Maelle's 2 Billion Damage Build Nerfed by Clair Obscur

Discover how Maelle from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 can unleash over 2 billion damage with her nuke build. Dive into the details of this powerful strategy and learn about Sandfall Interactive's response to this game-changing skill.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Updates

Stendhal Hurts, A Lot

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 continues to surprise players with new discoveries every day, including a player's revelation of achieving 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. These bosses often have massive health pools and can deal one-hit kills, prompting players to develop powerful strategies like the nuke build. Be aware that this article may contain minor spoilers.

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

Additionally, players must equip Maelle with the Medalum weapon, enabling her to start battles in Virtuose stance. Another crucial skill is Last Stand, which activates Virtuose stance and reduces Maelle's health to one hit point.

To further enhance Maelle's damage output, she should equip any three of the following skills: Painted Power, which allows damage to exceed 9,999; Death’s Door, which boosts damage by 50% at low health; Confident Fighter, which increases damage by 30% but disables 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 of Expedition 33 both engaging and fun.

Stendhal Getting Nerfed

Sandfall Interactive has acknowledged that Stendhal's extreme damage 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 to address bugs, not balance issues, at this early stage. However, Stendhal's overpowering nature prompted a reevaluation. Sandfall admitted that during the final pre-release balance pass, they significantly boosted Stendhal's damage, perhaps too much.

"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 part of their first full hotfix, set to go live today on Steam, with other platforms to follow shortly.

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 Twitter (X) post on May 6. Earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated the team on Instagram for their success and for showcasing French creativity and audacity.

With its ongoing success and continuous 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.

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!