Stats, Upgrades, and Heat Actions

Learn how to upgrade Kiryu's stats, unlock powerful Battle Skills, and master devastating Heat Actions in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life with our comprehensive guide.

In Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, character progression is handled through five distinct types of experience points: Red (Strength), Blue (Agility), Yellow (Spirit), Green (Technique), and Purple (Charm). These can be earned through various activities including combat, eating, playing minigames, earning Awards, and completing Substories. Experience is used to directly improve base stats or learn new skills.

Base Stats

Your five base stats—Health, Attack, Defense, Evasion, and Heat Gauge—start at 100 and can be increased by spending experience points. Each increase typically raises a stat by 2, with the experience cost increasing linearly. The formula for the required experience is (x*y/2)+x, where 'x' is the base requirement and 'y' is the number of increases already applied. For example, increasing Health requires Red and Yellow XP, with specific ratios for each point gained.

Upon reaching 200 in all stats, a "Limit Break" is achieved, allowing further increases up to a maximum of 300. Post-Limit Break increases also require an additional 30 Purple XP per increment and do not increase in cost.

Battle Skills

Battle Skills offer significant combat advantages and are learned by spending experience points. These skills function similarly to the "Soul" and "Tech" routes in previous Yakuza games.

Name	Pre-requisite	Effect	Red	Blue	Yellow	Green	Purple
Boost Combo Speed Lv. 1		Increases attack speed slightly.	60	50		60	50
Boost Combo Speed Lv. 2	Prior	Further increases attack speed.	300	250		300	250
Boost Combo Speed Ultimate	Prior	Further increases attack speed.	900	750		900	750
Dash Attack		Press Heavy Attack while sprinting.		30		60	30
Quick Recovery		Press Evade while being knocked down to quickly recover.	40	60	60	40	50
Rising Tornado	Prior	Press Heavy Attack while knocked down to strike upon getting up	20	30	10	90	60
Relentless Blows	Attack over 150	Recover quickly after an enemy blocks your attack.		25		60	25
Re-Guard		Can guard again more quickly after guard is broken.		120		120	60
Parry		Press Guard right before an attack lands to parry it.		80		80	80
Parry Mastery	Prior	Your window for parrying increases.		400		400	400
Evasion Strike		Press Heavy Attack after quickstepping.	30	45		120	20
Double Quickstep	Evasion over 110	Quickstep twice in succession.		320		120	60
Triple Quickstep	Prior and Evasion over 200	Quickstep thrice in succession.		960		360	180
Quickstep Cancel	Evasion over 160	Quicksteps can cancel certain actions.		300		520
Lunge		Quickstep while running to leap big.		15		10
Leaping Fist	Prior	Press Heavy Attack while lunging.	50	60		50
Enhanced Counter		Enemies take more damage while attacking.	120	300		440
Tiger Drop	Attack over 180	Hold R1 and press Heavy Attack as an enemy attacks.	480	450	20	490	240
Tiger Drop Mastery	Prior and Attack over 200	Tiger Drop becomes easier to perform.	960	900	40	980	480
Guard Crush Mastery		Press Heavy Attack before your attack connects to break enemy guards.	300	300	100	450	100
Escape Counter		Press any attack button while grabbed around the waist.	20	40	40	20	10
Finishing Hold		Press Grab after landing a Finishing Blow.	70	40		30	45
Stun Resistance	Defense over 120	Mash Evade to recover from a stun quicker.			240		40
Charge Attack		Hold down Heavy Attack during a Rush Combo.	80
Collateral Damage		Damage is increased for additional enemies hit during an attack.	120				100

Heat Actions

Unlike previous titles, Yakuza 6 does not track individual Heat Actions in a dedicated menu. This section lists the available Heat Actions:

Name	Pre-requisite	Effect	Red	Blue	Yellow	Green	Purple
Boost Heat Actions Lv. 1		Heat attacks cause more damage.	60		30		10
Boost Heat Actions Lv. 2	Prior	Heat attacks cause more damage.	300		150		50
Boost Heat Actions Max	Prior	Heat attacks cause more damage.	900		450		150
Heat Rush	Heat Gauge over 110	In Extreme Heat, your Rush Combo is 8 hits.			30	40	20
Boost Heat Orbs Lv. 1	Heat Gauge over 120	Adds a fourth Heat Orb.