Disco Elysium: Investigate Doomed Commercial Area - walkthrough Disco Elysium guide, walkthrough
Last update: 23 July 2024
On this page of the Disco Elysium guide, you will find a detailed walkthrough of the side quest Investigate the Doomed Commercial Area. The following walkthrough explains how to get to the abandoned building, how to search it, and where you'll find the Novelty Dicemaker - the source of the "curse."
- Unlocking the task
- Entrance to the abandoned building
- Investigating the Doomed Commercial Area
- Meeting the Novelty Dicemaker
- Completing the task
Unlocking the task
For the sake of this task, drop by the bookstore - the entrance to it is located west of the Whirling-in-Rags hostel.
You can examine the yellow curtains on the ground floor or talk to the owner of the bookstore, Plaisance, right away. During the conversation, you will learn that the building connected to the bookstore is cursed. Plaisance will ask you to investigate the case, find evidence of a supernatural sinister creature, and report your findings to her.
Alternatively, you can break into the Doomed Commercial Area without talking to Plaisance about the curse, ignoring her further warnings.
Entrance to the abandoned building
The door leading to the Doomed Commercial Area is behind the yellow curtains on the right.
The door is locked by default - you could either receive a key from Plaisance or you can pass the Physical Instrument skill check to break it open (if you fail the check, you'll lose 1 health point, so save the game beforehand).
Investigating the Doomed Commercial Area
Before you start to explore, you can talk with Kim about the believability of supernatural forces. While you go through the abandoned building, you will need a flashlight - we explained how to obtain it on a separate page: How to get a flashlight?. Place it in Harry's left or right hand to light up dark rooms.
Go through the other rooms. Go down to the basement, to the room with an Ice Bear Fridge.
Finally, you need to reach the furnace shown in the screenshot above.
The refrigerator found in the building can also come in handy in the Fridge victim's body task. It also contains a note.
Examine the furnace, then try to pass the Physical Instrument skill check (you can make it easier by kicking the furnace beforehand, but Harry will lose 2 health points as a result) and you will hear a female voice coming from inside the shaft. The woman will invite you to the second floor.
If you cannot use any of the options to "communicate" with the furnace, return to Plaisance to report your findings and decide on the next steps.
Meeting the Novelty Dicemaker
Return to the previous area of the building, specifically to the place where you previously saw the yellow roller blind that blocked your way. Now the passage shown in the screenshot above will be available.
Once inside, you will meet the Novelty Dicemaker, who makes dice for RPG games. Talk to her about the reasons the companies that had their headquarters in this building went bankrupt.
She can also be commissioned to make dice for Harry, although this isn't related to the task in question.
Completing the task
After talking to the Novelty Dicemaker, return to the owner of the bookstore and tell her what you managed to find out about the alleged curse.
During this conversation, you can point out the true cause of all tenants of that building going bankrupt, or lie and say that the curse really exists. You will receive 70 XP for the investigation.