Disco Elysium: Should I Internalize All Thoughts?

Disco Elysium’s ‘Thought’ system allows players who’ve been prompted to truly ponder their experiences and actions in-game in order to internalize a specific theme, ideal, or value to their persona for the remainder of the playthrough. By taking these Thoughts inward, the player can gain passive buffs to their skills and different dialogue options and shape their story to their liking.

While positive sounding at face value, things aren’t always as they seem in ZA/UM’s (at times) wacky CRPG, with some Thoughts being outright useless, often with said uselessness being the literal point. Many Thoughts will - at the very least - work against another aspect of your stats, build, or how you interact with the world in exchange for some pithy dialogue or placing you in danger of failing important skill checks.

In this guide, we’ll explain the ins and outs of Thought internalization, why you should second-guess just taking every Thought as it comes, and give you our list of worst Thoughts to take in a playthrough.

What Happens If You Internalize Every Thought?

If you internalize everything you come across, you’ll first need to deal with the processing cost in game time, usually accompanied by a temporary debuff of a certain stat. The “benefits” of any Thought internalized aren’t revealed until after you wait through this period, so it’s often a coin flip that can bite you if you’re spending skill points to open up more and more Thought Cabinet slots.

Fortunately enough, if a Thought you had high hopes for turns out to be a bit of a dud, you can use a skill point to erase the Thought, landing you back at square one, but down a skill point. Clearly, choosing the best Thoughts to internalize is worth your heavy consideration.

Worst Thoughts in Disco Elysium

While there are absolutely no “wrong” Thoughts to internalize, there are certainly some rough ones that can make life pretty hard. Given that you’re spending a whole skill point to take a chance on the unknown, it’s totally understandable to at least want to know what pitfalls you should avoid.

To that end, we’ve put together a small list of Thoughts you will likely want to avoid, or absolutely take if you’re a masochist:

1. The Precarious World

• Critical Success/Failure Thresholds -1

Right off the bat, this is probably the most dangerous one you can take. The cost of learning is failing every Red check for four hours is a huge waste of your time if you have no other means of spending it. The Precarious World’s so-called benefit is a technical improvement of your odds that will only really matter if you’re save scumming, at which point any success adjustments are useless anyway if you have the patience to reload.

You can be prompted for this thought by speaking to the Dicemaker in the Doomed Commercial Area and passing the white Shivers check.

2. Finger on the Eject Button

• Suicidal Dialogue Options every night

Another questionable benefit here, unless you’re roleplaying a self-loathing, depressed nihilistic fellow who doesn’t wish to remain, the measly two-hour time sink and +2 temporary buff to Authority and Suggestion aren’t worth the resulting suicidal dialogue options every night. Unless you’re a completionist or want to see everything the game can offer, this one’s a wasted slot in the Thought Cabinet.

If you’ve got ≥ 5 in Pain Threshold, fail the Authority check with the Hardie Boys, and choose suicidal dialogue options, you’ll quickly be prompted to internalize this troubling Thought.

3. Homo-sexual Underground

• Dialogue Option with Kim opens up

While it does offer some information on Kim Kitsuragi and his sexuality, this Thought is mostly just a gag and will mock you for obsessing over other people’s sexuality once you’ve spent the eight hours internalizing it. It offers zero benefits before, during, and after processing it other than a small piece of dialogue, so you can count this one as a wasted Thought space too.

If you’re eager to see this one, you can prompt it by passing the Composure check by speaking to the Smoker on the Balcony of the Capeside Apartments, and then later speaking to him in the Whirling-in-Rags, asking if he’s in the Homo-sexual Underground.

4. The Insulindian Miracle

• All White Checks unlocked

There’s a benefit to the Insulindian Miracle in that if you’re incredibly stuck or have had bad luck failing multiple White Checks of different stats, then unlocking a number of them at once for some retries could be worth your while. At the same time, there’s every chance you could easily fail those checks again, and your skill points would be better spent improving those necessary stats which would automatically unlock the checks again anyway. It’s also another that expects you not to save scum to warrant its value, even so, it’s 7 hours and 45 minutes and a better-spent slot.

You can gain this Thought prompt by telling Joyce Messier about the Union’s end goal and then listening to her historic explanation of the discovery of the isola.

5. Opioid Receptor Antagonist

• No positive effects from Drugs. No negative effects from Alcohol.

This last one could only be beneficial to a true role-player. By removing the positive effects of the very useful drugs in Disco Elysium[link to Should I Take Speed?] and making alcohol your go-to substance to abuse, you’d have to be playing an alcoholic detective with some kind of hypocritical chip on his shoulder. Drugs can help with some of the hardest Motorics checks in the game, and if you’re not playing a straight-laced sober cop, then what’s the point in boxing yourself off with an hour-long processing and a minor temporary hit to Electrochemistry, the fun[citation needed] skill!

If you’re set on grabbing this one, just speak to Klaasje at the Whirling-in-Rags and insist that her drugs are nothing to be proud of.

That’s it for whether or not you should internalize every Thought, for Disco Elysium guides, make sure to check out our steps on how to get your gun back.

For more Disco Elysium news, be sure to check out our dedicated section or take a look at some of our Guides & Tutorials just below:

TIER LISTS -

Best Disco Elysium Build And Starting Stats | Best Thoughts Tier List

GAME GUIDES -

How to Fast Travel | How Many Days In Disco Elysium | Where To Sleep On Day 1 and How To Sleep For Free | How To Find Your Gun & Get It Back | How To Get The Body Down | Cuno Choices Explained | Where To Find Ruby | Can You Romance Kim & Other NPCs | How to Solve the Egg Head Puzzle | Should You Arrest Klaasje? | Should I Internalize All Thoughts? | Should I Help Evrart Claire? | Should I Take Evrart's Novelty Cheque | Should I Take Speed? | Should I Take the Hanged Man's Boots? | Should I Shave My Beard Or Not? | Should I Report My Badge Missing? | All Disco Elysium Endings, Explained |