Best attributes to level up in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Attributes determine the stats of your party members in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The most important thing you need to know about attributes is this: They make number go up.

In this Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 guide, we’ll explain all of the attributes in the game, plus offer some advice on the best attributes to level up for each character.

All attributes in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

There are five attributes in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. They broadly affect the following stats:

• Vitality: Health, how much HP that character has
• Might: Attack power, or how much damage that character deals
• Agility: Speed, or how frequently that character gets to attack in the battle rotation
• Defense: Defense, or how much damage reduction that character has
• Luck: Critical rate, or how frequently that character lands critical hits

That said, depending on the character, certain attributes affect additional stats. For instance, assigning Sciel’s attribute points toward her Vitality will increase her health, but assigning Lune’s attribute points to her Vitality will increase her health and attack power. (Assigning attribute points to Might will increase Lune’s attack power by a higher margin, however.)

Upon leveling up, each character will earn three attribute points. Each attribute point can increase the level of one attribute by one. You can apply these points at expedition flags (seen above).

Best attributes for each character in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

For the most part, you should try to maintain a close parity among a character’s attributes. Weapons in Expedition 33 scale damage based on a character’s attributes. Maelle’s Medalum rapier will deal extra damage based on how high her Defense and Agility attributes are, while her Melarum rapier will deal extra damage based on her Vitality and Luck attributes. Ensuring a character has largely balanced stats means any new weapons you find will be viable.

That said, some characters benefit from focusing a bit more on some attributes over others. Let’s break it down:

Gustave: Luck. Some of Gustave’s core attacks land multiple hits, so the math here is simple. The higher Gustave’s critical hit chance, the more likely it is for those hits to land extra damage.

Lune: Defense and Vitality. Lune is the spellcaster of your party, and has a toolset that, most importantly, includes healing spells. Though she’s capable of dealing damage, you’ll often lean on her to heal the rest of your team, so increase her chances of survival via Defense and Vitality stats. At the very least, don’t bother investing much in her Luck attribute — critical hits aren’t really key for Lune.

Maelle: Agility and Luck. Some of Maelle’s skills, like Degagement, can apply elemental weaknesses to enemies for a few turns. With high Agility, you can help ensure Maelle goes first. You can open battles with her applying an elemental weakness, leaving enemies open to extra damage from Lune’s elemental attacks.

Sciel: Might. Like Gustave, the math is simple here. Sciel is one of the primary damage dealers in Expedition 33. You’d do well to increase her attack power.

Verso: Agility or Vitality. Verso is a supportive character with skills that can either help him tank hits or boost the rest of your team’s damage, and the attributes you invest in depend on how exactly you’d like him to support your party. Some of his skills can “mark” enemies, meaning that enemy will take bonus damage the next time it’s attacked. (Like Maelle’s elemental debuffs, if Verso goes first, that’s an easy way for the next person in your party’s batting order to deal a nice damage boost.) For those, Agility helps. But he also has skills that can, for instance, give his AP to other teammates or even take on their status effects; investing in Vitality can help keep Verso’s health up when he’s debuffed in other ways.

Monoco: Anything goes! Monoco is the true wild card of Expedition 33, with a suite of available skills that’s entirely contingent on which enemies you’ve defeated with him in your party. Go nuts!

How to respec attributes in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

You can reset a character’s attributes with a Recoat, a rare item earned from some boss fights, merchants (they cost 10,000 chroma), and Picture Cages (those chest-like puzzles in levels where you have to find three nearby locks to open). Given how rare they are, though, we’d recommend saving them until you’ve accrued enough weapons and unlocked enough skills to really get into the weeds of min-maxing.

Characters level up quickly in Expedition 33 anyway, so if you don’t like the way one party member’s stats are shaping up, you’ll get plenty of additional attribute points to readjust.

For more Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 guides, see our beginner’s tips and learn how to break enemies.