Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wears its Final Fantasy inspirations on its sleeve, so it makes sense that it has its own swath of optional super bosses. And there’s one particular boss at the end of the game that’s a cut above the rest: Simon.
Simon is part of the very first expedition, and eventually falls to the Curator in the Abyss, where you’ll find him within the dungeon Renoir’s Drafts. He’s the hardest boss in the game and defeating him will unlock a corresponding trophy/achievement. His fight is a two-parter, with three phases.
He’s not invincible, however. So let’s go over a strategy that can make short work of him, and can bypass his third phase entirely. This approach is still doable even after the developers nerfed the strongest character in the game, Maele.
Team composition and set up
We’ll be using Verso, Maele, and Sciel. Make sure that Verso and Maele are at least level 90. Invest skill points to max out his Might, Agility, and Defense attributes. This ensures that they both deal as much damage as possible.
For Verso’s Picto set up, equip:
- Death Bomb
- Breaking Death
- SOS Power
This will push his Luck stat into the 70 percent range, giving him a healthy critical hit rate. Also have him equip the Contoroso weapon. This is because at weapon level 20, Contorso has the ability to switch Verso into S Rank mode upon Breaking an enemy.
For Maele’s Picto set up, have her equip:
- The One
- Cheater
- Energy Master
The One will reduce her HP to just 1 HP, but she’ll get a 108% critical rate in return. While that might sound alarming, we’re trying to deny Simon a chance to attack. Have her equip the Medalum weapon. This sword is important because it’ll start Maele out in Virtuose Stance, giving her next attack a 200 percent damage bonus.
Make sure that Maelle has Last Chance and Stendhal skills equipped.
Sciel herself won’t be doing any damage, and is only around for support. However, you’ll absolutely want her to equip the Cheater Lumina. Everything else is up to you, but try juicing her Agility stat as high as possible so that her turns come around faster. You can do so by equipping Pictos like Energising Turn, Augmented First Strike, and Energising Attack I. Also, make sure she has the Intervention skill equipped.
For Luminas, you’ll generally want to equip everything that’ll increase your damage output, especially on Maelle. Verso, on the other hand, has a few required Lumina to survive this boss fight.
If you don’t have enough LP (Lumina Points) to equip all of the suggested Lumina, or don’t have them, equip as many as you can, but prioritize the required ones. Painted Power is an absolute must as that lets characters bypass the game’s initial 9,999 damage cap (Editor’s note: Painted Power should be equipped to every character as soon as you earn this Picto). You’ll be doing damage in the millions with this strategy.
Verso’s required and highly suggested Lumina are:
- Auto Death (required)
- Breaker (required)
- Breaking Attack (required)
- Burning Death (required)
- Break Specialist (required)
- Painted Power (required)
- Revive Paradox (required)
- Cheater (required)
- Energy Master (required)
- Second Chance (required)
- At Death’s Door
- Augmented Aim
- Breaking Shots
- Burn Affinity
- Burning Mark
- Burning Shots
- Confident Fighter
- Critical Break
- Critical Burn
- Critical Stun
- Critical Vulnerability
- Critical Stun
- Critical Weakness
- Double Mark
- Double Burn
- Energising Powerful
- Energising Revive
- Energising Shots (required)
- Energising Start
- Energising Start II
- Energising Start III
- Energising Start IV
- Exposing Break
- First Offensive
- First Strike
- Fueling Break
- Glass Cannon
- Immaculate
- Piercing Shot
- Powerful Revive
- Protecting Shots
- Quick Break
- Shortcut
- Slowing Break
- Sniper
- Staggering Attack
- Stay Marked
- Teamwork
- Warming Up
Maele will have a similar Lumina set up, although there are some key differences:
- Accelerating Last Stand
- At Death’s Door
- Augmented First Strike
- Auto Rush
- Confident Fighter
- Critical Burn
- Critical Vulnerability
- Energising Start I
- Energising Start II
- Energising Start III
- Energising Start IV
- Energising Turn
- First Offensive
- First Strike
- Full Strength
- Glass Cannon
- Immaculate
- In Media res
- Inverted Affinity
- Painted Power (required)
- Powerful Mark
- Revive Paradox
- Roulette (can be super effective, but it’s a risk)
- Rush On Powerful (required)
- SOS Power (required)
- SOS Rush (required)
- Shortcut
- Staggering Attack
- Stay Marked
- Stun Boost
- Tainted
- Teamwork
- Warming Up
The biggest difference between Verso and Maelle’s Lumina set ups is that Maelle doesn’t have the ones that augment the Free Aim ability, as that’ll be Verso’s primary role.
Roulette is an optional Lumina for Maelle since it’s a gamble. It’ll make Maelle’s attacks either do 50 percent or 200 percent of its intended damage. It’s a 50/50 shot, so if you get lucky and land the extra 200 percent, Simon will stand no chance. Get unlucky, however, and well, that’s what you have Sciel for. Her Intervention skill lets her transfer her next move to a teammate, namely Maele, so that she can attack again just in case.
Attack Plan
The Simon fight is split into three phases. We’re hoping to take him out during the first two. When the fight begins, Verso’s Auto Death will activate and he’ll die, activating Death Bomb, Breaking Death, Breaker, Breaking Attack, Burning Death, and Break Specialist. This will leave Simon vulnerable to Breaking, making him susceptible to more damage. However, thanks to Second Chance, Verso is immediately resurrected, activating Revive Paradox and letting him go first.
Enter Free Aim mode with Verso and shoot Simon until he’s Broken.With the Energising Shots Lumina equipped, Verso has a chance of recovering an extra AP with every shot he fires. When you’re left with five AP, you can use his Phantom Star skill to do some extra damage. Do as much damage as you can before Maelle’s upcoming turn where she’ll do a vast majority of the remaining damage to take out Simon’s first phase.
Next up should be Maelle. Thanks to Medalum, she’ll start in Virtuose Stance, giving her next attack an extra 200% damage boost. Immediately use
Stendahl. That should cleanly defeat Simon in one hit, especially with the further 200% boost if you’re lucky. However, if Simon still stands, Maelle can act twice in a row thanks to the Cheater Picto she has equipped. You can enter Virtuose Stance again with Last Chance and use Stendahl once more.
A cutscene will play and Simon will enter his second phase. The strategy to take him out is exactly the same as the first phase. After Verso breaks him, have Maelle use Stendahl and hope that you get the lucky 200% Roulette bonus on top of Virtuose Stance’s initial 200% damage output. That should be able to take Simon out immediately without him ever even having a chance to move. If Simon still stands at this point, you can try the Last Chance and Stendhal combo again with Maelle. As a last resort, have Sciel use Intervention to pass her turn off to Maelle.
At around 30 percent health, Simon will enter his third phase. Here, Simon will forcibly remove Verso, Maelle, and Sciel from the battlefield. This will call in your backup members, Lune and Monoco, to finish off the battle. While it’s certainly still possible to win with these two, as that’s exactly what happened to me, you’ll want to beat Simon as quickly as possible with the strategy outlined in this guide.
After defeating Simon, you’ll unlock a trophy/achievement, as well as find a diary entry next to where he was. You’ll also receive 50x Colour of Lumina and 2x Perfect Chroma Catalyst, as well as the Simiso weapon for Verso. It’s one of his best weapons and at weapon level 20, Verso cannot die if he’s currently at A rank during battle.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is now available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs.