Endgame Burn Stacking Build (Expert and NG+)

There are a lot of ways to inflict the Burn status on enemies in Expedition 33, and lots of Pictos, Skills, and Weapons have bonuses against burning enemies. So what happens when you combine all of this to deal with foes using the overwhelming power of fire? You get a burn stacking build where Burning Canvas can delete the game's strongest bosses, including on Expert difficulty and in New Game Plus (NG+). While this build is made for the rigours of Expert difficulty, it excels at deleting bosses on any difficulty!

Verso's job is stacking burn effects on enemies. Against a single foe, the more the better as this scales Maelle's damage. When fighting a group of enemies, you want to split some of the burn stacks onto a secondary target so that Maelle can take out multiple foes in sequence, lesser enemies don't have enough health to survive either way. The burn effects do considerable damage when fully stacked, but aren't needed in most cases. While strong flying enemies are pretty rare in Expedition 33, Verso can easily take them out using this setup.

Verso's Weapons and Skills

• Corpeso (obtained from Noires in the Dark Shores).
  • This weapon enables the entire setup. On each hit of his basic attack, Verso inflicts 2 burn stacks per rank. At S-Rank this means 10 burns per hit, which is then doubled to 20 thanks to Double Burn. This results in Verso pumping out 80 burn stacks in a turn just by attacking!
  • Attributes: Agi > Luck till 75% crit > Vitality > Might (if your weapon is below level 33, Might > Vitality).
• Against Fire Absorb enemies, swap to Confuso. You get fewer burn stacks, even when actively marking enemies, but this weapon inflicts burning based on Light Damage, allowing you to bypass the Fire absorption.
  • If you are missing the Combo Attack Luminas, this setup inflicts comparable burn stacks to Corpeso, but later falls way behind (inflicting around half per turn).
  • Attributes: Luck > Agi > Might
  • Learn about enemy Weaknesses and Resistances with our guide.

Technically, Verso doesn't need any skills for this build. He can just rotate between Free Aim Shot and Attack each turn. But there are a couple of skills that are situationally useful. Use Follow Up in fights with 3 weaker foes to clear one enemy using Verso's second turn. If you need to break multiple foes, or already used your Sniper shot, use Phantom Stars. Powerful with Greater Powerful can reapply the buff to Maelle in longer fights but nothing should live long enough for this to be useful. If there are any enemies that aren't burning, use a few Free Aim Shots on them so that Maelle can use Swift Stride to re-enter Virtuose stance after killing the primary target.

Verso's Pictos and Luminas

Because Verso's build uses the most Lumina points, Cheater is quite nice here. You can replace Fueling Break with any Pictos that gets Verso's Critical Hit chance to 75%+.

Verso's most important Luminas are all related to inflicting burn and getting AP back to inflict more burn stacks on enemies. This is the "burn stack" portion of the build that gives it its namesake. The additional Luminas enable his ability to deal damage. Thanks to Sniper your first Free Aim Shot can break enemies, remember this and don't waste it. You can't nuke a boss out of nowhere with this setup, the way Maelle can, but between the repeated damage from Free Aim Shot and Attack, you can significantly lower an enemy's health and then finish them off with the burn tick when their turn starts. Longer Burn is not used because enemies do not survive long enough for this to matter. Adding Charging Stun in for when Sciel primes enemies to be stunned means you can full charge a level 3 Gradient for Maelle.

Maelle is your damage carry, deleting enemies with a single use of Burning Canvas. This skill scales with the number of burns on a target, making Maelle the perfect partner for Verso's burn stacking build. However, it deals Void damage instead of Fire, meaning you don't need to worry about enemies that are Resistant to Fire damage or even absorb it! Since she is built for damage, your first 3 turns are the strongest, and you can use Sciel to double her damage for 1 turn.

Maelle's Weapon and Skills

• Medalum starts you in Virtuose stance, allowing for incredible damage in the opening round. This weapon also doubles the burn stacks Maelle inflicts and doubles the damage from her burn effects. But most of the time, Burning Canvas kills enemies instantly, rendering this moot. You obtain this weapon by playing as Maelle in the Gestral Arena.
  • Attributes: Def > Agi > Might (the Def is just for damage scaling)
• While starting in Virtuose stance is nice, you don't need a specific weapon; if you use something else, adjust your Attributes to match your weapon's primary scaling.
  • Here are some alternatives:
  • Brulerum (burn on crit), or Lithum (maintain Mark on enemies for slightly more damage).
  • Use Yeverum to stack shields on allies for more defense, but you should have plenty of shields/revive effects regardless of this.

Most of the time, you rotate between Burning Canvas to delete an enemy and Swift Stride to get back into Virtuose stance. Reverse this order if you're not starting in Virtuose stance. You can also use Fleuret Fury to break a powerful foe (doubling their burn) or take out a weaker enemy while remaining in Virtuose stance. Occasionally, Phantom Strike is useful for building into her level 3 Gradient, Spoiler Gradient Attack, which hits about as hard as Burning Canvas and Breaking Rules can delete enemy shields.

Maelle's Pictos and Luminas

Maelle's Pictos all provide beneficial effects in addition to their base stats. You can substitute this for alternatives but this is likely to result in spending more Lumina points to re-add the effects. Focus on Pictos that give Speed and Crit Rate to ensure she is Crit capped at 100% and acts as frequently as possible in combat.

Maelle's Luminas are all about using Auto Death with Survivor to set her health to 1 at the battle start and activate as many damage bonuses as possible. You can substitute other AP gain Pictos for Energy Master, such as Energising Turn and Energising Burn. If you need extra Critical Strike Chance and want to shift your Pictos to more Speed, use Critical Moment.

Sciel's job is to make sure Maelle and Verso play as frequently as possible and double Maelle's damage to set up for a nuke. As such, she is primarily rotating between support skills while passively debuffing the enemy. The build also has an Auto Death swap that changes Sciel's turn order, inflicts a few burn stacks on all enemies, and adds +3 shields to both Verso and Maelle.

Sciel's Weapon and Skills

• Litheson buffs allies and debuffs enemies.
  • Attributes: Agi > Luck
• If you don't have this weapon, almost anything works, as her important skills do not deal damage.

Use Fortune's Fury on Maelle to double her damage. Occasionally, you might use this on Verso instead (such as if Maelle has the buff active already). On Sciel's second turn, use Intervention on an ally who plays after the enemies to advance their turn. You can fill her remaining skill slots with damage/utility effects based on personal preference. Sometimes you want to use Fortune's Fury into another Sun skill, such as Marking Card to debuff enemies or a second cast of Fortune's Fury. Use double Sun skills when allies already go before the enemies.

Sciel's Pictos and Luminas

Run Energy Master to save the Lumina points, but aside from this, her Pictos are not important; prioritize Pictos with a high Speed stat.

For your remaining Lumina points, you can add extra utility, defenses, or damage. In Medias Res should cover most of your defenses, but additional shield synergies and revival effects are nice if enemies get a turn and you mess up. You don't need Painted Power as Sciel does not normally attack, but you can add it if you have enough Lumina points to enable her to deal damage to weaker foes.

NOTE: The gameplay footage is pre-Medalum bug fix, but the build still has enough damage to kill (almost) everything in the game with a single use of Burning Canvas. The few enemies that don't always die to a single use, you can still beat before they get a turn by using Sciel's support skills.

Summary

Build your team to stack burn effects on enemies, then annihilate them with massive damage! This setup can deal with everything in Expedition 33 and takes most bosses out before they even get a turn, thanks to First Strike. If you want to know more, check out this planner.

• Use Verso to stack burns on an enemy.
• Maelle's Burning Canvas hits for millions.
• Sciel buffs Maelle and Verso to give them more damage and additional turns while debuffing enemies.

Credits

Written by: Tenkiei