What character to play?

[Super_]

Hello!

I don’t have the game right now but it looks amazing and I’ll be able to afford it in a month or two.

I’m already excited to play it and I’m not sure what character to play first. I like all of the preset characters but also like to make someone like me - average at everything lol.

What is recommended for a first play through?

[jbrd_]

I went custom and attempted to align the starting stats and signature skill with my own personal pros and cons. i.e. very empathetic and psychologically aware (almost to a fault), decent intelligence and motorics, and so-so physical prowess. It's been an absolute blast.

[Naijiro]

Diposting pertama kali oleh jbrd_:

I went custom and attempted to align the starting stats and signature skill with my own personal pros and cons. i.e. very empathetic and psychologically aware (almost to a fault), decent intelligence and motorics, and so-so physical prowess. It's been an absolute blast.

Damn, I went the same route honestly. Seems like the game favors these stats, maybe next time around i'll be a meat head.

[Super_]

See, I’m either average or good. The game doesn’t allow you to be good without having something be bad, which is why I think going all 3 average would represent me best.

[Raymond]

everything is good except psy (purple). Psy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to you way too often.

[Burdpal]

Diposting pertama kali oleh YariMurai:

everything is good except psy (purple). Psy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to you way too often.

I'm a pretty big fan of PSY. I'd probably go so far as to say it's almost as great as MOT.

Authority can allow you to succeed many checks that involve getting people to tell you things or make you money, and is also relevant for getting Kim to do a certain special thing in the church. Volition is basically a check on all your other emotions, which are very relevant for certain important characters. Esprit De Corps gives you information about police officers which adds to the world building of the game. Suggestion is the odd-egg in the group, sort of like Electrochemistry in PHY and Drama in INT - with Suggestion, you'll be able to charm people, but it also injects a bunch of unimportant things into dialogue that can throw you off focus. Empathy helps so much in reading people, and knowing the right things to say in any given instance - it's helped me so much throughout the entire game without fail (easily can be +8 without much of a drawback). Inland Empire is basically your imagination in Disco Elysium, allowing inanimate objects or dead people to speak with you, and also gives you a useful tool in a certain important encounter.

Diposting pertama kali oleh Super_:

What is recommended for a first play through?

My go-to successful build for this game would be 2-4-2-4. That is 2 in INT, 4 in PSY, 2 in PHY and 4 in MOT. Signature skill would be Composure.

The MOT line may seem pretty uninteresting compared to the rest of the ensemble, but there are just far too many important Red checks that require that good Reaction Speed or Composure check - it's a game changer to be able to succeed those instances. And, as I have already indicated above, PSY just has so many interesting and important skills that it's hard to let go. INT is not bad, but having high INT means you would probably get bloated dialogue from Encyclopedia (which, by the way, isn't strictly speaking terrible on your first playthrough - it's important to learn about the world around you for your first run - it's your subsequent runs that will be a drag to read through the walls of text), and Drama is out to get you (you will detect liers, but Drama will also throw you off many times too). Admittedly, I wish I could have a higher PHY because that first Endurance check on the hanged man requires it, and I personally love Shivers for teaching me about the physical world around me, but I guess that's the price to pay for having good PSY and MOT.

The reason I made the stat distribution to 2-4-2-4 is because I felt that 1 is too low. I could technically have 1-5-1-5, but I found it that if I do not have the ability to add more skill points in a line that I'm lacking, especially in endgame, I'm just going to pigeonhole myself into not succeeding checks unless I take a thought cabinet or drugs that extend the cap, and both of those options are a pretty heavy cost. Having a lower skill set to 2 means that I can have Endurance or Rhetoric set to 4 by adding 2 skill points in those lines, and may reach a nice 5-6 depending on the clothing I wear. I would be able to succeed those important checks, even if I didn't originally emphasize them.

[HouNDDoG]

I went 4 3 2 3, and leveled up psych and intelligence stats as I went with perception as my main stat to play the sherlock detective and it seemed pretty good. Near the late mid/end game psych and intel were so high I was passing everything so I started leveling up motorics and physic.

[DDoom]

I'm roleplaying as Mickey Rourke's character from The Wrestler.
It is not going well.

[figbyfigbyfigby]

Midway on my 1st playthrough here, adding my 2cents.

Use one of the 3 archetypes, create your own, take inspiration from your IRL behaviour, I feel like the game accomodate itself pretty well to any approach as long as you're willing to stay true to failed dice rolls.

A detail that didn't stood out to me until the 25th - 30th hour is that the system can be tuned from the beginning to better suit your taste for

More straight action
Or
More hidden internal dialogue

Starting from the 3-3-3-3 "balanced" build, this can make it through almost every white or red check with smart use of clothing, doing drugs, and stat enhancing thoughts.

The drawback is that every skill rarely speaks to you from the beginning, and this happens in a very implicit way by just cutting away the textual content of almost every (but not all) failed passive checks that can't exceed a value of 9 (6+3) for any skill
or 10 (6+3+1) for signature skill.

A "specialized" build instead like 6-4-1-1 in any order (or 5-5-1-1, 4-4-3-1 or even 6-3-2-1) can have from 1 (6 very chatty skills) to almost 3 (12-18 moderately chatty skills) very prominent voices in the detective's head in the form of successfull passive dialogue checks, and all of this while he is still ♥♥♥♥♥ and unable to remember his face.

Long story short, the "balanced" build is for more action done right, the "specialized" build is for more hidden textual content.

My last opinion is that in a game that marches on the shoulders of a Titan weighting 1.000.000 words, the importance of passive checks is often overlooked.

[Super_]

I think I like the idea of 3 3 3 3.

I'm not sure what speciality to have though.

I like the idea of Visual Calculus as I'm somewhat smart and good with numbers. Then I also like Volition as I want to be an altruist and a hero. Pain Threshold and maybe Savoir Faire would be my best from the other two as I can take a beating and recently managed to fall down the stairs while keeping a plate with food on it completely upright.

[figbyfigbyfigby]

Diposting pertama kali oleh DDoom:

I'm roleplaying as Mickey Rourke's character from The Wrestler.
It is not going well.

Brillant! Could you share the build? Just for curiosity ^^

Diposting pertama kali oleh Super_:

I think I like the idea of 3 3 3 3.

I'm not sure what speciality to have though.

I like the idea of Visual Calculus as I'm somewhat smart and good with numbers. Then I also like Volition as I want to be an altruist and a hero. Pain Threshold and maybe Savoir Faire would be my best from the other two as I can take a beating and recently managed to fall down the stairs while keeping a plate with food on it completely upright.

In the 3-3-3-3 scenario the signature skill will really be the only one that talks more of all 24 in the beginning, to help you narrow the choice remember that the cap of every skill in the same area of your signature will rise +1, so pick something in the area you want to have the most potential.

Go for it!

[Super_]

I like Intellect more than Psyche but like both Volition and Visual Calculus. I also hate encyclopedia since I'm ♥♥♥♥ at trivia. It's hard to decide lol.

[figbyfigbyfigby]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Super_:

I like Intellect more than Psyche but like both Volition and Visual Calculus. I also hate encyclopedia since I'm ♥♥♥♥ at trivia. It's hard to decide lol.

Volition as signature has the added value of giving +1 morale, one of the 2 "health bars" in the game, but with a starting PSY of 3 I think you already have plenty enough without Volition as signature (as long as you don't go in too heavy on booze, speed snorts or suicidal tendencies).

As for your disdain for trivia you can even adjust your clothing and thoughts to lower specific skills, so don't feel too constricted ^^

EDIT: just remembered that in my current playthrough I have an astonishing -2 in Encyclopedia.

[Super_]

It's not that I need Volition but rather that I want to have it. If I had these 24 voices, it would probably be the loudest one for me. I love the idea of playing a Detective who has just had this major hangover, he gets his ♥♥♥♥ together and then makes everyone happy.