The playable characters and their unique mechanics

The rules everyone shares

Before looking at each character, a reminder of the rules that apply to all of them. Battles are turn-based, and the turn order is shown in the Timeline on the left of the screen. Actions revolve around AP: a basic attack earns you one, and skills spend them.

The enemy's turn, on the other hand, plays out in real time. There are four reflexes to learn:

• Dodge: pressed at the right moment, it keeps you from taking damage.
• Parry: instead of avoiding the blow, you block it. Parry every hit of a single attack and you trigger a very powerful Counter.
• Jump: attacks announced by a jump flare can only be avoided by jumping, and a successful jump opens the way to a Jump Counter.
• Gradient Counter: the only defence against enemy Gradient Attacks, which hit especially hard.

Several mechanics then apply to every character. Each AP spent on a skill fills the Gradient Gauge; once it is full, it grants a charge that any character can use to unleash a Gradient Attack. Free Aim shots cost 1 AP and are mostly useful against flying enemies and weak points.

Finally, every enemy has a Break Bar under its health bar. It fills as the enemy takes damage, more slowly with multi-hit skills. Once it is full, specific skills can Break the enemy: it then takes 20% more damage and is usually stunned for a turn.

On the progression side, each level brings 1 skill point and 3 attribute points. Pictos raise your stats and each carries a passive effect, a Lumina. Once learned, a Lumina can be equipped with Lumina Points without wearing the matching Pictos. That system is what lets you build very different teams out of the same characters.

Gustave and Overcharge

Gustave is an engineer from Lumière who has devoted his life to protecting his city. He has a mechanical arm, and he is entering his last year before the Gommage, which goes a long way towards explaining his resolve to finish the Paintress.

His mechanic, Overcharge, runs through that arm. Every time Gustave deals damage, dodges or parries, the arm builds up charge. Once charged, it releases a blast that hits far harder than a normal attack. Overcharge can also Break enemies: it is precisely the example the game's tutorial uses to introduce the Break Bar.

With Gustave, defence feeds offence. A successful dodge or parry is not just a hit avoided, it is extra charge for your next turn.

Maelle and her Stances

Maelle, aged 16, is the youngest member of the expedition. Orphaned as a child, she has always felt like an outsider, with Gustave, her foster brother, as her only real bond. The expedition is her chance to finally see the world beyond Lumière. She fights as a fencer, rapier in hand.

Her style is built on Stances:

Stanceless, she gets none of these effects. Her skills move her from one Stance to another, and the art lies in chaining the right ones at the right time: shelter in Defensive when the enemy is winding up a big attack, then switch to cash in on the bonus. Virtuose, with its huge multiplier, is the moment to land your most expensive hits.

Lune and her Stains

Lune is the expedition's chief researcher. Methodical and stubborn, she wants to finish the work her parents started. In battle, she is a mage who wields the elements.

Her mechanic is called Stains (Pigments in French). Every skill she casts generates Stains, and some skills can consume them to become more powerful. Playing Lune means thinking several turns ahead: build up the right Stains, then spend them when they will hurt the most.

Elemental Affinities matter enormously to her. Most enemies have a Weakness (+50% damage), a Resistance (-50%), or even nullify or absorb an element. The game shows this from its tutorial onwards: a Portier, weak to Ice, takes 50% more damage from Lune's Ice Lance.

Sciel and Foretell

Sciel is a teacher who also works the land. Warm and sociable, she nonetheless carries regrets that haunt her, and she joined the expedition to break the cycle once and for all.

Her mechanic, Foretell, works in two steps: some skills apply Foretell to the enemy, others consume it to turn it into damage. On top of that, her skills create Sun or Moon charges. When she combines both, Sciel enters Twilight for a few turns: she gains bonus damage, applies twice as much Foretell and can stack twice as much.

Twilight is therefore the phase to set up. Build both kinds of charges, then use the window to apply and consume as much Foretell as you can before it closes.

Verso and Perfection

Verso is a mysterious swordsman who crosses the expedition's path during the first act. His story is something to discover by playing, and we will leave it at that.

His mechanic, Perfection, rewards clean play. Attack without getting hit and his Perfection Rank goes up. The higher the rank, the stronger Verso becomes, and some skills gain new effects at the upper ranks. He is the character who demands the best command of dodging and parrying: every hit you avoid keeps his climb going.

Monoco and the Bestial Wheel

Monoco is a Gestral and Verso's best friend. The expedition recruits him at his station up in the mountains. Like every Gestral, he loves a fight, and he has his own way of going about it.

His Bestial Wheel works like a dial: each skill he casts moves the pointer, and the skills matching the current slot are more powerful. The wheel cycles through several states: Agile, Balanced, Heavy, Caster and Almighty.

Above all, Monoco learns Nevron Skills. If he is in the party when Nevrons are defeated, he collects their feet, and each foot lets him use a new skill. Even some bosses leave one behind: the game includes, for instance, a Lampmaster's Foot. Keeping Monoco in the team while exploring means growing his arsenal fight after fight.

Esquie, the travelling companion

Esquie does not fight, but the expedition would not get far without him. This huge, friendly creature carries the group across the Continent, and you can call him at any time on the world map. As the adventure unfolds, special rocks give him new ways of getting around. The first one, Florrie, lets him swim, which finally makes crossing the sea possible.

The playable characters in Clair Obscurdle

In the Classic mode grid, these seven characters all have the Playable role and share the Expedition 33 affiliation. Their category, combat styles and zone of first appearance set them apart:

Opening a game with one of them is rarely a good idea: they look too much like each other and too little like the rest of the roster, which is mostly made up of Nevrons. The best first guess guide shows it with numbers.

In Quote mode, on the other hand, they are safe bets: the six fighters are the characters with the most lines among the game's 76, which are spread across 13 characters. To find everyone else, head to the character codex, and for combat vocabulary in both languages, see the English-French glossary.