Disco Elysium: How to Get the Hanged Body Down and Get Past Measurehead
We show you how to get the hanged corpse down from the tree, as well as how to get past Measurehead and into the harbor.
One of Disco Elysium's first tasks turns out to be one of the trickiest: get the victim's hanged body down from the tree you found it in. We take you through the multiple ways to bring it down, as well as how to get past Measurehead, the thug stopping you from getting into the harbor.
Warning: The following contains minor spoilers for Disco Elysium.
How to Get the Body Down
There are two ways to get the body down: shoot the belt supporting it so that it drops from the tree, or go see Evrart Claire the Union Leader and ask him to send some workers to do it. If you want to do the latter, you'll have to get past Measurehead, the seven-foot tall racial supremacist guarding the button to open the harbor door. There's several ways to do that, but we'll go over the alternative first.
How to Shoot the Hanged Body Down
Once you've studied the corpse to your satisfaction, you can study it with Kim and decide that the best way might be to just try and shoot the belt holding it up. Kim will always try to do it first, but he'll fail - it's a difficult shot, after all. You can then choose to give it a go yourself, taking the gun from him. This will prompt a fairly difficult Hand/Eye Coordination check, but you can always leave, raise the stat and try later.
When you do take the shot, do not respond to the taunts from Cuno and Cunoesse in any way. They're just trying to distract you, and even telling them to shut up will make things a lot worse. Take the shot, and if you succeed, the corpse will drop, prompting the opportunity for a high-five moment with Kim. You can choose to do Ace's High or Ace's Low, but the second one is better in every sense, giving you more of a bonus.
How to Get Past Measurehead into the Harbor
The other option is to get to Evrart Claire and request help, but he's well guarded in his harbor office. There's three ways to get to him: find an alternate path, get on Measurehead's good side, or just take him down like the Kung-Fu master you clearly are.
How to Sneak Around Measurehead
Claire's guard is posted at the only known entrance to the harbor, but there is a second one, if you're sharp-eyed and brave enough. In the yard where the body is hanging, go to the right where there's a bunch of wood pallets stacked against the wall. Passing a perception check reveals a door behind: Cuno's secret hideout.
Go up the ladder onto the roof, and you'll see a coat hanging off a railing above you. It's your coat, as a matter of fact, and it'll prompt the option to try and jump off the roof onto the walkway. This is a Savoir-Faire check, so if you're wearing those green snakeskin shoes, it might be better to take them off first. If you make it, you'll land on the walkway and Kim will follow. Grab the coat, and now it's a straight line to Claire as you walk through the harbor.
How to Convince Measurehead to Let You Through
So full disclosure: you do actually have to become a racist for this to work, or at least your character will. Speak to him about his beliefs, and when he's done talking, you can try a relatively easy Conceptualisation check to "subscribe to his advanced race theory." If you're successful, you'll get a new thought for your Thought Cabinet called appropriately enough, Advanced Race Theory. Internalize it (that'll take an hour and forty minutes, in-game) and come back to him, whereupon you'll have the dialogue options to get him to let you through the office door behind you. You can forget this thought later by spending another skill point, but Kim won't likely be impressed by your time spent as a eugenics enthusiast, and frankly he's not wrong to think that.
How to Fight Measurehead
This is the good one, honestly, and the easiest one to deduce at the very least. Approach Measurehead, get into a dialogue - and choose to "Knock him out," a formidable skill check that challenges your "Physical Instrument." It's difficult, but there are a few ways to make it easier:
- Talk to the scab leader down below about Measurehead.
- If you have a high intellect, you can poke holes in his race theory in dialogue and make him uncertain.
- Find the White Tank Top, a clothing item that gives you +1 Physical Instrument when worn. It's in a crate in one of the lorries, just South from the warped statue.
If you fail the check, he'll put you in a lock and tell you to admit you're a drunk before letting you go. If you refuse, he'll do physical damage to you. It's generally a humbling experience.
However, if you succeed, you won't lay him out instantly, just hurt him enough to put him in a vulnerable position. At this moment, you have a choice, but only one thing will succeed - you'll have to spin-kick the racist. Select that option, and you'll do a magnificent jump attack that knocks him out cold, allowing you press the button that opens the door to the office behind you.
Go through it to the walkway, then through the harbour, over the containers until you reach Evrart Claire's office. There'll be a fair amount of dialogue with him, but after a while you can ask him to send men to get down the body. He'll relay the message to Measurehead, who will have regained consciousness by the time you get back. Don't worry - he won't attack you, just talk to him when you want the body lowered and he'll handle it.
