Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – 8 Best Early Skills

Every character in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has a skill tree. When a character levels up, they will gain one Skill Point and three Attribute Points. Skill Points are not shared and can unlock spells or abilities to use in battle, from sword attacks to fire maelstroms.

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Attribute Points can boost stats, such as health, once locked into the correct category. With so many skills to choose from upon leveling up in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, it can be hard to know what to pick, even with the ability to respec. Players will start early with Gustave, Lune, and Maelle, so let’s focus this List on their skill trees, and the best early-game skills to unlock for them in Clair Obscure: Expedition 33..

8

Earth Rising

Earth Magic Targets All Enemies

Earth Rising is one of the quickest ways to get a skill to target all enemies in battle. Lune can raise up the earth, Avatar Earthbender-style, and savage enemies from the ground.

While Earth Rising is not too powerful, it is always useful to hit multiple enemies in an RPG to make battles end quicker. More powerful spells that Lune can learn and which can hit every enemy in battle include Wildfire, which is fire-based, and Thunderfall, which is lightning-based.

7

Fleuret Fury

Hit A Target Three Times With Maelle’s Sword

Fleuret Fury is for Maelle. It’s a sword-based attack that can hit an enemy three times with powerful strikes. The damage is good, but the number of hits is better. Enemies can create Shields, and every Shield that they erect requires a single attack to take it out. For example, if an enemy has three Shields up, then just a simple attack from a character won’t do any damage, but will destroy the Shield instead.

However, Fleuret Fury and other skills like it can break through Shields in a single turn, or at least that’s the hope when players are trying to devise strategies in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. This makes it very useful to have in the early game.

6

Guard Down

Lower The Defense Of All Enemies

This next skill, which also belongs to Maelle, is called Guard Down. It will lower the defense of the enemy party. It’s the same as saying that players can do more damage during this skill’s duration, but it’s all the same thing in an RPG, even if the name or exact definitions are different.

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During normal battles, Guard Down probably won’t be necessary, but main boss fights or optional bosses definitely require some debuffs. Maelle can also learn Guard Up, which will raise the party’s defenses and also good for boss encounters.

5

Healing Light

Heal An Ally’s HP

There are limited ways to heal in the game, so every resource is precious. That’s because players cannot directly buy things like healing potions, as flasks can be upgraded and recharged instead in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, similar to games like Dark Souls.

There are two early single-target healing spells, though, which can be used in battle. Lune can learn Healing Light, and Gustave can learn Recovery, and they are both worth getting as soon as possible to improve the party’s survivability.

4

Mayhem

Convert Stains Into A Strong Attack

Every character is different in terms of how their actions and skills work. For example, Lune could be categorized as a Mage in an RPG as she slings elemental spells at enemies.

After using a certain spell, like one involving fire or ice, a Stain will accumulate, and Mayhem is a non-elemental spell that will drain all built-up Stains to strike one enemy with a powerful attack. Until players learn Mayhem for Lune, Stains are kind of useless beyond spell costs, so be sure to go down that rabbit hole and get it quickly.

3

Powerful

Raise The Party’s Attack Power

Powerful is a simple support skill for Gustave that will raise the party’s attack power for a limited time. If players combine Maelle’s Guard Down skill with Powerful, then they can do some serious damage to enemies.

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It’s not the most exciting skill Gustave has to offer, but support skills rarely are. Support skills like Powerful are for players who like to use more strategy in their turn-based RPGs instead of always just mashing buttons. Once again, when it comes to boss battles, Powerful will be very valuable.

2

Rebirth

Revive A Fallen Ally

Rebirth is another great healing spell for Lune, as it can revive a fallen ally. Again, there are limited ways to heal allies, and even fewer ways to revive characters in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, so Rebirth is a god-tier early skill.

It will help when a particularly challenging optional boss has players downed. They can often one-shot party members, no matter how much grinding players do. Of course, Rebirth doesn’t help if Lune falls, but hopefully, players are thoughtful enough to boost her Defense Attribute more than others in order to keep her alive, so that she can do the same for the rest of the party.

1

Shatter

Strike All Enemies With Lightning

Shatter is a very strong offensive skill for Gustave. It’s lightning-based and can target all enemies on screen, with the highlighted monster attracting the most damage. To use it, players have to build up Gustave’s unique Overcharge meter, but using Shatter will not dispel it, unlike other attacks.

Unlocking Shatter will be quicker than unlocking Thunderfall for Lune, and it should be noted that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Flying Waters area has a lot of monsters that are weak to lightning-based attacks roaming around in it, which makes this a particularly valuable skill for completing that region.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

OpenCritic

Top Critic Avg:
91/100


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

Engine

Unreal Engine 5

Cross-Platform Play

No