Pictos & Lumina Guide

Pictos and Lumina are an essential part of each character's build. These provide build and character defining passives, which turn the tide of each battle in your favour. Additionally, Pictos directly enhance up to 2 of your sub-stats, such as Health, Attack Power, Speed, Defense, and Critical Rate. Mastering this is essential in Expedition 33.

Pictos are scattered around the world, just waiting for you to find them. Additionally, you can buy some from the Gestral Merchants you encounter during your expedition. Finding or purchasing a higher-level version of a Picto you already own upgrades your copy, increasing its level. This means that, at any given time, you only own one copy of each Picto.

There are two important aspects of a Picto. First, it boosts up to 2 of your sub-stats: Health, Attack Power, Speed, Defense, and Critical Rate. Higher-level Pictos offer a more substantial boost to your sub-stats. This increase becomes particularly impactful later in the game compared to what you get by allocating Attribute points. Additionally, each Picto has a unique passive, many of which are build defining.

Each character can equip up to 3 Pictos, but two different characters cannot equip the same Picto. After assigning a Picto to a character and winning 4 battles with that character in the active party, you unlock the passive effect of the Picto as a Lumina.

Activate unlocked Luminas for each of your characters by using Lumina Points. The Lumina Effect cannot be activated on a character if they already have the associated Picto equipped. However, multiple characters can activate the same Lumina. Keep in mind that active Lumina Effects do not provide any sub-stat bonuses like a Picto does.

Lumina Points

Lumina Points serve as the limiting factor for how many Lumina Effects a character can have active simultaneously. Each time your character levels up, they gain 1 Lumina Point. After unlocking The Curator by exiting the manor and interacting with him in your camp, you can use the material Colour of Lumina to unlock additional Lumina Points for each of your characters. Colours of Lumina are found scattered across the world and earned as battle rewards.

Here are some of the Picto and Lumina recommendations, which are solid choices for completing the Main Quest line. For more diverse and detailed recommendations, refer to the respective character guides or our Expedition 33 Build Planner.

Early Game

• Recovery - A strong Picto you can obtain very early.
• Lonewolf Pictos - Pictos provides significant buffs to a character's combat prowess when fighting alone.
• Dead Energy II - Speeds up the clear time of normal encounters, by providing AP upon killing a Nevron.
• Critical Burn Critical Burn - Simple but provides high Critical Rate, since at least one of your characters usually applies the burn debuff.

Late Game

• Cheater - This late-game Picto allows you to play twice in a row without any downsides.
• Painted Power - This Picto is a late-game unlock. But once you have it, make sure you have the Lumina effect activated on all characters.
• There are many more powerful Pictos to find, learn more about the best Pictos in Expedition 33 with our dedicated guide!

Summary

• Pictos and Lumina are essential for character builds, providing build-defining passives and enhancing up to two sub-stats like Health, Speed, or Attack Power.
• Pictos are found scattered across the world or bought from Gestral Merchants. Higher-level Pictos overwrite your existing copy, increasing their level. Each character can equip three Pictos, but each Picto can only be equipped to 1 character.
• Unlock Lumina Effects after winning 4 battles with a character that has the corresponding Picto equipped. Activated using Lumina Points, Lumina Effects can apply to multiple characters simultaneously but do not grant sub-stat bonuses.
• Earn Lumina Points by leveling up characters or unlocking them with the material Colour of Lumina, which can be found throughout the world and gained as battle rewards.

Credits

Written by: Perciculum