"Clair Obscur Nerfs Maelle's 2B Damage Build"

Discover how Maelle's nuke build in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 can unleash over 2 billion damage, and learn about Sandfall Interactive's response to this overpowered skill.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Updates

Stendhal Hurts, A Lot

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 continues to surprise players with new discoveries, including a player's revelation of a strategy to achieve up to 2 billion damage with the character Maelle. After completing the main storyline, the game's endgame unfolds, offering additional narrative elements and challenging bosses with massive health pools and one-hit kill capabilities. This has led players to develop a nuke build to counter these formidable foes. Note: This article contains 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 through Pictos (equipable items with various effects). The essential Luminas are Cheater, granting an additional turn, and Shortcut, providing another turn when Maelle's health drops below 30%.

Additionally, Maelle needs her weapon, the Medalum, which allows her to start battles in Virtuose stance, and the skill Last Stand, which activates Virtuose stance while reducing her health to one hit point.

To further enhance her damage output, Maelle should equip any three of the following skills: Painted Power, allowing damage to exceed 9,999; Death’s Door, boosting damage by 50% at low health; Confident Fighter, increasing damage by 30% but disabling healing; and Inverted Affinity, which adds another 50% damage but makes healing harmful. With the right combination of Pictos and Luminas, Maelle can achieve over 2 billion damage. For context, the endgame boss Simon has approximately 45 million HP, meaning Maelle's nuke strategy could theoretically defeat him 48 times over.

Players continue to experiment with different strategies and characters to push damage limits, making the challenging post-game content both fun and engaging.

Stendhal Getting Nerfed

Sandfall Interactive has acknowledged that Stendhal's extreme damage was making the game too easy. In a May 8th post on Twitter (X), the studio announced upcoming adjustments to Maelle’s skill. Originally, no balance changes were planned this early in the game's lifecycle, only bug fixes. However, due to Stendhal's overpowering effect, they decided to intervene. Sandfall admitted that Stendhal was underwhelming during development but received a significant damage boost in the final pre-release balance pass, which was excessive.

"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, set to go live today on Steam, followed by other platforms.

2 Million Copies in 12 Days

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has achieved another milestone, selling 2 million copies within just 12 days of its launch, as announced in a May 6th Twitter (X) post. Earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated Sandfall Interactive on Instagram for their success and for showcasing French culture, stating, "Congratulations to Sandfall Interactive and all the creators of Expedition 33. You are a shining example of French audacity and creativity."

With its ongoing success and updates, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a strong contender for this year's Game of the Year award. The developers are committed to enhancing the game with future updates and potential DLC.

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!