Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth – 12 tips for Dondoko Island glory

Here's how to ensure Dondoko Island is a thriving paradise that satisfies your guests, and makes you cash.
like a dragon infinite wealth dondoko island guide tips

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth houses an entire island management simulator within its main story – and it’s well worth investing the time into this strange mini-game once you unlock it. Not only does it provide a great break from the more serious plot of the main story, it also allows you to earn a solid income, which can then aid your progress in the narrative.

It’s only a requirement to complete the first chapter of Dondoko Island’s growth to advance through Infinite Wealth, but those who choose to stay on the island will find plenty to keep themselves occupied. It’s a moreish little paradise, and one with plenty of unique quirks to overcome.

To make the most of your time on the island and come away with a modicum of success, here are 12 tips to ensure your time on Dondoko Island is productive.

Read: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth – How to unlock Dondoko Island



1. Start by crafting large buildings, for profit later

When you start your journey in Dondoko Island, you’ll be given plenty of material to craft with. While it’s tempting to hoard this, as you can’t actually make much profit while your island is zero-stars, you should kick off your island journey by crafting a range of buildings and placing them on your island.

This will increase your island score and make guests happy when they’re able to visit. As an added bonus, building a lot of structures at once will increase your crafting abilities, allowing you to unlock new items and structures.


2. Decorate Kasuga’s house ASAP

The second thing you should do in the early stages of your time on Dondoko Island is craft decorations for Kasuga’s home. While these are cosmetic, they actually allow him to gain more health on the island – which is essential when Washbuckler invaders arrive to disrupt the peace.

dondoko island decorate score health
Screenshot: GamesHub

The better decorated Kasuga’s home is, the more health he’ll have to ward off these invaders. Occasionally, they’ll arrive in lumps of 7-10 enemies, so it’s best to have your health score as high as possible to deal with any potential attacks.


3. Defeat Washbucklers as they appear

A related tip is that you should defeat any and all Washbuckler enemies as soon as they appear on your map. While it’s tempting to leave them, they can actually cause chaos and make your guests unhappy, lowering your potential profit on their stay. It’s best to kick off the day with a good Washbuckler beat-down to ensure your island remains popular.

When you get an alert that a Washbuckler is attacking a structure on your island, you should consider that a more immediate threat. Typically, Washbucklers will target housing structures, which are expensive to buy and difficult to craft, so if you ever get a specific Washbuckler alert, make haste to protect your island.


4. Maximise your Dokobucks by ticking off your checklist

Each day on Dondoko Island, you’ll have a specific, randomised checklist full of tasks to complete. Tackle these in any order, but make sure you get them done each day. This will allow you to maximise your Dokobucks, and work towards unlocking higher-tiered goals with great Dokobucks rewards.


5. Pursue specific Dondoko Island goals

In addition to ticking off your checklist, you should also spend your time in Dondoko Island pursuing its array of crafting and collection-based challenges. In the Suggestion Box menu, you’ll find an array of tasks – destroy X amount of trash, collect X amount of resources – and completing these tiered goals will give you Dokobucks as a reward. Keep collecting, and your reward will keep mounting, so stick with these goals and you’ll eventually have enough Dokobucks to re-invest in your island.


6. Reduce the cost of island upgrades by destroying trash

like a dragon dondoko island how to unlock
Image: RGG Studio

To unlock each area in Dondoko Island, you’ll need to spend cash on a special cleanup – but you can reduce the amount of cash needed in each area by taking your time, and spending each day clearing up trash piles. Areas will typically start with an F rating, but you can improve them by clearing the trash – and with each level, you’ll get Dokobucks knocked off the price of an upgrade.

You should aim for each area to be in the A or B rating category before you invest in a special cleanup, to ensure you’re saving your money for more important uses, like upgrading your tools or establishing new houses.


7. Upgrade your tools as early as possible

As mentioned, upgrading your tools is important. You should focus on upgrading your bat first, as this will help fend off enemy invaders, but upgrading your bug net and harpoon are also essential, as these will allow you to gather more creatures, and therefore earn more island popularity.

Each upgrade, overseen by Kenzo, will require more Dokobucks (50,000 at first, then increasingly more) so it’s best to focus your cash on these upgrades as soon as possible. Don’t waste your time purchasing new buildings or accessories if you don’t have the means to defend them. Upgrade the bat first, then everything else second.


8. Raise island popularity by catching the same bugs, repeatedly

To earn certain island upgrades, you’ll need to increase the Popularity score of your island. This can be done in many ways, but the easiest is to catch bugs and fish – and to catch the same bugs and fish repeatedly. When you catch a new bug or fish, you’ll usually get a 20+ Popularity rise. When you catch five or 10 of the same bugs or fish, you’ll get an 80+ Popularity rise, and so on.

While there’s no real way to tell which type of bug you’re catching, as many share the same look on-screen, just keep catching away, and eventually you’ll hit your Popularity goals. You can also earn more popularity by completing other island tasks, including crafting souvenirs.


9. Choose your decorations wisely to determine island tone

like a dragon infinite wealth dondoko island tips
Screenshot: RGG Studio / GamesHub

When you establish new buildings on Dondoko Island, you’ll get a vibe rating from the game, with multiple possible outcomes including Sleazy, Pop, or Rustic. This is based on the type of buildings and decorations you put on your island.

Some guests will request a particular island tone to be happier. You should take the time to meet their requests, and add in any item types they’d like. It’ll make them more satisfied, and give you more cash once they depart the island.

To figure out which tone your items and buildings will achieve, you can check your inventory or the crafting menu to see how they’re categorised.


10. Give guests crafted souvenirs to make them happier

As you advance your island’s star rating, you’ll unlock the ability to craft custom souvenirs for your guests. We recommend crafting as many as possible, and then giving your guests daily gifts. This will make them much happier, much faster, and will also enable you to gain more profit on their departure.


11. Consistently assign Sujimon at Dondoko Farm

like a dragon infinite wealth resource maximising
Screenshot: RGG Studio / GamesHub

After you gain your second island star, you’ll unlock access to Dondoko Farm, a secondary area where you can collect a bunch of resources at once (there’s whole piles of mushrooms, bugs, and other resources which can be farmed for Popularity), and also create automated chains of resource-gathering.

As long as you have Sujimon spare (you can obtain these by fighting in the main game world, or by using Sujimon gacha machines to collect new pals), you can assign them to various plots on Dondoko Farm, each of which provides a unique resource – wood, rock, technologies, Dokobucks, and EXP.

Make sure you always have Sujimon assigned to a station on Dondoko Island, and preferably have them set for 60 minutes of gathering. While this selection will take longer than others – you can have them farm in multiple different intervals – this time investment will yield greater rewards. If you assign the right Sujimon to resource gathering, you may also gain much greater reward than you expected.


12. Take your time before returning to Hawaii

You’ll land on Dondoko Island in the middle of the Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth story – but while it’s tempting to get through its many quests and get back to the main story ASAP, we recommend taking your time and investing in the island. Not only is it a great break from the main story, it also allows you to build up your wealth reserves, which will help you in the later stages of the game.


Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is out now for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

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Leah J. Williams is a gaming and entertainment journalist who's spent years writing about the games industry, her love for The Sims 2 on Nintendo DS and every piece of weird history she knows. You can find her tweeting @legenette most days.