Welcome to the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Clea & Simon boss guide. This guide walks through how to defeat the 2 hardest bosses in the game with ease.
Refer to the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Achievements & Trophies Guide for all other achievements and trophies.
How to Defeat Clea & Simon
Clea and Simon are the toughest bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s endgame. Before attempting these fights you should be level 90+ and have Maelle’s Medalum weapon along with some key Pictos and Luminas. The key to taking down both Clea or Simon quickly is a combination of Maelle and Sciel. The full setup used is below. Treat this as a guide. You don’t need to copy it exactly.
Clea
Defeat Clea in the Flying Manon area after unlocking her door by fighting 4 other bosses nearby.
Simon
Defeat Simon at the bottom of The Abyss after navigating your way through Renoir’s Drafts. This boss is tough during the 2nd phase. He will remove bodies of fallen party members and wipe the party when his health is low.
Maelle’s Weapon
Medalum – Maelle’s strongest weapon is acquired by either completing the arena in Gestral Village with Maelle in Act 1 or by defeating Golgra in the village with Maelle in the late game. Medalum will start Maelle in Virtuose Stance which is critical to a quick fight.
Pictos
Choose Pictos that increase your speed or critical chance. They should also be some of the more expensive Luminas when equipped.
- Cheater – Gives 400 speed and let’s you play twice in a row without penalty.
- Second Chance – 15% crit and revives with 100 health.
- Charging Critical – 35 crit and charges up Gradient Charge in crits. The defense also increases her weapon damage.
Key Luminas
The following Luminas significantly increase Maelle’s damage output during fights. Any other Luminas are fine in addition to these like the last stand Luminas. Sink as many point into Maelle as you can. Finishing the Nevron quests will give you 100 points and completing the Painting Workshops will give another 50.
- At Death’s Door – 50% damage if health < 10%
- Augmented Attack – 50% increased base attack
- Augmented First Strike – 50% increased first hit
- Auto Rush – Rush for 3 turns at start
- Beneficial Contamination – 2 AP when status effect is applied
- Burn Affinity – 25% increase to burning targets
- Charging Attack – 15% Gradient on base attack
- Charging Critical – 20% Gradient on crits
- Combo Attack – Base +1 hit
- Critical Burn – 25% increase crit on burning target
- Critical Moment – 50% increase with low health
- Energizing Attack II – 1 AP on base
- Energizing Powerful – 2 AP on powerful
- Energizing Start II & III – 1 AP on start
- Energizing Turn – 1 AP on turn
- Exposing Attack – Defenseless
- First Offensive – 50% damage 1st hit
- First Strike – Play 1st
- Glass Canon – 25% damage
- Immaculate – 30% damage until hit received
- In Medias Res – 3 shields on start
- Inverted Affinity – 50% damage
- Painted Power – 9999+
- Powerful Shield – 10% damage per shield
- Roulette – 50% damage or 200% damage. Key to build and random outcome.
- Shortcut – Immediately play when falling below 30% health. Healing bring the cap up and Last Stand drops it.
- SOS Power – Powerful when health drops
- SOS Rush – Rush when health drops
- Warming Up – 5% increase per turn to 5
Attributes
These don’t need to be exact, but it will give you an idea of where Maelle was at when I defeated the bosses. Max might for damage and agility for speed and weapon damage. Luck for extra crit and defense for more weapon damage.
- Level 92
- Vitality 21
- Might 99
- Agility 99
- Defense 16
- Luck 41
Strategy
This is the strategy used. I played with Verso and Sciel. Timing will be different based on character setups. Place character in this order: Verso/Other, Maelle, Sciel.
- Verso basic attacks to stack fire as high as possible
- Verso Powerful to give Maelle more damage
- Maelle Stendhal (hit 40 million on Simon will everything stacking and roulette hitting 200%)
- Maelle Last Stand to get into Virtuose, Powerful, Rush, & extra turn
- Maelle Stendhal during extra turn (if health was above 30% and dropped again with Last Stand. See Shortcut & SOS Luminas.)
- Sciel Healing Tint on Maelle to raise her health
- Sciel Intervention to give Maelle another turn
- Maelle Last Stand to get into Virtuose, Powerful, and Rush
- Maelle Stendhal
If the boss manages to survive that long. Do what you can to get Maelle additional turns. There is a lot of random chance in this method, so it may take a few tries to hit big damage. Following this I was able to kill both bosses without giving them a turn. Good luck.
That’s it for the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Clea & Simon boss guide. Please post any questions or comments below. Thanks.