What are the best Clair Obscur Expedition 33 builds? Whether you’re looking to take on a secret Mime, a superboss, or a one-on-one duel, how you spec and build your character, party, and whole expedition can make a world of difference.
With so many build elements to juggle in Clair Obscur Expedition 33, figuring out combos and team synergies can get complicated. We’ve got you started with the best Clair Obscur weapons and Expedition 33 Pictos, but to get even more out of your favorite characters, here are the best builds in Sandfall’s debut RPG.
The best Clair Obscur Expedition 33 builds
Before we can jump into builds, we need to outline the philosophy behind each decision. The characters in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 don’t all necessarily fit the traditional holy trinity of healers, defenders, and attackers. They come close, and some are more believable hybrids than others, but they’re not shoehorned into those roles.
For example, Lune has access to powerful heals and multi-element attacks for honing in on weaknesses. Sciel can output incredible damage with the right setup, but she’s often needed to support the team with powerful buffs. Maelle has access to powerful debuffs that can delete ten shields in a single hit, but she doesn’t have a single skill to reliably patch wounds.
Characters you find later in the story work much the same way. Paired with limited Lumina points, rare Pictos, weapons, upgrades, stats, and skill points, settling on a single build can take some time. With all this in mind, here are the best Clair Obscur Expedition 33 builds we used to survive the early game, overcome mid-game challenges, and defeat the final bosses through to new game plus.
Best Clair Obscur Expedition 33 early game builds
These early game builds create a party that can help you beat story bosses, Mimes, and the odd Chromatic during the opening hours of the Expedition 33. You won’t have many weapons, Pictos, or Lumina points to work with, so we’re keeping it simple with trinkets you’ll find along the way.
Lune
- Weapon: Benisim
- Skills: Immolation, Thermal Transfer, Healing Light, Ice Lance, Earth Rising, Rebirth
- Pictos: Dead Energy, Dodger, Empowering Attack, Burning Shots, Sweet Kill
Sciel
- Weapon: Chation
- Skills: Twilight Slash, Phantom Blade, Harvest, Fortune’s Fury, Plentiful Harvest, Rush
- Pictos: Dead Energy, Dodger, Empowering Attack, Burning Shots, Sweet Kill
Maelle
- Weapon: Melarum
- Skills: Percee, Offensive Switch, Swift Stride, Spark, Guard Up, Fleuret Fury
- Pictos: Dead Energy, Dodger, Empowering Attack, Burning Shots, Sweet Kill
This early-game build is as simple as they come. Be sure to pick up Dead Energy and Sweet Kill on your travels, and you’ll fend off packs of targets in quick fashion, finishing a fight with more health points than you started with.
The idea here is to set up Lune as a healer while giving Sciel and Maelle plenty of room to set up their hard-hitting attacks. Sciel can step in to heal if needed, and Lune can support well with Slow, Burn, and elemental weaknesses. It’s a build that works great against mob packs and well enough against bosses.
Best Clair Obscur Expedition 33 mid-game builds
From Act Two, things start to get a little more precarious. Free aim targets lose their luster, damage ramps up, and enemies start to use debilitating debuffs and various multi-hit attacks that make parrying for extra damage far more risky. These mid-game builds let us comfortably ride our way into the late-game.
Monoco
- Weapon: Fragaro
- Skills: Pelerin Heal, Troubadour Trumpet, Stalact Punches, Chevaliere Piercing, Boucheclier Fortify
- Pictos: Longer Shell, Augmented Counter, Breaker, Combo Attack, Dodger, Exposing Attack, Healing Share, Staggering Attack, Dead Energy
Sciel
- Weapon: Ramasson
- Skills: Focused Foretell, Grim Harvest, Plentiful Harvest, Fortune’s Fury, Dark Cleansing, Phantom Blade
- Pictos: Dead Energy, Combo Attack, Critical Moment, Energising Start, Dodger, SOS Shell, Burning Shots
Maelle
- Weapon: Veremum/Lithum
- Skills: Percee, Breaking Rules, Fencer’s Flurry, Swift Stride, Guard Up, Offensive Switch
- Pictos: Full Strength, Healing Share, Longer Shell, Augmented Counter, Empowering Attack, Combo Attack, Exposing Attack, Dodger, Dead Energy
This is a relatively easy Expedition 33 party build that’s good for smashing through waves of enemies on the path to the next boss. It also provides decent ability point generation and buffs to make spending on free aim shots to deal with boss mechanics and weak points a little easier.
When it comes to healing, you have two options: Monoco’s Pelerin Heal makes it easy to apply Regen, while his Fragaro weapon lets you spin the wheel with free aim shots. Be lucky enough to land on Caster Mask on the bestial wheel and you can access to a great party heal, too. Outside of that, Monoco is good for heavy damage, buffs, and breaks in his other forms.
Sciel, on the other hand, can provide more reliable healing by giving up her Foretell stacks if needed, with Ramasson offering health recovery and quick Moon charge replenishment. That leaves Maelle to do her thing, using her base attacks to debilitate the enemy with the ability to rapidly switch to Virtuouse Stance on a counterattack thanks to her weapon.
Best Clair Obscur Expedition 33 late and post-game builds
Once you enter the late-game, boss battles ramp up and regular encounters can become fraught with empowered enemies. The best late-game builds make these problematic bouts a little less stressful and can carry you through to endgame and beyond.
Lune
- Weapon: Elerim
- Skills: Typhoon, Thermal Transfer, Revitilzation, Rebirth, Earth Rising, Healing Light
- Pictos: Cheater, Shared Care, Energizing Heal, Healing Share, Shortcut, Draining Cleanse, Combo Attack, Dodger, Exposing Attack
Sciel
- Weapon: Litheson
- Skills: All Set, Fortune’s Fury, Dark Cleansing, Focused Fortell, Phantom Blade, Harvest
- Pictos: Cheater, Draining Cleanse, Energising Powerful, Painted Power, Combo Attack, Dodger
Maelle
- Weapon: Barrier Breaker
- Skills: Guard Up, Phantom Strike, Fleuret Fury, Offensive Switch, Perceé, Sword Ballet
- Pictos: Painted Power, Cheater, Full Strength, Augmented Counter, Breaker, Charging Attack, Combo Attack, Empowering Attack, Exposing Attack, Gradient Fighter
The plan here is to use Lune as your main healer, Sciel as a buffer, and Maelle as a debuffer, with the latter two dealing massive damage once they’re set.
The upkeep of Lune’s Typhoon via Pictos like Shared Care provide a blast of healing to allies each turn. Use free aim shots to apply Burn and cast Thermal Transfer between Typhoons to keep ability points available for any extra heals.
Sciel’s All Set skill synergizes with Energising Powerful to keeps the party protected, fast, hitting hard, and topped up with ability points. With Dark Cleansing on standby to enter Twilight, refresh buffs, and cleanse any debuffs at no cost, she always has points ready to spend. Use them to apply Fortune’s Fury for double damage on herself or Maelle, or deal incredible single-target damage with Phantom Blade.
Alternatively, if you’re going up against enemies who resist or nullify Dark damage, Sciel can either focus on buffs or use Harvest, sharing the heals with the team via Shared Care for an extra cushion. Litheson can also makes a world of difference for Sciel by slowing targets down, boosting your team’s speed.
Either attacker can use their respective Gradient attacks to deliver the pain, especially given Maelle can rip shields away and apply Defenseless with ease. Once you’ve rolled credits, pick up Painted Power and Cheater in new game plus.
Now that you have the best Expedition 33 builds on hand, discover how long Clair Obscur takes to beat. We’ve also got a full rundown of all Expedition 33 outfits and how to unlock them, so you can travel the Continent in style. Finally, kick back with our Clair Obscur Expedition 33 review and the best RPG games to find your next 100-hour obsession.
