Like a Dragon: Ishin’s farming mode is called 'Another Life,' and sees protagonist Ryoma Sakamoto settle down in the outskirts of modern-day Kyoto to pick up a shovel and get to work restoring a dilapidated estate.

In this Like a Dragon: Ishin Another Life guide, we’ll be walking you through everything you need to know about the mode, including how to unlock farming, how to earn money quickly to pay off the debt, the best unlocks to purchase first, and how to find cats and dogs for your farmstead.

How to unlock Another Life How to expand your farm Best Another Life unlocks to purchase firstHow to pay off the Another Life debt How to find cats and dogs for Another LifeLike a Dragon: Ishin! | Game Trailer

How to unlock Another Life in Like a Dragon Ishin

When you kick off Like a Dragon: Ishin, you’ll notice Another Life is greyed out in the pause menu. Don’t worry though, you won’t have to jump through hoops to unlock the side activity, because it simply unlocks during Chapter 4 of the main story.

At one point during the main story events of Chapter 4, Ryoma is taken to the farmstead by a priest, and basically signs up to help Haruka pay off her debts on the farm. We’d estimate it’ll take you about four to five hours to reach this point in Like a Dragon: Ishin if you’re making a beeline for it through the main story.

How to expand your farm in Like a Dragon Ishin

Another Life revolves around the farming plots that you’ll find immediately in front of the main house itself. However, there’s precious little farming space for you to play with when you first start Another Life, so, to maximise your farming yield, you’ll want to construct additional farming plots.

Head over to the Shrine that’s immediately to the left of the main estate entranceway. Here, you can use your accumulated Virtue to unlock features that relate directly to Another Life. Keep in mind it’s only at this Shrine that you can unlock features for the farming mode, as you can’t unlock them at the main Shrine in Kyo while you’re strolling about.

If you want to expand your farm quickly, head over to the 'Farm' tab in the Shrine’s menu. It’s here that you can unlock additional plots for relatively cheap, with new plots costing 500, 1,500, and finally 4,000 Virtue for each expansion. It’s via this that you’ll be given new farming plots to grow more vegetables.

Need help in Another Life - the farming simulator minigame of Like a Dragon: Ishin! - or want to learn how to fish?Maybe you need help completing the Mochi Mystery, Global Fraud, It's a Long Story or finding all of the Memoir locations for The Captain and the Curious side story? We also have guides on the Trooper abilities, how to get Prize Tickets and crafting new equipment.

Best Another Life unlocks to purchase first in Like a Dragon Ishin

Aside from purchasing new farming plots in Another Life though, there’s a deluge of other unlocks available for you to pick from at the Shrine.

In the list below, we’ll outline which are the best purchase options at the Shrine using your accumulated Virtue:

Farm Expansion Level 1 - 500 VirtueGreen Thumb: Sweet Potatoes/Green Onions - 100 VirtueGreen Thumb: Ginger/Onions - 150 VirtueTypical Kitchen Upgrade - 300 VirtueFarm Level 2 - 1,500 Virtue

Using these upgrades, you can give yourself the best chance at a good harvest using the plots you have, as well as the opportunity to cook more dishes within the house. Additionally, it’ll give you more chances to get hold of vegetables and items needed for orders, which you can read about just below.

How to pay off the Another Life debt in Like a Dragon Ishin

The main overarching plot of Like a Dragon: Ishin’s Another Life is obviously paying off Haruka’s debt, which is admittedly easy to forget about at times. If you want to get cracking on this though, head into the farm building itself, and look to the back left corner of the room to find a cabinet.

Approach this cabinet, and you’ll be given the option to fulfil orders, sending out Haruka to deliver goods you’ve accumulated at the farm for paying clients. This is how you’re going to pay off the massive debt Haruka’s found herself in, and in actual fact, it’s one of the best ways of earning money in Ishin.

Pay attention to the goods you need to fulfil individual orders. If an order asks for two carrots and a potato, for example, you’ll need to plant these in available plotting space, and wait for them to yield so they’re ready to pick. When you have the desired goods for an order, head back to the cabinet to fulfil the order and reap the rewards.

How to find cats and dogs for Another Life in Like a Dragon Ishin

Here’s a strange one - you can actually unlock cats and dogs for your farm in Like a Dragon: Ishin. To begin this though, you need to head over to the farm’s Shrine, and purchase the options to house a cat and a dog separately. You’ll need to do this before you can even think about finding the creatures and taking them in.

When you’re done with this though, head out of the farmstead, and to the point on the map that we’ve marked just below in Kyo in the Rakugai area. Make sure you’re at this point during the daytime, and you’ll see a dog yapping away, drawing the ire of nearby residents. This is the substory to unlock a dog for Another Life.

To complete this substory, you simply need to give the dog enough bones to fill up its friendship metre. This is actually really easy, as there’s a shop at the map point marked below (Ebisu Pawn) that sells bones for 100 Mon a pop. It takes about four bones to completely fill the dog’s friendship metre, and once this is done, you’ll be given the option to house the dog at your farmstead. Job done.

Finally, for the cat, you’ll need to head to the option we’ve marked on the map just below, which can be found in Rakugai. When here during the day, you’ll see a hungry cat lounging on the floor, with its stomach growling something fierce.

Approaching the cat, you’ll be given the option to feed it fish as part of the Hungry Cat substory. Each time you feed it another fish (which can be entirely of your choosing), the cat’s friendship metre will increase, bringing it one step closer to living with Ryoma and Haruka.

The fourth time you try to feed it a fish though, it’ll demand sea bream, somehow. Additionally, the fifth and final time you need to feed the cat, it’ll require a whole tuna. You can purchase the sea bream from the fish market in Fushimi, but you’ll need to fish in either a river or open seawater to nab a tuna.

Once you’ve fed the picky cat a sea bream and tuna, it’ll finally opt to move into your farmstead. Now you’ll have collected a dog and cat in Another Life, making the farmstead feel that bit more like a home.

Hope you enjoy your Another Life in Like a Dragon: Ishin!

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