Expedition 33 (Characters, Skills, & Pictos)

Many recommendations for best character builds do not take into account all three active characters in the party. This build aims to set every character up for an all-around balanced party. This build is my best recommendation for an endgame party comp that assumes you are in NG+ and have collected and upgraded many of the necessary weapons and unlocked a majority of each character’s skills.

For an early game party setup, I recommend using an Overcharge Gustave build, a Healer or Fire build for Lune, and a Burn-based build incorporating Maelle’s Medalum weapon. You will use Medalum for Maelle in this build as well, and will also need to defeat one of the toughest endgame bosses for Verso’s best-in-slot weapon.

Best Party Build In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Top Line Characters Are Maelle & Verso

For the best party setup, you should always have Maelle and Verso on your top line, and to filter out your third choice between the remaining characters. I tend to start with Monoco as a support unit with high speed Pictos equipped to maximize his opportunities to buff the party.

I use a similar strategy with Sciel, and will swap her and Monoco out depending on the enemy’s specific attacks, buffs & debuffs, weaknesses, and strengths. Aside from support skills, Sciel is great for enemies who are weak to Dark damage, while Monoco is best for building up Break damage.

Lune can be used equally effectively as a support or offensive unit, but I prefer to bring her in for a pure offense-focused line to deal ridiculous damage alongside Maelle and Verso. Lune synergizes extremely effectively with Burn skills and damage, and the three of them combined are a deadly combination.

I recommend Verso, Maelle, and Lune if you are extremely confident in your Parrying skills and don’t think you’ll need any defensive buffs during combat, or when facing enemies that are particularly weak to Fire.

When using Maelle, the best strategies involve keeping her in Virtuose Stance as often as you can. As long as you have a lot of Lumina Points, you can equip brutal Pictos combinations for devastating attacks. When done right, Maelle can one-shot many enemies with huge damage numbers.

Best Weapons, Pictos, & Luminas For Each Character

Verso’s Simoso & Maelle’s Medalum Are Best-In-Slot Weapons

While there are a ton of great weapons in Clair Obscur, I’ve found that the best balance for the entire party builds outward from Maelle and Verso’s best-in-slot items: Medalum and Simoso.

If you managed to acquire Verso’s Simoso weapon from Simon in The Abyss, congratulations, you’re in good shape. However, this is a late-game item that you likely won’t be able to get until you’ve honed your skills and optimized your build for each character. The Glaceso is an excellent alternative that is available much earlier, though you will need to adjust your attributes accordingly.

Another good option for Maelle is the Jarum. Use this one if you’re confident at parrying. A successful parry with the Jarum switches Maelle into Virtuose Stance, which also stacks Burn on the enemy. As you’ll soon discover, Burn-heavy builds are some of the most reliably powerful in the game.

Both Medalum and Simoso are Burn-stacking weapons that are capable of dealing incredible amounts of damage. This is especially true when both are fully upgraded and both characters have Double Burn and other Burn-enhancing Pictos and/or Luminas active. Lune’s best-in-slot weapon, Scaverim, synergizes with these really well, assuming you have the right skills slotted.

It also does not necessarily rely solely on Fire and/or Burn to be effective. In fact, Scaverim is one of the few weapons available for Lune that can generate Dark Stains, which can increase damage for any skill up to 300%.

Sciel’s best weapon for this party build is the Chation, which will automatically generate 10 Foretell with any Sun Skill, but can also enhance Burn effects, increasing Burn damage by 100% in Twilight state.

Joyaro is Monoco’s ideal weapon of choice in this build because I use him as both a support unit and a Break-damage booster. This set of weapons and the below skills make for a balanced build that doesn’t rely too heavily on one element and will be viable against some of the toughest enemies in the endgame.

Every character in your build should have the Cheater and Energy Master Luminas active if possible, as well as First Strike. There are so many Luminas that can benefit this build, but most of the Burn-enhancing ones will be good for just about every character, especially Burn Affinity and Critical Burn, among others.

Best Skills For Each Character In Clair Obscur

Maelle’s Burning Canvas Can Deal Millions In Damage Per Hit

The benefit of stacking Burn across the party is that Maelle’s Burning Canvas ability deals increased Void damage based off of the number of Burn stacks on an enemy. Even if an enemy is resistant to Fire, it’s very unlikely they’re also resistant or immune to Void damage, and Burn can be stacked up on enemies regardless of their resistances in most cases.

Maelle alone can stack 60 Burn from Virtuose Stance in one hit by using Pyrolyse and various Burn buffs, particularly Double Burn.

Verso’s Marking Shot can set up Maelle for a Percee attack as well, which will be enhanced considerably in Virtuouse Stance.

With Lune as the third in your party, you will be able to add further Burn stacks with Hell and Wildfire, both of which can deal serious damage if she has four Dark Stains active. All of her skills in this build, aside from Thermal Transfer, have the chance of generating a Light Stain, giving her more versatility for consumed attacks and a higher chance of generating a Dark Stain.

I’ve set both Monoco and Sciel up to be effective at dealing damage and with support skills that buff the rest of the party in different ways.

Sciel’s Harvest skills are extremely useful, but you need to make sure she has enough Speed to get as many turns as possible to keep the rest of the party fully stocked with AP and Health. Monoco is optimized for Break damage, but also has useful support skills included here that can be swapped out as you see fit.

Strategy For Best Party Build In Clair Obscur

Maximize Burn Stacks & Set Maelle Up For Extreme Damage

In most cases, Maelle will be your primary damage dealer, with both other units setting her up for the most powerful hits possible. Verso should apply Mark at the end of his turn with either Marking Shot or Defiant Strike to increase damage for Maelle or Lune on their next hit.

Equip the Double Mark Luminas for an extended Mark duration. On Maelle’s first turn, if she doesn’t start with full AP, use Mezzo Forte to get her to the max.

Thanks to the Cheater lumina, she will now be able to perform Pyrolyse from Virtuouse Stance and automatically apply 60 Burn to the target, assuming you have all the right buffs in place and are using Medalum.

On her next turn, she can use Swift Stride to go directly back into Virtuouse Stance and use another Burning Canvas. Verso should have plenty of AP on his first turn and should use them to get to Rank A and try to maintain Rank S as much as possible, using his second turn to Mark the target.

If Lune is in your party, you can use Wildfire and Thunderfall to try to generate as many Dark Stains as possible while simultaneously adding Burn. When she has max Dark Stains, be sure to use Hell to inflict ultimate damage and also add Burn stacks in the process.

Sciel is great for supporting the rest of the crew with Plentiful Harvest, but can dive into attack mode if needed. Monoco should be used against enemies that require Break Damage to be defeated, and I recommend keeping him on your Reserve team.

Overall, this party build functions mostly around Burn damage and Maelle’s unique weapon, Medalum, but incorporates a ton of other synergies between characters. That said, I know it isn’t a perfect build and there are likely many tweaks that could improve it.

Further, there are definitely other party setups that will be equally effective (if not more) depending on the enemy or area you’re in. Because there is such diversity of weapon options, Pictos, Luminas, and Skills in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, there are endless possibilities.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Systems

9/10

Released

April 24, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence

Developer(s)

Sandfall Interactive