Weapon, Attributes & Upgrades Guide

In Expedition 33, you unlock a plethora of weapons for each character. Each weapon scales with different attributes and provides a passive effect when upgraded. Nevrons have Elemental Affinities, making some types of damage more or less effective against them. Weapons form the core of your build in Expedition 33.

Shortly after unlocking Lune, you are introduced to the Elemental Affinities System. It describes the interaction between the element of your skill or weapon and the affinity of the enemy. But learning the basics about Weakness, Resistance, Nullify and Absorb is only the first step.

The following elements exist in the game:

• Fire
• Earth
• Lightning
• Ice
• Light
• Dark
• Physical
• Void

Some Skills use your Weapon's element, whereas others override it. Before using a skill check the tooltip to learn how it works. Normally, Free Aim Shot, Counterattack and Base Attack all use the Weapon's element but there are some exceptions.

Upon leveling up your character, you obtain three attribute points to allocate freely between Vitality, Might, Agility, Defense, and Luck. Each of these attributes increases one or more sub-stats; Health, Attack Power, Speed, Defense, and Critical Rate. Additionally, they provide further benefits based on the weapon you use and its scaling. You can allocate a maximum of 99 attribute points to a single attribute 294 total attributes at level 99.

Let us use the image above as an example to take a close look at the scaling factors. The sum of your sub-stats is influenced by your attribute points (basic scaling), weapon scaling, and your equipped Pictos. To learn more about those, check out the Pictos & Lumina Guide.

Basic Scaling

Points invested into an attribute increase up to two sub-stats, excluding the Attack Power increase based on weapon scaling. Below is a list of attributes and the sub-stats associated with each.

• Vitality: Health
• Might: Attack Power
• Agility: Speed and Defense
• Defense: Defense and Critical Rate
• Agility: Speed and Critical Rate

Weapon Scaling

Each weapon scales with up to two attributes. While equipped, each attribute point allocated to one of the scaling attributes grants an additional increase to Attack Power. In general, you should prioritize investing most of your early attribute points into Might and Luck. However, once your weapon reaches around level 20, the attributes that scale with your weapon begin to outperform Might. This occurs much earlier for weapons that scale with a single attribute.

The letters assigned to each attribute on a weapon represent the scaling factors, with S being the highest (D⇾C⇾B⇾A⇾S). The higher the factor, the better, as each point invested contributes more to Attack Power with higher scaling. But this is only a good indicator of the scaling progression on a given weapon, not the scaling factors between different weapons. For example, Dualiso provides much less damage per point than Gaulteram because it’s balanced around the ability to play twice.

Upgrading your weapon to a higher level is essential in Expedition 33. You unlock this feature after exiting the manor. To access it, camp on the overworld map and interact with the Curator in the cave. Alternatively, you can buy higher-level weapons from merchants or obtain duplicates as drops. In these cases, the higher-level weapon overwrites the lower-level duplicate in your inventory. The benefits of upgrading your weapons include an increase in Attack Power, unlocking powerful passives at levels 4, 10, and 20, and an increase in the attribute scaling factor.

To upgrade your weapon at the Curator, you need Chroma Catalysts. Higher-level upgrades require Chroma Catalysts of greater rarity and in larger quantities. Below is a list of the Catalysts needed to upgrade your weapon to specific levels.

• Level 1-3: Chroma Catalyst
• level 4-9: Polished Chroma Catalyst
• Level 10-19: Resplendent Chroma Catalyst
• Level 20-32: Grandiose Chroma Catalyst
• Level 33: Perfect Chroma Catalyst

Here are some general weapon recommendations for each playable character, 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.

• ScielSciel - Ramasson | Dropped by Ramasseur
• LuneLune - Deminerim | Side Quest - Return the mine to the Demineur in Flying Waves
• GustaveGustave - Use the highest damage dealing weapon based on enemy type.
• VersoVerso - Gaulteram | Dropped by Gault
• MaelleMaelle - Brulerum | Obtained in Flying Waves
• MonocoMonoco - Weapon choice depends on the selected skills.

Summary

• Leverage the Elemental Affinities of your weapon and skills to deal higher damage to enemies.
• You want a weapon with passives that enhance your skills, but it’s beneficial to use a weapon of a different base element to get around enemy Resistances.
• Find, buy, or upgrade your weapons to higher levels to increase Attack Power and unlock powerful passives.

Credits

Written by: Perciculum