewards for helping Aloha Links friends in trouble, and more.
Once you select a weapon, notice at the bottom of the screen a small box that says Upgrade Value and a small hammer icon below it, you'll need to fill in the required Upgrade Value numbers for the weapon to level up.
In the image below, the Metal Bat currently needs one point to reach level 11. By looking at your available resources you can see how to best allocate them, in this case, an Iron Fragment will be enough for a level-up.
Do keep in mind the cost of it, the more materials you want to use the more expensive it'll become. Note that improving weapons that can later be used for crafting is fine, since the progress you've made upgrading that weapon will be retained.
Brand
After reaching levels 10, 30, and 50, you'll unlock the ability to brand a weapon, letting you equip special attributes making your weapons more powerful. The brands available early on are as follows:
- Seal of Flames: Boosts the damage of fire attacks
- Seal of Snow: Boosts the damage of ice attacks
- Seal of Bolts: Boosts the damage of electric attacks
- Seal of Bloodshed: Increases success rate of inflicting bleed
- Seal of Incineration: Increases success rate of inflicting bleed
- Seal of Pestilence: Increases success rate of inflicting cold
- Seal of Torpor: Increases success rate of inflicting paralysis
- Seal of Terror: Increases success rate of inflicting fear
- Seal of Wrath: Increases success rate of inflicting rage
- Seal of Concentration: Increases critical hit rate by 5%
These cost $5 to apply but as you progress you'll find stronger brands with higher costs.
Do keep in mind that brands aren't new abilities, but rather enhancements to the ones you already have. For example, if you wish to apply the Seal of Flames to a weapon with no fire damage, it won't have any effect. Also, if you wish to overwrite the selected brands, you'll have to pay the $5 each time you do it.
How to improve Facility Rank
You improve the Facility Rank by upgrading and crafting weapons, you can also directly donate money but it requires thousands of dollars. Improving the facilities will give you access to better crafted weapons and upgrades.
Early on you shouldn't worry too much about this, but as you progress through the story and find more efficient ways to make money, you can set aside some cash to start improving Julie's Gearworks and get access to more powerful crafting options.
So that's all you need to know about crafting in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. For more content, check out how long it'll take to beat the game and the PC system requirements.