Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has flashy, thrilling battles, however one of the best factor about them is how one can twist the sport’s many techniques to your benefit. The turn-based RPG fight may really feel acquainted, however it affords numerous methods to customise your strategy to battles with the intention to do completely devastating quantities of injury.
In Expedition 33, you play as a bunch of Expeditioners who purpose to destroy The Paintress, a mysterious being that erases everybody of a sure age yearly. In battles, you possibly can have as much as three of your occasion collaborating in a struggle, and may all of them die, you possibly can name in your teammates who’re in reserve to try to end off the enemies.
To point out you ways deep the rabbit gap can go in customizing your staff, right here’s my strategy to constructing out only one character, the fencer Maelle. Each character can equip three “Pictos,” which supply passive buffs like supplying you with the defense-boosting Shell standing in the beginning of a struggle. However after you win a couple of fights with a Pictos geared up, different characters can additionally equip the Pictos as a “Lumina” through the use of “Lumina Factors,” which you accumulate by way of leveling up and through the use of a useful resource you’ll find within the sport.
Picture: Kepler Interactive
If you combine and match Pictos and Luminas to stack complimentary bonuses, issues actually get going. For my model of Maelle, I set a mix of Pictos and Luminas that might let her deal probably huge quantities of injury, particularly if a fortunate essential hit and a coin-flip 200 p.c injury buff went by way of. However as a counterbalance to Maelle’s big energy, a number of the Pictos and Luminas additionally elevated the quantity of injury she obtained, so I added defensive ones that helped her higher stand up to hits.
In battle, every character additionally has a novel mechanic that, when used correctly, enables you to make their assaults more practical. Maelle, for instance, depends on totally different “stances” that you would be able to shift into: an offensive stance that will increase the injury you give but additionally the injury you obtain, a defensive stance that reduces the injury you are taking, and a “virtuous” stance that does 200 p.c injury however may be tougher to arrange.
With Maelle, you possibly can transfer into the totally different stances based mostly on which of your six totally different “abilities” you utilize in battle — and like with Pictos and Luminas, these are additionally customizable and have their very own traits and potential synergies.
It may be loads to handle, and the sport typically helps in battles by including slightly sparkle to counsel a transfer to your present scenario. However even inside the first few hours of the sport, I used to be capable of grasp the potential of what was attainable with the battle system. And with Maelle, after I nailed the mixture of organising the appropriate stance and a fortunate break from my Pictos and Luminas, I frequently may completely demolish my foes by dealing hundreds of factors of injury. (A late-game Pictos that allow me exceed 9,999 factors of injury in a single hit was notably welcome.)
That’s simply my strategy with one character; every of the opposite occasion members has their very own playstyles to experiment with and potential abilities to make use of. Your geared up weapons are a component to contemplate, too. The sport shines when everybody’s skills and abilities line up completely for a collection of explosive hits, and it’s particularly satisfying when issues come collectively to soften down a tough boss’s well being bar.
I undoubtedly didn’t use Expedition 33’s battle system, which makes issues straightforward to experiment with, to its fullest. As soon as I discovered a mix of characters and abilities that I favored, I hardly ever deviated from them. However I’ve a number of concepts on the best way to attempt issues in another way for a tough mode run — I’m positive there are much more methods to completely break the sport.