Yakuza: Like a Dragon: How to Change Jobs

Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s big shift to an RPG system added a new class-based feature for players to explore where they can assign characters different roles with unique strengths, weaknesses, and abilities to unlock. To keep in line with the unique blend of fantasy and realism in Like a Dragon, those classes are referred to as “Jobs” which players can pick from after visiting an employment center, and the more progress you make with characters, the better their options get.

Many players who picked up Yakuza: Like a Dragon likely already knew about the Jobs system going into it but may have been surprised to find that they can’t start picking different Jobs right away. If that’s you, don’t worry about having missed anything – it’s impossible to miss the opportunity to swap Jobs. Some light spoilers for the game’s story follow, but if you’re not worried about those, we’ve got all the details you need on changing Jobs in Like a Dragon.

You’ll have to wait a while to change Jobs because the feature doesn’t become available until Chapter 5: The Liumang Man. Five chapters in may sound like a lot, but it’ll go by quickly, and even though you’ll likely change Ichiban Kasuga’s class right away, his character level that’s separate from Job ranks will still be gaining experience throughout.

Once you reach Chapter 5, you’ll come to a point where Ichiban Kasuga and his companions have already been introduced to an establishment called “Hello Work” that specializes in placing people in jobs. By returning to Hello Work which you have to do to follow prompts from the main quest, you’ll unlock the option to switch Jobs to round out your team with different focused classes.

Every character has at least one exclusive job none of the others can unlock while there are also some gender-based differences between a few of the Jobs. The Jobs will give you an overview of what the classes are like, but we’d recommend looking through the skills to see what typic of character they’ll turn your party members into. Job rank unlocks like +5 Healing, +5 Defense, and supportive abilities, for example, should tell you that Job is focused on healing, survivability, and buffing teammates. Weapons and other items are locked to certain classes as well, so be sure to keep tabs on where items appear throughout the world in case you’re ever in the mood to switch.

Like any RPG, you’ve got plenty of options to choose from when creating a well-rounded or hyper-focused team. Progress towards Job ranks is retained even if you swap, and stat bonuses are permanent for characters, so switch up frequently until you find the right chemistry for you.