While the idea of a cabaret hostess club isn’t universal, it’s a common business in Japan and the Yakuza game series. As the games have progressed, hostess clubs grew to be a mechanic to the point wherein Yakuza 0, you get to run your own one.
RELATED: Yakuza 0: Guide To The Best Pocket Circuit Builds For Each Race
As Goro Majima, it’s up to you to manage Club Sunshine and the staff within to become the most popular cabaret in the Sotenbori area. However, the key to victory is the hostesses and their capabilities. This is one of the largest storylines in the game and as such, there’s a lot you’ll need to know about the cabaret business.
Where To Find Hostesses
In order to make sure you can cover as many guests as possible, you’ll need to have as many Hostesses on your roster as possible. There are several things you can do to recruit them.
- Winning Rival Battles: The main aspect of running the Cabaret Club is to defeat rival clubs in business battles. Once you accumulate enough fans in a rival’s area, they’ll send you a challenge request. Then you and the manager go head to head and the one who makes the most profits wins. Once defeated, the top hostess of the rival will join your roster.
- Completing Substories: As expected with open-world games, Yakuza 0 has its fair share of side quests to complete with cabaret manager Goro Majima having a lot to do. Though they’re optional, it’s worth it to follow many of these missions to the end for networking. Many of these missions will result in the women involved appearing at the cabaret club and offering to join as hostesses as thanks.
- Exchanging CP: There are a lot of things you can do in Yakuza 0 and by doing them you can earn CP. These are points that you can spend at designated shrines for boosts to different parts of gameplay including business. Majima can spend them to get different interiors for the club and to hire hostesses who otherwise could not be found.
Hostess Rankings
There are over 30 different hostesses you can recruit and they all fall into one of four rankings.
- Platinum: This is the highest rank a hostess can be and they’re defined by having very high stats and reputation. They’re also the only hostesses who can be given makeovers to change their appearance and receive special training to boost their stats. You can recruit them by defeating rivals.
- Gold: The second highest ranking, these hostesses have a good mix of stats but usually dominate one in particular. You can recruit them by completing substories and exchanging CP.
- Silver: The third-ranking, these hostesses are pretty balanced with high points and low points. You can recruit them by exchanging CP.
- Bronze: The fourth-ranking, these hostesses tend to be on the low side in stats but can be very reliable when starting out. You can recruit them by exchanging CP.
Hostess Stats
Each of the hostesses has a set of different stats that affects how different guests respond to them. They’re broken up into two categories: Appearance and Performance.
- Appearance: This category includes the stats Sexy, Beauty, Cute, and Funny. Hostesses have a score in each of either a Double Circle (very good), Circle (good), Triangle (average), and X (poor). Guests will show their preferences to the kind of hostess they’d like at their table. You can alter these scores for Platinum hostesses through makeovers.
- Performance: This category includes the stats HP, Talk, Party, Love, and Skill. Each of these determines a hostess’s proficiency in something guests are looking for when they visit. However, HP determines how long a girl can entertain at peak performance and will drop over time. If HP drops to 0, the hostess will under-perform which will upset guests.
Hostess Signals
While seated at tables, hostesses will frequently ask for your help and you’ll need to be able to read their signals correctly in order to ensure things go smoothly.
- Guest Glass: The hostess will hold up her index finger.
- Ladies’ Glass: The hostess will hold up pinched fingers.
- Menu: The hostess will hold her hands together and fold them out as if opening a book.
- Towel: The hostess will hold up both hands and make a wringing motion.
- Swap Ashtray: The hostess will lower her hands and make a ring shape.
Recovery
In order to keep the hostesses happy and healthy, you need to make sure that their HP doesn’t drop to zero. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to help out.
- Take Them Off The Roster: One of the fastest ways a hostess recover is simply taking them off Casting Call for a night.
- Read Signals Correctly: When hostesses give a signal, respond correctly in order to boost sales and help them recover HP.
- Giving Gifts And Praising: When it’s time to bring the check, sometimes you’ll have the option to either Give Girl A Gift or Praise Girl. Both will recover HP but the former more than the latter.