In this guide, we break down how to use the Romance Workshop in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, explaining how to make new weapons and armor, and how to upgrade your gear. We’ll also quickly explain how to invest in Romance Workshop in Yakuza: Like a Dragon and the benefits of doing so. Here’s how the Romance Workshop works in Yakuza: Like A Dragon:
How does crafting work in Yakuza: Like A Dragon? Weapon crafting Armour crafting Upgrading gear What does investing do?
How does the Romance Workshop work in Yakuza: Like A Dragon?
Not long after you begin Chapter 5 of the story, you’ll meet Sumire (one of the romance options in Yakuza: Like a Dragon) who runs the Romance Workshop. This is your go-to place for crafting powerful new weapons and armour, as well as upgrading your gear. Before we get into how the workshop operates, it’s worth highlighting how you get hold of materials, as this is what you’ll need to exchange with Sumire for your new gear and upgrades. Your primary source of materials like glass panes, wires, and nails will be through combat. Every time you win a fight, you’ll gain XP as well as a certain number of crafting materials. Generally, the more powerful the enemy, the rarer the materials you’ll receive if you emerge victorious. However, you can also find materials scattered around dungeons and the streets of Yokohama, so keep your eyes peeled. Finally, some gear will also require insects, which you can catch in various green spaces around Yokohama.
How does weapon crafting work?
Speak to Sumire and you’ll be able to flit between different menus. You’ve got one for weapon upgrades, one for crafting new weapons, and one for crafting new armour pieces. Here’s what the weapon crafting menu looks like:
Let’s start from the top. Selecting All and scrolling down will show you all the weapons that Sumire has on offer for you right now. Some won’t be available yet, and that’s because you haven’t invested enough into the workshop yet (more on this in the section below). You can press C, R1, or RB depending on what controller you’re using to flick between the weapons available to your specific party members and the Jobs you’ve currently equipped them with. It’s a great way of narrowing down the workshop’s gear selection so you’re not guessing who each weapon’s meant for. So, in the image we’ve got the Thundercrack Bat selected. In the pane on the right you can see that Kasuga can equip it, that it does lightning damage on top of physical damage, and a few other stats too. Plus, it has a special effect which boosts damage done by electric type attacks. On the left side, and at the bottom of the screen you’ve got the materials needed to craft the weapon. In this case, I’ve got everything apart from the five Scorpions. If I did have these bugs to hand, I could craft it for 10,000 yen. If you want to compare a piece of equipment to what you’ve currently got equipped, simply press C, R2, or RT.
How does armour crafting work?
The armour crafting menu works in a similar fashion to its weapon counterpart as you can cycle between head, body, and leg gear by pressing C, R1, or RB. Again, they’ll cost materials to craft and you can see who can equip what by looking in the right hand pane when you’ve got a piece of gear selected.
There’s a fairly limited supply of armour options early into the game, but more will open up as you progress.
How does upgrading gear work?
Last but not least, you’ve got the weapon upgrade menu:
Here you can view all the weapons you’ve got in the inventory and see if you’ve got enough materials and yen to upgrade them. On the right you can see I can turn Kasuga’s Self-proclaimed Hero’s Bat +2 (I’ve upgraded it twice already) into a Hero’s Bat, which’ll see it gain some pretty beefy stat boosts. Unfortunately, I don’t have the ten Kao Attack ZEROs needed to go ahead and do so.
What does investing do?
When you first talk to Sumire, you can choose to enter the shop menu, or you can opt to invest.
The workshop has four ranks in total and you can invest your own money to upgrade the workshop from rank one to two, and so on. Every time you upgrade the workshop’s rank Sumire will be able to craft and upgrade even more powerful gear.
Take the Bastard Soda weapon I’ve equipped Saeko with. I can’t upgrade it here until I’ve hit facility rank 2. With every rank comes a price increase, so make sure you get saving if you want the best upgrades. That covers everything you need to know about the Romance Workshop in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. If you are focused on 100% completing the game, check out our guides on how to find all Kappa Statues and how to find all missing cats in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. If you just need more Yen, take a look at our guide on how to make money fast in Yakuza: Like a Dragon.
