Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth substory 30: How to complete Close Encounters of the Bird Kind?

In the first few hours of Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, you will begin substory 30, “Close Encounters of the Bird Kind?” but you will not be able to complete it immediately. You’ll meet the quest-giver early, as this requires you to know Sojimaru, and it needs to be nighttime in Honolulu. Since nighttime arrives only at certain points in the main story, I did not complete this substory until Chapter 9. This meant I was a bit overpowered for the required battle, but it was worth it. If you’re a completionist and want all the Poundmates summons, this is a must.

If you’re playing Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth and want to know how to complete substory 30, look no further. We’ve got everything you need to know about solving this mysterious UFO caper.

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How to complete Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth substory 30: Close Encounters of the Bird Kind?

Early in Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, you may stumble upon substory 30: Close Encounters of the Bird Kind. A young girl claims that a UFO has abducted her pet chicken and needs Kasuga Ichiban’s help finding it. Unfortunately, this requires a night-time setting, which you don’t have many options for at present. I didn’t have the chance to wrap this up until much later.

You must complete substory 29 (Litterbugged) to access this Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth substory. This means you need to donate a few grand to the professor and then defeat Sojimaru the first time.

It’s likely you won’t be able to wrap this up until around Chapter 8 or 9. When you are in control of Kasuga at nighttime in Honolulu, head to the mall and meet up with the young girl in question.

It's not a UFO, but it is awful familiar (Image via SEGA)

You must wait for quite some time. However, a familiar chime will kick in alongside a brilliant purple light. As it turns out, Sojimaru has been upgraded and can now pick up trash in the air. Unfortunately, it thinks animals like cows and chickens are trash.

You’ll get a choice of a few weapons to take down the “UFO” in Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth’s current substory - I chose the Rocket Launcher. Tilt the control stick until it says “Right there!” and open fire to bring Sojimaru down.

Professor Okita has done it again, and this means we have one more fight with Sojimaru to take care of in Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth. Now known as Sojimaru Flying Beta Max, it’s a level 29 mechanical boss. It also has a “Battery Charger” where it can head back to and heal, but I defeated it far before that happened. I was incredibly over-leveled for this fight - at an average of level 44 with Kasuga, Chitose, Tomizawa, and Adachi.

Unload powerful fire attacks to make short work of Sojimaru (Image via SEGA)

Like its predecessor, Sojimaru is weak to fire, so take advantage of that with any of your attack abilities. If you’re closer to Sojimaru’s level, focus on its battery charger first. I found most of my attacks were resisted by the battery charger, but I defeated Sojimaru before it was an issue.

Attacks like Scattering of Flowers (Kunoichi) and Dynamite Fever (Desperado) were especially useful in this fight. It has more or less the same powers as before, but unfortunately, I didn’t give it a chance to fight back.

While it is a relatively easy fight if you’re overpowered, the reward is a major one: Sojimaru for your Poundmates collection. For $5,000 (or 500,000 Yen), it deals 1,000 base magic damage to a whole enemy party and doesn’t cost Kasuga or Kiryu their turn. You also receive an Antique Coin for leveling up your Desperado.

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Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth is available on January 26, 2024. You can find a full, detailed review of the latest RGG role-playing game here.