resist the urge to savescum. :tequila-sunset: is a fuckup failure of a human being, he's gonna make some mistakes, and honestly the some of the fucked up rolls are the best scenes. you should roll with your failures.
however! there are some checks that if are worth retrying. if you ever call kim something mean, if you're trying to help out church lady and you fail a strength check, those are circumstances where i might recommend savescumming
You'll fail a lot, don't be discouraged. Also don't look anything up, like how to solve a puzzle. Let the experience wash over you with no outside input
My advice is enjoy the game. If you stop enjoying the game, you should stop playing. I really like how it starts and I find that I like it less as it continues. It's still fine but never really gets back to how it began.
All gameplay is reading text. If your eyes are glazing over and you're skipping through text, come back later. Skipping through text will only give you more text, not gameplay, so it's not like you're skipping to anything.
Play either the thinker or the sensitive type character on your first go. If you can't decide between the two, I'd recommend thinker (on the left).
That's it, enjoy!
Points in Volition effect your mental HP. Points in Endurance effect your physical HP. If you fail a check it usually hurts one of those HP bars. You can also buy consumable items and save them for when you deplete your last hit point. I think you get your HP back when you sleep.
Becoming an art cop or a book nerd (level conceptualization and encyclopedia respectively) will unlock thoughts that will significantly boost xp or money generation will which let you do more things, but there isn't really a way to lose the game. The narrative is always able to finish. And talk to everyone you can, they all have interesting things to say.
The game has an RPG rolling system, like rolling dice to see if you do well on a step. Resist the temptation to save and then reroll until you get the outcome you want. The game is more fun when you let your character experience failures.
Disco Elysium is meant for multiple playthroughs and failures, don't be upset at not seeing everything or min maxing (also collect all the clothes you can, they help with skillchecks when needed).
don't read anything here. go in as blind as possible, and if you die, don't savescum
use the wemod trainer to pause the time so you can do more. then give yourself all the points so you can see all the dialogue.
Whatever build you do is fine and you'll get enough clothes and points to be good at anything eventually.