Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Sujimon battles, explained

I love Sujimon in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth! Finally, developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio explained why random people attack you in Yakuza games. They aren’t dumb; they’re just Sujimon.

As much as I love the concept of Sujimon in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the entire system can get a bit confusing. So, I’m here to explain everything you need to know about Sujimon battles in Infinite Wealth.

What are Sujimon battles in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth?

The common thing to say is that Sujimon is just a parody of Pokémon. Sure, the idea undoubtedly comes from the popular creature-collecting game, but Sujimon battles are actually more of a gacha-game parody than they are of Pokémon. Other than collecting Sujimon and having them join your team (like in Pokémon Go), Sujimon is mostly a gacha game without real-money microtransactions. 

Doing Sujimon activities isn’t required for progressing the story (apart from that one instance when you visit Anaconda Mall for the first time), but they are fun and can give you a few extra bucks, a new job, and a weapon for Kasuga. You can also have them work at your Dondoko Island. 

How Sujimon Battles work in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Sujimon battles are turn-based battles where two teams of up to six sujimon fight. That sounds more complicated than it actually is. The reality is all you really need is one strong Sujimon and a few others to boost the strong one’s speed.

When a battle starts, three active Sujimon from each team face one another. Only one Sujimon can attack per turn. However, every Sujimon can attack up to three opposing Sujimon, in one attack per turn. 

Now, much like all gacha games, there is an elemental triangle in place where some Sujimon are weak and strong against certain types.

What isn’t like most other gacha games is the turn system. Each of your active Sujimon has a speed status. The collective speed of your three active Sujimon determines whether you or your opponent goes first. This is one of the most important parts of Sujimon battles. 

Not only do you have a huge advantage if you attack first, but if you are much faster than your opponent, you can even attack twice in a row. As your Sujimon attack, you also build up power points used to unleash certain special abilities. These can help you out in a pinch. The first player who knocks out the other player’s Sujimon, wins.

While this all seems like a lot, it’s fairly standard for most gacha games. 

How to catch Sujimon in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

There are three main ways to get new Sujimon:

• Through Sujimon raids
• Through the gacha (doesn’t require actual real money microtransactions)

I’ll explain how both of these work.

Sujimon Raids

As you walk around Honolulu, you’ll come across Sujimon raid spots. These can either be active or inactive. When you start an active raid, Kasuga and his friends will fight against Sujimon. These battles are fairly easy, and you can win them in just a few turns. Once a battle is over, you can catch a Sujimon.

To catch a Sujimon, you need a Sujimon gift box. Think of them as Pokéballs. You will be face-to-face with a defeated Sujimon and have to persuade them to join you using a gift box. You will see a bar at the bottom of the screen indicating how “properly” you are giving the gift to a Sujimon. This bar will fill from top to bottom until you stop it. The closer to the top you stop it, the better your gift-giving will be. It’s similar to how you would throw a Pokeball in Pokémon Go. This is really easy to figure out, and during my 130-hour playthrough, I only messed up once or twice. 

Once you get the perfect “throw,” Ichiban will kneel and carefully push the box in front of the Sujimon (showing proper respect). Once the box is in front of the Sujimon, you need to mash the button repeatedly to sweet-talk them into joining you. If everything works out well, you’ll have gained a new Sujimon.

Sujimon Gacha

While you are walking around Honolulu, you’ll come across Suji-stops. Just touch these spots, and you’ll get some Sujimon goodies. Among these goodies, you’ll also get Sujimon Gacha Tickets. Each Gacha ticket can summon one Sujimon. Much like in many Gacha games, you can summon up to 10 Sujimon at a time using this method. What’s more, you also have different ticket types for summoning rarer Sujimon. 

Near these stops, you’ll often find Sujimon Gumball machines. Interact with these to play the gacha. Use the gacha tickets (or Kasuga’s Money) to summon Sujimon. Again, just like many gacha games, most of the Sujimon you get through this method will be common and generally weaker ones. However, every now and then, you can pull a silver or even a gold Sujimon. 

If you pull duplicates, and you will, you can combine them into one Sujimon to make it more powerful. You can even evolve them using this method. 

This is definitely a better way to get plenty of Sujimon, but not necessarily the best way to get powerful ones.

How to win Sujimon battles in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

So, now that you’ve learned a bit about Sujimon, you’re probably ready to go out there and be the very best… like no one ever was. Sure, you can do that, or you can use my cheese mechanic to get through all Sujimon battles. Here’s how you can do it.

• Level all your starting Sujimon to level 10 by battle Rookie players around Honolulu.
• Defeat the first Sujimon leader, Jack, at Jack’s Hotel.
• Defeating him will raise your max Sujimon level to 20 and will let you get more items from Suji Stops (it will also unlock the Sujimancer job).
• Now, go around Honolulu and battle trainers and visit SujiStops until you get a bunch of Sujimon Gacha Tickets.
• Next, save your game and use all your tickets.
• If you get a gold Sujimon, you are good to go otherwise reload and try again.
• I was lucky enough to get Suji Bear, which is, probably one of the strongest Sujimon in the game. However, even if you don’t get him, you’ll likely get a different powerful gold Sujimon.
• The gold Sujimon is essentially going to carry you through all other Sujimon events.
• Now, put your golden Sujimon in your party, make sure he is in the very middle, and raise his level to 20. As for the other five spots, just put five strong Sujimon (they don’t need to be golden, but the more powerful, the better).
• Place the two fastest (not strongest) Sujimon next to your golden one. They are only there so you can attack faster.
• You are ready.

If you have everything set up, spam your gold Sujimon’s attack, and you should win every fight in as little as four turns. Gold Sujimon are extremely powerful and can usually two-shot most opponents; even if they are fighting against Sujimon, they are generally weak against them. Using this method, defeat trainers around Honolulu, defeat gym leaders, and when the level cap raises, level your Sujimon up again and repeat. In the meantime, try to get more gold, Sujimon. They aren’t necessary, but they help.

If you don’t want to bother with Sujimon until post-game, that’s also not a bad idea because after you finish the game, you get Kiryu as a Sujimon, and he is even more powerful than the Suji Bear. 

There you go; now you know everything there is to know about being a Sujimon Master. Now go out there and catch ‘em all.