Like a Dragon Gaiden: 10 BEST Armor And Gear [Hands-On]

Once I started investing in the Akame shop inventory upgrade midway through Chapter 2, the Bloody Talisman immediately caught my eye. It’s obviously not the best choice (hence the ranking), though I found the attack stat bonus helpful. However, that bonus comes at the cost of your defense stat, which is lowered heavily, but at least you get the added effect of HP regen when close to death, making it a double-edged sword.

I only recommend using the Bloody Talisman if you’re skilled at the brawler combat since you’ll receive increased damage via the negative defense.

The Bulletproof Vest is one of the best Like a Dragon Gaiden armor gear pieces you can obtain, either by purchasing from Wanpark Clothier or using the Locker Keys I pointed out from the earliest chapters. Furthermore, I found the gun damage resistance useful because some enemies use handguns in fights, which can cause great damage if you’re not careful in evading their shots.

The Fearless Binding provides you with a decent stat bonus spread and makes you resistant to the bleed status effect. Let me clarify that Bleed will be one of the most common status effects applied to you via knife and other bladed attacks by enemies. So I found the Fearless Bindings incredibly potent in allowing a counter against it, especially for certain boss fights and encounters in the latter chapters.

Despite not having huge stat bonuses, Contact lenses should be only used to collect most of the Locker Key items, as it will mark known or closeby keys on your map. It is especially helpful when trying to collect the secret Pocket Circuit items from the Lockers in Sotenbori. It allowed me access to several Locker Keys that gave me useful healing items and, of course, free gear, such as the Bulletproof vest.

After the Contact Lenses for their usefulness, I would strongly recommend getting the Eye of the Dragon as the increased Akame Points gained from activities will allow you to easily upgrade Kiryu’s abilities and have enough surplus points for the shop to buy the best gear I’ve showcased. The best part is that you can get it easily in the earliest moments of Like a Dragon Gaiden via Mizorogi’s workshop if you have a spare 1 million Yen.

The Great Fortune Silver Undies are available in the Castle Boutique’s extension room once you reach Gold Rank in the Colosseum. Compared to the Gold Undies (which are insanely priced at 50,000,000 Yen), I found these more worthwhile because, at that point in the game, you will easily have 200,000 Yen to spare, plus the adequate stat bonuses here are easily worth it if you’re trying to min-max gear slots for Kiryu.

I know someone may argue that the Blesswood Armor provides the most overall Defense, but the reason why I chose Sengoku Armor, in my opinion, is that it also boosts your attack, along with providing the blade defense with resistance to bleeding. The defense stat itself isn’t the best for endgame, but how easily you can acquire it via a Locker Key makes it a clear winner for me to use.

The Dragon’s Binding is a choice you have on whether you want it via the Castle Boutique for Yen or use Akame Points to obtain it. I used the latter here since I had a surplus amount of points, which I wasn’t even going to use on anything else besides upgrading Kiryu’s abilities (which already seemed too overpowered, in my opinion).

If you’re going for the Platinum Trophy, you should easily have enough Yen or Points to buy it from either source because I had it equipped for the remainder of the late game, including against the secret Amon boss fight.

The Dragon God Amulet requires a hefty purchase of 60,000 Akame Points. For someone who might have scarce points even in the latter chapters, this can seem much, but trust me when I say that this gear carried me through the Colosseum’s Platinum Rank fights. Furthermore, the Amulet’s Heat regen effects also gave me a last-resort tactic when facing the Amon boss fight in near-death moments.

If you’re a veteran Yakuza fan like me, you will instantly recognize this recurring gear piece, which is overpowered in almost every franchise entry. However, by the time you defeat Gai Amon, the secret boss fight of Like a Dragon Gaiden, you won’t have many incentives to use it anywhere aside from repeating Colosseum fights.

So I personally hope RGG Studios pushes out an NG+ update for the game so I can preferably use it in another playthrough against all the main story encounters.