After sinking well over a hundred hours into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (plus multiple NG+ runs), I kept running into the same problem: I was unlocking “cool” skills that looked flashy, but my damage and AP economy felt awful compared to players posting ridiculous 10-15 AP turns and 1,000%+ nukes.
The breakthrough came when I stopped treating every skill as equal and focused on a small set of S-tier, AP-efficient abilities. Once those were online, nearly every fight – from Act 1 bosses to late superbosses – became about cycling those few god-tier skills as often as possible, and everything else was just support.
This guide ranks the best skills in Expedition 33 (post–patch 1.2) and, more importantly, tells you exactly what to unlock first and how to use them so you don’t waste points on traps like I did.
Step → Focus on S-tier unlocks first → Result: 80% of your damage and rotation problems vanish for both story and NG+
How Skills Are Ranked (And What “S-Tier” Really Means)
All rankings are based on post–1.2 patch performance with late-game Pictos and realistic AP budgets (10–15 AP per turn in optimized builds):
Damage per AP: How hard the skill hits relative to its cost.
Scaling & synergy: How well it scales with buffs, burns, stances, and Pictos.
Team impact: Single-turn burst vs. multi-turn value vs. pure setup.
Act timing: How early you can unlock it and how long it stays relevant.
Patch 1.2 changes: AP refund tweaks, burn buffs, and balance passes.
S-Tier: Meta-defining. You build your entire rotation around these. Unlock ASAP.
A-Tier: Strong workhorses. Great in most fights; back up the S-tier core.
B-Tier: Build-dependent. Good with the right comp or early game, replace later.
C-Tier: Niche/falling off. Take only as prerequisites or for very specific strats.
D-Tier: Traps. Skip or respec out once better options are available.
Step → Judge skills by AP economics, not animation hype → Result: Consistent 10–15 AP turns and repeatable big bursts instead of feast-or-famine runs
Quick Recommendations: What To Unlock First
If you just want the fastest path to power, this is the short version I wish I’d had at hour 5.
Lune: Early on, take Crustal Crush or other big elemental hit → in Act 2, rush Typhoon (Storm tree).
With those five skills online, you basically have the “meta core” that community testing shows delivering roughly 80% of optimal damage and rotation potential through all three Acts and into NG+.
Step → Unlock Fury → Wildfire → early Lune nuke → Result: Within 1–2 hours of focused play, your team feels like a completely different game
S-Tier Skills – Meta-Defining Core (Unlock These First)
These are the skills that feel “stupidly powerful” once you see them in action. They either multiply your whole team’s output or scale so hard they stay good all the way through NG+.
Sciel – Fortune’s Fury (Sun Tree)
Role: Team-wide damage amplifier / burst enabler
What it does: Single-target buff (around 5 AP) that makes the next ally’s turn deal roughly double damage. Works on any big nuke, including Maelle burns and Lune elementals.
Why it’s S-tier: Multipliers stack. If an ally already has a 630% skill, Fortune’s Fury effectively lets you push that to ~1260% equivalent damage when combined with other buffs and Pictos.
Scaling: The stronger your allies get, the better Fury becomes. There’s no practical cap.
Step → Cast Fortune’s Fury on the ally about to nuke → Result: Every big-hit AP you spend afterwards is effectively worth ~2x
Common mistake: I used to cast Fortune’s Fury “whenever”. The correct way is to line it up right before your biggest skill each turn (Wildfire bursts, Combustion, Typhoon, or Sealed Fate chains).
Sciel – Sealed Fate (Twilight Tree)
Role: High-damage mark + crit setup
What it does: Heavy single-target slash with a mark that boosts follow-up crits.
Why it’s S-tier: With marks and proper follow-ups (like Phantom Blade), you’re looking at 500%+ effective damage on a core, repeatable piece of your rotation.
AP economy: Especially post-1.2, when AP refunds and Harvest builds are online, Sealed Fate becomes one of Sciel’s best ways to convert AP into single-target damage.
Step → Apply Sealed Fate to a boss → Result: Everything you do to that target for the next turn hits significantly harder
Maelle – Wildfire (Virtuoso Burn Stacker)
Role: Main Burn engine and late-game DPS monster
What it does: Applies and scales Burn stacks across enemies, effectively turning Maelle into a damage-over-time nuke machine.
Why it’s S-tier: With around 30 Burn stacks (which is very doable mid-game), Wildfire damage overtakes almost everything else in the kit. With self-burn interactions and Pictos, you can push into the 1,000%+ effective damage range in longer fights.
Patch synergy: Burn received a significant buff in a 2024 update, making it scale even better into long boss fights.
Step → Stack Burn via Wildfire over 2–3 turns → Result: Each subsequent Maelle turn explodes for "miles ahead" damage compared to non-burn builds
Tip: Don’t fear the self-burn drawbacks too much. With decent healing Pictos and team mitigation, the self-damage is negligible compared to the damage output you gain.
Maelle – Gustav’s Homage (Stance Swap + Damage)
Role: Stance enabler and Wildfire damage amplifier
What it does: Swaps Maelle into her Virtuoso stance while dealing meaningful damage.
Why it’s S-tier: Stance access is what turns Wildfire and Combustion from “good” into “absurd”. Homage lets you chain multiple Virtuoso skills in a single turn, often compressing what would be three turns of ramping into one explosive window.
Rotation role: Usually the opener in your Maelle burst turn.
Step → Cast Gustav’s Homage → follow with Wildfire / Combustion → Result: Triple-dipping into Virtuoso damage for enormous turn spikes
Lune – Typhoon (Storm Tree, Act 2)
Role: Massive AoE elemental nuke and control tool
What it does: High-AP AoE hit (around 7+ AP) with strong element scaling and control utility (slow/tempo manipulation).
Why it’s S-tier: Among Lune’s kit, Typhoon offers the best long-term “mileage”: it clears mobs, chunks bosses, and stays relevant even as other options fall off.
Synergy: Works beautifully with Fortune’s Fury and Storm-related Pictos, turning Lune into a one-button room cleaner.
Step → Stack AP (10–15) then unleash Typhoon under Fortune’s Fury → Result: Most non-boss encounters evaporate in a single sequence
A-Tier Skills – Reliable Workhorses
A-tier skills form the backbone of your “everyday” turns. They’re not quite meta-defining like S-tier, but they are absolutely worth investing in once your core is online.
Sciel – Phantom Blade & Delaying Slash
Role: Single-target sustain damage and tempo control
What they do: High-damage slashes that interact with marks/crit and can delay enemy turns.
Why A-tier: With Sealed Fate marks, these reliably hit in the 400–500% effective damage range while also giving you turn order manipulation.
Downside: AP-hungry; once you’re fully invested in Fury + Harvest loops, you’ll sometimes skip them in favor of pure buffs and nukes.
Step → Sealed Fate → Phantom Blade → Result: A clean, chunky single-target combo that feels great from Act 1 through mid-game
Sciel – Plentiful Harvest & Grim Harvest
Role: AP refund engine
What they do: Refund AP on kills or marked targets, sometimes effectively “paying you back” for spending AP.
Why A-tier: In early and mid-game, these can easily refund 50%+ of your spent AP, letting you hit that coveted 10–15 AP per turn range sooner.
Patch note: Patch 1.2 toned down some of the craziest loops, but Harvest is still “really nice” as a general-purpose AP battery.
Step → Use Harvest on low-HP or marked enemies → Result: You effectively get "free" AP to feed back into Fury and Sealed Fate rotations
Maelle – Combustion
Role: Burst finisher for Burn stacks
What it does: Converts existing Burn stacks into a massive one-shot style hit.
Why A-tier: While Wildfire is your long-term DPS engine, Combustion lets you cash out your stacks for a devastating nuke, especially once you’re running 20–30+ stacks.
Best use: On bosses with stable burn uptime; don’t waste it early in the ramp.
Step → Ramp Burn with Wildfire → cast Combustion at ~20–30 stacks → Result: One of the highest single-button bursts Maelle can produce
Lune – Crustal Crush
Role: Early-game “raw damage” nuke
What it does: A big rock-based AoE (around 7 AP) that smashes multiple enemies with ~630%-ish upfront damage and no complicated conditions.
Why A-tier: When you first get it, this is the simplest “press button, things die” tool in Lune’s kit and carries you through a lot of Act 1–2 fights.
Why not S-tier: As healing and support Pictos come online and new nukes like Typhoon appear, its relative value drops, but it remains excellent until then.
Step → Save ~7 AP → cast Crustal Crush into Fortune’s Fury if possible → Result: Clean, reliable AoE chunks early in the game
Lune – Wildfire / Slow Burn Variant
Role: Hybrid Burn + slow setup
What it does: Applies Burn plus a slow or tempo debuff.
Why A-tier: On bosses where action economy matters, combining Burn + slow gives you both damage over time and safety.
When to use: Debuff-heavy or high-tempo fights where full Maelle burn memes are overkill but you still want chip + control.
Step → Apply Lune’s burn+slow before big enemy phases → Result: Their turns slide back while damage ticks forward in your favor
B-Tier Skills – Contextual Tools
B-tier skills shine in the right context but are not mandatory for optimal play. They’re great if you enjoy their playstyle or need to bridge gaps before S/A-tier skills unlock.
Sciel – All Set & Rush
Role: Setup and self-buff for AP/damage turns
What they do: Prepare the team or buff Sciel for a “big” upcoming sequence.
Why B-tier: They become decent once you already have Fortune’s Fury and Harvest tools, but by themselves they don’t change fights.
Best use: In AP-loop-centric builds where you’re squeezing every last bit of value from Sciel’s turn.
Step → Use Rush on turns where you can’t line up Fury perfectly → Result: Slightly better AP/damage economy instead of wasted actions
Sciel – Twilight Dance / Dark Wave
Role: Fun AoE chains, style points
What they do: Multi-step AoE attacks chaining through enemies.
Why B-tier: They feel great and can clear mobs, but once AP refund engines and S-tier buffs are online, they’re outclassed in pure efficiency.
Lune – Storm Caller / Mayhem
Role: Elemental summons and situational AoE
What they do: Mid-cost elemental attacks or summons that add ongoing effects.
Why B-tier: In specific weather/Picto setups, they get “a lot of mileage”, but Typhoon and Crustal Crush will be your defaults most of the time.
Lune – Elemental Trick / Lightning Dance
Role: Early multi-hit elemental utility
What they do: Low-cost, multi-hit skills (often 1–3 AP) that help trigger element-based mechanics and “stain” conversions (e.g., shifting from Fire to Light setups).
Why B-tier: Great early when AP is tight and your toolkit is small; later they become niche combo pieces.
Maelle – Pre-Wildfire Burn Skills
Role: Early access to Burn before the real engine unlocks
What they do: Apply or slightly scale Burn without the explosive Wildfire/Combustion synergy.
Why B-tier: Solid stepping stones; once Wildfire is online, these become outclassed but remain usable if you’re short on points.
C & D-Tier Skills – What To Skip Or Respec
These abilities either don’t scale, get completely replaced by better options, or exist mainly as “teaching tools” early in the game. They’re safe to skip unless required as pathing nodes in a tree.
Sciel – Searing Bond / Card Weaver / Spectral Sweep / Final Path Early Sun/Twilight tools that feel okay for the first few hours but quickly fall behind Fortune’s Fury, Sealed Fate, and Harvest builds. Take only if you must path through them.
Sciel – Focused Foretell / Marking Card / Bad Omen Low-impact prediction and mark setup with almost no damage. Once you understand marks, these are dead buttons compared to real skills.
Lune – Revitalization / Crippling Tsunami / Fire Rage–style nukes Healing and control that are outclassed by Pictos and better elemental skills. In practice, Pictos handle most sustain, making these “nice to have” at best.
Maelle – Defensive Debuffs / Non-burn outliers Low multipliers, no burn interaction, and poor scaling. They look safe/defensive on paper but test results show they underperform badly.
Step → Use C/D-tier skills only as pathing, then respec later → Result: More points freed for your S/A-tier core without handicapping your build
Act-by-Act Unlock Roadmap (Patch 1.2)
This is the practical unlock order that’s consistently felt best in my runs, assuming you’re playing on current patches.
Act 1 (0–10 Hours) – Establish Your Core
Step → Rush Fortune’s Fury on Sciel → Result: Immediate, huge damage spikes whenever you line it up with any nuke
Step → Unlock Maelle’s Wildfire + Gustav’s Homage → Result: Your main late-game burn engine is already online early
Step → Grab an early Lune nuke (like Crustal Crush) → Result: You get reliable AoE to actually clear fights fast
Step → Invest in Plentiful/Grim Harvest for AP → Result: Your turns start creeping toward 10 AP and beyond
Act 2 (10–25 Hours) – Upgrade To Meta Rotations
Step → Pick up Sealed Fate for Sciel → Result: Stronger single-target chains that complement your Fury buffs
Step → Unlock Lune’s Typhoon in the Storm tree → Result: Top-tier AoE and a second major target for Fortune’s Fury
Step → Add Combustion to Maelle → Result: Ability to cash out 20–30 Burn stacks in one monstrous hit
Act 3 (25+ Hours & NG+) – Refine & Respec
Step → Respec out of unused C/D-tier skills → Result: More points to max S/A-tier skills and important passives
Step → Tailor B-tier skills to your favorite comp (burn, elemental control, AP loops) → Result: Your build feels personalized without sacrificing power
Step → Optimize Pictos to support S-tier spam (AP, Burn, Storm, crit) → Result: Consistent 10–15 AP turns with repeatable S-tier usage
Sample Rotations & AP Loop Examples
Burn-Centric Boss Rotation (Maelle + Sciel)
Step → Turn 1: Gustav’s Homage → Wildfire → Result: Maelle enters Virtuoso and starts stacking Burn on the boss
Step → Turn 2: More Wildfire / minor burn skills → Result: Burn stacks climb toward 20+; boss HP starts melting between turns
Step → Turn 3: Sciel casts Fortune’s Fury on Maelle → Result: Maelle’s next action is massively amplified
Step → Turn 3 (Maelle): Combustion on the high-burn target → Result: A "stupidly powerful" burn cash-out that often ends the phase
Step → Use Harvest skills on adds/marks along the way → Result: AP refunds keep the loop going every few turns
Elemental Control Rotation (Lune + Sciel)
Step → Open with Elemental Trick / Lightning Dance on weaknesses → Result: Enemies gain the right stains and minor chip damage
Step → Use Storm Caller / similar B-tier tools if needed → Result: Set up weather/elemental context if your Pictos care about it
Step → Build AP to ~10–15 (via Harvest and efficient skills) → Result: You’re ready for a full Typhoon turn
Step → Sciel casts Fortune’s Fury on Lune → Result: Your big AoE is pre-buffed
Step → Lune casts Typhoon → Result: Board wipe or massive boss + add damage in a single action
Troubleshooting Common Problems
AP starvation: If you’re always ending turns with 0–4 AP and can’t afford S-tier skills, you likely under-invested in Harvest-style AP refunds or overbought C/D-tier filler. Fix: respec into Harvest nodes and cut underperforming actives.
Element mismatch: If fights feel slow, check whether Lune is using the wrong element for enemy weaknesses. Swapping in Crustal Crush, Typhoon, or the correct B-tier control skill makes a huge difference.
Burn feels weak: Burn is about time. If you’re cashing out Combustion too early (under ~15–20 stacks), it will underwhelm. Let stacks ramp, then detonate with Fury when it matters.
Over-investing in heals: Post-1.2 and with decent Pictos, many dedicated heal skills are overkill. Try shifting skill points from pure heals into S/A-tier damage and using Pictos or items to cover sustain.
Sticking to starter skills too long: Many exact “tutorial” skills exist solely to teach mechanics and are functionally D-tier later. Don’t hesitate to drop them as soon as you have stronger options.
TL;DR – Key Takeaways
Anchor your build around S-tier skills: Sciel’s Fortune’s Fury and Sealed Fate, Maelle’s Wildfire and Gustav’s Homage, and Lune’s Typhoon do the vast majority of the heavy lifting.
Use A-tier as your backbone: Phantom Blade / Delaying Slash, Harvest passives, Maelle’s Combustion, and Lune’s Crustal Crush / burn-slow tools fill out your rotation.
Treat B-tier as optional tech: Great if they fit your style or specific fights, but never at the cost of delaying S-tier unlocks.
Skip or respec C/D-tier: Once they’ve done their job as pathing nodes or tutorials, dump them and reclaim the points.
Prioritize AP economy: Aim for 10–15 AP per turn in optimized builds so you can spam your S-tier buttons. AP loops and refunds are as important as damage multipliers.
Follow the Act roadmap: Act 1 = Fury + Wildfire + early Lune nuke; Act 2 = Sealed Fate + Typhoon + Combustion; Act 3/NG+ = refine, respec, and perfect your rotation.
If you build around these principles instead of spreading points thinly across the whole tree, Expedition 33 goes from grindy to “I can’t believe I just did that much damage” very quickly – and stays that way well into NG+.
