Beginner Tips For Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Summary

• In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, players start at age 33 and turn to dust during the Gommage due to the Paintress.
• Players can adjust menu settings for timing bonuses, utilize parry vs. dodge, and find hidden weak spots in enemies.
• Skills such as Healing Light are valuable, optional bosses offer challenges, and Chroma can be used for gear upgrades.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has a dark start to its story, and the overall premise is not that much brighter. Players will begin as Gustave as he explores his city during the Gommage. That’s the time of the year when the mysterious Paintress changes the life expectancy of the world. The game begins with the world’s age set at 34, but when she switches the number during the Gommage, everyone who is 33 turns to dust like they were zapped out of existence by Thanos in the Marvel comics.

After this, Gustave and his fellow explorers head out on the titular expedition to fight the Paintress and hopefully stop her once and for all. That’s the story setup, but gameplay is even more complex, with turn-based and active combat elements, skill trees, and exploration. With that in mind, here are some early-game tips to make this pilgrimage safer in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Timing Is Everything

Before starting, there is one accessibility option in the menu that is unique to the game. Like other time-based RPG systems, players can trigger bonuses when they use special attacks in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The thing is, not every type of player will be able to hit these bonuses in time, as they go by fast.

That is seemingly why the developer added the option to make these Quick-Time Events automatic. Parrying and Dodging, which also require precise timing, cannot be set to automatic, though. Additionally, the music volume often drowns out the voice acting, so players may want to adjust it to around 60% (although the music is fantastic).

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Countering Vs Dodging

Why Not Parry All The Time?

When an enemy attacks, players are generally given both the Parry and Dodge buttons to react. When a player hits Parry, they will counterattack, typically dealing a large amount of damage like in other RPGs.

Dodging will simply dodge an enemy attack. So why wouldn’t a player always choose Parry then, as it can result in returning damage? By using Dodge, players can accrue AP instead, which is used for casting spells, so there are uses for Dodge, too. Dodge timing is also more forgiving, making it best suited for learning enemy attack patterns, which makes timing Parries easier.

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Weak Spots Aren’t Always Obvious

Don’t Follow Capcom’s Logic

During the tutorial phase, players will be introduced to enemies with glowing weak points as if they stepped out of the Capcom factory of boss design. When an enemy appears with a glowing blue point on it, players know they can use Free Aim to score a critical hit on that area.

However, the game does not explain that enemies can have more discrete weak points. For example, there are enemies in Flying Waters that carry floating mines around, and if players hit these mines, they will damage all enemies with an explosion, so be sure to experiment with Free Aim if there’s a spot on an enemy that seems a bit suspicious.

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Skill Tips

From Healing To Multi-Hits

Every character in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has a skill tree, and players will get points when they level up in the game. These skill trees are big, so it can be a daunting task to choose the right skills. Lune has a skill called Healing Light, and Gustave has a skill called Recovery, both of which can heal an ally, which is always useful in an RPG.

There are very few ways to heal during battle, and that’s why these skills are so valuable. Also, players should unlock skills that can hit multiple times to break through Shields, like Maelle’s Fleuret Fury skill. Finally, Earth Rising is a great spell for Lune, which can attack all enemies at once.

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Optional Bosses

Live, Die, Repeat

RPGs are built on side quests, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has several unstated optional objectives in the form of bosses in dungeons, and there are a lot of them. Typically, players may feel under-leveled when they come across these enemies in dungeons. However, there is usually a good strategy to take them down, which can sometimes require luck and a solid understanding of the Parry and Dodge systems.

Suppose players do find these side bosses too tough. In that case, they can always play with the game’s difficulty levels, the aforementioned auto-QTE option, or try leveling up and dumping some points into various Attributes like Defense or Speed in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

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Fight Every Monster Once

They Could Be Hiding Special Items

Besides optional bosses, every enemy that roams a dungeon is potentially important. Even the lowliest-looking monster could hide a good prize to be earned from the first fight, like a weapon. The game is not a loot-heavy game, so these instances are exact, which is why players should always fight each monster spawn at least once.

Much like a Soulslike experience, when players rest at Expedition Flags in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, enemies will respawn, and no other additional items will be gained outside of upgrade materials or the cash of this world, Chroma. It’s an easy system to grind with.

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Unlocking New Mechanics

Chroma And Gear Upgrades

Speaking of Chroma, players are going to get a lot of it quickly from battles, but they can’t use it until at least four to five hours into the game, depending on each player’s gameplay routine. In Flying Waters, they will meet a little NPC named Noco who is a Gestral Merchant.

Gestral Merchants are found all over Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and they often have rare or limited items, all of which are worth buying, from Pictos to upgrade materials. Said materials can be used back at camp once players meet The Curator, who is around Noco’s meeting place. However, players shouldn’t spend them willy-nilly on weapons and instead save materials for dire situations when the game calls for it.