Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Walkthrough — All Acts, Bosses and Endings (2026)

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the debut of the French studio Sandfall Interactive and one of the biggest hits of 2025: every year the Paintress writes a number on her monolith, and everyone who turns that age turns to smoke. This year the number is 33, and a volunteer expedition sets out across the ocean to kill her. It's a turn-based RPG with reactive dodges and parries in a Belle Époque painterly world — and it has 165 bosses. In this guide: the route through all three acts, key bosses with tactics, both endings and starter builds.

Basics: combat and progression

• Action Points (AP) fuel attacks and skills. Don't dump everything to zero — keep AP for counters: a perfect dodge or parry opens the enemy up for a free strike.
• Shooting is the universal answer: it hits flying enemies, and some boss mechanics (shields, weak points) are only removed with gunfire.
• Pictos are passive perks found in the world; the strongest hide in cocoons and behind bosses.
• Chroma is the currency: upgrade weapons with the Curator at camp as often as possible — it's your main damage source.
• Retouch lets you respec skill points — experiment freely.
• Build relationships with heroes: friendship levels grant gradient attacks, personal quests and music.

Act I. Gustave: from Lumière to the Stone Wave Cliffs

The Lumière prologue is still calm: finish the merchant trials and beat the first Mime in the alley behind the stage (stack 10 Rush charges and break his wall with Discharge). Then the route:

• Grand Meadows: mini-boss Chromatic Lancer (reward: Lanceram II sword).
• Indigo Tree: the first major boss — Évêque. Three shields are broken with Rush, shoot the blue orb, at half health he restores the shields — break them again.
• Flying Waters: the mansion with the Curator boss (his special is a floor wave — jump over it) and Bloomfield with Goblu: hit it with electricity and instantly shoot down its healing flowers.
• Great Bell Tower Path: the Grand Bultonneur — a shield with three cannons. A 10/10 Discharge stuns it, then three shots at the arm strip the shield.
• François's Cave: an ice tortoise — dodge the cold stream after the second flash.
• Stone Wave Cliffs: the Lampmaster — parry everything in phase one; in phase two memorize the order the lamps light up and shoot them in that same order: the boss takes 800 damage. The mandatory fight with the White-Haired Man closes the act.

Act II. Verso: Old Lumière, the Siren and the Monolith

The expedition reunites and the map expands — Esquie learns to swim. Key points:

• Forgotten Battlefield: the Duelliste on the Ancient Bridge — in phase two the combos get longer, some hits are jumped over, ending in a gradient strike.
• Old Lumière: first fight with Renoir — combos, defenders and masks. After the victory the Curator unlocks powerful weapon crafting.
• Many-Faced Island: first shoot the eyes of five masks from the mirror, then the Mask Keeper — long combos via parries; destroy the big masks before the fight.
• The Siren: the Weaver applies a "9 turns to death" curse — removed by dying and reviving one hero; the boss is vulnerable to fire (shoot the red spool). Glissando is vulnerable to cold — hit the glowing tail. The zone finale is the Siren herself: if the Weaver lives, the boss gains 4 shields every turn.
• The Monolith: dark copies of every location with upgraded old bosses. At the peak — the second Renoir fight (the phantom lion) and the final Paintress battle: meteors, chroma waves, then an aerial fight against the brush and corrupted chroma streams.

The epilogue moves you into the real world — as Alicia, Verso's younger sister. Act 3 is played as Maelle.

Act III. Maelle: superbosses and the finale

• Sprong in the northwest waters — around level 70; reward: the "Sharpshooter" picto (always two actions).
• Serpenphara in the eastern sky — drains AP, stick to basic attacks.
• The Infinite Tower: 11 floors of 3 trials each (33 battles) with pictos and music as rewards.
• Simon in Renoir's "Sketches" — the hardest superboss in the game; go there around level 90.
• Finale: the assault on Lumière with an army of revived townsfolk and the last Renoir — in phase one he's empowered by the Axons (the Siren and the Many-Faced), in phase two (after Alina intervenes) expect fire combos and meteors.

All endings

The final choice is between Maelle and Verso:

Both endings are considered "real" — the choice is deliberately left to the player. Make a manual save before the finale to see both.

Starter builds

• Gustave — reliable core: any Luck-scaling weapon. Lumière Rush builds the charge → Overcharge deals a huge burst, Might buffs the party, Mark from Free Aim amplifies everything. Pictos: Dead Energy II, Peppy Start II/III.
• Maelle — Virtuose Stance master: the Veremum rapier (crits ignite) or Litum (start battles in stance). Passage gives +25% damage on the target, Flère's Fury is the main damage; stance switching is the whole point.
• Sciel — lone wolf: Ramasson (safe) or Liteson (double damage — and double fragility). Focused Foretell gives 100% crit, Spectral Cleaver is the main damage dealer. Pictos: Lone Fighter, Last Stand, Roulette.
• Verso — crit and order: loves a strict rotation of parries and crits; joins with the Act 1 finale events.

Key tips

• Find all 9 lost Gestrals — the full set grants the "Colourful Hack" ability (breaks blue rocks).
• 10 white Nevrons: help them or kill them — both count for the achievement, but the rewards differ.
• Pour chroma into the Red Bowl on the continent: 90,000 total gives a useful white Nevron and a picto.
• Don't kill the Mime in the prologue for the "Lumière" music — the record is obtainable later, but the "Unusual Duel" achievement comes from the first win.
• 33 music records and 50 journals — collect along the way: full completion rarely requires backtracking.

FAQ

How many bosses are in the game? 165 according to Rock Paper Shotgun — from mandatory story fights to Gestral arenas and superbosses.

How many endings? Two main ones — for Maelle and for Verso; both are available from one save before the finale.

Is there missable content? Yes: decisions in Gestral quests, hero relationships and some side bosses. The full achievement list will help you miss nothing.

What's the maximum level? 99; achievements for levels 33, 66 and 99 hint you'll be around 60–70 by the end, with superbosses waiting at 70–90.

This guide is based on the 2025–2026 version of the game. Ask about any boss in the comments — we'll break down its moveset in detail.