Clair Obscur: Maelle's 2 Billion Damage Build Faces Nerf

In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Maelle can unleash over 2 billion damage with her devastating nuke build. Discover how to achieve this massive damage and why Sandfall Interactive is addressing this overpowerful ability.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Updates

Stendhal’s Devastating Power

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 keeps surprising players with new discoveries, including a method to deal up to 2 billion damage using Maelle.

After completing the main story, the game’s endgame introduces tougher bosses and deeper narrative elements. These bosses boast massive health pools, with some capable of one-shot kills. To counter this, players have crafted a powerful nuke build for Maelle. Be warned: this article contains minor spoilers, so proceed with caution.

Maelle’s key ability, Stendhal, delivers immense damage, which doubles in her Virtuose stance. To maximize her nuke build, players need two specific Luminas—unlocked via Pictos, equipable items offering various effects.

The essential Luminas are Cheater, granting an extra turn, and Shortcut, providing another turn when health drops below 30%.

Maelle also requires the Medalum weapon to begin battles in Virtuose stance, alongside the Last Stand skill, which activates Virtuose stance while reducing her health to one.

Additionally, Maelle should equip three of these skills: Painted Power, allowing damage to surpass 9,999; Death’s Door, boosting damage by 50% at low health; Confident Fighter, adding 30% damage but disabling healing; or Inverted Affinity, increasing damage by 50% while making healing harmful.

With the right Picto and Lumina combinations, Maelle can exceed 2 billion damage. For context, the endgame boss Simon has roughly 45 million HP, meaning Maelle’s build could defeat him 48 times over—an overwhelming advantage.

Players continue to experiment with different characters and strategies to push damage limits. Expedition 33’s challenging endgame encourages creative tactics to enhance gameplay enjoyment.

Stendhal Faces Adjustments

Sandfall Interactive has acknowledged that Stendhal makes the game too easy. In a May 8 post on X, the studio announced upcoming tweaks to Maelle’s skill. Originally, they planned only bug fixes, not balance changes, at this stage.

However, Stendhal’s extreme damage prompted action. During development, the skill was underwhelming until a last-minute boost made it overly powerful.

“We want you to break the game—and you still can—but Stendhal was a bit too much,” Sandfall Interactive stated. The adjustments will roll out in the first hotfix, hitting Steam first, followed by other platforms.

2 Million Copies Sold in 12 Days

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 continues to soar, reaching 2 million copies sold in just 12 days, as announced in a May 6 X post.

This month, French President Emmanuel Macron praised the game on Instagram, saying, “Congratulations to Sandfall Interactive and the Expedition 33 team. Your work showcases French creativity and boldness.”

With its success, Expedition 33 is a top contender for Game of the Year. Future updates and potential DLC could elevate it further.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Check our article below for the latest game updates!