Expedition 33 Guides, Codex, and Build Planner

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a new RPG and debut title from the French studio, Sandfall Interactive. With a blend of immersive storytelling and challenging gameplay, there’s nothing else quite like it. Maxroll has been hard at work on helpful guides for Expedition 33. There are guides to help you get started, teach you game mechanics, find valuable loot, and hone your builds. Maxroll’s Codex has weapons, skills, Pictos, and Lumina to help you prepare for the challenges you will face on the continent. If you’re the theorycrafty type, you can use Maxroll’s Expedition 33 Planner to make your own build, then share it on their Community Builds Section.

Getting Started

Get started in the world of Expedition 33 with character guides, beginner resources, and Pictos guides from Maxroll. If you’re looking for a step-by-step companion guide to keep up as you play, check out IGN’s Expedition 33 Walkthrough.

Beginner’s Guide

Maxroll’s comprehensive Beginner’s Guide for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 introduces the game’s core mechanics like exploring the world, doing battle against Nevrons, each of the playable characters and their unique mechanics, plus introduces the game’s progression systems like weapons, attributes, Pictos and Luminas. Also check out IGN’s 10 Things Expedition 33 Doesn’t Tell You for a shorter guide of some easily-missed things you should know.

Combat Guide

Learn more about defeating dangerous Nevrons with IGN’s Combat Guide. This is a beginner’s guide with some tips and tricks, including advice for how to use Lune and Maelle.

Weapons, Attributes and Upgrades

Weapons are a core part of building your team in Expedition 33. Each weapon (and character skill) deals different types of elemental damage, some of which are more effective than others against different Nevrons. Each character has a variety of different weapons that have increased attribute scaling as you level them, plus unlock special bonuses at levels 4, 10, and 20. Read more about Weapons, Attributes and Upgrades.

Pictos and Luminas

Pictos are equippable items that give stats and a variety of unique effects. Each character can equip 3 Pictos, but you can use the Lumina system to gain even more special effects. If you’re struggling on an encounter, consider changing up your Pictos to gain more defenses, add damage or buff your team with things like Shell or Powerful. Learn more about Pictos and the Lumina system, a core progression feature in Expedition 33, and keep track of what you have and where to find them with IGN’s Pictos checklist.

Early Game Pictos Guides

The Pictos system provides a lot of room to customize your party and build each character the way that you want, but there are a few Pictos which stand out as especially powerful during the early game. Keep an eye out for Dead Energy II and Critical Burn, complete side-content for the “lone wolf” style Last Stand Pictos and use Recovery to turn one character into a super-tank!

Characters

Learn about each playable character in Expedition 33, their unique mechanics, and skills with Maxroll’s Character Skill Guides.

More Guides

Maxroll also has a few more guides suitable for the midgame and endgame. These go into detail on how to unlock areas of the map, defeat certain enemies more easily, or which Pictos are the best.

How to Unlock all of Esquie’s Traversal Abilities

Esquie can break through obstacles, swim, fly, and even dive under the ocean. Learn how to unlock all of Esquie’s Abilities as you progress through the game.

Enemy Strengths and Weaknesses

Learn about the Strengths and Weaknesses for the enemies you encounter across the Continent. Abuse enemy weaknesses to deal 50% more damage, and avoid using elements they absorb, as those heal the enemy instead of damaging them!

Zone Progression

If you’re feeling lost after completing the game’s story, Maxroll has you covered with a Zone Progression Guide, which gives some recommendations on when to complete different optional zones. IGN also has a list of Expedition 33 side quests with their rewards, so you can determine which ones are worth completing.

Best Pictos

Learn the Best Pictos to equip in both the early game and the endgame. Maxroll’s guide details Pictos that provide generic power along with those that have more niche uses, empowering new build archetypes.

Codex

Maxroll’s Expedition 33 Codex has information on all of the different Weapons, Pictos, Luminas, and Skills available in the game. You can even adjust the level at the top to see how Weapons/Pictos scale.

Planner and Community Builds

Plan out your build using Maxroll’s Expedition 33 Builder, then share it using the Community Builds section ! Let’s go over a few of the planner’s key features:

Here are the features to keep in mind when using Maxroll’s Expedition 33 Planner.

1. Select your characters and set up the active party. If you want to create different teams (with unique setups for each character) you can also do so here. At the top select an optional tag like “Story” or “Post-Story.” You use this section to navigate between each of the characters on your team to change their setups.
2. Pick your weapon, then adjust the level. As you do the power and scaling change but attributes are not currently factored in.
3. – Select the 6 skills you’re using on the character.
   • NOTE: Gradient Skills are excluded here but you can learn more about them in the Codex!
4. Pick your Pictos, you can use each Pictos once across your entire team. Select the correct level to display the stats added by each.
5. Add Luminas here, the point count is displayed at the top.
6. Allocate attributes, maybe use something your weapon scales off of?
7. Your stats are displayed here, based on Pictos, Attributes, and base weapon damage.
8. Add some notes, tell people about your skill rotation or where you found some of the cool stuff you’re using.
9. Set your build to public to share it with the community.

Tomorrow Comes

That’s it for Maxroll’s new guides for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Why not head over to the build planner and start theorycrafting?

Written by IGN Staff with contributions from Tenkiei and Snail.