Coming up with some tips was surprisingly challenging, and that's not because it's a simple game. There's so much to say about this French JRPG-style game that it's tough to know where to start. Many have dubbed it French Persona, [[link]] but while there are certain similarities in systems and UI that any fan would instantly recognise, it's got a lot of its own tricks too.
You'll find yourself dodging, parrying, and even jumping attacks in real time, almost like a rhythm game, for example. While the social systems may be sidelined in comparison to Persona, Expedition 33 is far more extensive in terms of overworld exploration, too, letting you discover secrets, puzzles, and optional bosses as you progress. Here are ten tips that'll help you tackle the continent and its many mysteries in Clair Obscur.
Explore the continent as much as possible
More than most RPGs I've played, exploration feels massively important in Expedition 33. Taking your time to travel around the continent imparts lore and paints a picture of the prior expeditions and their struggle to take down the Paintress. It also provides powerful pictos, upgrade materials for weapons, healing items, and even outfits. Those who properly search every nook and cranny will get to experience optional bosses, quests, and super pretty areas they never would've encountered otherwise—so get out there and get exploring.
Don't neglect lumina points
Lumina is the most powerful combat mechanic in Expedition 33, but honestly, it's easy to forget it's there. While characters can only equip three pictos—which each provide a benefit—lumina points let you activate extra pictos as bonus effects. Once you complete the Flying Waters area and unlock the Curator in your camp, speak to him and select the "Upgrade Expedition resources" option.
This will let you use any Colour of Lumina items you've found to add lumina points to members of your party, increasing their capacity for active buffs. To manage these, select a character in the menu, and cycle across to the right side where it says luminas to edit them.
Play into enemy weaknesses
Though its combat is fairly complex, with a variety of buffs and debuffs, Expedition 33 features a straightforward elemental weakness system for enemies and bosses. Depending on the damage type, you might find that an enemy is weak, resistant, immune, or even healed by the element you're using, so it's worth paying attention to. Each weapon has a fixed element—you'll deal this damage type when you attack normally—but skills also deal specific elemental damage, so make sure to bring a range so you can cover your bases no matter the boss.
Git gud at quicktime dodging
This step is kind of unavoidable alas. If you find quicktime events annoying, Expedition 33 isn't for you, since you'll be dodging, jumping, and parrying in real time despite its turn-based battles. Each enemy or boss only has a few attacks, so it isn't particularly hard to nail down the timing—what's harder is responding appropriately to each onslaught. Some attacks require you to dodge, some require you to jump, some need a parry, and others necessitate a gradient counter, which you unlock later in the game. Thankfully, Expedition 33 is very good at slowly introducing each of these so you don't feel like your brain is melting.
Your gun has a lot of uses in combat
When you see that Gustave has the option to use a gun in combat, you'll probably be like, "Hey, it's Joker's pistol from Persona 5!" While this is fairly accurate, "free aim" as this turn-based gunplay is called, is actually a fully-fledged combat mechanic. You'll often find enemies with weak points you can shoot at which produce a variety of effects.
If you shoot the mine that the aquatic Demineur enemy carries, for instance, it'll blow up [[link]] and hurt other enemies. Some bosses even have shooting-based mechanics, where using your gun in a clever way will provide a bonus or stop them performing some horrendous attack that was about to one-shot your party. Lastly, remember that you can also use your gun to deal with annoying enemies that dodge all of your attacks.
Smash enemy shields with free aim
While we're on the subject of guns; use free aim to destroy shields. Frequently during battles, enemies and bosses will call on abilities that let them protect themselves, giving them a little shield icon above their health bar—this will ignore one instance of damage. Since there's no point wasting an actual attack removing these shields, use free aim and simply spend action points to shoot the enemy until their shields are gone, then you can deal proper damage with your turn. Easy!
Many of the exploration upgrades are optional
If you're playing Expedition 33 like a metroidvania, assuming you'll unlock everything just by following the main track of the game, think again. There are multiple traversal and exploration-based abilities that you'll only be able to unlock through optional activities, such as smashing those big blue rocks you see around the map, and diving underwater. It's just another reason to explore thoroughly and do some side stuff rather than just pursuing the main story.
Chat with your expedition pals and track down merchants
Though Expedition 33 doesn't feature relationship mechanics that are quite as complex as Persona, you do have a bond with each expedition member, and you can improve this by spending time with them in camp.
Besides giving you some heartfelt interactions to enjoy, your relationship level will also unlock new character abilities, and in the case of Esquie, even some traversal abilities that help you explore the continent more. If you're unsure when to spend time with your companions, there's usually a new hangout event available whenever you're forced to revisit camp after an important story moment.
If you're also interested in customising your party with cosmetics, then there are a few different ways to do it. You can complete quests, track down mimes, or the easiest option; find Gestral merchants. These vendors are dotted around the overworld and in various areas, and they'll straight up sell you upgrade materials, pictos, and most importantly, character cosmetics.
Build your characters towards action point economy
The real barrier to dealing damage in Expedition 33 is having enough action points to actually use your most powerful abilities. Sure, you can get action points by just doing plain old attacks, but that's a mug's game and wastes a precious turn. Instead, use your pictos and lumina points to activate buffs that'll get you AP through other sources.
Dodger, for example, gives you +1 AP per turn for a perfect dodge, Rewarding Mark gives +2 AP for hitting a marked target, Energising Break gives +3 AP for breaking an enemy, while Dead Energy gives +3 AP on killing a target. You can also earn AP by parrying, though this gets riskier as enemies and bosses start using longer combos. Later on, you can also find the Powered Action picto which consumes extra AP for 30% increased damage. Whatever happens, you'll want plenty of AP for your characters so they can use their best skills often.
Learn your characters and their combos
Each character in Expedition 33 has their own distinctive playstyle, whether it's Maelle's [[link]] stances conferring buffs on her during combat, or Lune stockpiling stains as she casts magic to unleash even more powerful spells. Pictos and lumina, too, incentivise you to combine them in smart ways that'll provide extra buffs, damage, and just generally let you get pretty OP—you'll need it if you want to tackle tanky endgame bosses.
The good news is that the game almost never forces you to play as specific characters, so you can pick and learn the ones you like. For maximum damage early on, I recommend you take Maelle no matter what because her Percée skill is a bit cracked, but any character can be decent with the right picto and lumina combos, so long as you learn and take the time to build them.