Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Best build for Burn damage

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has a combat system stuffed with depth, and there are millions of potential builds and setups to suit just about every player imaginable. One build type in particular that we’ve found especially useful, though, is a Burn build, which applies Burn to enemies at the start of every one of their turns for massive damage throughout the course of the battle. 

We’ve put together what we believe is the best build for Burn damage in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which we’ve detailed below. It’s worth noting that this isn’t a strategy you can jump into from the very beginning of the game — it requires certain playable characters, weapons, skills, and Pictos that come much later in the game. It’s still pretty devastating in its early stages, though, and only gets more powerful as you collect more of the requisite parts. 

Expedition 33 best Burn build: Party lineup 

This Burn build is focused on three of the playable party members: Lune, Verso, and Maelle. Lune is the obvious choice here, thanks to her wide range of Fire-type skills that inflict Burn, while Maelle is here to help inflict even more Burn and huge damage, and Verso ties it together with low-cost Burn infliction and plenty of support skills. 

This build is somewhat flexible, though. Verso doesn’t fit particularly well until he gets the weapon required to make the most of the build, and anyone else can jump into this spot with their own Fire-based skills to fill the gap until Verso is ready to shine. 

Expedition 33 best Burn build: Best Lune build 

Lune is the core of this team, dishing out constant Burn every single turn with multiple skills, both single-target and team-wide. She also has access to healing spells, which shouldn’t be necessary for the most part but come in handy if you’re caught in a tight spot. 

Lune Burn build: Weapon 

Lune’s weapon of choice is Lighterim, a Fire-type weapon with affinity for Defense and Agility. Investing in these skills is important, as not only do they boost Lune’s damage output, they also let her act more often and keep her alive for longer. 

Lighterim is the clear choice primarily because of its Level 4 ability, which reduces the cost of Fire skills by 1 AP. This doesn’t seem like a lot, but it means you can cast her weaker Burn spells very early in the game, right from the start of battle, without needing to build up any AP first. It also comes in very handy with her later Burn skills, and makes her much more consistent in battle. It comes with a 20% increase in Fire damage at level 10, and starts the battle with an Ice stain at level 20, both of which further boost her damage output outside of the Burn. 

Lune Burn build: Skills 

By the end of the game, you should have the following skills on Lune for this build: 

• Wildfire 
• Hell 
• Mayhem 
• Healing Light 
• Revitalization
• Rebirth 

Wildfire is a multi-target Fire spell that deals medium Fire damage and 3 Burn to all enemies. This is going to be your go-to spell until you unlock Hell, which deals very high Fire damage and applies 5 burns per hit, hitting twice. It also costs 9 AP, which is a big ask in the early game but very manageable by the late game. The rest of her skills are fairly straightforward — Mayhem can break if Lune has 4 stains built up, while Healing Light, Revitalization, and Rebirth can heal and revive allies in a pinch. 

Lune Burn build: Pictos and Luminas 

By the end of the game, you should have the following Pictos or Luminas on Lune for this build: 

• Double Burn 
• Painted Power
• First Strike 
• Critical Burn 
• Energising Cleanse 
• Energising Start (1-4)
• Energising Turn 
• Dead Energy

Double Burn is the key to this strategy, as it doubles the amount of Burn inflicted each time it’s inflicted. This is helpful even with Wildfire, but it massively balloons Lune’s Hell skill into something monstrous, inflicting a total of 20 Burn each time she uses it. Painted Power allows her to deal over 9,999 damage – which applies to her Burn damage, too – and Critical Burn increases the chance of critical hits on Burning enemies, which ideally will be all of them. 

Everything else is designed to keep her AP as high as possible. Energising Start gives 1 AP at the start of battle for each instance equipped, while Energising Turn gives 1 AP at the start of each turn. Energising Cleanse negates the first status affliction she’s hit with, while also giving 2 AP in the process, which is especially helpful in the late-game, while Dead Energy gives 3 AP when an enemy is killed. 

First Strike is also very helpful with Lune’s build, since it allows her to go first in a battle. With all of the above Pictos or Luminas equipped, Lune will start each battle with enough AP to cast Hell on her first turn, quickly setting up Burn before enemies get the chance to attack, then maintain the Burn in subsequent turns with either Hell or Wildfire, depending on how much AP she has by the time her turn comes around. 

Expedition 33 best Burn build: Best Maelle build 

Maelle is a huge damage dealer, thanks to her stance gimmick, but she’s also capable of dishing out gigantic amounts of Burn damage in the late-game, which makes her perfect for this build. 

Maelle Burn build: Weapon 

Facesum is the ideal weapon for Maelle in this build, since its abilities offer fantastic Burn-related effects that increase the amount of Burn she can deal – more so than Lune in some circumstances – and increase the damage of Burn overall. 

The level 4 ability allows Maelle to inflict double the stacks of Burn with her skills while she’s in the Offensive stance, which is very easy to achieve and stacks with relevant Pictos, while the level 10 skill increases the damage of her Burn by 50%. The level 20 ability is a curious one that isn’t quite clear — it says “Base Attack propagates Burn,” which means that, when she uses her base attack, the stacks of Burn on an enemy she isn’t attacking double. If she has a doubling effect, that could mean pushing an enemy from 20 stacks of Burn up to 60, which deals a gigantic amount of damage. It’s situational, but it’s a clear winner. 

Maelle Burn build: Skills

By the end of the game, you should have the following skills equipped on Maelle for this build: 

• Pyrolyse
• Rain of Fire 
• Swift Stride 
• Flueret Fury 
• Breaking Rules 
• Sword Ballet 

Pyrolyse is Maelle’s strongest Burn ability, dealing 15 Burn and dealing extreme Fire damage to a single enemy. When she’s in Offensive stance, this increases to 21 Burn, which is bumped up further to a potential 63 from her weapon and Pictos. Rain of Fire is a weaker version of this, dealing 6-10 at the base level while in Defensive stance – which she’ll be in after using Pyrolyse – but it also puts her back into Offensive stance, allowing you to get the most out of Pyrolyse again. You’ll want to bounce back and forth between these two moves to deal the most possible Burn damage. 

Swift Stride is good as you start to build up towards the end of a battle, since it puts her in Virtuose stance if the enemy is Burning, and Fleuret Fury lets you maintain that stance and can Break. Virtuose stance doubles her attack output, so couple this with Sword Ballet to deal 5 extreme damage hits to a single target, which is doubled if they land critical hits, to deal the finishing blow. Breaking is a utility skill here, and it destroys all Shields that an enemy has and gives 1 AP per shield destroyed. It’s not always going to be useful, but you’ll be glad you have it when you need it. 

Maelle Burn build: Pictos and Luminas 

By the end of the game, Maelle should have the following Pictos or Luminas equipped for this build: 

• Draining Cleanse (Picto) 
• Double Burn 
• Painted Power
• Augmented First Strike 
• Critical Burn 
• Energising Cleanse 
• Energising Start (1-4)
• Energising Turn 
• Dead Energy

All of the Pictos here serve a similar purpose for Maelle as they do for Lune — they collect AP and deal extra Burn damage. The differences here are in Augmented First Strike in place of First Strike, which lets her deal 50% more damage on her first attack of the battle – great for a devastating Pyrolyse – and the addition of the Draining Cleanse, equipped as a Picto. This isn’t strictly necessary, but it gives a lot of additional HP and Defense to stay alive a little bit longer, which is especially important for Maelle, as she can revive both team members and inflict a huge amount of Burn with one of her Gradient Skills. 

Expedition 33 best Burn build: Best Verso build 

Verso is the final member of the lineup, and he acts primarily as a supporter here, dishing out smaller amounts of Burn and damage while keeping his AP in reserve for when it’s most needed. He builds up more over time as his Rank increases, eventually capable of dealing massive amounts of Burn that does more damage than it usually does. 

Verso Burn build: Weapon 

Corpeso is the clear weapon of choice for Verso in this build, since he’ll spend most of his time using base attacks and this weapon works very well for that. It won’t let him inflict as much Burn as Lune or Maelle, but it will let him do more damage with his Burn stacks, and keep up a healthy supply of Burn stacks when Lune and Maelle are otherwise preoccupied. 

The level 4 ability lets Verso inflict 2 Burn stacks per rank with his base attack, up to a base of 10 (20 when doubled) when in S-Rank. The level 10 skill gives 1 AP each time he ranks up, which is somewhat helpful, while the level 20 skill increases Burn damage by 50% per rank, up to a massive 300% when in S-Rank. 

Verso Burn build: Skills 

By the end of the game, Verso should have the following skills equipped for this build: 

• From Fire
• Light Holder 
• Leadership 
• Blitz 
• End Bringer 
• Phantom Stars 

From Fire lets Verso heal 20% of his health when a target is Burning, which helps in a pinch, and the rest of his skills don’t interact with Burn at all. Light Holder is good for building up Rank, as well as dealing Light damage to enemies that aren’t affected by Fire damage, while Leadership lets him spend AP to recover all allies’ AP by up to 5 points, effectively giving him a party-wide Energy Tint. He doesn’t need the AP anyway, since he’ll mostly be using his base attack, so it’s a good use of 3 AP. 

Blitz, End Bringer, and Phantom Stars are all finishers. Blitz instantly kills any non-boss enemy with less than 10% HP and lets him play a second turn, while End Bringer and Phantom Stars both deal multiple extreme hits of damage and don’t use weapon attributes, giving him more versatility. 

Verso Burn build: Pictos and Luminas 

By the end of the game, Verso should have the following Pictos or Luminas equipped for this build: 

• Combo Attack (1-3) 
• Augmented Counter 
• Augmented Attack
• Double Burn 
• Painted Power
• Critical Burn 
• Energising Cleanse 
• Energising Start (1-4)
• Energising Turn 
• Dead Energy

In addition to everything covered above for Lune and Maelle, Verso picks up three instances of Combo Attack, which lets him hit four times when using his base attack. Because he gets two stacks of Burn per rank for each base attack hit, combined with Double Burn he can deal up to 80 stacks of burn with a single base attack, provided he’s in S-Rank, which also has triple damage. This also lets him conserve his AP for when he needs it for helping allies or executing a finishing move. We’ve also given him Augmented Counter, which boosts his damage output when countering, and Augmented Attack, which increases his base attack damage by 50%.