‘Clair Obscur: Expedition 33' Too Hard? Here's The Maelle Nuke Build

Forbes

07-05-2025

Expedition 33 Sandfall
My current GOTY, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, has Acts and Epilogues that keep topping each other as you move through the story, ultimately culminating in endgame content that you really need to play, as it A) also has some key story things and B) is a lot of fun.
That fun, however, can have its limits as some of these bosses can get absurd to fight whether it's their one-hit damage or their giant health bars. But if you don't want to spend two hours memorizing a fight and hacking them down, the game has helpfully supplied a one-shot build that will take you through 99% of the biggest bosses in the game with ease. (Not going to get into endgame spoilers in this piece, but there is one thing you need to know about the early story).
Is it 'cheating'? Not technically but if you want to just find these story components or cool rewards, it's Maelle nuke time. This is not worth doing until after you can get past the 9999 damage cap at the end of the main story, fyi. But there is one key thing near the start of the game, so here's a very, very big warning:
Expedition 33 Sandfall
Medalum – This is the key to the entire thing. It's not impossible to do good damage without it, but you're crippling the entire concept. The reason being is that the sword starts you in Virtuose stance which is a massive damage increase for your first hit. The problem is you need to get this sword early or else it's going to be a giant pain later. In the Gestral village you will participate in a tournament where you pick a character and win with them alone. That character gets a unique weapon. That unique weapon for Maelle is Medalum. If you miss it, you can either reload a past save, if you have one, or you can beat the village chief, Golgra, with Maelle much later in the game. She is extremely hard, and I do not recommend this. (Ironically once you do get Medalum you can now one-shot farm Golgra for materials).
Stendhal – This is your one shot move, an eight energy giant blast of Void damage that will combine all your buffs for the tens of millions of damage you will get.
Stats – Give what Stendhal needs. I have 99 in Agility and Defense to increase A and S rank affinity. I have 72 in luck instead of Might for a 68% crit chance which is another 50% damage. That could easily be 100% if I did a few different main Pictos.
Expedition 33 Sandfall
Pictos – It doesn't super matter what your three main ones for stats are (I'd recommend any with crit or speed, but it's not mandatory), but the passives are important. You need essentially every damage buff you have that stack multiplicatively, many of which will apply to only your initial hit, hence the one-shotting. The current essentials list I have for my 50-70 million hits: Confident Fighter – 30% damage increase but can't be healed
– 30% damage increase but can't be healed Glass Canon – Deal 25% more damage but take 25% more damage
– Deal 25% more damage but take 25% more damage Immaculate – 30% damage increase until a hit is received.
– 30% damage increase until a hit is received. First Offensive – 50% damage increase for first hit given and received
– 50% damage increase for first hit given and received Full Strength – 25% increased damage on full health
– 25% increased damage on full health Augmented First Strike – 50% increased damage on the first hit, once per battle
– 50% increased damage on the first hit, once per battle Energizing Starts – You need enough of these to get up to the 8 power you need to do the move immediately. Sciel can help with this though.
– You need enough of these to get up to the 8 power you need to do the move immediately. Sciel can help with this though. First Strike – Play first, so a faster monster won't hit you first
I also have other things active that may be needed for different scenarios, multiple enemies for instance, Energy Master, Cheater and Second Chance. But if you keep playing after the big initial hit your damage is going to crash a good amount.
Phantom Strike – This isn't part of the main one-shot build but if you are facing multiple enemies you can use this as your first move instead of Stendhal to do huge damage or even full wipes.
Expedition 33 Sandfall
Sciel is a good boost for this build as well. You can make her have First Strike as well and she can buff Maelle before she goes. All Set – This gives Shell, Powerful and Rush immediately, Powerful being a boost for Maelle. With Energizing skills this will also max her AP easily.
– This gives Shell, Powerful and Rush immediately, Powerful being a boost for Maelle. With Energizing skills this will also max her AP easily. Intervention - If you need to keep going with your team with multiple enemies, this gives Maelle a turn immediately and AP to do her Stendhal if she doesn't have it.
I know there are ways to push way beyond by 70 million, but that's enough to one-shot any boss in the game, including its hardest one, and everything else from these 150 million to 4 billion damage variants are just for fun, and often require a ton more Pictos points you may not have. This will take you far. All the way, in fact.
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