Summary
- Players gain EXP in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to level up, with Skill Points and Attribute Points to enhance characters.
- Attack Power, Critical Rate, and Defense are vital stats to boost in the game for offense, defense, and strategic gameplay.
- Speed is key in winning battles, granting more turns, yet players should balance it with other stats for long-term success.
Players will level up in the traditional sense while playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Fighting enemies will net players EXP, which will then increase levels, but making the party stronger isn’t automatic. There are two types of points that players will get upon leveling up: Skill Points and Attribute Points.
7 Beginner Tips For Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Get started in this beautifully dark RPG right with some safe guidelines and helpful early-game pointers to follow in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Every character has a skill tree in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and every character has an Attribute menu that can boost basic stats most RPG fans know about, like HP and Defense. There are five core Attributes in general, so which among them is the best to focus on leveling? While Attributes can be respeced, it's better to get them right the first time.
5 Attack Power
Raised Through Agility, Might, And Luck
Attack Power will boost the strength of all attacks, which is different from other RPGs that separate Strength and Wisdom/Intelligence between physical and magical attacks. In the game, players have three different types of attacks to use on enemies. There is the basic attack utilizing the character’s weapon in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, like Gustave’s sword.
Players can also select Free Aim, which uses a ranged attack to strike enemies at the cost of AP, and Gustave’s example in this case is a gun. AP is also used to execute special or magical attacks. Lune, for example, is like a classic RPG mage who can sling spells around. Raising Attack Power can strengthen all of these abilities, but raising the stat through the Might Attribute is sort of a waste as it won’t boost much compared to finding a good weapon or upgrading an existing one.
4 Critical Rate
Raised Through Defense And Luck
Critical Rate, like Attack Power, is a good offensive stat, and there are a couple of ways to increase it. It’s a better stat because a critical hit will always do 50% more damage, as stated in the game’s tutorial. The higher a character has their Critical Rate, the better chance they have to score a critical hit; simple as that.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - 7 Best Early Pictos
Pictos provide handy passive abilities to the party in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Here's which ones are best early on in the game.
Players can also find and equip accessories called Pictos in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Once a Picto’s ability is learned, any character can use it by equipping it in the Lumina menu. Many of these passive abilities can increase the strength or hit rate of a critical hit. Beyond Attack Power, players should know it’s best to think about their Critical Rate in this RPG, but it’s also a luck-based thing, as there is no way of predicting a critical hit. Players just have to cross their fingers and hope for the best during stressful situations.
3 Defense
Raised Through Agility And Defense
Defense is always a valuable stat in RPGs, especially for those who value defensive strategies over offensive ones. The higher a character’s Defense, the less damage they will take from an enemy’s head-on attacks. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is different from most turn-based RPGs, though, as it has an active element to using Skills and getting attacked. First, when players use Skills, a Quick-Time Event will pop up, and the better players do, the more damage they will inflict.
On the defensive end, players can decide to Parry or Dodge an enemy’s attack. Both options will negate damage, but create different results. Dodge will grant players AP, while Parry will execute a counterattack, and this is the more attractive move. Both options are valuable, and they make a stat like Defense seemingly unnecessary. Still, players aren’t going to be able to Parry or Dodge every time, which is why raising Defense is a good safety net, especially while they're still learning the proper timing on a tough enemy's attacks.
2 Health
Raised Through Vitality
Health and Defense are closely intertwined in terms of their value in the game. Increasing Health will obviously raise a character’s HP. Even if their Defense is low, having more HP means players don’t have to heal as often or worry about dying as easily. Speaking of, there are very few ways to heal in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, so having a solid HP pool is highly recommended.
All Party Members in Clair Obscur Expedition 33 (& When They Unlock)
You will gain access to five different playable characters in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and here's what you need to know about when they unlock.
First, characters like Lune and Gustave can learn healing skills in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. These can be used in battle as long as they have enough AP or meet other conditions. Players can also use potions, or Tints, in battle, which will recharge at checkpoints called Expedition Flags (think Bonfires in Dark Souls). Players cannot stock up on potions like in other RPGs, which is why getting more HP through the Health Attribute is a good measure.
1 Speed
Raised Through Agility And Luck
Last, but not least, Speed is the quickest way to victory in the game. There aren’t that many time-based or active turn-based games out there, but there are a lot of turn-based games that choose to show turn order. One of the first to do it was Grandia on the Sega Saturn, although RPG fans are probably more familiar with Final Fantasy 10’s turn order system.
Legacies aside, with a greater Speed stat in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, players can have more turns in battle. If the party each gets an extra turn normally or occasionally in battle, then enemies will have less time to strike back, thus keeping everyone safer. It is simple math, although the further players get in the game, the harder it will be to keep up with the enemy's Speed stats. Players shouldn’t dump all Attribute Points into Speed, but it will certainly help in the long run.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 92 /100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- April 24, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Sandfall Interactive
- Publisher(s)
- Kepler Interactive
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Genre(s)
- Turn-Based RPG, JRPG, Fantasy
