Just a detailed guide to easily (and cheesily) defeating Mr. Shakedown and earning lots and lots of Yen in the process. Learn how to get Zap guns, how to use them, and how to multiply your money via Mr. Shakedown as Kiryu.
Note: I realize that if you max our all your skills and finish the game, you'll have a lot of ways to beat Mr. Shakedown. This guide details the easiest and earliest way, which doesn't require any unlocked abilities and only one CP reward.
Other Yakuza 0 Guides:- 100% Achievement Guide.
- Money Farm.
- How to Save Anywhere.
- How to Win Claw Machine Toys.
- Audio Fix and Secret Options.
What's A Zap Gun And How Do I Get One?
A zap gun is a type of shotgun that does electrical damage. You can use "Equipment Search" at the Dragon and Tiger weapons shop to find one. You'll get access to the shop as part of the main plot during chapter 3.
You can find a zap gun in pretty much any search destination that has "Shotgun" as one of the obtainable items. "Hunter's Village" in Japan is one destination that's available the moment the store opens. You can also get the Slime gun in the same place - it's a bit like a cheaper and less damaging version of the zap gun.
Different agents can find different items, with cheaper agents (on the left) being limited to cheaper items. Select the Adventurer on the extreme right, and give him about 5.7 million yen of extra funds (or a bit more if you want the search to go even faster).
The search results are decided by RNG when you talk to Hua after the search time is up (and you get a pager message). You can try a few times until you get lucky, or save at a nearby phone booth. Alternately, you can activate the save anywhere function, and save right in front of her.
Go to Users\[name]\AppData\Roaming\Sega\Yakuza0, open settings.ini, and change SaveAnywhere from 0 to 1. Save the file and mark it as read only. Don't save during fights or extended set pieces, or your save might get corrupted.
Anyways, once you got your hands on a weapon, you can buy as many copies as you want at the store. Kiryu doesn't have access to the weapons store by until Majima actually starts doing weapon searches. The weapon store in Kamurocho is in the shopping area, just north of the Empty Lot. Both protagonists can buy every weapon the other protagonist ever found.
Now That I Have A Zap Gun, What's So Great About It And How Do I Use It?
Shakedowns (like most boss-type characters) are highly resistant to bullet and weapon damage. Here's a Shakedown's health bar before and after a shot from Kiryu's Golden Pistol - a weapon which outright deletes mooks from existance:
And here's his health bar after taking a shot or two from the zap gun:
The zap gun (and its weaker alternative, the slime gun) does elemental damage that most bosses can't resist.
So you can just buy a bunch of zap guns and shoot Shakedown to pieces?
Kinda, but it's ever so slightly more complicated. If you keep shooting Shakedown, he'll eventually start dodging your shots. What you want to do is:
- Equip the zap gun in your weapon slot. Switch to a dodgy style, and take out the gun AFTER dodging one of Shakedown's attacks, when there's some distance berween you.
- Lock onto him, wait for him to charge / swing, dodge away, then shoot him 2-3 times. If the auto-aim doesn't screw you over, all the shots will connect.
- If you want to save a bit of money / make things less boring, you can charge up your heat bar with zap gun shots, then switch to a melee weapon (or Majima's Slugger style), do a heat move, 2 stomps, heat move, 2 stomps, back to zap gun.
- Try to fight Mr. Shakedown in wide open areas, with plenty of room to dodge. Stock up on health items just in case - prioritize health recovery over heat recovery, obviously.
How Can I Multiply My Money While Mugging Shakedown As Kiryu?
You can easily max out all of Majima's abilities in 10-20 Shakedown fights, if so inclined. But Kiryu lives large - he'll be lucky to get enough money to upgrade one max level ability per fight. Never fear - there's a solution that allows you to get all the yen (yip yip yap) after just a few Shakedown fights. First of all, we need to unlock Mr. Shakedown's Deep Pockets at the CP shrine.
It's upgrade number 6 in the Battle related CP upgrades, and you need to have saved up quite a bit of CP to get it. Fortunately for you, every CP for stuff than can be achieved by both protagonists - talk to X people, run Y miles, travel by taxi Z times - adds a CP to both protagonists. So if you explore a bit as Majima, you'll come back to Kiryu with a lot of extra CP. If that's not enough, just explore the city a bit - eat everywhere, talk to everyone, do minigames and substories.
Anyways, once you do get the upgrade, whenever you defeat a Shakedown, you get back the money that he shook you down for multiplied by 1.5.
What does this mean?
Kiryu meets Mr. Shakedown with 100 billion yen in his pockets. He allows himself to be beaten down (these fights are a pretty good chance to learn how to fight Shakedown with no weapons, pressure free).
When he next tracks down Mr. Shakedown, it seems as though he'll merely earn his money back.
But when he actually he unleashes zap gun justice, he gets back his lost funds x 1.5
How Do I Actually Find Mr. Shakedown?
The easiest way (besides randomly wandering around) is by equipping the Encounter Finder accessory. This acessory marks all (nearby) enemies on your map, and has a special icon for Mr. Shakedown, wherever he may be.
Majima has a really easy time of it - all he has to do is go to the Eastern bridge, and help out the person he meets there.
Kiryu has to go through three different substories before he gets the Encounter Finder - and he has to get the right answer during the last substory as well.
First of all, Kiryu needs to go slightly south of the CP shrine to trigger "The Show Must Go On".
Next, head to the southern end of Tahei Boulevard.
Listen to two NPCs talking about Michael Jackson being in town. Enter and leave either of the nearby eateries to trigger Papillon Kato appearing and starting "Miracle on Tenkaichi Street". Save beforehand - this mission can be quite buggy. As the mission ends, choose Black.
Finally, return to the same spot on Tahei Boulevard in order to hear NPCs talking about Michael being at the Maharaja disco.
Go there and fight his bodyguard in order to trigger "Miracle in Maharaja". It doesn't matter how well you do in the ensuing disco dance battle. Just choose Black in order to get the Encounter Finder at last.
Once you've fought Mr. Shakedown, he disappears from the game world - you need to either enter a store / restaurant, or get into a random fight to have him to respawn. Conversely, if you get into a random fight while running towards Mr. Shakedown, he may respawn elsewhere. The Quiet shoes you get from "Miracle on Tenkaichi Street" help avoid random fights until you get the Mr. Moneybags ability.
Ok, But How Do I Beat Mr. Shakedown In A Non-cheesy Way?
The basic tactic is to hit him in the back after he rushes / takes a swing. The most important advice is DON'T GET GREEDY - do a quick light-heavy attack (or a quick combo if he just did his AOE big swing), then get out. Learn his tells over a few encounters, so that you're able to know in advance whether he's going for a 1-2 or a 1-2-3 combo (or a rush vs a grab when he goes into Heat mode).
Forget about lock on - it slows down your movement speed, so you won't be able to get at his back quickly enough. You might lock on to dodge his attack if the camera isn't working with you - but then let go and run to get at his back.
Despite appearances, most of his attacks can be blocked if you're out of room to dodge them. Only the big swing and the grab-rush (arms at his sides instead of in front of him) are unblockable.
Shakedown automatically counters most grab attempts, except for a few special instances like the "transition from finishing blow to grab" Dragon style ability or Beast style's grab when he's been knocked down.
Having the Quick Change clothes (from Bob the clown at the CP shrine) can give Kiryu an edge. You can switch to Rush to cancel a combo and dodge away when you overextend. Or switch to Beast style and do some powerful blows after Rushing at his back.
Even if you're properly leveled, Shakedown's health increases so quickly after repeated encounters that it can take forever to wear him down (at least until you get the Legendary style, which can't be unlocked just by having a lot of money). Feel free to mix in weapon and heat moves whenever you build up enough heat - just make sure you have the time and free space to pull the weapon out.
Finally, you can counter Mr. Shakedown, particularly in Mad Dog style, but the exact timing is different for each attack.
Source: https://gameplay.tips/guides/2839-yakuza-0.html
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