After beating Yakuza Kiwami, a new game mode will unlock called Climax Battles. These test your skill by providing various challenges. These challenges are pretty tough, so below are some good tips for getting through them and grabbing the trophy for finishing Climax Battles.
Proving Grounds 1
This challenge needs you to kill everyone without falling down a SINGLE time. Heed my advice and you’ll do just fine. Might take a few retries, but you can do it. Start off by switching to rush and dodging your way to the shotgun guy, you must make sure you dodge one attack on your way to him to gain full heat. Take him down, then proceed to kill the bomb throwing guy, the easiest way is by grabbing him and throwing him out of the ship. After that, you can take a detour to drive away the enemies from the shotgun, and once you can get it, you can round them up to shoot the highest number you can. I didn’t really use it that effectively in this video but I still was able to manage. Do that and you should be able to win eventually.
Proving Grounds 2
This one’s straightforward enough, beat enough guys under the time limit. The easiest way you can go about this is to probably switch to Beast and hit them with heavy weapons. Although, one thing to note is that when that one guy shows up, go for him before anyone else because he’ll give you more XP which should be enough to end the challenge.
Proving Grounds 3
Only weapons will damage enemies here. Switch to Rush immediately and lure everyone to that spot I go to in this video, once done, go back quickly to the shotgun guy who should be by his lonesome and kill him with a weapon, use Square Triangle with a heavy weapon and that should be enough to take him out. Once done, you can take his shotgun, round the enemies up and shoot them, and if anyone’s still alive, use any nearby weapon with Beast to take them out. Having no time limit here means you can take your sweet time killing everyone.
Proving Grounds 4
Another easy challenge, you can only kill your enemies with heat actions. You can either use regular rush combos to charge your heat, or some of the healing items found, or the hidden shotguns at the corner of the kitchen. Using different heat actions is advised especially against the big yellow chef as he has the most HP.
Proving Grounds 5
You can only damage your enemy with Brawler style’s counter attacks here. Right when he attacks you, press either triangle or square. I advise going for square because it’s quicker. One thing that I noticed but may not necessarily be true is that it’s better if you try and corner him for a better chance at landing a hit at him.
Proving Grounds 6
This challenge isn’t too hard, take out the gunmen using the Square x2 Triangle rush combo. If a gunman is out of your sight and he’s about to shoot you, you will be able to know by him making a grunt/sound before shooting you, so once that happens, dodge immediately before doing anything. Once you get to the top, try staying out of the sword guy’s range and take out the two gunmen. After which you’ll have plenty of time to dodge around the sword man to try and take him out.
Proving Grounds 7
You might need to be quick with this time as time is limited. See the enemy location pattern in the video and do as I do. A VITAL tip is that instead of shooting with triangle, use R1+triangle instead because that way you can spam shoot the way I do in this video. Also, don’t move by dodging with X, but rather use the analog stick because Kiryu will eventually run as you can see here. Once you’re nearing the exit, shoot the hell out of the guy with boss HP prioritizing offense rather than dodging/defense, but at the same time dodge when you feel like it’s needed.
Proving Grounds 8
Beat all enemies while being in a state where your HP is draining. Another challenging gauntlet. Take out the gunmen first and take the healing items available because they can help, but at the same time, your time is very limited. Using the Tiger Drop or heat actions here is very much advised. Heat actions may be tough to use considering heat will drain as a result of your draining HP. You can do the Tiger Drop by locking onto an enemy with R1, then press triangle right before an attack lands on you.
Proving Grounds 9
It may require retries but you should be able to do it. Here’s how you can make it easier: Once you gain enough heat at the starting wave, whether it’s by dodging a hit or going with good old rush combs, once you get to red heat, go Beast and grab a guy and press triangle to do that group heat action you see me doing. But before taking out the last guy, exploit his loneliness by knocking him down and then raising your heat for the next wave. Once the next wave arrives, repeat what you did with the first wave until the challenge ends.
Proving Grounds 10
This challenge is surprisingly straightforward and not as difficult as you’d expect for the final challenge in Proving Grounds. You play as Date and you have to take out 3 goons. I advise going for the gunman first, then the guy with the bat and finally the unarmed guy. Knock em against walls and environmental items to deal more damage.
Melee Battle 1
Fairly simple, beat all enemies within the time limit. In the second wave, try taking out the blond guy first because he’s a pain. Use heat actions to freeze time while dealing damage (this applies to all challenges). Note: Prisoner Kiryu’s forte is the Soul grid, so he has all the heat actions.
Melee Battle 2
Take out all the enemies again. Use heat actions to stop time and I suggest using the Square x3 Triangle rush combo of Brawler because it packs a punch in a decent amount of time. Note: Black Suit Kiryu’s forte is Tech, that’s why he doesn’t deal much damage here, use abilities from that tree as you see fit.
Melee Battle 3
Beat all the enemies within the time limit. Brawler should be good enough, use heat actions to freeze time if needed. If you beat all those around you and it’s still not over, chances are there are some hiding/stuck in the other side of the park as you can see in this video as well. Note: Shirtless Kiryu’s forte seems to be the Body grid if I understand this right. He has max HP and attack power.
Melee Battle 4
Take out the gang members. Use their weapons to help you finish them off, and as always, heat actions to freeze time if needed.
Melee Battle 5
Take out the Chinese Triad. You can only use Brawler but it’s more than good enough. Use their swords to deal a good amount of damage. Once the second wave arrives, beat the guy with boss HP asap because he’s annoying. And then on the fourth wave, I recommend using heat actions on the staff guy because he’s even more annoying.
Melee Battle 6
Beat all enemies using only Rush. Pretty easy, you could do the full combo plus charge kick to deal heavy damage. Reminder, Black Suit Kiryu’s forte is tech. You can use stomp heat actions if you want but it’s not necessary.
Melee Battle 7
Beat all enemies using only Beast. This one isn’t too bad if you aim for a gunner first and then steal his gun to shoot everyone, pick up another gun for the second wave and the third wave as well. The boss should go down easily with one or two good throws.
Melee Battle 8
Get to the top of the building and beat the boss there. This is basically that same long battle from the story except you’re limited to using Dragon, but luckily, it’s pretty upgraded. You have all of its moves if I understood right, such as all heat actions and the Tiger Drop. You could also collect the health items which I do show in this video in case you found yourself in a bind later.
Melee Battle 9
There’s a trick to this one, you don’t need to beat all enemies at all. Just do what I do in this video by dodging in the beginning to gain heat, use that heat action on the heavy and make your way downstairs. You should still have enough heat for the second heavy, use the same heat action and head down to face Majima. You can deal with Majima as you see fit.
Melee Battle 10
Get the guys at the beginning and make sure you have heat before heading on inside. Once in, use a chair heat action on Kashiwagi. After then, try dodging behind his combos and using the Square x3 Triangle rush combo till you have heat again, then do another chair heat action and finish him off. Go through the map until you reach Sera, you should have heat once there, use a lantern heat action on him and use the knife-throwing goons to gain more heat, then use the lantern heat action but this time in Beast. After that, you could dodge behind his combos and use the Square x3 Triangle rush combos until he’s down.
Mad Dog Battle 1
Beat Breaker Majima using only Rush style under 1 and half minutes. This challenge is super easy and straightforward, you should have no problems with it.
Mad Dog Battle 2
Beat Officer Majima without damaging the normal civillian cops using only Beast style. Tricky challenge, might require a few retries because landing an unintentional attack on the normal officers is very easy. But you should be good if you start the battle by grabbing and throwing Majima the way I did at the beginning of this fight to separate him from the normal cops, use a heat action and then finish him off with a few square buttons.
Mad Dog Battle 3
Fight your way through waves of zombies and Zombie Majima under the time limit using only Brawler style. The time limit here should be very reasonable for you not to worry about it that much, but that said, you should still try and beat everyone as fast as you can to save time.
Mad Dog Battles 4
Beat waves of Hannya Man under the time limit. Your Kiryu will be without any upgrades here, but this challenge is still extremely doable. Hannya Man won’t attack that often and doing the Square x3 Triangle rush combo with Brawler style does wonders. The time limit here shouldn’t be a concern because you can beat them long before it ends. Feel free to use heat actions where needed. The heat actions you can use here are the high table ones that I do, as well as the ground ones.
Mad Dog Battle 5
Beat all waves of Majima in under the time limit. You’ll face four Majima’s here: Zombie Majima, Officer Majima, Everyone’s Idol Goro and Goromi in that order. Thankfully, your Kiryu is completely maxed here, you’ll do plenty of damage and you should have little trouble finishing the challenge. If you want to beat the challenge real quick, use the Tiger Drop in the Dragon style like I do in this video. You can pull it off by holding R1 to lock onto Majima, and then pressing triangle right before an attack of his lands on you. Goromi might initiate a QTE sequence, so keep an eye out for that as well.
General tips for Ultimate Battle:
- Your Kiryu is maxed out in all these challenges, meaning go guns blazing with all the abilities you know.
- Time isn’t an issue with these challenges, so don’t worry about getting hit a lot or experimenting anything of the sort.
- Tiger Drop can be useful here if you just want to get it over with quickly. You do it in Dragon style by holding R1, locking onto an enemy and then pressing triangle right before an attack lands on you.
- Dragon style does a LOT of damage with or without heat actions, so you might wanna use it more often.
- Doing a full rush combo with a charged final kick in Rush style and then quickly switching to the boss’s finisher’s color style to do the Kiwami heat action will result in a HUGE load of damage to them.
