Chicken Racing is a gambling mini-game in Like a Dragon: Ishin. It is a competition held in the Rakugai area that lets players bet on the fastest racer for a chance to win tokens. The tokens can later be exchanged for prizes at a Gambling Den.
To participate in Chicken Racing, players must buy a ticket, place money on one or multiple chickens, and start the race. The maximum token they can bet on each race is 300. But there’s no cap on how many simultaneous bets they can have.
Despite its straightforward description, Chicken Racing in Like a Dragon Ishin is quite complicated. It comes with an extensive betting system that works based on the racer’s stats (health, popularity, division, etc.) And is nothing like basic betting games in the Yakuza franchise. It takes a lot to master its odds. And here’s the complete Chicken Racing guide to help with that.
Chicken Racing Tickets Explained
In Like a Dragon: Ishin, players should buy entry tickets to bet on chickens. There are three types of tickets that each allow for a different type of gambling: Single (for one-racer bets), Quinella (for two-racer bets), and Exacta (for three- to five-racer bets).
- Single Win ticket lets bettors bet on one chicken, and it has to be the winning one.
- Quinella ticket allows betting on two chickens: the winner and the runner-up.
- Exacta is a multipurpose ticket for betting on three or more chickens. But the prediction should be in the right order.
Gamblers who want to place multiple bets in different divisions should visit the Dividend List, where they can see all available stakes. There’s also an option for revising all running bets called “Check Tickets,” which shows a summary of current plays.
Chicken Racing Stats Explained
Chickens—or, to be more accurate, racers—have four stats: Condition, Prediction, Payout, and Past Results. Each of these numbers and symbols tips the beginner players off about the winning odds, with the Condition and Past Results being the most important.
Condition
Illustrated with colored arrows, "Cond." Or Condition implies a chicken’s physical strength. The rising arrows show good health; the downward arrows indicate fatigue.
Past Results
Shown with three digits, Past Results display the racer’s last three ranks, with the number on the left being the most recent. For example, 235 means the chicken was the runner-up in its last match, and it came in third and fifth places in games before that.
Prediction
In a Chicken Race, Prediction is a summary of how other bettors view a particular racer. A double circle stands for strong support, a single circle for mild popularity, a triangle for an outside winning chance, and an X for unpopularity. The weakest chicken, however, gets no symbols at all.
Payout
The numbers in the Payout sections show the bet’s ratio. Basically, the winning player’s money will be multiplied by this number, and the higher it gets, the more Tokens they earn.
How to Bet on the Winning Chicken
To win every Chicken Race, bet on the racer whose Condition is red, has at least one double-circle in Prediction, and has won at least two of its past three races. But avoid putting money on chickens that are racing in a new division.
In the Race Schedule menu, press Triangle (Y on Xbox) on a racer to see its match history. If the chicken seems to be better at, say, Long-Distance runs, don’t gamble on it in Short or Medium divisions—because it might be too slow for them.
To exploit the Chicken Racing game, save scum. In other words, save the game outside the casino, bet all your money on multiple stakes, and in case of failure, load the game to get back all the money. Repeat the save-scum process until making a fortune.
What to Do with the Chicken Racing Tokens
The prize for winning Chicken Races is Tokens. To make the most of the chips, head to a Gambling Den and exchange them for weapons or tradable plates. But the best idea is to reinvest the tokens in the mini-game for extra profit.
Like a Dragon: Ishin! Is available now for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.