Like a Dragon: Ishin! Trooper Card Guide

Spend any time playing Like a Dragon: Ishin! and you’ll know Sakamoto Ryoma plan to infiltrate the Shinsengumi has perks. He nails down some social status, meets some cool people, is paid well, and wears a neat coat… but the real prize of being the Shinsengumi’s Third Division Captain is Trooper Cards.

Like a Dragon: Ishin! Trooper Card Overview

What Are Trooper Cards?

Alongside your best combat skills, Trooper Cards are a gameplay feature that returns from the original Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin! Trooper Cards represent the soldiers until Ryoma’s command, and grant access to buffs, healing abilities, and special attacks in combat.

Trooper Cards come in one of five rarities: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. A card’s rarity determines its maximum level.

• Common Trooper Cards can reach Level 40.
• Uncommon Trooper Cards can reach Level 60.
• Rare Trooper Cards can reach Level 80.
• Epic Trooper Cards can reach Level 90.
• Legendary Trooper Cards can reach Level 99.

Obviously, higher levels are better, so Common Cards are less useful than rare cards as the game goes on. However, you can use a Promotion Jewel to advance them to a higher class.

What Kinds of Trooper Cards Are There?

Trooper Cards are divided into six specialized types:

• Offensive Troopers boost your power or deal direct attacks.
• Defensive Troopers increase your defenses.
• Medical Troopers offer health recovery abilities.
• Assist Troopers amplify the effects of other Troopers’ abilities.
• Support Troopers reduce the cooldown to activate abilities.
• Instructor Troopers grant more experience when used in fusions.

Each Trooper is also equipped with either a sword, spear, gun, or no weapon at all, and the weapon a Trooper has affects how well it matches up with Ryoma’s fighting styles.

• Sword Troopers are a good match with Swordsman and Wild Dancer.
• Spear Troopers are a good match with Brawler.
• Gun Troopers are a good match with Gunman and Wild Dancer.
• Troopers with No Weapons are a good match for Brawler.

How Do You Enhance Trooper Cards?

Trooper Cards level up when they’re equipped in battle, but they can be enhanced in other ways, too. Here’s how:

• Fusion Enhancements — By fusing cards together, one Trooper can gain experience from others. Fusing with an Instructor grants much greater experience. If the cards being combined share the same Tropper Ability, the card may also gain increased ability proficiency.
• Corporal Enhancement — Corporal Traits are skills unique to Corporals. They’re always active. Giving your Corporals the weapons they request will grant additional proficiency in their Corporal Traits.
• Promotions — Once a Trooper has reached their maximum level, you can Promote them with a Promotion Jewel.

How Do You Get Trooper Cards?

None of the Trooper Cards are technically missables. You can acquire Trooper Cards in three ways:

1. Accept requests to join from enemies you fight in the city. Men wearing gold, silver, or bronze hoods might ask to join the Third Division after you defeat them in combat.
2. Accept requests to join from enemies you’ve fought in Battle Dungeons. Certain enemies may wish to join you if you best them in combat.
3. Recruit them with money. You can spend money to recruit Troopers at the Shinsengumi barracks. The more money you spend, the more likely you are to recruit a rare Trooper.

There are 400 Trooper Cards in all, so you’ll find no shortage of things to do if you decide to dig into this mechanic. Keep these tips and tricks in mind and you’ll do just fine. Keep an eye out for more Like a Dragon: Ishin! guides coming on GameSkinny.

Featured image via Sega