general information

hammer hook (square+square+square+triangle+triangle) is really good
gut punch (square+square+triangle) enemies near walls to combo them
on Easy you can gut punch enemies easily as they are standing up for an "infinite" combo
R1+X to skip text, but mash X instead for voiced phone calls (has an "r3 autoplay" icon) & Date's ch6 explanation thing
Always hold up/down on the dpad (whichever option you want) before a choice appears to make it become interactable faster.
these notes sometimes skip obvious/simple things like where to walk, watch a run
"0.5 bats" means one flurry (the circle button attack). Each one takes 10 uses so you can do two flurries per bat

ch1

Talk to a gravestone then Sayama to leave
Tutorial 1: Pole heat action is faster than wall
Talk to Haruka in Doc Emoto's clinic to leave instead of walking across the room
Tutorial 2: Get everyone in the corner and swing bikes at the end, bounce them off the walls
Majima 1: alternate grabbing him to make him laugh (free full combo) and gut punch bounding combos. Half way through the fight only use back kicks (face away from him + square square + turn around + triangle) and bounding combos

ch2

Bottom option twice to Izumi at the beach
Enter Ebisu pawn, sell 2x Staminan X and buy 5x Baseball Bat
Walk to the plaza, trigger can be hit from the taxi stand across the street
Rikiya: grab and drag to corner with the red signs, do a full combo to kick the signs then gut punch bounding

ch3

Bullying filler: Shiro (main room), Taichi (beach), Shiro, Taichi (front yard), Shiro, Go to golf, return to orphanage
MY GOLF SETUPS: Modify these as necessary based on the wind direction
- Hole 1: max power, 3 clicks down on the dpad
- Hole 2: about half way up the top segment of the power bar
- Hole 3: a bit under as close to the top of the power bar as you can be without actually hitting the top (maybe 2/3 - 3/4 through the top seg)
Stolen money filler: main room, talk to all the kids, dining room, main room, beach, dining room
Walk to beach, back to orphanage, warp downtown
Taxi to HQ, walk to Hatsumachi
Street fight: try to hit enemies into the sign in front of the M Store
MENU before setpiece: Buy two tech level ups (quick recovery and combo speed boost), equip 3 baseball bats
Ignore all enemies after the first room, do not pick up any staminans
Room before Tamashiro: use 0.5 bats to try to group the enemies
Tamashiro 1: Use the remaining 2.5 bats. The corner left of the desk is a safe place to do the fight

ch4

Dog filler: Go downtown, get locker key #26 (Blackjack Amulet) next to Tamashiro's office, Dog is at the hatsumachi dead end
first option pick "bone", enter M-store and ask the clerk. leave and re-enter, talk to clerk again. Get locker key #50 (Expulsion S-12) in the doorway
second option pick "bone", enter & exit mahjong camp, return to orphanage
Clothes filler: Get locker key #07 (Bat) on the fence outside the orphanage. Walk to the clothes store, get locker key #47 (Shadow Blade) on the coffee sign. Walk back to orphanage, try to leave, go downtown, DO NOT taxi to the plaza for the last cutscene. Walk there.
baseball filler: intentionally swing early/late and aim at the ground to get ground balls / line drives (which have skippable cutscenes, pop flys do not)
bottom option to Haruka, walk to indoor market, return to bottom option at station, revelation (TRIANGLE-SQUARE-X, top option)
get locker key #45 (Revolver) on top of the taxi stand, open all lockers (Expulsion S-12, Revolver, Bat, Shadow Blade, Blackjack Amulet), taxi to station & go to kamurocho. You should have 290 yen
MENU before Hasebe: get two tech level ups (double combo finisher), equip Expulsion-Revolver-Bat
Hasebe: Hammer hook the minions, then use all 15 revolver shots on Hasebe. Try to avoid Hasebe when fighting the minions

ch5

get locker key #41 (Broken M1985 Shotgun) from the southernmost convenience store
MENU before Richardson: get one heat level (Essence of Finishing), equip a Bat over the empty Revolver
Richardson 1: Use 1.5 bats on Richardson + two Expulsion shots. If your bat swings happen to hit the minions too that's even better
Mack chase
Unlock the weapon van, sell the four broken bats + the shadow blade + the extendable staff (Kamiyama gave you this in ch3). You should have 296,420 yen
get locker key #23 (Blackjack Amulet) from Bantam
open the lockers (M1985, Blackjack Amulet) before going into the tower to end the chapter

ch6

push Date when he's walking slow. PC can hold L1 to make walking more easy here
Mash through all Date's villain biographies, don't hold R1+X
last option for both Rikiya phone calls, enter the m-store
0.5 bat in the park, aim for the guy with the pinstripe suit right in front of you (you should already have this equipped from earlier)
MENU before the hotel setpiece: equip the M1985 and the final bat. You should have both shotguns and one bat equipped
hotel rooms: floor6 turn right far door on the right, floor4 far door straight ahead, floor7 turn right close door
use 0.5 bat to kill most of the initial hallway enemies. Ignore future hallway enemies and spray furniture blockers with the fire extinguishers
Kanda: use the final 0.5 bat on him, then keep him down with the shotguns and essence of finishing. When one shotgun runs out of ammo, swap to the other shotgun BEFORE using essence of finishing or the timing will break.
Rikiya: bottom option to split the bill, bottom option to go separate ways
reload all three guns at Kamiyama, taxi to serena, talk to Date (2nd option)

ch7

taxi to purgatory
push majima down the hallway
Majima 2: do one combo to him at the start for a bit of damage, then use all four Expulsion shots + essence of finishing, then use one M1985 shot + essence of finishing. If that wasn't enough damage to kill, you can use another M1985 shot to finish but you needed to do enough damage at the start

ch8

put your entire inventory in the item box except the Revolver, M1985, and the two blackjack amulets. Make sure your Expulsion goes in the item box, you need it later
MENU before setpiece: equip the revolver. You should have the full Revolver and 2 M1985 shots
Purple Shirt Guy 1: Juggle in both pistols from the enemies before this fight (throw one into the arena, carry the other)
If you still have four bullets left over after PSG1 you can snipe the next furniture blocker to skip walking to him
Purple Shirt Guy 2: Bring 2 pistols again like above
Red Shirt Guy: juggle 2 pistols in again like above, then one M1985 shot + essence of finishing, then one combo should kill. Skip this M1985 shot if you used an extra on Majima 2.
Lau: Use the last M1985 shot, essence of finishing, 15 Revolver shots the rest of the way

ch9

buy 1,000 chips, play high limit blackjack until 30,000 chips (use the amulets, should be 9 bets. this can fail)
discard your entire inventory (should be just the revolver and anything you picked up in ch8), redeem chips for 20 platinum plates
taxi to the south, sell the plates then go to Serena to pick up Date
Before taking the car to the plot dump, go to the weapon van and buy 13 revolvers and sell the Expulsion you put in the item box

ch10

taxi back to okinawa (this costs 30k yen, you should have ~20k left over after this)
wrestling filler: go to beach, back to orphanage, back to beach, main room, downtown until rikiya calls (walk a bit), back to beach
haruka filler: taxi to HQ, cross the street, hatsumachi corner, bridge by the station, back to orphanage, back to hatsumachi corner, 2nd option until the original guys come back ("wait and see")
ayako filler: main room, go downtown, taxi to coin lockers, chase ayako, return to orphanage
Kazama: shoot him (3+15 shots)

ch11

return to orphanage, go downtown, taxi to bull ring
Tamashiro 2: shoot him and his minions

ch12

Follow this gun route for optimal shooting
On the third set of 3 guns equipped, use one gun down to 14 and one gun down to 4 (dont bother w/ shoddy pistol)
Use the 4 on the last four enemies of the lobby minions then reload that to 15 & finish. (Should go down to 10)
Use the 14 on the 2 furniture blockers and the hakuho captain (its now 0)
Use 4 from the untouched gun in the elevator (its now 11)
Use the 11 on Richardson 2 (it's now 0)
Use the 10 on the CIA agents (it's now 0)
RELOAD your last three guns before fighting richardson 3
Use 15 down to 3 on Richardson 3 (also both shoddy pistols and throw them at him)
Use the rest of 3 and another 8 (down to 7) in the elevator
Use the 7 and the last 15 on Mine