Disco Elysium Tribunal Guide: Evidence Checks and Survival Outcomes

Sooner or later the lynching case walks itself back to the Whirling-in-Rags and turns into a gunfight. The Mercenary Tribunal is the shoot-out that caps the investigation: three Krenel contractors lined up against the Hardie boys, with you and Kim stuck in the middle of the plaza. Every check in the scene is red, so nothing gets re-rolled, and the body count runs from four to eight depending on how you play it. You can't talk everyone down. What you can do is decide who walks away.

Preparing Before the Tribunal

The Tribunal isn't on a clock, it's on a trigger. Finish the confrontation with Ruby, the Instigator, out on the coast, and the task Return to the Whirling-in-Rags drops into your journal on its own. The shooting starts the moment you walk back toward the plaza outside the Whirling, and fast travel is switched off for that walk. The coast itself doesn't open until the water lock gets closed, so none of this can happen before Day 3 anyway.

That's your window. The game never rushes you toward Ruby, so wrap up your side business before you go confront her, because a whole stack of doors closes once the bullets stop flying. And keep an eye out on the walk back: an Inland Empire thought orb pops up near the pawnshop warning you about what's coming and nudging you to arm up. Take the hint.

Get a weapon in your hands

You've got three options, and you only need one.

• Your own sidearm. The Villiers 9mm Pepperbox Pistol comes from the task Confront the Pigs and Get Your Gun Back, which only unlocks after you've done Evrart Claire's favours. The pigs will wave the unloaded thing at you when you corner them. When it's over, choose to keep the gun. Turn it down while Kim's not around and it goes into the water for good.
• Ruby's gun. If Ruby turns her Nachtwey A80 Pepperbox on herself during the confrontation, you can pick it up afterward.
• The Spirit Bomb. If your Inland Empire is high enough that the Horrific Necktie talks to you, buy some Blue Medicinal Spirit from Rosemary in the fishing village. After the Ruby confrontation, the tie tells you to drop itself into the bottle, and now you own a single-use fire bomb. This one has to happen in the gap between Ruby and the walk home, since the prompt only fires then.

Whatever you bring, bring ammo. There's a bullet stashed under the floorboards of the washerwoman's shack (you can only look once you're on Ruby's trail), and a second bullet matters: if your first shot misses, a second round gets you a retry. Show up with no weapon at all and the fight just starts with Ruud aiming at you instead, which goes about as well as you'd expect.

The Fairweather T-500 armour

The mercenaries wear Fairweather T-500 ceramic plate. So can you, mostly. Equipping any single piece unlocks the Fairweather T-500 thought, which takes 3h 30m of research time and is partially broken in your favour's favour (well, sort of): it's supposed to give +2 Hand/Eye against enemies in this armour but actually pays out +1 on the shot at Kortenaer and the full +2 on a retry shot. Grab a piece early so the research finishes before the walk back.

• Cuirass (shirt slot, +1 Volition, +1 Pain Threshold, -1 Empathy). Gary the Cryptofascist is holding it, Day 3 onward. Fish the Yellow-Man Mug out of the Whirling's trash container, ask Gary about the mug, then about the armour, and pass a Composure white check. This is the piece that matters most: worn during the Tribunal, Ruud's first shot does zero damage even if you botch the dodge.
• Greaves (shoes slot, +2 Authority, -1 Composure). These get twisted off the Hanged Man's corpse. You need the boots task from examining the body, a nighttime visit with Kim absent, and it has to happen before the corpse ships out for processing. Afterwards, scrub them in the Whirling kitchen with soap and white vinegar. That +2 Authority is spicy, because the very last check of the fight is an Authority check. Kim will point out that you stole a dead man's boots. He's not wrong.
• Gauntlets (gloves slot, +2 Interfacing). Day 3 onward, fishing village. Ask Cindy the SKULL about the armour and she mentions a little girl took the gloves, so talk to Little Lily inside Lilienne's house, then check the sand castle behind it.
• Helmet. Doesn't show up until the endgame. Ignore it for now.

Small stuff that keeps you alive

Sleep before you head back and top your health off. A failed dodge costs 2 health, and while the scripted leg shot later does no actual damage, you want slack in the bar for the one that can kill you. Pocket whatever healing items you've got, and if you're the type to use skill drugs, Motorics boosters are the play here since Hand/Eye Coordination and Reaction Speed both get rolled. And save before you enter the plaza. Red checks don't forgive.

Gathering Relevant Evidence

The Tribunal quietly grades your detective work. Nearly every modifier on the big checks traces back to an optional thread you either pulled during the investigation or didn't, so the prep list is really a case-work list.

Case facts that turn into bonuses

• Joyce's info on the lynching. Ask Joyce Messier about the lynching and you learn Krenel used to go by the name Downwell. That's +1 on the Rhetoric check mid-standoff. It also tells you a tribunal is coming at all, which is how anyone sane ends up prepping.
• Running the number on the victim's armour. Inspect the Hanged Man's T-500 plate properly and you learn who he was: Ellis Kortenaer (+2 on the Suggestion check), raised in care as a kid (+1). And yes, that's the same last name as Raul Kortenaer, the guy running the tribunal. This thread also carries a Downwell bonus if you never got it from Joyce.
• The scab leader's tattoos. Ask the Scab Leader about his tattoos ahead of the shooting and he ends up distracted by memories: +1 on your attack roll.
• Klaasje on the hanged man. Get her talking about him and his blue eyes come up: +1 on the Suggestion check.

Add it up and three conversations plus one armour inspection buy you up to +5 of padding on the hardest roll of the scene. That's usually the difference between a clean run and watching Titus die.

Kim's trust is evidence too

There's a hidden opinion counter running behind Kim's poker face (the "good cop" points, the same one the Goodest of the Good Cops achievement tracks). The catch: he only scores what he actually sees, so being a menace off on your own is mostly free. Cheap wins include asking about him and the case instead of hogging every conversation, returning Lena's pin if you begged money off her, finding the footprints behind the blue door, and showing up to the evening debriefs with actual results. Doing speed and then telling him about it is a classic way to lose points. Don't.

Why grind this now: the final check of the fight scales directly with that number. Reputation above 7 is +2, above 0 is +1, below 0 is -1, and below -5 tacks on another -1. A partner who trusts you is worth more than most of your gear.

Dialogue and Skill Checks

Here's the whole scene at a glance. Base difficulties come straight from the wiki crowd that datamines this stuff, and they're all red checks.

| Moment | Skill | Base | What hangs on it | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Claim the Hardie boys are innocent | Logic | 11 | Elizabeth lives or dies | | Think of an argument | Rhetoric | 12 | +1 on the attack | | Talk about the hanged man | Suggestion | 13 | +1 to +2 on the attack | | Take out Kortenaer | Hand/Eye | 14 (gun) / 12 (bomb) | Titus, Kortenaer, and Ruud | | Dodge Ruud's shot | Reaction Speed | 12 | 2 health, or nothing | | Dodge the dying man | Reaction Speed | 20 | Nothing, scripted fail | | Warn Kim | Authority | 11 | Kim stays or goes to hospital |

The talk before the bullets

You and Kim get a quick debrief, then you step between the two sides. Walking away isn't on the menu; Kim flat-out won't allow it. Violence is coming no matter what you say, so treat the dialogue as modifier-farming, not diplomacy.

The innocence claim is a trap for weak Logic builds. Elizabeth only gets a gun pointed at her if you tell Kortenaer the Hardie boys didn't kill the hanged man; pass Logic 11 and he misses her, fail and she's dead. So if your Logic is shaky, just don't make the claim, and she's safe by default. Eating that failure costs you twice, since her getting shot is also a -1 on your attack.

Mention Joyce by name, saying the Wild Pines rep won't approve of this, and then refuse to change the subject when pushed. Shanky runs for it and lives. Back down and change the topic, and he stays for the shooting and doesn't walk away from it.

The line "You're all drunk, look at yourselves!" is worth +1 on two different checks (it gets them arguing). One catch: with roughly 5 or more Electrochemistry, your brain will chime in suggesting you join them, which is a -1 unless a Volition of 5 or better shuts it down. Net +1 either way, as long as your head's on straight.

Rhetoric 12 ("Think of an argument!") gets +1 from knowing the Downwell connection, +1 from the drunk line, and -1 if the gardener's already down. Passing it means Kortenaer's talking instead of focusing, which is +1 on the attack. One quirk: pass it and then just stand there doing nothing, and you eat a -1 anyway. So don't freeze.

Suggestion 13 ("Talk about hanged man") is worth attempting even if you expect to flop. The attempt itself is +1 on the attack, because you discussed his dead friend. Passing it opens the good lines: the one about his parents leaving him in a leaf compactor (+1) and the "everyone says good things about him, he was a talker" line (+1). You can land both.

The shot at Kortenaer

This is the roll the whole scene pivots on. It's Hand/Eye 14 with a firearm, or 12 if you're throwing the Spirit Bomb (the bomb takes priority if you have both). Stack the scab-leader tattoos, the T-500 thought, the drunk line, a passed Rhetoric check, and the Suggestion follow-ups, and you're +5 or +6 deep before the dice touch the table.

A worked example, using the bomb: base 12, five points of padding, and a modest 4 in Hand/Eye. That's a roll of 2d6 plus 9 against 12, so anything except snake eyes lands it, better than nine tries out of ten. The exact same setup with the gun needs a 5 or better on the dice, roughly four runs in five.

Miss with a gun while carrying a second bullet and you get another shot, at a -2 penalty (the T-500 thought pays its full +2 on this retry, which softens the blow nicely). Miss with the bomb and there's no second throw. You can hurl your empty gun at him, and it always connects, and it bounces right off his plate.

Put Kortenaer down and the Hardie boys swarm him and Ruud, and both mercenaries die there. Miss, or stand there doing nothing, and Kortenaer executes Titus later while Ruud survives his wound. One roll carries three fates.

The dodge and the warn

Ruud's retaliation is a Reaction Speed 12 dodge. Take the "Blink, think!" option first, because it opens a stack of little passive checks: Visual Calculus 5+ sees he'll overcorrect (+1), Savoir Faire 5+ knows you're faster in that plate (+1), Suggestion 7+ clocks that his judgment is shot (+1), and Esprit de Corps 7+ has faith that Titus is aiming at him right now (+1). Half Light 8+ is the weird one: your own fear sabotages you for -1. Fail the dodge and it's 2 health gone, unless you're wearing the cuirass, in which case it's nothing either way. Then Kim shoots Ruud through the face plate, wounding him, while de Paule misses Kim entirely and kills Glen. That part is scripted.

The next check, dodging the dying Kortenaer's last shot, is Reaction Speed 20 and it's rigged to fail. Don't burn a reload on it. The leg shot you take is pure story, no health damage.

Last comes Authority 11 to scream a warning at Kim, with the modifiers from his trust listed above. Pass it, and Kim drops whoever's about to shoot him in the back. If that's de Paule, she dies (and even when it's Kortenaer instead, de Paule still ends up dead). Fun detail: if you're still holding your gun with a round left, you toss it to Kim for the kill shot. Fail the check, and Kim takes the bullet and he's out of the game.

Protecting Your Companions

Kim

Here's the part most players get wrong: Kim can't actually die here. He can leave, though. Pass the Authority check and he stays your partner to the end; blow it or skip it and he spends the rest of the run recovering in Precinct 57's lazareth while Cuno (or nobody) rides shotgun. A hospitalized Kim doesn't single-handedly lock in a bad ending, but the last act gets lonelier and your options thin out.

There's a trophy riding on this too. Recruit Detective Kim Kitsuragi requires him to come through the Tribunal as your partner with very high reputation, which then lets you offer him a spot at Precinct 41 in the epilogue. If Authority is your dump stat, remember those greaves you half-inched off the corpse: +2 Authority, purpose-built for this exact moment.

The Hardie boys and the plaza

• Titus lives only if you put Kortenaer down. That single attack roll is his life insurance.
• Elizabeth is safe if you skip the innocence claim, or if your Logic 11 holds up.
• Shanky survives if you invoke Joyce and refuse to drop the subject.
• Alain and Eugene come through it no matter what you do.
• Garte watches the whole thing from the balcony and is somehow always fine.

Who you can't save

Glen, Angus, and Theo die in every version of the fight. Three union men gone, full stop, no line of dialogue or lucky roll changes it. Worth knowing in advance so you don't burn an evening reloading a run that was already clean. If the dead are Glen, Angus, Theo, and the mercs, you more or less played it perfectly.

Understanding the Aftermath

Waking up

You black out in the plaza and wake up a couple of days later in your room at the Whirling. Someone's cleaned the place, Garte's stopped charging you for it, and there's a new task waiting: Inspect the Window in Klaasje's Bedroom. Klaasje herself is gone, but if you never arrested her, she left a gift upstairs, a bullet trajectory map showing where the kill shot came from. That map is the thread that drags you into the endgame. If you did cuff her back when you had the chance, no map, and you'll piece the shooter's nest together the harder way.

The world after

Martinaise shrinks fast once the shooting stops. The harbor's locked down, so Evrart's done. Joyce sails off. The Morells head home. On the upside, Kim's room opens up through the bathroom in yours, of all doors, if he's still around to share notes with. Practically every side thread in town ends here, which is the real reason to sweep the map clean before you ever confront Ruby.

Partners and endings

If Kim's beside your bed, you get a proper debrief and he's back on the case with you. If you wake up alone, Cuno's downstairs offering to be your new partner, and honestly, he's not half bad at it, or you can finish the case solo. Either way the last stretch is short: a walk out to the island, one final conversation, and the whole story explains itself.

One last thing worth knowing: the leg shot stays with you. You limp through the endgame. Small price for walking out of that plaza alive, all things considered.