In truth, the game is not very difficult to get through, and its mechanisms -- while very sophisticated in terms of their technical implementation -- are relatively straightforward. It's not a game that really NEEDS a beginner guide, in other words, and in fact, I would say the experience is best enjoyed by just going into it completely blind and learning everything as you go, since that helps you to identify with the main character who is equally clueless about literally everything at the start of the game. But all the same, there are some things that I think might be helpful to know if you're not sure about what to expect or if you're struggling with everything early on, which I wanted to highlight just as friendly pieces of advice. Now as usual whenever I make these sorts of guides, I don't want to spoil things by telling you exactly what to do in terms of "pick these skills, go here and get this special item early, watch out for this NPC, etc," because I want to leave that room for you to discover things on your own as part of the journey, but here are some basic, spoiler-free tips that may help you get a better feel for the game and avoid certain pitfalls.
1. Understand how the attributes and skills work
At the start of the game you'll have to pick a starting character sheet, be that choosing from one of the three pre-made ones or building your own. For a first playthrough, it can be a little daunting trying to make your own since the skills are very different from what you're probably used to in other RPGs, so it might be hard to get a sense of what to actually expect with certain configurations. And while the game does provide ample descriptions for things it can still be a lot of information to take in up front. So if you feel confused or overwhelmed trying to read through all of that, it's not a bad idea to just pick one of the pre-made builds and roll with it so you can skip right to seeing how things actually work in practice. Still, you should understand that these starting configurations are extremely important for shaping your character, since they will determine how you literally perceive the world and what options even exist for you to choose from when it comes to dialogue and other active choices.
Watch this same guide in video format!
The game constantly runs passive checks against your skills, which present themselves as essentially voices in your head that chime in to shed new light on things. If a skill matches or exceeds the minimum requirement for a given check, then you'll get extra information to help inform your understanding of the situation, often with extra dialogue prompts for how you react to things or choose to resolve it. If a skill doesn't meet the minimum requirement, then those extra prompts just won't appear whatsoever and you'll never know that they were even a possibility. A character with high perception, for example, might notice something important that another character with low perception would completely miss. There are additionally active checks for critical actions where you roll two six-sided dice to add to your skill level, with higher skills having a higher chance to succeed and thus allowing for alternate solutions to problems. In that way, two character builds that focus on different skills will literally interpret and react to the world differently, so it's important to pick a character sheet or starting configuration that matches the way you want to role-play your character.
From the three pre-made character sheets, this means that the "Thinker" will be like a Sherlock Holmes archetype, using logical reasoning to deduce what happened based on circumstantial evidence, while struggling to relate to other people on an emotional, psychological level; the "Sensitive" will be sort of like Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks, relying on dreams and extra-sensory feelings to gain insights beyond the physical evidence but while sometimes struggling to comprehend basic facts of reality; and the "Physical" will be like Bruce Wayne as Batman, relying on brute force to get into locked places or to get people to cooperate at the expense of other, more delicate solutions. All are completely valid playstyles that will offer a unique perspective on the overall story, and serve as decent starting points for you to jump right into playing without having to fret about setting up a supposedly "optimal" character build or whatever.
As you play, you will gain experience towards level-ups which will grant skill points that you can spend increasing your skills, thereby making them more likely to appear during passive checks and also making active checks more likely to succeed. So as you see how different skills actually work in practice, you can start to further enhance the things you want to focus on. Bear in mind, however, that your attributes determine the starting value and maximum learning potential for each skill, so low attribute scores will have a permanent, adverse effect on your character's abilities. Having a Motorics of 1, for example, will forever limit your ability to perform more agile or otherwise dexterous tasks like sneaking, jumping, or dancing, since you'll start the game with only one point of savoir faire and will only ever be able to train it to a maximum of two, when you really need to have skills at six or more to succeed at more challenging tasks. You can supplement your total skill level by changing your clothes, using consumable substances, or even by committing yourself to thinking about certain thoughts, which may give you a permanent bonus or else raise the maximum learning cap after enough time has passed, during which you usually suffer a minor penalty until finishing that thought and unlocking its final bonuses. These supplemental bonuses have their own limitations, however, so you can't really rely on them to fully compensate for a low base skill level at all times.
The bulk of the skill system happens through passive checks, which work by simply taking your cumulative skill level (which is your base attribute governing that particular skill, plus skill training, plus or minus extra modifiers), then adding a fixed value of six to it (basically like always rolling a six on a single die). A cumulative score of six in a passive check is "trivial" meaning they will ALWAYS chime in unless your skill level has somehow gone negative; eight is "easy," ten is "medium," twelve is "challenging," and so on, with them going up incrementally from there before maxing out at twenty. The highest possible skill level you ever need to achieve, therefore, is 14, with the +6 getting you to 20, but these higher level passives are pretty rare; in fact, the most frequent passive triggers are only "medium" level, meaning you only need to get a skill up to a base value of four to start triggering most of its passive successes. So in general, I would recommend getting a skill that you want to specialize in to at least six so you can start passing "challenging" checks which will carry you through the vast majority of the game. From there, you can decide if you want to continue specializing in that skill for better reward opportunities, or spread those points out more evenly to be more of a "jack of all trades" type who will get more frequent and diverse benefits, but not as many of the positive extremes.
If making your own character, you get to choose one "signature" skill, which will give you one free point invested in that skill in addition to raising the maximum learning cap for all related skills in that same attribute. That can be a useful way to compensate for a lower attribute score where your maximum skill training would otherwise be limited, so don't necessarily feel like your signature skill has to be for your primary focus. You also get to decide how to allocate your own attribute points, with twelve points to distribute among the four attributes. If you want to play a balanced character that will let you see the most even distribution of content then you could put three into each attribute, but it's usually worth it to specialize in one or two fields by setting one skill at five or six, or two skills at four. This is because having low skills can lead to unique or interesting outcomes on their own, and it also allows for more replay value since you'll be more likely to see more varied content on a second playthrough by being more specialized.
As far as the actual skills are concerned, the game does a pretty good job of explaining what they do and who they're for, so in general I would recommend taking the time to read through them in full, if not at the start of the game, then after you've had a few level-ups and are looking to spend skill points. But for a quick break-down of things with a little more of a practical focus, this is basically how they all work:
Intellect skills are based on how smart you are: so Logic is your ability to deduce information or connect the dots when a solution isn't immediately obvious; Encyclopedia tells you background information about the world so you can understand and comment on it better; Rhetoric helps you read into subtle nuances in other people's words and craft persuasive arguments of your own; Drama is your sense for theatrics, in terms of when someone is lying or pretending, and being able to do so yourself; Conceptualization allows you to understand abstract ideas, appreciate art, and see beauty in the world; and Visual Calculus lets you re-create what happened at a crime scene.
Psyche skills are based on your understanding of the nature of people: Volition is your desire to avoid self-harm, with each point giving you one extra morale on your health bar; Inland Empire is your ability to have and interpret dreams or premonitions; Empathy helps you to understand how others are feeling so that you can react accordingly; Authority allows you to pull rank or make people respect you because of your position of power; Esprit de Corps is your understanding of cop culture, which will help you know what your partner Kim is thinking and provide extra insights into the police force; and Suggestion is sort of like a "charm" skill that will get people to do what you want because they like you.
Physique skills are based on the physical traits of your body: Endurance is how much of a beating you can take, and directly grants extra hit points to your health bar; Pain Threshold is sort of like how much damage you can tolerate before it starts affecting you, both physically and mentally; Physical Instrument helps you accomplish things through force, like punching someone or breaking open locks; Electro-chemistry is like your pleasure center and helps with aspects that make you and others feel good, be that through sex or substances; Shivers is like your ability to sense "the Streets," in terms of knowing what goes on in the world around you and feeling that through a sort of instinctive reaction; and Half-Light is your fight-or-flight response which helps you to know what to do in extreme situations where an action may be required.
Finally, Motorics skills relate to your fine motor-control of your arms and legs; so Hand-Eye Coordination will help you aim your weapon or catch things that are thrown to you; Perception allows you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell things, and also determines what things in the environment you can even interact with by pressing the Tab key; Reaction Speed lets you... react to things quickly, be that dodging something or even being quick on your tongue with a sharp rebuttal; Savoir Faire is basically how well you move, which could relate to sneaking, dancing, or jumping; Interfacing is your ability to interact with machines like control panels or mechanical devices, and other such tasks that require fine control of your hands and fingers; and Composure is your ability to stay calm under pressure, like not sweating when you're nervous or keeping a straight face.
All of the skills are pretty well balanced, and so there's no obvious benefit to picking one skill over another. Just pick stuff that sounds fun to you, or that otherwise fit the mould of the particular type of character you want to play. The main exception to this is that skills like Shivers and Inland Empire are both pretty unique for an RPG like this, since they give you deeper insights into the realm of the metaphysical or supernatural, while skills like Encyclopedia and Conceptualization can be huge experience point generators if paired with the right thoughts -- but again, I don't want to encourage specific builds, so I'll leave that for you to figure out for yourself.
2. Be mindful of how you role-play your character
In addition to your attributes and skills, the game will also keep track of various options you pick in dialogue, which will determine your political alignment as well as your "cop-o-type" and other such things. These stats are normally viewed from a side panel in your journal, but you won't be able to see these stats at first until you find your police ledger (which is somewhere near the dead body outside the Whirling-In-Rags hostel) and after you learn how to decipher the coded markings on it (which you can do by asking your partner Kim about it).
Once you unlock this aspect of your journal, you'll see various
statistics for things like "Superstar Cop, Apocalypse Cop, Sorry
Cop, and Boring Cop" -- these show how many times you've
selected dialogue options that correspond to one of the four primary
"cop-o-types," a play on the word "archetype,"
all of which should be self-explanatory in context, but there are
additional sub-types you can embody, like the "Honor cop"
as depicted by your "honor" stat (basically how many times
you pick the most honorable choice), as well as other things like
being an "art cop" or "hobo cop" which aren't
explicitly tracked through the journal system, but do manifest
themselves as thoughts, which are another way that you can specialize
your character by spending time and skill points committing to
certain thoughts and ideologies. Similarly, the "Communist,
Fascist, Ultraliberal, and Moralist" stats track how many times
you pick dialogue options that relate to one of the four political
alignments. These should also be fairly easy to identify in dialogue,
but in very loose terms, communism supports the common working-class
population who are perceived as being oppressed by the ruling class,
fascism supports the old monarchy and the way things used to be under
one ruler before Revachol was taken over by foreign control,
ultraliberal supports self-interest and independence to "pull
yourself up by your bootstraps" through entrepreneurship, and
moralism is sort of like the game's "none of the above"
option which disavows extreme ideologies in favor of maintaining the
current status quo but with measured, incremental progress from all
sides towards achieving a more idealized system.
These stats don't exactly have a huge influence on the gameplay, but they unlock new thoughts which can influence your skills or else grant you new dialogue options in future encounters, so they're worth keeping an eye on in case there are certain ideologies you want to strive towards. In particular, your political alignment will determine which options you have to choose from when it comes to the "political vision quests," which were added in the Final Cut update -- these come to you in a dream sequence at the end of your third night, and so long as you have four points in any political field you'll be able to opt into that as a special quest, which will explore that ideology in more practical terms. You can only do one political vision quest per playthrough, however, so keep that in mind.
Finally, we have the "good cop/bad cop" stat, which is basically a representation of Kim's opinion of you, with you gaining or losing points based on what you do in his presence -- higher numbers are better, and it can actually go negative. Mostly, he's concerned about how professional and effective you are as a police officer, so solving problems, looking out for the well-being of Revachol, and being respectful towards others will get you positive points, but taking bribes, consuming substances, and doing anything that will otherwise ruin the image of the police force, will get you negative points. Personal matters will also affect this score, like if you make fun of him or support him or whatever. In general, this isn't something I'd explicitly worry about since it mainly affects flavor text and offers slight modifiers to a few active checks, but as with everything else, it's helpful to have an idea of what those numbers actually represent.
3. Don't be afraid to make mistakes
Overall, Disco Elysium is extremely balanced and lenient in allowing for all kinds of ways to progress the game forward, even in spite of players failing important skill checks or using seemingly weird, unconventional builds. The whole point of the story, after all, is that the main character has lost his entire memory of himself and the world around him, so it's expected that you will struggle with certain tasks or otherwise make a fool of yourself at certain times; the game compensates for this by making failure a core part of the gameplay, usually with ways to mitigate those mistakes after the fact, or else by incorporating them into the story as an alternative way forward.
Skill checks, for instance, are a little different from what you might typically expect from an RPG, in that failing one isn't just about putting up a roadblock that prevents you from advancing down that particular path. Instead, the game allows you to come back and re-try most failed skill checks (at least, the ones that are highlighted in white in the dialogue window) after investing a skill point to improve that skill, thereby opening the check back up and also improving your chance at success in the process. As a quick aside, it's therefore a good idea to hold onto a few spare skill points at all times, so that you can instantly retry a failed check if need be. This gives you more opportunity to avoid being locked out of optional avenues and also reinforces the narrative concept of your character getting his life back together by being able to come back and succeed at earlier failures after sufficient time and skill training has passed. Red skill checks, however, cannot be re-tried; these ones are usually more important for the story, or else have more elaborate outcomes, but it's always handled in a way that allows the game to continue forward in some capacity regardless of whatever happens. But no matter whether a check can be re-tried or not, some failures will actually lead to an arguably "better" outcome, whether that be by giving you a more practical reward for your efforts, such as if the person takes pity on you, or else with the game telling a more interesting and amusing story based on your character's bumbling ineffectiveness. Sometimes, they lead to the same end result as if you had succeeded, in many cases with your partner Kim stepping in to handle things for you, which can be nice for building your comradery with him.
That's not to say that all failures will lead to satisfying end results, since some do wind up being anticlimactic and unfulfilling, where the game will just say "No, that didn't work" with no further elaboration. So if you want to reload your save to try again, that's certainly an option and no one is going to judge you for doing it in a single-player game. But the way that Disco handles failure makes embracing those failures a more unique and engaging prospect than in many other RPGs, so it's worth considering and trying to reel in any tendencies you might have to save-scum for the best results.
On a similar level, there are no "wrong" choices to make when it comes to the story or how you resolve certain quests, since everything in the game will ultimately play a role in telling your character's unique story or shaping the events of the world around you. The game is highly reactive and will change a lot of options in the future based on how you choose to role-play your character; witnessing these reactions unfold is a big part of what makes the story so engaging your first time through, so I would recommend not looking up solutions in advance and just trying to let the game play out as naturally as possible, doing whatever you feel is best for you and your character. The less you know about the story, the better it will be, in other words.
4. Be careful with your money for the first two days
The game has an economy system where you will earn income (called real) which you can gain from various sources, be that just finding spare change lying around, or selling items at the store, or taking bribes or payment from completing quests. This money can then be spent in shops to buy clothes which will boost your skills, or to buy substances that will enhance your attributes temporarily or else restore damaged health and morale, or to buy books and games which can help you pass time or learn more about the world. An important caveat to this, is that you have to pay for lodging in the Whirling-In-Rags hostel each night, for at least the first two nights -- the game doesn't let you sleep anywhere outside, and if you don't have enough money to pay the manager for your room by the end of the day, then you will literally be unable to progress in the game. It is possible, therefore, to back yourself into a corner and get completely stuck if you spend all your money before paying for your room each night, or if you just don't earn enough income to pay for it in the first place.
The first night is going to be the most expensive since you already owe money for multiple unpaid nights, damage to your room, and drinks you've charged to your tab. You can negotiate the price down with various skills, but it's probably still going to be hard to pay it off that first night; but if you wait until 22:00, your partner Kim will offer to help by selling some contraband to cover your costs, but you'll be completely on your own for the second night, when you'll have to pay 20 real, so make sure you save at least much for your second night. If you're struggling for cash, bear in mind there are multiple ways to earn money -- if your skills are high enough you can just ask for money from various people, with Joyce (the Wild Pines company representative) and Evrart (the Dockworkers Union representative) offering the most substantial sums if you're able to pass their checks or else are willing to take their money, knowing that they represent the two most relevant sides of the murder investigation that you're there to solve, and thus may (or may not) have ulterior motives in giving you money.
Otherwise, you can find plenty of money just lying around if you explore thoroughly and press Tab to highlight interactive things in the environment; what you can find is based on your perception, so with higher perception you'll find more stuff which means more cash, most likely. Some containers are locked, represented by a gray outline; in that case, make sure to have the prybar equipped, which you can get from the toolbox in Kim's vehicle. West from the Whirling-In-Rags, down the steps from the bookstore, you can find a yellow trashbag which you can use to collect empty bottles from trashcans, or else just lying around the street -- these bottles likewise get highlighted by the Tab key, but not with a green outline so they're a little harder to spot. These, you can trade in at the Frittte convenience store (east of the Whirling-In-Rags) for ten cents each -- it's a fairly small amount, but every bit helps. At the Pawn Shop down the road south towards the drawbridge, you can sell assorted items that you find, but be careful doing this since some items are useful for quests or various character interactions, so only sell things if you feel confident that it won't be useful to you anymore, or if you're really desperate for money. Postcards are always safe to sell since they serve no purpose other than flavor text.
Starting on the third night, once the waterlock has been repaired to let you access the coast on the western side of the map, you no longer HAVE to pay to sleep in the Whirling-In-Rags, since you'll be able to sleep in a shack in the small fishing village for free. It's pretty easy to find, and just requires that you talk to the old woman washing clothes outside, at which point it's your choice if you want to sleep in the shack, or continue paying Garte each night to stay in the Whirling-In-Rags.
5. Time of day matters, but there's no time limit
As you'll notice in the bottom corner of the screen, there is a tracker that measures the time of day, and the number of days you've spent playing. This matters to some degree, in terms of what services are available since some shops will close late in the day, and some tasks will require you to meet NPCs during certain windows of time. So you may find yourself in situations where you need to pass the time until the desired window, or wanting to complete certain objectives before it gets too late. Time does not pass in real time, however -- it only passes while you're in the dialogue window when you're interacting with something, and even then it happens in set intervals based on how many lines of text you progress through, not the literal amount of time you spend there -- so you can freely run around the map exploring and observing things in the environment without fear of wasting too much time. Time will stop at 02:00, however, in order to force you to go to sleep to advance the game to the next day, so you will have to sleep at some point, but you can also take advantage of this time stop to do other quests and tasks while the clock is stopped, so long as the things and people you might need are still available, since most NPCs will go to sleep around 22:00.
As far as the number of days passing is concerned, some bits of dialogue may imply that some critical event will happen if you don't solve the case in time, and Kim will constantly chime in to try to keep you focused on solving the case by questioning when seemingly unrelated side tasks are worth your time as if there might be some consequence for getting too distracted, but there is no time limit and you will not be penalized for taking too long to solve the case. There are, in fact, a few important "points of no return" that will dramatically change things in the story and the overall world-state, but these happen at set points in the main quest progression and are not tied to the amount of time you spend solving the case -- there are even explicit warning messages about when crazy stuff is about to happen, so you can absolutely take your time being as thorough as you want in exploring and completing side content without having to worry about rushing things to avoid a bad outcome.
The only way in which the number of days matters is that the waterlock (which acts as a bridge to cross into the coastal region of the map) will remain inoperable for the first two days, and so you can't access the other half of the map until day three, which affects how much exploration you can do and how many quests you can actually solve in those first two days. There is also one NPC who will become unavailable starting on day five, so if you want to avoid missing out on critical interactions with him, then it might behoove you to make sure you fully exhaust your dialogue options with the two older gentlemen playing petanque in the crater. Otherwise, you really don't have to worry about the time too much. If for any reason, however, you do need to pass the time, the easiest way to do so is by reading something -- either books that you find or purchase somewhere, or else by reading case files from your ledger. You can also sit on benches to pass the time, but only if Kim isn't with you.
6. Explore everywhere, and talk to everyone you see
This advice will be obvious to thorough completionists seein as
you'll inevitably try to see and do everything you can in one
playthrough, but for anyone who is apt to skip optional content or
only focus on the main quest in these types of games, just bear in
mind that there is a lot of benefit to be had from exploring
everywhere and talking to everyone you see. At certain points in the
main quest, you will be expected to make some really difficult skill
checks, but there are always things you can do to give yourself
bonuses to those checks, usually by having explored elsewhere to
uncover certain bits of dialogue, or else by completing optional side
goals. Often times, something that seems irrelevant to your main
investigation will end up being relevant in some way later on, but
it's rarely ever obvious in the moment when this will be the case, so
the only way to ensure you'll get to see how everything ties together
to get these helpful bonuses is just by trying to do as much as you
can and seeing it all through to the end. Likewise, the game
tends to hit you with a lot of vague objectives that present no clear
lead on how to solve them, sometimes even explicitly stating as much
in your journal, so if something seems really difficult to solve, or
you have no idea how to move forward with a particular objective,
just put it aside for the moment and go off looking for other
opportunities, elsewhere, since solutions will inevitably
present themselves as you explore and make connections. The
world is actually very finely crafted, with it being set in a
relatively small area and featuring only so many NPCs to interact
with, where everything feels like it's meant to be there as part of a
cohesive whole, so it's not like it's an overwhelmingly complex, or
convoluted game to get through, and I think you'll therefore have a
better time by getting a full, comprehensive experience and seeing
how everything connects to each other. But of course, none of the
side content is strictly mandatory, so you're usually free to skip
whatever doesn't really interest you.
7. Save often, and always have healing items handy
While I don't necessarily recommend manipulating save-states to get the best results, unless that's really how you want to play, it's still a good idea to save frequently and maybe also in different slots, because you can die quite easily, in very unexpected situations. This is a game where you can die from sitting in an uncomfortable chair, or from saying something stupid that embarrasses you, if you don't have high enough stats to avoid taking damage in those situations and don't have enough healing supplies on you to recover from that damage. In Disco, you have two separate health tracks to manage -- a normal red one for physical health, and a blue one for mental health, or your morale. Skills like Endurance and Volition determine how many hit points you have in each pool, which determines how much damage you can sustain before going "critical," at which point you have to take medicine to prevent a fatal heart attack. Medicine can be found just lying around through ordinary exploration, but you can also buy it from the Frittte convenience store east of the Whirling-In-Rags. Buying three at a time of either type is cheaper than buying them individually, so do that if you can afford it -- and again, making sure to be careful not to spend too much money if it's your first or second night -- and make sure you always have at least two or three on you, because some situations can hit you with multiple rounds of damage in a row. Note that taking damage to either of your two health bars will temporarily lower your Endurance and Volition as well, which can impact your chances to succeed at passive skill checks, which can be extra incentive to keep plenty of healing items handy. It is also to possible to run into "game over" screens based on narrative decisions you make, where doing the wrong thing can cause you to lose instantly, at which point your only option is just to reload a save and do something different. So you want to always have a backup save from not too long ago, just so that you don't lose too much progress when and if these situations occur.
Conclusion
And that's all I have for this beginner's guide to Disco Elysium.
I'm sure there are plenty of other valuable tips and pieces of advice
that I've forgotten or took for granted and didn't think to include
in this video, so if anyone has other suggestions they'd like to add,
feel free to mention them in the comments to provide extra assistance
for new players seeking out this kind of advice. I'll be sure to add
a comment for any more that come to mind, so be sure to check below
for extra tips and clarifications just in general. If anyone has
further questions, feel free to ask in the comments and I or someone
else can hopefully answer them for you.
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