Like a Dragon: Ishin! Money Making Guide

When it comes to recruiting soldiers, crafting equipment, or even stocking up on healing items, it’s good to keep a lot of money at hand. However, many activities in Like a Dragon: Ishin! don’t give that much money, or take a decent amount of effort. In our Like a Dragon: Ishin! Money Making Guide, we’ll go over the main way to get lots of cash quickly.

Like a Dragon: Ishin! Money Making

The one source of consistent money making that requires little setup is chicken racing. Chicken racing is available in Rakugai, giving you the chance to bet on different races. While the currency you use for betting is tags rather than ryo and mon, these tags can be traded for sellable items. Plus, tags are also useful for gaining some unique pieces of gear early on in the story.

While this method of money making has few requirements, you will need at least a little bit of cash to start out. Your initial set of tags must be bought, with each one costing 100 mon. At a bare minimum, you’ll want 900 tags. This will let you place a few bets, though this will make things take a bit longer. Ideally, you’ll want to pick up 6900 tags for 69 ryo, letting you place 23 max bets at once.

No matter how many tags you buy, make sure to go back out of the chicken gambling area afterwards to save. This means that if you lose your bets (which will happen a fair bit), you can just reload and get your tags back.

Like a Dragon: Ishin! Chicken Racing Guide

Once watching the races, you have the option to bet on each chicken by buying tickets. This will take you to another screen, showing you the stats and odds for the five chickens that are part of that current race. These are generally the best way to figure out which chicken to bet on.

Like a Dragon: Ishin! Chicken Racing Stats

• Cond. - The chicken’s condition. If the arrow is pointing upwards then the chicken will likely get a speed boost near the end of a race, while a downwards arrow means the opposite.
• Past Results - Where the chicken placed during the last 3 races. Better and consistent placements are usually a good indicator for the chicken you should bet on.
• Prediction - A general indication of how well the chicken will perform. There are four potential symbols: cross, triangle, circle, and double circle. A chicken with a couple of circles or double circles might do better than ones with triangles or nothing at all.
• Payout - This is a quick way to see which chickens are considered the best. Chickens that will give a lower payout on a win are generally going to perform well, though this isn’t always the case.
• Using a combination of these stats, you can somewhat predict which chickens to bet on. Keep in mind that, even with some planning, there’s a lot of RNG involved in races. This is why you should save before betting, and then save again when you win big.

Like a Dragon: Ishin! Chicken Racing Bets

When it comes to actually betting, you’ll want to pick two chickens to place bets on. This is because most of the betting options involve at least two chickens, up to a maximum of five. You'll want to pick chicken that are in good condition and have had good past results. Payout can be used to find the potential best choices at a glance, and it's generally best to back out if there are a lot of chickens with low or similar payouts.

By checking the dividend list, you can get a full view of each bet type and the payout multipliers for each. For each bet you make, you’ll want to spend the maximum of 300 tags — when focusing on two chickens, this leads to a total of 6900 tags being used.

Bet Types

• Single - You’re betting on the chances of a single chicken winning. Place bets on both of the chickens you think might win.
• Quinella - The odds of two chickens coming first and second place — the order doesn’t matter. Place a bet on the one that contains both chickens you’re focusing on.
• Double Exacta - Similar to Quinella, except the order each chicken places matters. Place bets on both options including the chickens you’re focusing on.
• Triple Exacta - Same as Double Exacta, but now with three chickens. Put bets on all six combinations that include the chickens you’re focusing on.
• Quintuple Exacta - These bets are for the exact order that all five chickens will finish in. Choose the combinations that include the chickens you’re focusing on in the first two positions (12 bets total).

With all of the above options selected, you’ll have placed 23 bets in total. While it might be a lot of tags, a successful set of bets can net you anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000+ tags. Every time you’re successful, it’s best to back out, save, and go back in. Saving and loading can be done quickly via the “Save / Settings” option in the menu, so once you get the hang of betting you’ll be raking tags in quickly.

As for actually turning these tags into money, you can head east to the Gambling Den. Inside, you can trade with the first NPC to the left. They sell platinum plates for 1,500 tags, which can then be sold at pawn shops for 3 ryo 7500 mon. As an added bonus, you’ll even get Virtue after selling the plates.

Other Like a Dragon: Ishin! Money Making Methods

Frankly, once you get good at it, there aren’t any other methods of making money that challenge chicken racing. However, there are a few ways to get a decent amount of money if you’re still saving up for the tags (or want to take a break from betting).

For starters, merely beating the game will reward you with a tidy 200 ryo. This is enough to buy all the tags you’ll need for the above betting method, and you’ll get it naturally just by playing through the story. If you don’t want to grind during a regular playthrough, then this still lets you give it a try later during the Bakumatsu Premium Adventure mode.

Another Life can also be a source of some passive income, assuming you’ve been fishing and growing crops every now and then. Trading requests can give a decent amount of money, especially as you start completing more of them and unlocking new produce and meals. You’ll need to trade to pay off Haruka’s debt anyway, so it’s worth it in the long run.

Battle Dungeons are also another way to make money while working towards other goals. Completing them will give you money, though it’s not a lot for the amount of time they take. The main benefit is that you’re getting lots of materials and equipment at the same time, which is needed for crafting at the forge.