The Disco Elysium is an unusual detective RPG with reduced combat. It is dialogue-heavy, and you can approach the game in different ways in every play. In this guide, we will give you a walkthrough of the Final Cut Missions from a beginner’s perspective. We unveil the ideologies, thought cabinets, endings, character development, and system requirements featured in this unusual production. The details we provide in this Disco Elysium guide will teach you most of the game mechanics, enabling you to complete the main quest and side quests and develop your character while earning achievements.
Disco Elysium Walkthrough
Disco Elysium is an open game in terms of event orders. The player’s action is subject to their skills and attributes, their approach to dialogue issues, and their luck with checks. Thus, this walkthrough is just one of the many ways to get through the game and is partly dependent on the order of events. This walkthrough comprises broad objectives required to investigate the murder.
Disco Elysium features two general parts, finding out the events during the night of the murder and pursuing the suspect, then closing the case. Once the player starts pursuing the suspect, they will reach points of no return severally in the story. Thus, the major points of the investigation can be completed in any order; however, pursuing the suspect requires a specific order.
The quests in this game do not have a time limit. Thus, if a player does not finish all the steps toward a quest in a single game, their progress will not be affected if they wait for the remaining subsequent days to complete.
To avoid spoilers, the walkthrough will not capture specific conversational topics. Thus, it is ideal to speak to everyone and pursue dialogue branches presented to you. Also, due to the lack of time limits, it is best to explore the area and see where the side quests and different leads are taking you. Timing, topics pursued, and skill checks may also affect the conversations.
When starting a new game, you can choose between three archetypes of your character and create your own. These archetypes include the Thinker, Sensitive and Physical. After starting the game, press Escape, then save when your character wakes up in the hotel room. Low endurance or volition skills are a disadvantage as you might end up dying before leaving the room.
You should note the colored circles in the room called Orbs. When you click them, they provide you with the information they are sitting on. Clicking on these Orbs can also initiate conversations with the voices above the head of your character. When ready, exit the room and converse with Klaasje, then go downstairs, where you can address everyone in the lobby.
At the far end of the lobby is a man in an orange jacket called Kim Kitsurangi; he will be your partner throughout the game. After the initial introductions, you can speak to him to learn more about the world and the case. You can then exit the hotel and start your investigation. However, before diving deep into the investigations, you should get your bearings first. You will need to note two special buildings. The first one is a convenience store called Frittte, which is on the northeast side of the hotel. From this building, you can purchase medicines to recover your morale, health, and cigarettes and alcohol to enhance your skills. You can also sell empty bottles you collect at Frittte for a little money. The second building is the Bookstore on the west of the hotel. Buying a map and a book from this store as early as you can is advisable to enable you to navigate throughout the game.
Once ready, you will see the crime scene in the hotel’s backyard. You can interview the two kids while there then examine the body hanging from the tree. You may also notice additional cues depending on your skill checks.
After your investigation above, Kim will suggest an autopsy on the body hanging on the tree, hence the need to get it down. To accomplish this, you may need to convince Measurehead to help, or your character may pass a Hand/Eye coordination check for borrowing Kim’s gun and attempting to shoot the body down.
You can then talk to Evert Claire, Joyce Messier, the smoking witnesses, Titus Hardie, and Klaasje to understand the different milestones of the plot. From here, you will proceed to the fishing village then find your badge, which will be missing from the start of the game. You will also need to equip yourself with a gun and other armories that you may acquire.
At this point, you can take some drugs or alcohol to boost your Motoric skills. After that, you will reconstruct the murder scene, find the suspect, confront the mercenaries outside the hotel, and finish any pending side quests. These side quests include determining where the shots came from, where the rest of the armories are, and putting the clothes in the trash. From here, you can proceed to the island.
Beginner Tips
If you are a beginner and trying to get conversant with Disco Elysium, the following Disco Elysium tips are ideal to enable you to master the game faster:
- Controls: The controls for Disco Elysium include C for the Character Sheet, M for the Map, T for the Thought Cabinet, P/K for Tasks or Journal, and I for the Inventory.
- Interactive Items: Just like on other RPGs, you can highlight interactive items when playing Disco Elysium. To do this, you can either press the Tab button on your keyboard or right-click your mouse. You should do this right from the beginning as you will find clothes in the first room.
- Save your Game as Often as Possible: Saving your game is possible and does not have limits, hence the need to take advantage. You should save your game before an investigation or talking with an NPC, as there is an opportunity of getting unique behavioral options or choices. You should also save your game before passing a specific skills check, as you will not repeat it should you fail.
- Start on Normal Difficulty: When questioning people, start with the light questions, and where people give information, you can use it later in the harder questions. Therefore, the normal difficulty is suitable for a new person wanting to learn the basics of playing this game.
- Character Creation: Before you start playing the game, you will choose a character who you will use for the entire game unless you restart it.
- Skill Checks: In this game, you will encounter the passive and active types of skill checks. Passive checks occur in the background and are complete once a character makes a successful skill check. Active skill checks are those that you choose during dialogues.
- White Checks: As a survival trick, you should not use your skill points immediately. Rather, save them for the white checks. Your process is to ensure the checks are white, and if it is, you should attempt. If you try successfully, you are good to go, but, if you fail, then you will use a skill point to reattempt with a higher chance of success.
- Generally, your focus should be on investing your skill points into skills you are decently rated in. With your skill points, you can unlock more slots in your Thought Cabinet. To do this, click on the empty slots above the three initial slots.
- Experience points: When you talk to encountered NPCs or complete quests, you will earn experience points.
- The Passage of Time: In Disco Elysium, time runs when you talk to NPCs, read, or sit on a bench and then stops when you start to explore. Therefore, you should not worry much about the time you go to sleep.
- Yellow Plastic Bag: The yellow bag is useful, especially at the beginning of the game, as it helps you earn extra money. Thus, you can pick the yellow bag next to a man leaning against the railing when leaving the hotel. Equipping this bag enables you to pick up bottles and plastic waste from certain containers or from the ground. You can then sell this waste to the Frittte kiosk.
- Run to Save Time: Generally, the main character is sluggish, but you can make them run by pressing the LMB on the destination. Holding down the LMB after double-clicking enables you to control your character and run across the map without the need to click often.
- Main Character’s Death: While playing Disco Elysium, you should note that the main character is prone to die just like the rest; they can die anytime, including in the first few minutes of the game. Thus, before attempting a dangerous activity, you should have this in mind. Equally, the main character can also lose morale and health points during conversations. To heal and recover your morale, click the morale icon or HP as they are draining to select an item from your inventory for recovery and prevent it from draining further.
- Light Up Dark Rooms: For your character to explore dark rooms, you will need to light them using flashlights.
Finally, with the above walkthrough and tips, playing Disco Elysium should be easier the next time you try.
