Substories are the wackier stories in the Like A Dragon series, to offshoot the more serious tone of the main story. During Chapter 6 you may encounter a Kuramitsu Family Servant next to a Palanquin who pleads for your help. His master is being harassed by a man that goes by Hayakaze, and they want you to help escort her beyond his reach. This page will guide you through where to start, and finish substory 19, Palanquin Paladin.

Where to Start Palanquin Paladin¶

This substory can be started during Chapter 6. Head to Rakugai during the day, and make your way to Umekojicho which is south of Kurogane Smithing. Proceed south, past the Rakugai Arms Dealer, and take the eastern path at the end where you’ll see a palanquin with a few people next to it. Approach the old man to trigger a scene where he’ll explain that his master requires your help to escort them out of the area.

How to Complete Palanquin Paladin¶

Palanquin is surprisingly one of the more difficult substories in the game, so make sure you come prepared with healing items, and upgraded weapons for the Wild Dancer style as this substory can be a DPS check. You may want to equip any Trooper Cards that have an area of effect ability such as Essence of Violent Wind (Defensive Card) as this will make your life a lot easier. The reason that this can be difficult is that you have to protect the Palanquin, so it doesn’t take too much damage otherwise the substory will fail. But, the Palanquin doesn’t have a great deal of health, and you’ll be fighting multiple groups of enemies until you reach the finish line.

You’ll want to be in the Wild Dancer style for the majority of this substory unless you want to shoot some enemies from range with the Gunman style. On the first stretch, you’ll face three samurai at the end of the path. Go to town on them with the Wild Dancer’s Phoenix Frenzy attack (, , / , , ), but make sure you always keep an eye on the Palanquin as the enemies will try to attack it at any chance that they get.

You don’t necessarily need to defeat the enemies as the Palanquin will continue along the path unless its path is impeded, but you’ll soon get overwhelmed if you don’t. Your primary goal here is to stop them from attacking the Palanquin at all costs as it doesn’t take too many hits before it goes down.

While you’re fighting the first three enemies, another two will come from the north. If you begin to get overwhelmed, just stay near and make sure you have eyes on the Palanquin, so it doesn’t take any unnecessary damage. When you get around the next corner, another three guys will spawn. If you have any area of effect trooper abilities, now is the time to use one, but try to get all the enemies near to each other for maximum value.

The next group of enemies will be six of them, yes, six. Once again use any trooper abilities you have to deal with them, and try to position yourself in front of the Palanquin to slow it down while taking some damage, so the Palanquin doesn’t. There’s at least three gun users here, and they’ll shoot it from range, so switch over to Gunman style, and shoot them down quickly. They don’t have much health, and should go down fast. If one or two enemies approach the Palanquin, switch to Swordsman style to take them out, but if more than two close in, switch to the Wild Dancer style and use Phoenix Frenzy.

Be careful not to let the Palanquin go too far forward otherwise another three enemies will join the six you’re already fighting. Once you’ve defeated the six, there’ll be three more enemies unless they’ve already joined you, and a little further on another three will join in with another three joining shortly after. At this point, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, so just focus on the Palanquin and don’t go out of your way to defeat the enemies. When you see the large wooden bridge, the end is in sight. Use all of your trooper abilities, and your area of effect attacks whenever enemies get near the Palanquin, and you should be fine.

After you successfully escort them across the bridge, you’ll meet Hayakaze, the man who is smitten with Sayoko-sama. Fortunately, he’ll be the least of your problems in this substory. Fight him like any other one vs one battle you’ve encountered so far, and you shouldn’t have any issues.

Palanquin Paladin Tips¶

• Bring enough healing items, you’ll need them.
• Make sure your trooper cards have area-of-effect abilities. This will help with large groups of enemies.
• Wild Dancer will be your main style, make sure it’s upgraded to a reasonable level (At least rank 10).
• Upgrade your gun and katana to at least good/great.
• Position yourself in front of the Palanquin to slow it down.
• Don’t run too far forward as you may get the next group of enemies.
• Use Heat Actions whenever they’re available. These can outright defeat an enemy.
• Consider dropping your difficulty. This won’t affect any trophies/achievements.
• Special weapons like the Odachi, and Spear can be good here.
• Although it’s not recommended, the Gunman style can be surprisingly efficient as it can down enemies as well as deal a lot of damage from range, especially with the Rapid Fire trooper ability.

Palanquin Paladin Rewards¶

Your reward for this arduous quest will be a Crimson Bead, at first it may not seem like much, but it is a rank 9 key crafting material that will be useful for equipment crafting later.