Like a Dragon Ishin Trooper abilities and Trooper cards explained

Super Trooper beams are gonna blind me!

Guide by Paulo Kawanishi Contributor

Published on 21 Feb 2023

Part of your duty as a Shinsengumi captain in Like a Dragon: Ishin! is to lead a squad making the most out of their Trooper abilities while recruiting better Trooper cards.

Games in the Yakuza series are quite similar in terms of how they approach the combat system, but Like a Dragon: Ishin! distinguishes itself from the rest thanks to the Trooper system. By recruiting and managing a team of soldiers, you can become a legendary samurai.

So to leave your mark on Japan’s history and slash powerfully through your enemies in Like a Dragon: Ishin!, understand what Trooper abilities and Trooper cards are, how to recruit Troopers, and which cards are good for each combat style in the game.

On this page:

What are Trooper abilities and Trooper cards
How to recruit Troopers
Good Trooper cards for each fighting style

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What are Trooper abilities and Trooper cards in Like a Dragon Ishin

After Chapter 5 'The Iron Code', you have access to a small troop of soldiers to assist you during the game. In Like a Dragon: Ishin! every soldier is represented by a Trooper card, and by equipping one of these you have access to Trooper abilities, which are special abilities and skills you can use during a fight.

There are five types of Troopers abilities: Offensive, Defensive, Medical, Assist, and Support. Because of that, you can find Trooper abilities such as a small damage buff to a specific combat style, healing over time skill, to a powerful ability that causes an explosion around you.

Besides Trooper abilities, you also increase your health and have access to passive abilities called Corporal Traits when equipping Trooper cards.

Each Trooper card not only comes with different status, but is part of one of the five tiers of rarity. While the rarity determines the card’s max level – which goes from 40 to 99 – a Troop card has a specific Health and Charge Speed value. These will increase as the card levels up which can be done by using them in combat. And although it’s not crucial to determine a card’s power, they are also divided into Sword Troopers, Spear Troopers, and Gun Troopers. Some Corporal Traits’ effects are determined by the number of a certain type of Trooper in the squad.

Once you have progressed through the game’s story and have become the Third Division captain, you can edit either your troopers in the Pause Menu or by talking to the Mission Receptionist, a NPC you can find east of the Barracks. In this menu, you can edit your Trooper squad as well as upgrade the cards you already have by fusing or promoting them. You can even upgrade their Corporal Traits by giving them a specific item they are looking for.

Initially, you can form squads of up to three troopers, but this number can increase as you progress in the game and acquire new Trooper cards. Each squad is linked to one of the four combat styles Ryoma uses, so finding a good combination of Trooper abilities and Corporal abilities can give you the upper head in many situations.

How to recruit Troopers in Like a Dragon Ishin

As you progress the story and the enemies become stronger, having new and better Troopers becomes a concern for most players. As far as finding new Trooper cards with better Trooper abilities goes, there are three methods.

The first method to recruit new troopers is by defeating random enemies on the streets of Kyo. As you walk in the city, you will eventually face a group of men that will challenge you for many different reasons. When you win the fight, among the defeated NPCs there might be a man wearing a gold, silver, or bronze hood. Realizing how strong you are, they might ask you to be part of your squad. The downside of this method is the fact of how difficult it is to find such hooded men to fight.

As for the second method you can employ to recruit new Troopers, it’s quite similar to the first one. Whenever you are completing missions in Battle Dungeons, you have the chance of receiving a request from one of the enemies you defeated to join your squad. These missions can be accessed by talking to the Mission Receptionist at the Barracks. Just like the first method, randomness is a factor you must take into consideration. There is the chance you complete a mission and receive no request at all.

The third option is more certain you’re getting a new Trooper but it requires you to spend some of the money you have to recruit them. When talking to the Mission Receptionist, you can select the Enlistment menu. This method is a gacha system in which you choose a tier to roll for a unit. Even though you can pick the cheapest tier and yet drop a rare or epic card, the chances increase when paying for the more expensive ones. There are four tiers with different prices – 5000 min 1 ryo, 5 ryo, and 10 ryo – and each is unlocked as you progress through the story.

You can increase the number of Troopers you have by upgrading the slots using Virtue Points in the temples. Consistently recruiting new Troopers may be useful because some of the Troopers you already have might choose to leave if you lose too many battles with them in your squad.

Need help in Another Life - the farming simulator minigame of Like a Dragon: Ishin! - or want to learn how to fish? Maybe you need help completing the Mochi Mystery, Global Fraud, It's a Long Story or finding all of the Memoir locations for The Captain and the Curious side story? We also have guides on the Trooper abilities, how to get Prize Tickets and crafting new equipment.

Good Trooper cards for each fighting style in Like a Dragon Ishin

Considering each card has its own characteristics, some combinations synergize better than others depending on the combat style they are assigned to. To assist you in picking good combinations of Trooper abilities for a determined combat style, we have come up with the following squads:

Brawler style