Substories are the wackier stories in the Like A Dragon series, to offshoot the more serious tone of the main story. You will first unlock the ability to do Substories in Chapter 2, although they aren’t shown on your map, so you will need to fully explore each map to find them. This page will give a walkthrough of The Mysterious Merchant Substory, found in Rakugai.

Where to Start The Mysterious Merchant in Like a Dragon: Ishin¶

You will have to wait until Chapter 4 before being able to do this Substory, specifically, you will need access to the Another Life aspect of the game. Once you have done that, head to Rakugai and locate the Arms Dealer there. South of there is a well you can get some Well Water, with some stairs right next to it. After going up that small set of stairs, look to the west to find a makeshift hut, of sorts. Approach it and you should see an option to talk, so do that to begin this Substory.

Where to Find Tomatoes for The Mysterious Merchant in Like a Dragon: Ishin¶

The mysterious person wonders where his usual guy is, then denotes you as his new delivery person. The first item he asks for is Tomatoes, with him wanting 10 of them. You will need to grow these at your farm, and you will need to unlock them with Virtue. Even more, you will also need to unlock more farm space, since Tomatoes more space than you initially have. Since Tomatoes take a while to grow (it uses in-game timer, so you have to leave the game on an unpaused screen), you can either do something else, or just have Ryoma stand there in the garden, waiting.

The only thing is that you need 10 Tomatoes and a yield from one crop might not give you the full amount needed. So, that would mean you’d need to wait around some more for another crop to grow. However long it takes, once you have the required amount of tomatoes, bring them back to the Mysterious Merchant to finish the Substory. You will unlock his bond, which will involve you bringing more items to him.

Rewards¶

Where to Find a Loincloth in Like a Dragon: Ishin¶

The second item that the Mysterious Merchant wants is a Loincloth. You should already have one of these, after defeating the Large Man during the main story. The only problem is that this one is of the highest grade, so you might not want to get rid of it. If you go to the Arms Dealer in Rakugai, you will be able to purchase a Loincloth from him. Note that if you have two of them in your inventory at once, you will have to pick one when prompted to give one to the Merchant. There is no way to distinguish between the high grade one and normal one, but you can equip the high grade one to only get a single choice. For giving the Merchant a Loincloth, you will receive another 2 ryo and some bond.

Where to Find Scrap Paper in Like a Dragon: Ishin¶

The third item the Mysterious Merchant asks for is Scrap Paper. This is a very easy item to get, and you might even have some, if you’ve participated in one of the side activities. It might be gotten elsewhere, but the main way to get Scrap Paper is from the Lottery place. If you don’t know where this is, since it’s not actually labeled on the map, it’s on the northern end of Fushimi. It’s on the northern side of the eastern side of the main shopping street. You will need Lottery Tickets to play, which are all over the map, as shiny spots on the ground. Play the Lottery game until you get a Scrap Paper (won’t take long at all), then bring it back to the Merchant for 1 ryo.

Where to Find Natto in Like a Dragon: Ishin¶

The penultimate item the Mysterious Merchant wants is Natto, which is another item you need to purchase. There’s only two stores that carry this item, though, both of which are located in Rakunai. In fact, both shops are pretty much right next to each other. The main street in Rakunai is Shijo Street, so go to the western end to find both the Rice Shop and Fermented Goods. Either one has the Natto, so purchase it and bring it back to the Merchant to earn 3 ryo.

Where to Find Ginseng in Like a Dragon: Ishin¶

The final item for the Mysterious Merchant is Ginseng, which is supposed to be pretty rare. There are two ways to get this, one by growing it in your garden, and the other by simply purchasing it. Note that in order to make Ginseng appear in the list of options in the Virtue list, you need to first purchase all of the Farm Expansions, which will cost you a total of 16,000 Virtue. Ginseng will now be available, for another 10,000 Virtue, but it takes a pretty long time for it to grow, even if you use manure.

The other, and much simpler, way of getting Ginseng is simply to purchase it. There only seems to be one place you can purchase it, though, which is in Rakunai, from the General Goods store. It is located on the eastern end of the main street there, and costs 1 ryo to get it. You only need one, though, so it’s not too much. Once you have the Ginseng, bring it back to the Merchant. You will need to enter a building and return to him one more time, which will finally max out his bond gauge. This causes him to open up a shop, where he’ll sell the following goods.