You’re standing in the cold, salt-blasted air of Martinaise, staring at a hung body and wondering why on earth you decided to platinum this game. Honestly, Disco Elysium isn't a game designed for completionists. It’s a game about failure, dementia, and the crushing weight of history. Yet, here we are, hunting for a Disco Elysium trophy guide because that shiny Platinum or 1,000 Gamerscore is calling.
It's a brutal climb.
The "The Final Cut" update added a bunch of political vision quest trophies that essentially require you to play the game four different times. If you think you can do this in one go, you’re dreaming. You’ve got to embrace the save scumming, the internal monologues, and the very real possibility that Harry Du Bois might just die of a heart attack because he looked at a ceiling fan too hard.
The Mental Prep for Martinaise
First off, throw your pride away. Most games reward you for being good. Disco Elysium rewards you for being a specific kind of disaster. You’ll need to build a character that is borderline unplayable at times just to trigger specific checks.
The game uses a 2D6 system. It's math, basically. You add your skill level and your attribute to a dice roll. If you’re hunting trophies, you aren't playing "your" Harry. You’re playing the trophy’s Harry. This means you’ll be dumping points into weird places like Encyclopedia just to hear a man talk about the history of a mailbox for twenty minutes.
Hardcore Mode and the Palpable Stress
The Disco Elysium trophy guide journey usually starts or ends with Hardcore Mode. It's a toggle in the menu. Don't be fooled; it doesn’t make the combat harder because there isn't really any combat. It makes the world hate you more.
Money is scarcer. Drugs are more expensive. Failures are more frequent. The "True Detective" trophy demands you finish the game on this setting. My advice? Do it on a second or third playthrough when you actually know where the money is hidden. You’ll need every real (the currency) you can find just to pay for your room at the Whirling-In-Rags. If you don't have the 20 real by the end of the first day, Kim will have to sell his hubcaps. It's depressing. It's also a trophy.
Getting the "Kim Trust" Trophies
Kim Kitsuragi is the moral compass of the game. He’s also the gatekeeper for some of the hardest trophies. To get "Fairweather T-500 Vitreous Enamel," you have to convince him to let you wear a piece of ceramic armor. He thinks you're a freak for doing it.
He's right. You are.
To get "Recruit Detective Kim Kitsuragi," you need to keep your "Good Cop" points high. This means not being a racist, not taking bribes from Joyce Messier (even though you really need the money), and actually solving the case. If you fuck up the tribunal—the big shootout late in the game—Kim can end up in the hospital. If that happens, you aren't getting him as a partner at the end.
The Political Vision Quests: Four Paths to Madness
The Final Cut introduced four distinct political paths. You can only do one per playthrough. This is the main reason a Disco Elysium trophy guide is a long-term commitment.
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- The Communist Path (Committee of Responsibility): You’ll be talking about building "The Big Communism" and hanging out with two students who are perpetually disappointed in you.
- The Fascist Path (Icebreaker): This is unpleasant. You have to say some truly vile things to NPCs to trigger this. It's about "traditionalism" and "revanchism." You’ll spend a lot of time looking in mirrors hating yourself.
- The Ultraliberal Path (Net Worth): It's all about the hustle. You’re trying to turn Martinaise into a giant tax haven. You’ll meet a guy who is literally turning into gold.
- The Moralist Path (Committee of Responsibility): This one is actually dangerous. If you go too far down the "neutral" path, the Coalition (the international government) might just pick you up in a helicopter and the game ends. Literally. Roll credits.
The Most Annoying Trophy: "Palpable Overkill"
There’s a trophy for shooting the corpse down with your gun. It sounds simple. It isn't. You need a high Hand-Eye Coordination. If you miss, Kim tries. If he hits it, you don't get the trophy. You have to be the one to do it.
I spent two hours reloading a save for this.
You have to internalize the "Actual Art Degree" thought or something similar to boost your stats enough to make the percentage viable. Or just get lucky. But relying on luck in Martinaise is a quick way to end up face-down in the mud.
Thoughts and Why They Matter
The Thought Cabinet is where the real strategy happens. For a Disco Elysium trophy guide to be effective, you need to know which thoughts to cook and which to discard.
"Jamais Vu" is essential. It gives you XP for every orb you click. In a game where levels equal skill points, and skill points equal trophy success, this is your bread and butter.
Then there’s "Mazovian Socio-Economics." If you’re going for the Communist trophy, you need this early. It makes you lose Morale every time you say something pro-capitalist, but it gives you XP for being a leftist. It’s a trade-off. Everything in this game is a trade-off.
The Infamous "Palaeo-Anthropological" Trophy
You have to find a specific set of items for the Cuno. Or rather, for the case. Most people miss the "Leather Jacket" or the "Ferryman's" items. To get the "Expert Remote Viewer" trophy, you have to lean into the supernatural. The game constantly teases that there’s something "more" going on—the Pale, the cryptids, the holes in reality.
If you play as a boring, straight-edged cop, you will miss 40% of the trophies.
You have to be a "Paranatural" investigator. This means talking to the Insulindian Phasmid. Yes, it’s real. No, I’m not spoiling how to find it, but if you don't have enough points in Electrochemistry and Inland Empire, it’ll disappear before you can snap a photo. And that photo is a trophy.
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Practical Checklist for the Platinum
Forget those neat little lists that make it look easy. It's a mess. But if you want to be efficient, keep these milestones in mind:
- Day 1: Get your boots. Seriously. Steal the boots off the dead body when Kim isn't looking. It's the first step to the full armor set.
- Day 2: Talk to the Sunday Friend. He’s key for several political trophies.
- Day 3: The canal opens. This is when the game world doubles in size. Save your money to buy the flashlight and the crowbar if you haven't already.
- The Tribunal: This is the "Point of No Return." Make sure you have a save file before this. A lot of trophies are mutually exclusive based on who lives and who dies here.
Handling the "Hardest" Trophies
"Medal Dispenser" requires you to get a literal medal from an old soldier and then give it to a kid. It sounds sweet. It’s actually a logistical nightmare involving your Authority skill. If your Authority is too low, you’ll just look like a rambling drunk. If it’s too high, you might accidentally bully the kid.
Then there's "What body?"
This trophy is for finishing the game without ever interacting with the dead man hanging in the tree. It’s hilarious. You just... ignore the central premise of the game. You solve the mystery of the strike, the drug trade, and the "hole in the world," all while a rotting corpse just swings in the background. It requires a very specific build because you have to pass checks that normally require information from the autopsy.
How to Not Get Soft-Locked
The biggest danger in your Disco Elysium trophy guide quest isn't the dice; it's the clock. If you run out of money on Day 1 or Day 2 and can't pay Garte, you sleep on a bench and die. Game over.
Always keep a "rainy day" fund of 20 real.
Collect every postcard and sell them to the pawnshop.
Pick up every yellow plastic bag and use it to collect bottles.
It's undignified for a police officer to be a "hobo-cop," but it’s the only way to survive Martinaise if you aren't taking bribes. And if you take the bribe from the woman in the yacht, Kim will remember. He always remembers.
Actionable Next Steps for Your Playthrough
Don't try to be a hero. Be a specialist.
Start your first run with a "Sensitive" or "Thinker" build. Focus on just seeing the story. On your second run, turn on Hardcore Mode and go for the opposite build. If you were a smart cop first, be a "Physical" cop the second time. This unlocks entirely new dialogue paths and trophies that were literally invisible to you before.
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Keep a separate save at the start of Day 3. This is the ultimate branching point. From here, you can pivot into different political quests without replaying the first two days, which can be a bit of a slog after the fourth time.
Check your "Internalized Thoughts" regularly. Some of them have hidden timers. If you don't finish the "White Mourning" thought, you might lose the chance to zoom out the camera, which—believe it or not—is actually useful for finding hidden orbs.
The Platinum is a marathon through a fever dream. Good luck. You're going to need it, detective.