If you're starting out in Scala I'd recommend you try use the Scala IDE (Eclipse) first until you're reasonably comfortable in the language. Reason being, that

If you're starting out in Scala I'd recommend you try use the Scala IDE (Eclipse) first until you're reasonably comfortable in the language. Reason being, that Eclipse provides much better feedback regarding types, syntax errors, logic errors and so on. Which is immensely helpful when you start writing not-so-simple FP expressions. After a month or two in Eclipse then switch to IntelliJ for a much faster, smoother, and intuitive GUI and user experience. That's the path I followed, imho I can't imagine learning Scala in IntelliJ. Good luck :)