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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33offers a massive, mysterious world to explore as you make your way to the Monolith. It’s also full of danger, with deadly Nevrons lurking everywhere and each battle challenging you with new tricks and patterns to learn.
In this blend of soulslike and JRPG, it’s easy to stumble into an unwinnable battle, or miss an important item out of caution borne from that very possibility. In other words, you have to be bold and cautious at the same time. If you want to survive Expedition 33, try these tips as you start your journey.
Play On Expeditioner Difficulty At Most
Clair Obscur offers three difficulty settings when starting a new game, and you’re able to change them at any time. The default setting of Expeditioner is a fair challenge, but you should think twice before turning it up to Expert.
Expert difficultyincreases the damage that you take from attacksconsiderably, meaning thatyou need to be dead-on perfectwith most of your parries, dodges, and other defenses just to survive basic encounters. A single mistake can be deadly, so on your first playthrough Expert will likely be more frustrating than fun, even if you like a challenge.
Play the game once to get the hang of enemies' patterns and combos, then go through it again on Expert if you want the bragging rights.
Search Everywhere
Many of the areas you’ll explore in Clair Obscur can feel mazelike, but there’s always a main path and some branches that have treasure, merchants, and even optional bosses. Whenever you’re in a new place,search high and low to make sure that you don’t miss anything.In the worst-case scenario where you run into a Chromatic Nevron that you aren’t ready for, you’ll just respawn at the last Expedition Flag you visited.
You can also use Expedition Flagsas fast travel points within the same zone, but not to other zones. For example, you can fast travel between flags in Flying Waters, but you can’t use them to travel straight from Flying Waters to the Ancient Sanctuary.
How To Tell If You’re On The Main Path
An easy way to tell if the route you’ve chosen is the main path or a side track iswhether the party starts chatting.The Expedition members will discuss their surroundingsas you progress on the main paththe first time you visit an area, so if they start having a conversation, you’re making progress. That’s your signal to go back and check a route that you skipped earlier, or at the very least to remember to come back later and explore it.
Parry Timing Is Slightly Early
Despite being a turn-based RPG, Clair Obscur uses a timed parry system that’s instantly familiar to action game fans. If youhit the parry button at just the right time, an incoming attack is blocked and your character gets some AP back.
However, you may find thatthe timing is slightly different from what you’re used toif you’re coming from games likeSekiroorDynasty Warriors.Instead of hitting the button at the moment the enemy’s attack connects, you need topress it slightly before, giving your character time to raise their weapon.
Once you get used to the change - which amounts to a fraction of a second - you’ll have a much easier time parrying, but until then it might feel like you’re letting attacks through that you should have been able to block with ease.
Return To Previous Areas
Expedition 33 sets out for the Continent with a singular goal in mind, and it might feel like you need to press onward toward the Monolith at all costs. However, there are a lot of benefits to be found inreturning to places that you’ve already been, especially as you unlock new ways to move along the Continent Map later in the game.
As the game’s Acts progress,merchants will get new stock, previously-inaccessible areas will open, and you’ll be able to take on Nevrons that trashed your team in a single blow when you met them the first time. All this means that it’s well worth the extra time to retrace your steps and verify you leave nothing behind on your journey.
Adapt Your Strategy
The Nevrons in each area have different attack patterns, strengths, and weaknesses, andthere’s no single party setup that’s capable of taking them all on easily. Luckily, the members of Expedition 33 are equally adaptable; by swapping out weapons, Skills, and Luminas, you’re able to dramatically change how your party performs in battle.
If an enemy is giving you trouble and your current setup isn’t quite up to the task, all it can take is a few changes from the character menu to even the odds. Characters know more Skills than they can equip, so if you find that one of the six isn’t being used, switch it out for one that has more utility.
Use Your Recoats
In a similar vein, it’s a good idea to useRecoatto re-allocate Attribute and Skill Points, especially if you’re switching a character to a new weapon that works better with different stats. Recoats are somewhat rare and expensive, costing 10,000 chroma each when merchants have them at all, but they don’t do anything if you don’t use them.
The game keeps three autosaves on your file; if you really don’t like how a Recoat turned out, you can always load the second or third autosave to go back to before you used the Recoat, though this should be a last resort.
Make Sure The Reserve Party Is Ready For Battle
If your party falls in battle, any characters who aren’t in the lineup - the Reserve Party - can step in to make a Last Stand. This often means a single Expeditioner against a foe that wiped out the main team, but if you were close to victory the Reserve Party can sometimes eke out a win and save the day.
If a character isn’t in your main lineup,set them up specifically to handle things in a Last Stand.Luminas that buff solo characters, Pictos that enhance Defense to help them last as long as possible, and Skills for self-healing are all essential.Having a backup ready to go is just as important as preparing your main team.
Danger Means Danger
Some areas that you find on the Continent Map will be marked with “Danger” in big red letters.This is not an idle warning.
If you find an area with a Danger warning, you should probably heed it. You can go inside and look around, if for no other reason than to mark it on the map and maybe pick up some collectibles, butdon’t engage any enemies until you come back stronger.Foes in Danger Zones are usually capable of smashing your entire party to bits in a single strike.
Even if you’re supremely confident in your parrying abilities, it will take forever to whittle down these high-level enemies health bars, and if you make a single mistake, you’re done for. Come back later, after leveling up significantly with an optimized team. You’ve been warned.
