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

My list of Like a Dragon Gaiden best gear & armor is focused on helping you get the best start, especially since this game can be challenging early on when Kiryu’s viability is limited. To counteract that, you can put on these gear pieces to provide extra attack and defense stats to Kiryu and gain resistance to a few damage types if needed.

Best Gear & Armor Summary

Following is a summary of the Like a Dragon Gaiden best gear and armor, along with their stats:

10. Bloody Talisman

Best Attack Stat Gear

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.

9. Bulletproof Vest

Best Early Game Gear

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.

8. Fearless Binding

Best Mid-game gear

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.

7. Contact Lenses

Best Utility-based Gear

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.

6. Eye Of The Dragon

Best Gear To Boost Progression

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.

5. Great Fortune Silver Undies

Best Balanced Stat Gear

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.

4. Sengoku Armor

Best Defense Armor

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.

3. Dragon’s Binding

Best Gear for Min-Maxing Stats

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.

2. Dragon God Amulet

Best Endgame Gear

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.

1. War God Talisman

Most Overpowered Gear

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.

My Opinion On The Best Gear & Setup

If you ask me, as someone who’s gotten the Platinum Trophy now, I strongly recommend getting the Contact Lenses and Eye of the Dragon as soon as possible due to their effect benefits. Later on, try to get the Dragon God Amulet because not only is it the Like a Dragon Gaiden best gear for me, but it also makes the final story encounters a cakewalk even on the Professional Difficulty.

However, I wouldn’t advise using these gear items against the final story boss because, to me, it honestly ruins the epic clash between him and Kiryu, so it’s up to you if you want to use them.

This brings me to the end of the guide. If you have any questions regarding the gear or their locations, please comment below. Lastly, be sure to check out Asad Ahmad’s Review of Like a Dragon Gaiden for his in-depth thoughts and analysis. As always, eXputer wishes you luck!

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