How Crew Morale Works in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Explained

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii puts players in control of an amnesiac Goro Majima and his newly assembled Pirate Crew. However, traveling the high seas can take a toll on your crew, which could result in their morale going down. Here’s how Crew Morale Works in Pirate Yakuza.

Crew Morale in Pirate Yakuza, Explained

After recruiting a new member for the Goro Pirates in the game, they will automatically be at the highest morale level possible. Morale can impact the overall stats of your crew members, meaning that if its not maxed out, it can impact their effectiveness in battle. Pirate Yakuza has five levels of morale: Awesome, good, normal, bad, and terrible. When at the “awesome” rating, crew members get a stat boost that makes them more effective in naval combat as well as those assigned to boarding crews.

However, their defensive and attack stats decrease if a crew member is in the “bad” or “terrible” morale point. What’s important to note here is that it isn’t just losing battles when exploring the open world that decreases morale — it gradually decreases whenever battling at sea or conducting raids on treasure islands. So, while players can be successful in all their endeavors, it slowly but surely impacts the morale of their crew as well.

How To Increase Crew Morale in Pirate Yakuza

Thankfully, there are various ways to improve Crew Morale in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. There are individual options that take up a little more time, as well as wide-ranging ones that improve the morale of all crew members simultaneously. Both options require several times to purchase, so make sure you have money, and if you don’t, go after some bounties or explore remote islands for treasure.

It’s also essential to remember that you can’t boost morale unless you are docked on an island and not in combat or at a safe zone such as a lighthouse. So, if you find yourself in a naval battle or raid and realize too late that your crew’s morale is low, there is essentially no backing out unless you’re in the open-world area and can escape the fight.

Related: All Pre-Order Bonuses and Editions for Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii

Throw a Party For Your Crew

In the Captain Quarters of the Goromaru (your ship), players can find a drink icon on the right side of the exit door. Interacting with this will start a dialog where Goro questions whether he should throw a party for his crew members. This is one of the easiest ways to boost morale, especially if all of your crew members are at a level lower than “awesome.” However, it isn’t recommended if only a handful of your crew has low morale.

Moreover, throwing a party for your crew requires a feast meal that you must make beforehand. The cooking mini-game has to be played to make this meal, and Goro’s chef level has to be at 10 to cook the meal required for the party, and bigger meals that boost morale further are locked behind levels 15 and 24, respectively. The ingredients require several pieces of meat and fish as well as dairy products, so make sure you are stocked up on those.

Interact With Your Crew Members and Give Them Gifts

For players who only have a few of their members on low morale, which can happen to some that were recruited earlier than others, a case-by-case approach may be essential to improving your crew’s morale. To do this, walk around your ship when docked and talk to whichever party member is low on morale individually. Depending on where you assign them to the ship, they will either be on the deck near a cannon or below deck sitting in the kitchen or rest area.

From there, simply talk to them, and their stats will appear, showing what exactly (if anything) is currently being affected by their morale, as well as text dialog from Goro stating that they’re either doing fine or something is the matter. From this point, another menu will show up, displaying the list of items that a player has that can be used to increase their morale.

Items that boost morale can’t usually be used for anything else in Pirate Yakuza; they can be bought from merchants on the sea and those on land in stores. Because of their single-use function, they are easy to find and relatively inexpensive, meaning it’s a good idea to stock up on them to ensure you can boost your crew’s morale whenever you need to.

So, whether you throw a party or handle each crew member’s morale individually, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii has plenty of flexibility for its players and how they choose to be the best Captains they can be. The Crew Morale system is an interesting one that adds another fun layer to the sea-faring adventure and further immerses you into the wild world of pirates and yakuza.

And that’s how crew morale works in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is available now on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.