Which thoughts are essential to select in the early stages of Disco Elysium? This is a highly free-form detective reasoning game, where attribute points can be freely allocated, and thoughts are also added by the player. This leads many new players to not know which thoughts are more important in the early stages. In fact, these are all related to opening strategies. Next, I will share some starting strategies with you, so that new players preparing to start can take a look.
I. Character Creation
Players play as a specific character, a detective. Apart from the profession, the character's appearance, background, and age are all pre-set, but you can decide on the character's personality. That is, what kind of detective this character is. The first thing you need to do is to decide on the characteristics of the character you will play. First, you can choose from three system-predefined characteristics, or secondly, freely allocate points. If you choose to create your own character, the first thing to do is to allocate various attributes. The minimum value for an attribute is 1 point, and the maximum is 6 points. Besides the base value of 1 point, there are 8 points that can be freely allocated. After allocating, you need to choose any one of the 24 skills as a specialty skill. Once everything is set up, you can officially start the game.
II. Skills
When interacting with NPCs or objects around you, there are numerous checks involved. Skills are the main factor affecting these checks; currently, there are 24 skills in the game, associated with four attributes. It can be said that anything you do in the game cannot be done without skills. The main role of skills is to participate in NPC interactions, provide information, dialogue suggestions, and options based on the check results. When interacting with objects, the check results will determine whether the player can discover certain clues or open a mechanism.
III. Thought Cabinet
The Thought Cabinet refers to the various thoughts and ideas in the character's mind. These thoughts intertwine to form different ways of thinking, primarily influencing the character's skills and factions. They will unlock as the game progresses. After obtaining new thoughts, they can be seen and used in the Thought Cabinet. Currently, there are 35 types of thoughts, and the maximum number of thoughts that can be used is 12. The way to use them is to place the thoughts in any of the diamond-shaped slots. Similar to reality, after acquiring new thoughts, it takes some time to integrate them before they truly become your own.
For the 12 positions in the Thought Cabinet, there is a certain hierarchy. The Thought Cabinet is the main component that determines the gameplay for this run. After internalizing, thoughts can be forgotten by consuming skill points, and once forgotten, they cannot be used again. Initially, internalizing thoughts that give experience and increase the skill point cap is also good. Later, when skills are maxed out, extra skill points can be replaced with thoughts that increase numerical values.
IV. Selection of Thoughts
Since there are so many thoughts, naturally, there are stronger and more useful ones. The following thoughts are also recommended for you to add. The first is "Experience and Money Boost", Option 3: Serious Art Acupoint, Dexterity -1, Unconventional Passive Check Success, Morale +1, Experience +10. This is currently the strongest thought, obtainable on the first day, and under ideal conditions, it can provide over 40 skill points.
Pretentious Fool; This is the taste of wealth freedom obtained on the third day, providing 30+ skill points; Option 1: Old Things as New, Well-Read -1; Clicking on each perception ball increases experience; the learning cap for intelligence-based skills is increased; Perception Ball Experience, when the five senses level is high, more perception balls will appear.
Essential thoughts for the Intelligence attribute include "Well-Read," which unlocks world view backgrounds; "Conceptualization," which can advance the art creation side quest and is recommended to be maxed out later. For the Psyche attribute, it is recommended to add "Inland Empire," which allows you to perceive surreal clues and the character's inner self; "Patient Persuasion" enhances persuasiveness.
The essential thoughts to select in the early stages of Disco Elysium have been recommended above. At the beginning, as long as you generally control the process and direction, the initial investigation will go relatively smoothly, and you can obtain clues more easily, which is helpful for solving cases. Everyone, quickly follow the strategy in this article and start the game.
