Disco Elysium Skills: How to Make Harrier Pass the Check Easier

Disco Elysium skills system may strike players as messy at first… Which skill should I level up? Which thoughts should I internalize? Wait, what are thoughts? Long story short. The game relies on the dice roll to decide whether players can pass the checks and unlock the plot or special dialogue. The skill tree serves the function of making players pass the check either easier or harder. Here is your complete guide on how to strategize your move in the game, and at the same time? – also maximize the fun!

The Core Mechanism: Dice Rolls

Disco Elysium skills system is a complementary design to the core gameplay: text dialogues and dice rolls. As Harrier, the main character, explores Martinaise, he encounters NPCs and interacts with the items and clues. The thoughts give players hints on what Harrier’s reaction to certain events is and what to do next. There are three kinds of checks in the game, deciding which dialogues players can see:

1. Simple dice rolls: these are easy checks that do not require players to do anything. The results are decided by the dice roll points.
2. White checks: Players can equip items and level up skills to attempt the check multiple times.
3. Red checks: Players can only try the check once, and cannot make equipment or level adjustments when the check appears in the dialogue.

Explore: Disco Elysium Review: Seven Years Since the Release and Still a Classic

That’s where the skills and thoughts come into play. In order to pass the white checks and red checks, and (most of the time) yield better results, players need to level up the skill profile accordingly. The skills decide:

1. What Harrier can do during the interactions,
2. What clues he can find,
3. What texts and dialogues players can unlock.

Overall, skills are important for players to unlock more stories and interactions in the game, pretty critical to the gaming experience. However, it’s fair to say that failing the checks is also part of the experience, and it is not always a bad thing!

Explore: Eastward Game Review: Is It Worth Picking Up?

Disco Elysium Skills and Thoughts: How Does This Design Work

First, what are skills and what are thoughts?

• Skills are the ones displayed in the profile, like Drama, Visual Calculus, etc. They can be leveled up using skill points, but they have caps as well. Players can also equip items or receive bonuses from the thoughts to increase the skill points.
• Thoughts are what players need to unlock through specific choices in the dialogue during gameplay. Players will not know what the bonus of the thoughts is until it is solved. Internalizing a thought can take hours and usually comes with a reduction in certain skill points.

Therefore, what players might realize as they progress is:

Checks ➡ Need to level up skills or equip clothes to increase the skill points ➡ Skills are capped ➡ Need to find the thought that can increase the cap ➡ Unlock a new thought slot and internalize the thought ➡ Raise the cap ➡ Pass the check

Explore: Dispatch Game Review: A Refreshing Take on Superheroes

Which Skills Should I Upgrade

There are several approaches players can take when choosing which skills to upgrade.

1. Choosing skills that are related to passing the checks of the main plot.
2. Choosing skills that unlock the most checks at the moment.

If you are playing this game for the first time, and you want to focus on the main plots, opt for the first choice. If you prefer immersive experiences and like interacting with other NPCs, you can opt for the second approach.

How to know which dialogues are for the main plots and which are for the subplots? Good question, because Disco Elysium does not specify or mark them out. Generally speaking, the leads and stories revolving around the Whirling, the union, and the strike are the main plot, related to the case.

Kim gives players hints as well. If players start a conversation or a quest unrelated to the case, he will say that he cannot see the relation of this undertaking to the current murder case.

Explore: Winter Burrow Aunty: How to Find and Rescue Aunty

Which Thoughts Should I Internalize

Here’s the tricky part about Disco Elysium skills and thoughts: players will not know what bonuses each thought will bring until its internalization. Players need to collect potential thoughts for internalization during gameplay. NPC dialogues and self-thinking, by clicking the button around Harrier’s head, unlock thoughts.

If you want to know about the bonuses of each thought, you can check this page to decide whether or not to internalize this thought and cost a slot for it. Some special thoughts, like “Homo-Sexual Underground” allows Harrier to have homo-sexual conversations with Kim.

The thoughts work in this flow:

1. Players collect a thought thread from NPCs conversations or self-thinking
2. Players spend one skill point to unlock a slot
3. Players cost another skill point and a temporary skill effect (Usually a debuff) to choose a thought to internalize
4. Players get the bonuses from the thought
5. If players wish to forget the thought, they need to spend another skill point

So, generally speaking, thoughts maneuvering is quite costly on skill points. It’d be best to consult the bonus of a thought online before choosing to open a slot for it at all. However, if you prefer immersive gameplay and are happy to go with the flow, thoughts bring more surprises into the game. Don’t treat thoughts as a main dish, but use them as a side dessert!

Explore: Project Zomboid Electricity: How to Effectively Prepare for and Manage Power Outages

White Checks and Red Checks: What If I Fail

It’s worth mentioning that failing the white checks or the red checks does not matter as much as players might be thinking, as this mechanism is deeply related to Disco Elysium skills building and thought internalizing.

First, white checks allow unlimited amounts of trying, and players simply need to level up those particular skills to unlock the white check again. Players can check which white checks are available on the Map. So, failing the white checks is not that much of a deal.

As to the red checks, failing them does not necessarily bring a bad result. Disco Elysium allows players to try out other options even after failing the red checks. Generally speaking, the red checks are not set as critical junctures of the main plot, meaning that failing them will not blow a hole in your crime-solving. After all, you may wonder what might happen if you fail the red check when Harrier is trying to sing a sad song…

Explore: Anno 117 Pax Romana Review: You May Prefer This Over Anno 1800!

Conclusion: Disco Elysium Skills Explained In Short

Disco Elysium skills are indispensable for the immersive experience of the gameplay. Players have more than one option to level up their skills, including the level-up points, clothes, and thoughts, whereas thoughts are more like icing on the cake.

To maximize the gaming experience, players can opt for skill leveling first and postpone the thought internalization. Skills upgrading can bring a tangible solution to the current check-passing problem, while thoughts are unlocked randomly and their bonuses are technically unknown to players in the game. But, if you are playing the game for a second or more time, you can pull out the thought page and unlock more thoughts you are interested in for more side stories!