Clair Obscur Expedition 33’s Maelle still crushes bosses, despite nerf

But you know who’s not getting wrecked? Maelle.

By the time Act 3 rolls around, you’ll unlock the full skill tree for the plucky teen, bringing with it some of the game’s most powerful abilities — for any character. Prior to the game’s first patch, Maelle’s Stendhal ability made breaking the game “a bit too easy,” as Sandfall wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Players could deal literal billions of damage, one-shotting anyone who stood in Maelle’s way.

Even post-nerf, Maelle is still Clair Obscur’s top killing machine, making a triviality out of any fight she wants to swiftly end. She’s so powerful that sometimes I feel like I’m going through the motions in using other characters’ turns to set her up for success, like burning enemies with Lune so Maelle can quickly use Swift Stride and enter Virtuoso Stance, which lets her deal 200% damage. For lengthier, tougher fights with enemies possessing seemingly infinite health, sometimes it’s fun to see just how big Maelle’s damage numbers can get.

Some players don’t want to just win fights, but want to see how badly they can break the game. And while Maelle is maybe the more popular killing machine, one who can reach those high damage marks during the natural flow of battle, fellow expeditioner Sciel is no slouch in doling out damage. Intentionally going into fights not with the goal of winning, but of utterly breaking the game means determined (and patient) expeditioners can absolutely break Clair Obscur with Sciel and her scythe.

Maelle and Sciel are likely Clair Obscur’s two best damage dealers. Lune can hit some high numbers, but she’s often more useful healing allies or targeting multiple foes for high damage versus a single enemy for extreme damage. I still struggle maximizing Verso’s Perfection, and Monoco was a tricky character to get the hang of — it wasn’t until late in the game before I was punishing enemies with Monoco, though I doubt I’ll be reaching 1.1 billion damage with him any time soon.

Even though Maelle’s powerful Stendhal ability was nerfed in May, “you absolutely still can” break the game, as Sandfall has stated and many, many players have proven. And it’s only fair — anyone who’s reached the end of the Renoir’s Drafts level knows that even having an OP build might not be enough for the game’s toughest enemies.