Like a Dragon Ishin: How to use Special weapons (spears, cannons)? Like a Dragon Ishin guide, tips

This guide page explains how to use Special weapons (spears, cannons and others) in Like a Dragon Ishin and how to respond to the No Equipped Skills message - a block on placing a special weapon in the active slot.

Last update: 01 March 2023

In Like a Dragon: Ishin, you may experience a problem with placing Special category weapons in an active slot. On this page of our guide, we show what to do when the No Equipped Skills message appears, and how to fix it in order to be able to use spears, cannons, or other Special weapons.

• Special tab in equipment menu
• Learning to use Special weapons
• Using weapons from the Special slot

Special tab in equipment menu

In the equipment menu, one of the categories of Equipped Weapons is Special . The category may seem unclear at first, as when you try to use some kind of a Special weapon and attempt to place it in the active slot, you may receive a No Equipped Skills message.

Below we explain the problem and show how to fix it so you're able to use Special weapons during combat.

Learning to use Special weapons

To be able to use Special weapons, you need to first unlock related skills in the skill tree. You can find them in different slots of the combat trees.

For instance:

1) For Spears, you need to buy Knowledge of the Spear from the Wild Dancer tree.

2) For Cannons, you need to buy Knowledge of the Cannons from the Gunman tree.

When it comes to Knowledge of the Cannons, it is rewarded for completing the first Cannon Coaching training in Mukurogai. Location on the map: Training - Cannon Coaching

After acquiring related skills, you will be able to equip the associated weapons in the Special slot. An example is shown in the screenshot above - learning Knowledge of the Cannons has made using Cannons possible.

Using weapons from the Special slot

In order to select a Special weapon during combat, you need to:

1. switch to the Brawler style (d-pad down);
2. press the button for Brawler style again - Ryoma will equip the weapon from the inventory.

According to our knowledge, using Special weapons blocks XP gain for various fighting styles. So using Special weapons blocks you from getting more points in the given style. We recommend using Special weapons only in critical situations e.g. when you want to stop a group of enemies hurting you with a cannon.