17 Best Skills To Have

Summary

• Character creation in Disco Elysium involves a unique Skill system with categories like Intellect, Psyche & Physique.
• Hand/Eye Coordination is essential for processing visuals quickly & controlling movements, but it can lead to trigger happiness.
• Building up Drama can help detect lies, but too much can cause excessive emotionality, leading to unwanted outcomes.

While it is considered a part of the RPG genre, Disco Elysium certainly breaks out of the traditional mold of such titles. The game takes place in a hard-boiled, poverty-ridden neighborhood with an alcoholic character as the game’s anti-hero. It’s clear from the beginning of the experience in Revachol that you’re set for a very mature RPG adventure.

One aspect of Disco Elysium that does stray closely, at least in basic form, from the standard RPG construct, is character creation and the game’s Skill system. Each skill category (Intellect, Psyche, Physique, and Motorics) contains a subset of six skills with the same one-to-six rating scale. But, which skills should you focus on? Here are the best skills to develop as you play.

Updated on January 6, 2025 by Jack Filsinger: Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, available as part of the PlayStation Plus Extra subscription includes so much material in addition to the base game. In looking at the entire package we’ve added a few additional skills that are worth your time if you’re looking to dive into the world of Revachol for the first time.

It should be noted that all Skills will help solve the case, but a particular build will help you do it in a more cerebral way, or perhaps with more authoritarian flair, and so on.

17

Hand/Eye Coordination

Let Your Body Take Control

Hand/Eye Coordination seems like a pretty situational skill to have at first glance. However, as is the case with pretty much every skill in Disco Elysium, there’s more to this skill than what meets the eye — no pun intended.

With high Hand/Eye Coordination, players can quickly process things visually and let their body take control as everything from shooting guns to performing agile acts becomes second nature. Of course, a high level of Hand/Eye Coordination will lead to players being very trigger-happy in both a metaphorical and literal sense, which might not be an ideal thing in this game.

16

Esprit De Corps

Call For Backup

Esprit de Corps is your understanding of your fellow cops. This is particularly helpful for having conversations with your partner Kim Kitsuragi. But, there’s lots of other great uses for this sometimes undervalued skill.

Esprit de Corps will also help you to understand parts of Harry’s backstory, as well as fellow members of the RCM. This can give you, as the player, early insight into the world of Revachol, particularly in regards to the police force.

15

Conceptualization

Seeing The Big Picture

People who want their character to be more creative will have a great time with the Conceptualization skill. Players will be able to understand the various ideologies in this game and project themselves in the same. Additionally, having a high Conceptualization skill unlocks the Art Cop archetype and can help with a lot of the artistry subplots in Revachol.

Of course, an extreme level of Conceptualization will lead to players looking at the big picture far too often… but this shouldn’t be the worst drawback around. After all, being a smart cop who can visualize things with great success is a fun character to roleplay in the rich world of Disco Elysium.

14

Interfacing

Beep-Boop

Interfacing affects Harry’s ability to connect with various machines and other technology in Revachol. If you’re trying to create a mecahnist or tinkerer-type build for Harry, Interfacing is the way to go. However, there’s one specific reason why Interfacing can prove helpful.

Without giving away spoilers, Interfacing is a key skill that can help Harry with several checks that help him learn about his past. If you’re interested in getting to the core of Harry’s backstory, then Interfacing is a must-have.

13

Savoir Faire

Superior Movement Control

Most people expect a cop to be extremely smooth and impressive in their movements. Players who want to roleplay a character who excels in this regard will have a great time with the Savoir Faire skill.

Having a ton of control over your movements will let players do everything from sneaking with ease to performing impressive moves with the control you have on your limbs. Savoir Faire can also be helpful when it comes to pickpocketing or stealing without being noticed. The idea of a cool cop is essentially established with a high level in this particular skill.

12

Visual Calculus

Expert Crime Scene Analysis

Given that you play a cop in Disco Elysium, it only makes sense that visualizing and reconstructing a crime scene is of the utmost importance. After all, the main story of Disco Elysium revolves around a crime itself!

This is where Visual Calculus comes into the picture. This skill lets players analyze crime scenes with utmost finesse, to the point where you can almost picture yourself in the criminal’s shoes with deadly accuracy!

11

Empathy

Resonating On A Deeper Level

Empathy is a trait that a lot of people lack in the real world, so emotional beings genuinely understand the importance of this character trait. In Disco Elysium, this skill opens up many avenues for the player to resonate with the characters that they’re conversing with.

This allows you to connect with other characters in the world on a deeper level. However, this is a double-edged sword, and too much empathy might lead to players mirroring the emotions of their subjects to a downright unhealthy extent.

10

Logic

Connecting All The Pieces

In detective work, reasoning and deduction are the tools of the trade. The foundation of both those skills is logic, the ability to infer conclusions from pieces of data. While solving the various mysteries on the streets of Revachol, the whole picture is rarely available.

The Logic skill is an essential building block in Disco Elysium, playing a part in nearly everything you’ll do. Putting a lot of points into the Logic skill will make you particularly brilliant, but beware of believing the hype — you can become victim to some rather sweet flattery if you’re not careful.

9

Rhetoric

Masterful Conversationalist

Rhetoric represents the ability to win arguments, read between the lines, and understand what people are really trying to say. Because conversations are the most significant part of what happens in the game, it may be the most practical skill around for those wanting to follow the Intellect-heavy path.

Because the character employing this skill will tend to call out the verbal shenanigans of the game’s characters, it can lead to you making a few more enemies than you bargained for. It could also result in fewer people actually wanting any part of a conversation with you, so beware. Additionally, it can affect players who want to use money in less-than-savory ways.

8

Drama

Lie Detector

If you’re dealing with the rougher facets of society or those looking not to get caught for any number of things, having a built-in lie detector can be a very handy skill. Enter Drama, which influences your ability to both discern and spot lies in conversation.

Building up Drama also pays dividends when it comes to situations you may not want to have to fight through. Bluffing through arguments, and especially combat, can pave a much easier path in the investigation. There is a pretty big penalty, though, with too much Drama leading to excessive emotionality, which is less than ideal.

7

Volition

All Things In Balance

Volition is a Psyche skill that essentially moderates your other skills and the responses those skills may give you. It also acts as a representation of your morale — something you’ll need to keep an eye on in order to keep pressing on with the case.

It can make things a little bit boring if you put too much into it, though, there’s no chance of things getting too dicey if Volition is around. Used in moderation, though, it can be a great way to balance your wilder skills and keep yourself safe and out of harm’s way.

6

Reaction Speed

Faster Deductive Reasoning

Reaction Speed is a great choice of skill if you’re opting to build an intelligent set, allowing you to piece together information quickly and solve some of the more stubborn mysteries. It can even prompt you to delve further into places you may not even have thought to go. It makes you highly alert, which can cause you to act rashly in some cases, but always ensures you’ll shoot first.

It will often act before your other skills can even come into play, which can cause issues, but it can sense danger, unlike any other skill. If you can manage the more irrational urges it gives you, Reaction Speed is a great skill to add to your build.

5

Inland Empire

Unchecked Imagination

For those with a bent toward the supernatural, this might be just the skill for you. Revachol is a weird and spooky place, so with a high enough level in Inland Empire, you will be able to sense what lies just beneath the mysterious surface.

Think of this skill as imagination wandering to the craziest of ideas, the hair that stands up at the back of the neck, the feeling that something isn’t quite right. You may end up conversing with your clothing, but that’s not so strange, right? There’s also a slight risk of paranoia as well, but that’s a risk you have to take when you’re dealing with the supernatural.

4

Shivers

Spidey-Sense

Shivers is a Physique skill and is essentially a sixth sense within Disco Elysium, akin to the ‘Spidey Sense.’ You can use it to see into the past, present, and future of Revachol, granting you information that can be of great use in figuring out the current dilemmas you find yourself in. It’s definitely a little bit supernatural, allowing you to solve problems in ways that make no sense to other characters, but that’s their problem, not yours.

If your Shivers skill is too high, other characters will struggle to understand what you’re saying, with some even deeming you to be a bit crazy. It can also spit out confusing answers too, so you’ll have to decipher what it’s saying before you can even use the information provided. It’s a useful skill, though, and there are no others like it in Disco Elysium.

3

Endurance

Health And Hunches

It may not seem like health, here determined by the Endurance skill, is of the utmost importance in a game about detectives. There are plenty of times, however, when your health will be tested, whether through combat or the horrible things the character does to their own body.

If your health runs out in the game, your character has a heart attack, and just as in real life, too many of those are fatal. Increasing Endurance will protect you — there’s no question about it, but it has a secondary purpose as well. Call it trusting the gut — the hunch that the best detectives follow from time to time; Endurance gives voice to those feelings as well, both good and bad.

2

Perception

Noticing The Unnoticed

Just walking through the world of Revachol can yield valuable insight into the mystery at hand. With a high enough Perception skill, details that otherwise would go unnoticed will pop right into view for the player character. Sight, smell, hearing — all the senses are engaged and constantly working.

This can come quite in handy, as you can imagine, but be careful of over-utilizing this skill. The human mind can only process so much detail at once, especially one with the deck so stacked against it from the jump. Too much Perception will overwhelm you and leave you more clueless than you were when you began.

1

Composure

It’s All About Body Language

In a world where all types of characters are trying to get over at the expense of anyone who stands in their way, maintaining composure is vital. Not only does this skill do that, but it also allows you to understand the body language and emotions of the characters you encounter and converse with.

This skill also controls the fashion sense of the character, so for those who find it important to look their best, this is the skill to buff. But, take all things in moderation of course, as maintaining that composure at all times can be very stressful. It doesn’t have many severe side effects though, so don’t be afraid of pumping points into it.