Quick Links
Like A Dragon: Ishinfeatures the remarkably robust Another Life mode. But this isn’t just a mini-game. In fact, Another Life has multiple components. One of them is cooking, which, itself, is composed of four distinct mini-games. Mini-games within mini-games! It’s like Inception… but with mini-games.
RELATED:Like A Dragon: Ishin - Fishing GuideNeedless to say, the more complicated the dish, the more difficult it is to nail. And you want to perfect each dish, as they are considerably more potent if you do. And worry not, we have hints on how to deal with the most troublesome of these cooking mini-games. So sharpen your chef’s knife, and put on your best apron: it’s time to let Ryoma cook.
Cooking Mini-Game Breakdown
These mini-games are NOT randomized. That means that youcanlearn exactly how to cook a recipe and nail it every time. Most of these are pretty straightforward, but a few of them have a trick to them. So, we’ll cover all of them quickly, and give you hints wherever they apply.
Keep The Fire Going
This is easy. Hammer the action button. If your controller has a turbo button, this is the place to use it.
Vegetable Chopping
This is pretty straightforward. Hit the appropriate button when your target overlaps with the prompt. Some of these are fast, and some of them are slow. You will chop 3, 5, 7, or 15 times.Tekka stew also has an instance of there only being a single chop.The pattern will either be the same button, or it will alternate between the two.
Grilling Fish
All you need to do is hit the action button once you start to see sparks. Once you see the sparks rising, the quicker you flip the fish the better. Though, you never want to flip before you see the cinders fly. Generally speaking,smaller fish get flipped quicker, and larger fish will take longer before you flip them, but some dishes go against this convention.We have all the approximate times listed for each fish in the Quick Reference section. So, you can use those to be better prepared.
Pouring Stock
This is easily the most finicky of all the games. You hold the pour button to pour a liquid into the stew, but you will keep pouring for a set amount of time after you release the button. So,you have to predict how early you need to release the button depending on how quickly the liquid pours.There is a very handy trick that will greatly improve your ability to pour consistently.
You will notice that, in the background, there is a shoji wall that VERY CONVENIENTLY has squares that align with the pouring gauge.You can use the shoji as a reference for when to stop pouring.Since the pour times will always be the same for each dish, this makes things far more manageable. You can consult the Quick Reference section for the pour timing for every meal.
Where To Get Honey, Ginkgo, Udon Flour, Eggs, And Out Of Season Plums
The majority of ingredients for these dishes are going to be something you pull from your garden, or something you fish out of the water, but there are five ingredients that you will need to find elsewhere.Most of these are best purchased from the Don Quijote.However, a few of them are easily procured in other places.
For starters,eggs are a resource you will have a consistent supply of through your chicken coop.So, make sure to get that coop early and upgrade it so that you can get an egg on the regular.Gingko, on the other hand, is readily found on the ground all around the Shinsengumi headquarters.
Premium Meals
If you get enough “greats” during the different phases, you will make a premium dish.These premium dishes are substantially more potent as healing items.So, always aim for a premium version of every meal.
Investing in your “cooking success rate” will greatly lower the standard for reaching a premium dish.Once you have the “Godly” upgrade to your cooking success rate you should be able to produce Premium meals every time. Especially if you use this guide’s cooking times to help get those greats.
Difficulty Rating And Virtue Gain
Each dish has a star rating associated with it. The more stars, the more difficult the dish, and the more Virtue you will earn. Here is how that cracks out.
The lone exception here is the Umeboshi which is a one-star dish that only rewards you with 15 Virtue.
★☆☆☆☆
★★☆☆☆
★★★☆☆
★★★★☆
★★★★★
90 Virtue
The Virtue payout listed here assumes you have maxed out your Virtue acquisition from the Shinto Shrine.If you haven’t, we strongly recommend you remedy that as quickly as possible, as cooking produces a ton of Virtue, and you don’t want to be leaving Virtue on the table.
Kitchen Level
Initially, you will only be able to prepare Pickles and Katemashi. However, you can upgrade your kitchen using virtue. Each level will open up another set of dishes one star rank higher.
2,000 Virtue
How To Get The Revolutionary Croquette Recipe
This recipe is easy to obtain. Simply give the chef in Gion five meals. You can hand him them one after the other. Don’t worry, you don’t need to give him different dishes each time.You can just hand him five jars of pickles. That’s what we did!
Quick Reference For Every Meal
For your convenience,the timing for each seasoning pour has been provided below. The number does NOT represent seconds, it is depicting which point on the shoji wall you should stop pouring at.For further clarification, consult the seasoning pouring section above.
The fish grilling timing, on the other hand, is represented in seconds (as is clearly stated). The rest should be pretty straightforward. Use these as guides to get more consistent results.
2x Cucumber
Chopping (three cuts) Regular
-
2x Daikon
Chopping (five cuts) Regular
Chopping (seven cuts) Regular
Drink Pour (medium speed) 3
2x Spinach
Chopping (seven cuts) slow
Chopping (five cuts) Slow
Out of season plum
1x Crawfish
Chopping (seven cuts) Fast
Drink Pour (fast speed) 1
Chopping (three cuts) Fast
Fish Grilling (medium fish) 9 Seconds
Drink Pour (fast speed) 2
2x Egg
2xFreshwater Eel
Chopping (seven cuts) Medium
Chopping (fifteen cuts) slow
1xScorpionfish
3x Tomato
3x Carrot
Chopping (one cut) Fast
2x Turnip
2x Eggplant
2x Onion
2x Carrot
Drink Pour (fast) 1.5
Chopping (Fifteen cuts) Slow
Chopping (fifteen cuts) Slow
1x Egg
3x Potato
1x Carrot
1x Cucumber
Chopping (fifteen cuts) Medium
3xConger Eel
2xSquid
4x Potato
Drink Pour (slow) 3.75
2x Pumpkins
2x Carrots
10x Ginkgo
Chopping (seven cuts) fast
Chopping (five cuts) fast
Drink Pour (super fast) 1
15x Eggs
3x Honey
6x Strawberry
Chopping (four cuts) Fast
Drink Pour (ultrafast speed) 1
2x Taro
Chopping (fifteen cuts) normal
Chopping (seven cuts) normal
Drink Pour (normal speed) 3
