Early Game Builds for Expert Difficulty

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has 3 different difficulties: Story, Expeditioner, and Expert. If you're going to take on the challenge of Expert difficulty, you need a good build. That's where this guide comes in with recommendations for Skills, Weapons, Attributes, and Pictos. Since this guide focuses on the early game, it only includes builds for Gustave, Lune, Maelle, and Sciel, as those are the only characters available during Act 1.

In comparison to the other members of Expedition 33, Gustave has more limited build options, especially in the early game. First of all, he only has 8 total skills, and second, his weapons do not gain special passives as they level up.

• As Gustave's weapons don't have special abilities, use a weapon the enemy is weak to, or, barring that just equip the highest level weapon you have. If you're not sure what to use, look for something with Luck scaling.

Free Aim Breaker Gustave Build

Dump spare AP using Free Aim shot to deal damage, Mark, and Burn enemies. Then use Powerful to buff your allies or Lumière Assault to build Charge. Break enemies with Shatter or nuke/break them with Overcharge. If you're comfortable with your ability to avoid damage via Dodge/Parry, drop Recovery for Strike Storm as it hits harder than Lumière Assault and generates more Charge.

Luminas

• Critical Burn
• Versatile
• Staggering Attack
• Augmented Aim
• Burning Shots
• Marking Shots
• First Strike

The goal for your Luminas is to provide a well-rounded approach to both damage and defenses. Focus on breaking enemy weak points to inflict Burn/Mark while maximizing the value of your Free Aim Luminas then following it with an auto-attack for damage. Since Gustave has a lot of Energising Start Pictos, you have a lot of AP on your first turn. You can drop First Strike if you want some Lumina points to play around with such as to gain Shell.

Lune has a wide variety of elemental skills. She has a lot of multi-hit attacks with lower individual damage, making her a great choice for Roulette. She can use a few different weapons, and her early game skills work well for builds that involve hitting multiple times.

Fire and Lightning Lune Build

Weapon: Deminerim, Lighterim or Trebuchim.

• Deminerim has slightly lower base damage but reduces the cost of your lightning skills. This makes it easy to spam Electrify, Thunderfall, and Lightning Dance.
• Lighterim on the other hand enhances Immolation and Wildfire. This makes it easier to apply burn to enemies and deal AoE damage.
• Trebuchim generates random stains on Free Aim Shots, if you use this, drop Energising Start II for Augmented Aim, Burning Shots and Marking Shots. If you go this route, drop Lightning Dance for Mayhem to consume stains when you cannot empower another skill.

Open with Immolation or Wildfire to put up a burn on enemies and enable Critical Burn. After that, spam Electrify until you have enough AP to break the enemy with Rockslide or nuke them with Lightning Dance. Try to use your low AP cost skills to generate stains which empower your high AP cost skills.

• If you want more flexibility, swap Lightning Dance out for Thunderfall as your Lightning AP dump. Then swap Earth Rising for one of the following:
  • Mayhem (to consume random stains).
  • Healing Light for healing.
  • Rebirth to revive allies.

If you don't like the randomness of Roulette swap it for Energising Break.

Luminas

• Critical Burn
• Dead Energy II
• Augmented Counter I
• SOS Shell
• Energising Start I
• Energising Start II

Critical Burn provides a huge damage boost as Electrify and Lightning Dance strike twice on crit. SOS Shell provides a nice damage reduction upon hitting low health.

Maelle does plenty of damage, especially once you get her into Virtuose stance! In addition, she can inflict burn on foes and provide some support via debuffing enemies, making her an incredibly strong choice at any point in the game. The main goal of this setup is to provide consistent damage while preparing your build for Sword Ballet, one of Maelle's strongest skills. Even an early game build on Maelle can reach the damage cap of 9,999.

Pre-Sword Ballet Maelle

Weapon: Brulerum or Medalum.

• Brulerum inflicts Burn on Critical Hit, making it easy to use Swift Stride to get into Virtuose stance or activate Critical Burn.
• Medalum starts you in Virtuose stance, allowing for incredible damage in the opening round. You obtain this weapon by playing as Maelle in the Gestral Arena.

Guard Down makes for a great opener. It debuffs enemies, causing them to take 25% increased damage from all sources. Alternatively, use Offensive Switch on single target as it's more AP efficient. Early on Percée is most of your damage, but later Fleuret Fury outscales it due to hitting 3 times and keeping you in Virtuose stance for the next round. If you're struggling for AP, you can take Mezzo Forte, however, this doesn't scale well into the late game as you get more and more AP from enemies attacking you, and turns become highly valuable.

Luminas

• Dead Energy II
• Critical Burn
• Augmented Counter I
• Energising Start I
• Energising Start II
• Energising Jump

You can swap Energising Start II out for Marking Shots, Burning Shots and Augmented Aim, then open with Free Aim shots to burn enemies.

Sciel has a lot of multi-hit skills, making her an excellent choice for a "Lone Wolf" build in the early game using Pictos from the Last Stand series that are earned by competing in the Hidden Gestral Arena. Play this by setting Sciel as your only active party member or keeping her in reserve to clean up enemies should your expedition get KOed.

Lone Wolf Sciel Build

Weapon: Scieleson or Chation

• Chation is your best bet damage damage-wise, but it comes with a steep downside, taking double damage. This means almost any hit Sciel takes is going to result in a KO.
• If you're not comfortable Dodge/Parrying everything, use Scieleson it has no special abilities but good scaling stats.

Open with a Foretell skill, Bad Omen is your best bet on AoE, and Marking Card is a great choice for single target. From there, use Sealed Fate as your bread and butter. With 100% Critical Hit chance, you never remove Foretell while fully benefiting from the damage increase. Phantom Blade is your big nuke when you need to break an enemy.

Luminas

• Solo Fighter
• Augmented Counter I
• Dead Energy II
• Rewarding Mark
• Breaking Counter
• First Strike
• Energising Start I

Lots of high-value Luminas with low point costs. Solo Fighter should always be active. Remember to use Marking Card to proc Rewarding Mark. First Strike is pricy but absolutely worth it to play first against dangerous foes and wipe out any adds they have.

Summary

The early game builds in Expedition 33 are a bit more restrictive, but as you progress, you get more tools that enable different playstyles. Expert difficulty adds another layer of challenge as enemies hit harder and act more frequently. You can use this planner as a quick reference to see learn about the builds.

• Use Gustave to apply Mark to enemy and break their weak points with Free Aim Shot then buff your team to make them Powerful.
• Lune is an elemental mage who specializes in multi-hit attacks.
• Maelle deals massive single target damage when in Virtuose stance and can easily apply Burn to enemies.
• Sciel fights alone, dealing massive damage with automatic critical strikes!

Credits

Written by: Tenkiei