Best Skill Builds for Your Character in Disco Elysium
In Disco Elysium, gameplay heavily depends on your skills. Using different builds, you can experience radically different playthroughs. Characters will reveal themselves to you from various angles, and the same situations will be presented to you in a different light.
Good Cop
Stats: 4-4-2-2.
Signature Skill: Shivers or Coordination.
Useful Skills: Logic, Rhetoric, Drama, Visual Calculus, Volition, Empathy, Esprit de Corps, Suggestion, Physical Instrument, Shivers, Coordination, Reaction Speed, Interfacing, Composure, Perception, and Encyclopedia optionally.
Two stats are taken at 4, allowing their skills to be raised to high values, while skills from the other two stats are boosted by clothing, thoughts, alcohol, and amphetamine. In the end, we get the opportunity to play as a model cop who has embarked on the path of redemption.
How does it work?
- Rhetoric, Suggestion, Composure, Reaction Speed, Interfacing, and Drama will help you interact effectively with people. You'll know when they're lying, be able to persuade them, and get additional dialogue options.
- Visual Calculus and Shivers allow you to gather the maximum amount of information necessary for the investigation. Calculus is needed for studying the crime scene, while Shivers provide visions that can show you necessary witnesses, clues, or help with hypotheses.
- Without Authority and Physical Instrument, many people simply won't take you seriously as a cop, especially the criminal elements. However, the higher you level up Authority, the more often your character will misuse it, so use it in combination with high Volition, or keep it at a moderate level.
- Esprit de Corps is essential if you want to fully get to know your partner and your colleagues from the precinct. It has a strong influence on the game, definitely recommended to level up.
- Encyclopedia and Perception are the lore of the game. They won't help you in your investigation, but you'll be able to learn a lot of interesting information about Revachol and its inhabitants. Level them up at your discretion.
Bad Cop
Stats: 2-2-4-4 or 1-3-4-4 (with penalties).
Signature Skill: Authority.
Useful Skills: Authority, Endurance, Pain Threshold, Physical Instrument, Inland Empire, Coordination, Reaction Speed, Interfacing, Composure. Optionally, you can add Esprit de Corps and Electrochemistry (if you plan on frequently using harmful substances).
A build for the classic bad cop. Aggressive play style, lots of confrontational situations, minimal negotiations.
How does it work?
- High levels of Authority, Physical Instrument, and Composure (8 and above) will form the basis of your behavior. You will harshly suppress even the slightest hints of disrespect, act roughly, «break» people for your own benefit. A high level of the Inland Empire will add impulsiveness, but with it, paranoia.
- Coordination and Reaction Speed are necessary for successful skirmishes and shootouts. With them, your shot will hit the target, not your partner's knee.
- Endurance and Pain Threshold will give you survivability. Upgrade as necessary.
- Interfacing is not mandatory, but it's an extremely interesting skill. Besides interacting with technical devices, the skill emerges in dialogues, even in completely unexpected situations.
Drug-addled Maniac
Stats: 2-4-4-2.
Signature Skill: Inland Empire.
Useful Skills: Inland Empire, Electrochemistry, Inland Empire, Drama, Conceptualization, Shivers. Other skills as desired.
A build for the most fun and useless cop in all of Revachol. In a nutshell, you'll be playing as a «ship» actively sinking but doing it with style. I recommend trying this build at least once.
How does it work?
- All target skills will make you uniquely inadequate. Inland Empire will allow you to talk to inanimate objects and corpses. By the way, make sure to take off the tie from the fan at the start of the game; it will become your best conversationalist.
- Electrochemistry will make you deeply dependent on various substances. Instead of looking for criminals, you'll be looking for cigarettes and alcohol.
- The Inland Empire will turn you paranoid. It will constantly provoke you to commit some idiotic act.
- With Conceptualization, you'll often think in different categories. Instead of looking for clues, you'll be searching for the meaning of life, your true name, and purpose. In sum, this is a cocktail of voices in your head, constantly arguing with each other and pulling you towards feats. Most likely, you won't be able to perfectly complete the game, but your playthrough will definitely not be like any other.
Specialized Builds
Example Stats: 2-6-2-2.
Builds where one of the stats is taken to 6 at the start. They have their place but are not the best choice for a beginner.
How does it work?
The essence of such builds is to have a high skill level from the start and pass difficult passive checks. For example, I used 2-6-2-2 to immediately have a level 7 in Inland Empire and see how it affects the start of the game. But at the same time, you will significantly limit yourself to content from other skills. Can be used if you want something specific.
Universal Build
Stats: 3-3-3-3.
Skills: any as desired.
The most challenging build to execute. On the plus side — with proper use of the game's features (clothes, substances, thoughts), you can pass more active checks, although losing passive ones in the process. Performs well in hardcore mode, as it offers more experience.
But at the start, you will be mediocre. All your skills will be too low, you will miss a huge number of initial passive checks and the related content. Plus, this build requires certain knowledge about the game.
Standard Builds
Stats: 5-1-2-4/1-5-4-2/1-2-5-4.
Try not to use the starting builds. The stats are distributed inefficiently, which can lead to losing a significant part of the content.
A Few Tips
- Carry a lot of clothes with you. Most of the time, you should wear clothes with skills that have more frequent or more useful passive checks. For example: encyclopedia, visual calculus, inland empire, empathy, shivers, and so on. And don't forget to change clothes for active skill checks.
- Increase skill cap limits. All harmful substances in the game temporarily increase one of the stats by 1 (by 2 if the thoughts «Boya-Delores», «Apocalypse Cop», and «Revacholian Nationhood» are equipped). This can be used to raise the skill cap and level up a needed skill. Even when the effect of the substances ends, the skill will still remain with you.
- Use thoughts. In the game, there is a thought cabinet (the farthest icon on the panel in the bottom right corner). After certain events, thoughts will appear there. They can give bonuses to skills or to the skill cap limits. Important: each thought first needs to be contemplated, and at this stage, it will provide completely different bonuses than later on.
Other guides
- The Thought Cabinet in Disco Elysium: A Guide
- How to Earn as Much Money (Reals) as Possible in Disco Elysium
- Tips for Beginners in Disco Elysium
- Tipps für Einsteiger in Disco Elysium
- Wie man in Disco Elysium so viel Geld (Reals) wie möglich verdient
- Die Schöpfer von Disco Elysium eröffnen ein weiteres Studio
