Maelle's 2 Billion Damage Build Nerfed by Clair Obscur

Unleash the power of Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 with her astonishing 2 billion damage nuke build. Dive into the details of this game-changing strategy and learn how Sandfall Interactive is responding to this formidable skill.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Updates

Stendhal Hurts, A Lot

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 continues to surprise players with new discoveries daily, including a groundbreaking method to achieve up to 2 billion damage using Maelle, the Expeditioner. After completing the main storyline, the game's endgame unfolds, offering additional narrative depth and challenging bosses. These encounters can be intimidating with their massive health pools and one-hit kill capabilities, prompting players to innovate with a nuke build. Note that this article may contain minor spoilers, so proceed with caution.

In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Maelle's skill, Stendhal, delivers significant damage, which can be amplified to 200% in her Virtuose stance. To maximize this nuke build, Maelle requires two specific Luminas, unlocked with Pictos (equipable items offering various effects). The essential Luminas are Cheater, granting an additional turn, and Shortcut, which also provides another turn when Maelle's health falls below 30%.

Additionally, players need Maelle's weapon, the Medalum, which initiates battles in Virtuose stance. Another crucial skill is Last Stand, which activates Virtuose stance and reduces Maelle to one hit point.

To further enhance Maelle's damage output, she should equip any three of the following skills: Painted Power to exceed the 9,999 damage cap, Death’s Door for an extra 50% damage at low health, Confident Fighter for an additional 30% damage at the cost of healing, Inverted Affinity for another 50% damage but with harmful healing effects, and other percentage-based damage boosts.

Numerous Picto and Lumina combinations exist for Maelle, but with the setup described, she can achieve over 2 billion damage. To put this into perspective, the endgame boss Simon has approximately 45 million HP. Maelle's nuke strategy could theoretically defeat Simon 48 times, illustrating its sheer overkill potential.

Players continue to experiment with different strategies and characters to push damage limits further, driven by the challenging nature of Expedition 33's post-game content.

Stendhal Getting Nerfed

Sandfall Interactive has acknowledged that Stendhal was making the game too easy. In a Twitter (X) post on May 8, the studio announced upcoming adjustments to Maelle’s skill. Initially, they planned only minor bug fixes without balance changes so early in the game's lifecycle. However, due to Stendhal's overwhelming damage, they decided to intervene. The skill was underwhelming during development, but a final pre-release balance pass inadvertently boosted its damage excessively.

"We still want you to be able to break the game—and you absolutely still can—but Stendhal was making it a bit too easy," Sandfall Interactive stated. The changes to Stendhal will be included in their first full hotfix, which will go live today on Steam before rolling out to other platforms.

2 Million Copies in 12 Days

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 continues its impressive trajectory, surpassing 2 million copies sold within just 12 days of its launch, as announced on Twitter (X) on May 6. Earlier in the month, French President Emmanuel Macron praised the game on Instagram, congratulating Sandfall Interactive for their success and for showcasing French creativity and audacity.

With its ongoing success and updates, Expedition 33 is a strong contender for this year's Game of the Year award. The developers are committed to enhancing the game further, with potential DLC on the horizon if the momentum continues.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is now available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Stay updated with the latest game news by clicking on our article below!