You're probably not ready for how big of a deal Sujimon is in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. It's one of several games-within-a-game in Infinite Wealth with so much going on that it requires its own guide. Sujimon is Like a Dragon's riff on Pokémon, and how it came to be deserves a little backstory: In Yakuza 7, there was a sidequest that riffed on Pokémon by dubbing all the bad guys you beat up "Sujimon" and logging them all in a "Sujidex." It was fun to laugh at the Sujimon names, but filling in the 'dex was just a little bonus for completionists.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth expands on Sujimon in a major way. On top of filling a new Sujidex with all the baddies roaming the streets of Honolulu, it's now possible to "catch" Sujimon in the wild, level them up, and battle them against Sujimon trainers. There's even a whole side story with Sujimon that involves your Suji Sensei, an elite hierarchy of trainers, and an underground Sujimon tournament scene. It's wild stuff, and the game inundates you with information the second Sujimon is unlocked.
So here's all you need to know about how to access Sujimon, build a team, level up, and beat other trainers.
How to unlock Sujimon
Sujimon is one of the core side activities in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth that you need to progress through the story to unlock. The Sujimon introduction begins in Chapter 4, around 12-18 hours into the game depending on how many side stories you've done. Early in the chapter you're guided to the Anaconda Shopping Center to stock up on supplies when you run into Sujimon Sensei Morikasa. Sensei takes Ichiban to the Sujimon tournament grounds hidden beneath a PC repair shop and introduces Sujimon battles.
Ichiban is given his first three Sujimon—a gang of dojo disciples who join him for Sujimon-related story moments—and told to go forth and become strong enough to challenge the Discreet Four.
Sujimon types
Similar to Pokémon, Sujimon have elemental types that form a rock-paper-scissors circle of strengths and weaknesses. Thankfully, Like a Dragon's version is a bit simpler than Pokémon. There are only five types of Sujimon:
- Blaze: Strong against Nature, weak against Frost
- Frost: Strong against Blaze, weak against Nature
- Nature: Strong against Frost, weak against Blaze
- Light: Strong against Shadow, weak against Shadow
- Shadow: Strong against Light, weak against Light
It's smart to always attack Sujimon with an advantageous type to deal extra damage, but there's another reason too: attacking with advantages builds up more MP, meaning you can fire off special attacks faster and more often.
How to catch Sujimon
While the process is functionally the same as catching Pokémon, you technically "recruit" Sujimon to join Ichiban's roster. Instead of pokéballs, Ichiban recruits Sujimon by giving them Suji Gifts. When the opportunity presents itself to recruit a Sujimon, you enter a brief timing-based minigame where you try to present the gift with as much gusto as possible, followed by a few seconds of mashing a button to woo the Sujimon with compliments.
Depending on how well you did in the minigame and, most importantly, the quality of your Suji Gift, the Sujimon will either join up or leave you in the dust. Just like pokéballs, different tiers of Suji Gifts grant a higher chance of success. There's even a "Master Suji Gift" that guarantees a capture.
There are four ways to acquire Sujimon in the wild:
- Raids are opportunities to seek out Sujimon of specific types. Raids are active for a limited time and marked on your map according to the type of Sujimon there. Challenging a raid triggers a normal turn-based combat with Ichiban's friends. If you win, you always get the chance to recruit that Sujimon. Raids also grant bonus awards like crafting materials for weapons and suji gifts.
- Random battles can lead to catching Sujimon. When you win fights with Ichiban's friends out in the world, there's a chance a Sujimon will be standing there after the fight with a prompt to try to recruit them.
- Trainer battles are another opportunity to walk away with a new Sujimon. Sujimon are sometimes offered as rewards for winning fights (no recruitment necessary). You can see which type of Sujimon you'll be rewarded before accepting a battle, but not the exact Sujimon you'll get.
- Gacha is the most random, but also the most efficient way to recruit Sujimon. You can cash in Suji Gacha Tickets at gacha machines to unlock multiple Sujimon at once. More on this below.
How to win Sujimon battles
It's important to note that when it comes to battles, Sujimon aren't all that unique from each other—many Sujimon of the same type have the same attacks. What sets them apart are their Health, Strength, and Speed stats. You can bring up to six Sujimon into battle: three in active rotation and three in reserve.
Here are a few tips for building your Sujimon party:
- Bring at least one of each type: You can't see which types of Sujimon a trainer has before fighting them, so it's a good idea to have at least one of each five elements covered in your roster.
- Focus on Speed: High speed can win Sujimon fights fast. Keeping Sujimon with high speed in battle means your SP gauge will fill up a lot faster than your opponent's, giving you opportunities to sometimes attack twice or even three times in a row.
- Highest attack goes in the middle: This can change depending on the elemental matchups, but generally it's good to keep a heavy hitter in your center slot where all three enemy Sujimon are targeted at once.
How to evolve Sujimon
Most standard Sujimon have multiple evolutions. To evolve a Sujimon you'll need to "awaken" it by feeding it identical Sujimon you're not using. It's pretty dark if you think too much about it, but the game assures players not to "worry" about what happens to Sujimon who get consumed. In most cases, you need to awaken a Sujimon twice before it'll evolve, which requires feeding it around six other Sujimon.
Evolved Sujimon inherit a new name, slightly altered look, higher stats, and improved normal and special attacks. It's worth evolving your favorite Sujimon as soon as possible.
Sujimon gacha explained
As mentioned above, Suji Gacha machines are the quickest way to recruit a bunch of Sujimon at once. You'll find gacha machines at Suji gyms, in the Suji PC Shop, and at a few locations around Honolulu. They're always positioned near Suji Stops.
There are a few different types of gacha pulls:
- Basic Gacha ($100 per pull, or 1 Gacha Ticket): Grants random Hawaii Sujimon
- Type Gacha ($100 per pull, or 1 Gacha Ticket): Grants Sujimon of a certain type (changes with the Gacha location)
- Japan Gacha ($1,000 per pull, or 1 Master Ticket): Grants Sujimon that only exist in Like a Dragon's Japan areas
- Kiwami Gacha (1 Master Ticket per pull): Grants powerful Sujimon, guaranteed.
Unless you're a Sujimon power user, you won't ever have to shell out money for gacha pulls. Gacha tickets are free gifts for stopping by Suji Stops around Hawaii and common rewards from trainers and raids.
