Due to the vast number of dialogue options, each playthrough of Disco Elysium is different. The game experience is also highly influenced by character stats, referred to as skills. Which skills you choose at the start and which you decide to upgrade as you play could alter the game narrative - but how do you pick where to invest your points?
To answer that, let’s cover some game mechanics first.
What a successful active check looks like
In-game events are resolved by rolling dice and comparing the result to the character’s skill level. Every check can either be active or passive. Passive checks run in the background, and successful rolls usually open new dialogue options. Active checks require you to roll the in-game dice yourself by picking a corresponding option.
There are a total of 24 skills split evenly into four Attributes: Intellect, Psyche, Physique, and Motorics. At the start of the game, you get to decide how those categories are balanced for your character. You can choose one of the three predetermined Archetypes - Thinker, Sensitive, or Physical - each with a different set of ability scores. There is nothing wrong with picking one of these pre-builds, but a fourth option is way more enticing: create your own.
That’s where you would need to start thinking about the best and worst skills for your character. You would need to split 12 points between the four Attributes - and the allocated number would determine the skill cap, or how much you can level up each skill within the attribute category.
Somewhat overwhelming skill point allocation screen
With such a narrative-heavy game as Disco Elysium, there is no straightforward answer to what skills you should choose. The most commonly recommended attribute distribution is 4-4-2-2. Four points for Intellect and Psyche each, since there is more to get out of the narrative through those, and two points each for Physique and Motorics, so you can still upgrade skills within those categories as you go through the game.
So, you allocated points for your Attributes, but what skills should you upgrade once the game begins? There is no single answer; it depends on how you personally want to play. If I had to pick one single skill, though, the best to invest points in at the start would be:
Empathy
Very useful when talking to weird children you find in some back yard
It is a surprising choice, given options like Endurance or Logic, but there is a reason behind it. According to Reddit user Protagoras, Empathy has the most passive checks in the game, which means allocating points towards it would unlock more dialogue options. This would allow you to get the most out of narrative-based Disco Elysium - that is, if you only plan to play it once.
Every skill has a caveat at higher levels. As you upgrade Empathy, you will be able to better see the hidden emotions of other characters, but empathizing too much would cause you to become even more unstable than you began with (yes, that is, indeed, possible).
To play a balanced character, you would need to upgrade skills in all four Attributes as you go through the game. Empathy is a skill within the Psyche attribute, so what Intelligence, Physique, and Motorics skills should you develop first? Here are my recommendations:
Intelligence – Visual Calculus
Reconstruct events based on little evidence - like Sherlock Holmes!
A skill fit for a detective, Visual Calculus helps reconstruct events based on evidence. It is mostly a passive check, and passing it often opens new dialogue options. At higher levels, this skill would cause the character to focus on complicated observations and become susceptible to missing the obvious.
Physique – Endurance
Every time your health is damaged, you look very dramatic
Increasing Endurance increases your maximum Health. It would let you interact with the world more safely through physical means, including using drugs and alcohol, which can affect your other skills. At higher levels, Endurance would cause the character to start looking down on NPCs, which could hinder the investigation.
Motorics – Perception
Orbs, orbs everywhere!
Mostly passively checked, Perception would be a great skill to upgrade early in the game. Responsible for identifying something unusual in the surrounding environment, Perception is an invaluable tool for solving a murder mystery at the heart of the game - and finding a couple of secret rooms, too. The downside at high levels is that many clues and observations might be misleading.
Having gone over some of the best skills to upgrade early on in the game, there is one that I wouldn’t recommend investing in at the start unless you are playing a physical strength-reliant character:
Half Light
Intimidation at its finest
Half Light is in charge of your fight or flight response, but so are Logic, Shivers, and a variety of other skills. What this particular skill is really good for is aggressive interrogation, but failing to intimidate a subject might lock you out of some dialogue options. In addition, the caveat of this skill is paranoia, which can affect the character’s Morale. Lose it all - and you are dead, and there are plenty of other things that chip at your mental health.
As I mentioned before, there is no single best way to balance skill points. It all depends on what you want to get out of the game and what kind of detective you would like to roleplay as. Despite that, these skills are a good starting point when building a character, helping you build the best version to both succeed within the game and immerse yourself in the rich lore of Disco Elysium.
