Disco Elysium thrusts you into its world with the tools to freely inhabit the type of cop you want to be. Allocating your skills during character creation is only the beginning. There are numerous systems in place to refine your detective during gameplay. Most of it boils down to accepting or committing to actions you carry out. It results in an organic experience to morph your character, and at times it feels like an accurate personality test.

All 24 skills

Because of that, It’s best to experience the game your way for the first time. But when you’re ready to dive back for subsequent runs, these are some fun builds to experience the game in a new light:

1. Loremaster

A successful Encyclopedia check reveals knowledge of the past

Disco Elysium’s rich lore is interwoven into its narrative. The history and politics of the world still profoundly affect its characters. Their lives unwillingly shaped by the ruins of old wars fought over conflicting ideologies and beliefs. All while an unstoppable threat called the Pale looms on the horizon, slowly approaching to engulf the whole world under its mist.

If that sounds interesting to you (and it is), and you don’t mind piling up the already extensive reading in this game, try the Loremaster build.

• Starting build: 5-3-2-2
• Skills: Encyclopedia, Shivers, Espirit de Corps, 
• Thoughts: Wompty-Dompty Dom Centre

Encyclopedia provides facts and figures about the world, making sense to make it the signature skill. Espirit de Corps is knowledge of police procedures, culture, and fellow policemen, including your partner. This skill chimes relevant anecdotes, present or past, from the perspective of other officers. It also peeks inside the mind of Kim, granting access to his feelings and thoughts that he mostly keeps to himself.

Shivers is a supra-natural skill that tunes you into the heart of the city, granting access to the memories and the events that shaped it. At times, it’s much more than that, and it’s hard to reduce it to a singular definition. Take it and experience its magic for yourself.

2. Dumb Brute

Any problem could be solved if you just hit it hard enough

Most people gravitated towards the thinker or sensitive archetypes when the game first came out. At first glance, choosing to play as a dumb brute where you’re expected to solve a mystery is a choice only a true dumb brute would make, but Disco Elysium proved to be way more than a conventional detective story. And the assumption that physical-based builds won’t attain the same nuance as the other archetypes are thrown away with the other initial expectations.

• Starting build: 1-1-5-5
• Skills: Physical Instrument, Half-light, Interfacing
• Thoughts: Anti-Object Task Force, Coach Physical Instrument

A complete physical build is a fun way to experience the game for a second time, in a reckless abandonment kind of way. Force your way through doors, punch and intimidate people, and face obstacles directly.

That’s why Physical Instrument is our signature skill since it allows players to immerse themselves in the small mind of the brute. Dumping points in it unleashes its toxic masculinity. It will refer to itself as Coach Physical Instrument and force you to get your act together. Half-light gives you the modern curse called anger issues and together they’ll work in tandem to threaten people.
 

3. Baddest of the Bad

This is going to be embarrassing

This build attempts to attain the Baddest of the Bad achievement. To do that, you need to achieve -5 cop points during your run. Cop points measure Kim’s judgment of your skills and attitude. Get ready to disappoint Kim by becoming the worst and most incompetent cop and human in the whole world.

• Starting build: 1-1-1-1
• Skills: Endurance, Electrochemistry, Volition
• Thoughts: Revacholian Nationhood, Advanced Race Theory

With this build, you’re aiming to fail every skill check miserably; Endurance and Volition are there so you can literally live with yourself after—additionally, Endurance is a raging fascist.

Your daily to-do list consists of insulting everyone you meet (yes, that includes calling Kim a binoclard), proudly spread fascist thoughts and racist slurs, giving kid’s drugs, struggle on the fundamentals of police work, stealing (and failing miserably) everything that isn’t nailed to the wall, and abusing all substances in the immediate vicinity. Even after getting the achievement, you’re gone too far in the deep end to stop now. Keep going until you get the worst ending possible. 

4. Charmer

Persuading a locked door to open

The majority of the conflict happens through conversation windows. The citizens of Martinaise withhold information from you for different reasons. Use this build to weave, manipulate, and understand the people of Martinaise.

• Starting build: 4-6-1-2
• Skills: Empathy, Rhetoric, Reaction Speed, Drama, Suggestion

Empathy has the highest number of passive checks in the game, so it is the signature skill. Reaction speed and Drama are used to catch lies as well as tell them yourself. Suggestion and Rhetoric work together to persuade and charm your way through the story.

5. Superstar

I order you to dance!

Failing upwards has never looked so good. Play as a drug-addled, superstar cop who is inappropriately too cool for law enforcement. Party harder than anyone has partied before, crave for the next dopamine rush, and incite a revolution all while solving a case (as long as it doesn’t cramp your style) with this build.

• Starting build: 2-2-4-4
• Skills: Electrochemistry, Suggestion, Savoir Faire, Reaction Speed
• Thoughts: Some kind of Superstar, Mazovian Socio-Economics

This cop is dripping with style and ego and is entirely driven by hedonistic pleasures. Buy the speakers from Sileng to fully commit to the obnoxious party animal lifestyle.

6. Hardcore 

Every wall is a blank canvass

Hardcore mode was added with the release of the Final Cut version of the game. It aims to make the game harder with a few changes, such as increasing the difficulty for skill checks. This build is more like a preset that alleviates the challenge. 

• Starting build: 3-?-?-?
• Skills: Conceptualization
• Thoughts: Actual Art Degree, Jamais Vu (Derealization)

Internalizing the Actual Art Degree thought is required to become an art cop. With that thought equipped, Conceptualization passive checks give +10 XP as well as heal +1 morale. There are around 300 conceptualization passives with at least a +4 in that skill which should boost you with enough levels to help with your build. Jamais Vu is an easy additional XP supplement attained as early as Day 1.

7. The Law

I'll do it myself

Some people just don’t respect the RCM or authority figures in general. It’s time to let them know that the police are here in total capacity in all its corrupt glory.

• Starting build: 1-2-4-5
• Skills: Authority, Hand-Eye Coordination, Half-light, Composure
• Thoughts: Bringing of the Law (Law-Jaw), Fairweather T-500, Indirect Modes of Taxation

Always introduce yourself as the law. It’s simply the truth that often needs repeating. Assert your authority often and threaten those who don’t acknowledge it. Composure is there to ensure you never flinch at anything such as insults to your character and accepting hard-earned bribes. Find and wear the whole set of T-500 ceramic armor in case a gunfight goes down, and if it does, high Hand-Eye Coordination guarantees an accurate shot.

8. Tequila Sunset

Pour your soul out in karaoke night

At the very beginning of the game, the protagonist wakes up from the worst hangover in the history of humanity. It turns out tragic reasons were causing him to drink himself into forgetting all of it. But the pain doesn’t need to stop there. Take the already sad and pathetic protagonist into new lows with this build. 

• Starting build: 4-4-2-2
• Skills: Drama, Inland Empire, Electrochemistry
• Thoughts: Rigorous Self-Critique, Hobocop

Wallow in self-pity and apologize for your past behavior and actions. You get to see different sides of the characters when you play this way. For example, Kim is noticeably kinder and more patient to you when you’re remorseful. Identify as homeless and never stay sober. Then, talk to the drunks to know why you’re called Tequila Sunset.

9. Paranormal Cop

Investigating the curse of the doomed commercial district

There’s something strange in this neighborhood, and you’re dedicated to finding out. On top of that, the end times are coming, and it isn’t public knowledge yet. Search through conspiracy theories, supernatural stories, and the innermost recesses of your imagination to investigate the paranormal.

• Starting build: 2-5-3-2
• Skills: Inland Empire, Shivers, Visual Calculus
• Thoughts: Cop of the Apocalypse, Remote Viewers Division

Remote Viewers Division should open more dialogue about the supernatural. With Inland Empire as your dominant skill, your imagination would drift away into a dreamlike state where everything is possible. 

A catastrophe of world-ending proportions is fast approaching, and only the Cop of the Apocalypse can warn the citizens before it’s too late.
 

10. Cheat Run

An easily missed secret

Due to the nature of the game, you won’t see everything on your first run. You could still miss a few scenes on your second or even third. It’s improbable that you’ll dump all your points into one skill, causing you to miss that rare impossible passive. Or you could not have enough points in a particular combination of skills to trigger interactions between them. If you’ve exhausted Disco Elysium’s content, using cheats to max out your stats is a fun way to find interactions you’ve missed. It’s also pure chaos to hear all skills comment whenever prompted, letting you feel like Harry has genuinely lost his mind.

Whatever path you choose, Disco Elysium has impeccable writing waiting for you to discover. Players should embrace the strange choices the game offers as there are plenty of them. Mix and match, experiment, and have fun on your next runs. 

You May Also Be Interested In:

• [Top 5] Key Moments that Affect the Ending in Disco Elysium
• [Top 10] Disco Elysium Best Skills
• [Top 10] Disco Elysium Best Builds
• [Top 10] Disco Elysium Best Thoughts
• Disco Elysium: Final Cut Review— Is it Good or Bad?