After spending dozens of hours wiping in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Monolith and Abyss, then cruising through those same fights on New Game+ with a tuned build, the patterns behind each boss really snapped into place. This ranking is built from that experience plus post-launch balance changes up to DLC Update 1.3, and it focuses on what actually matters in a fight:
“Easiest” here doesn’t mean “can’t kill you” – just that the patterns are generous and beatable with a basic party around the recommended level. “Hardest” means you’re probably seeing multiple full wipes, even with a strong build, until your execution is nearly perfect.
All recommendations assume Expert difficulty on a first playthrough unless otherwise noted. Content and tuning are accurate for base game + DLC up to Update 1.3 (late 2025).
The breakthrough for me came when I stopped treating bosses as “raw DPS checks” and started treating them as Canvas exams. Once your fundamentals are tight, even Clea and Simon become learnable instead of impossible walls.
Think of every boss like this: Step → Action → Result. For example: Step recognize Snowball Barrage → Action parry first two hits, dodge the third → Result avoid all damage and gain stagger meter. With that mindset, let’s rank every major fight.
Bourjon is your crash course in exploiting elemental weaknesses. His big threats are Snowball Barrage (3-hit: parry–parry–dodge) and Freeze Nova (large AoE, best answered with a Gradient Counter at the blue peak). Stack fire Luminas on everyone, let Gustave spam his stagger skills, and have Maelle apply Burn to shred the ice shield faster. The only real way to die is getting greedy during Nova instead of rolling out.
I wiped on Lampmaster more than I like to admit before realizing the adds are the real danger. Snuff the minion lamps immediately with Lune’s ranged skills or they’ll explode and clutter the Canvas. During Pew Pew Pew multi-laser sequences, focus on reading the rhythm – parry the clearly marked beams and Paint Dodge if you lose the pattern. Maelle’s buffs that convert incoming light to healing make this fight almost trivial post-patch.
AC introduces the classic “break the shield or die” dynamic. The scary part is Shield Slam with its deceptive delay – wait that extra half-second before parrying. Bring Sirene’s water damage to strip the shield in a single offensive turn, then swap to lightning or neutral damage once it drops. Verso’s job is just to keep everyone standing through Spell Burst AOEs while Gustave cycles stagger skills on every telegraphed slam.
Sprong looks like a joke fight but its Leap Chain can shred an underleveled party. Alicia’s ice skills are huge here – freezing Sprong slows down its bouncy combos, making parry timing forgiving. Try to parry only the clean, ground-level hits and simply dodge the awkward mid-air ones. When Tongue Lash grabs someone, mash the QTE, then immediately top that character off; getting caught again at low HP is how this boss steals wins.
Gargant is where status mismanagement really starts killing runs. Its cycling Status Breath (fire/ice/poison) forces you to pay attention to its element and adjust your defenses. Maelle should handle cleansing and resistance buffs, while Gustave saves big stagger tools for the long Gulp wind-up – failing that swallow can snowball into disaster. Keep statuses from stacking by using Canvas Clears every time more than two party members are afflicted.
Alicia starts the trend of bosses that punish target selection mistakes. When she uses Mirror Split, only the true Alicia (glowing with a distinct blue hue) needs to die; focus fire with fire-element attacks to melt that clone quickly. Use the inactive clones as cover for Blizzard, hiding behind them to negate the AoE. Once you reliably pick the correct clone, the fight becomes a simple loop of burn → stagger → heal.
This is the first real “endurance check.” Creation’s Color Flood forces you to match your Gradient to the incoming hue or eat massive damage. Pre-set Maelle’s color-shift buffs so each character can quickly rotate to the right color before a Flood. Post-DLC, Canvas Wipe has clearer parry windows – nailing those not only prevents the full-party debuff, it opens one of your best stagger windows. Save AP for phase transitions, not early chip.
Renoir’s first appearance scared me more than almost any early game fight because of that infamous instant-kill opener. The key is mental: do not try to parry it. As soon as you see the long red glow and sword draw, commit to a dodge (left is the safest read). After that, the main threat is his 7-hit Combo Chain; treat it like a metronome, parrying later hits only once you’re comfortable, and use Maelle’s speed debuffs to widen the timing.
Paintress is where Canvas debuffs become fight-defining. Paint Trap can completely immobilize a character until you break it via QTE or burst damage on the trap. I learned the hard way that ignoring the paint pots in phase 2 turns this fight into misery – destroy them as soon as they spawn or you’ll end up with near-permanent action locks. Keep Verso on pre-emptive cleansing and use Lune to safely chip from range while Gustave focuses on staggering her during Stroke Barrage recoveries.
Sirene is less about raw damage and more about chaos from Siren Song. A charmed Gustave deleting your own party is how this fight spirals. As soon as someone is charmed, dedicate a quick “slap” action to snap them out; never leave a charmed DPS alive through a full turn cycle. Stack lightning damage to punish her water forms and learn the rhythm of Wave Crash so you can dodge on beat rather than react late.
Golgra feels unfair until your build catches up. Realm Exile is a 5-hit parry gauntlet followed by a one-shot if you fail any beat; expect to practice this pattern a lot. Stack defensive Pictos, damage reduction Luminas, and Maelle’s stagger resistance so random chip doesn’t push you into kill range. During Earthquake, I found it safer to focus on clean dodges instead of fancy parries – surviving to the next heal is more important than style here.
Reaching Serpenphare is half the battle; the other half is dealing with its aerial dominance. Use any tools you have to “weight” or ground it during Serpent Coil wind-ups, then parry at the moment of peak tension instead of the initial movement. Phase 2 “Super Saiyan” mode adds dangerous flying adds – prioritize sniping them with Lune or they’ll overwhelm you. Targeting the wings first in phase 2 noticeably shortens the most chaotic part of the fight.
Painted Love is where coordination really matters. Two bosses act in sync, with shared mechanics like Love Beam that demand linked parries across your party. The trick is to desync them: focus all damage on one partner until their HP bars drift apart, which softens their combined attacks. When you see Heart Explosion charges, dump mitigation and stagger tools on that partner; post-patch, this is your best window to break their rhythm and regain control.
Clea is a pure execution boss. Her brutal Clea Sweep chain hits 11 times with almost no room for error; think ~0.3 seconds between hits and expect to fail this more than you succeed at first. Pre-buff parry windows with Maelle and equip every Parry Master-style Picto you own. Phase Shift can roll into several different patterns, so learn at least two “safe” reactions for each visual cue. Verso’s mid-chain revives are often the only reason a mistake isn’t an instant reset.
Simon is the final exam of Expedition 33. The opener, Multi-Sweep Slash, is a 9-hit parry string followed by a final one-shot that ignores revives if you fail; most runs die here while you’re still learning. Step: lock in on the rhythm of each sweep → Action: parry all 9, then hard-dodge the last slash left → Result: you enter the fight alive with a huge AP swing. From there, only build stagger during clearly “safe” gaps – being greedy gets you killed by Divergent Nova or an extended Star Chain.
After Update 1.3, Abyss Pull also amplifies random one-shot potential unless you bring foresight-style Luminas or heavy debuff cleanse. Maelle’s Gradient Mastery and Verso’s strongest Canvas protections are almost mandatory. Expect 10+ deaths even with a good build; once you finally internalize Simon’s patterns, every other boss in the game feels noticeably easier.
Once you’ve cleared Simon and Clea a few times, you’ll notice how generous early- and mid-game bosses actually are. Use this ranking to tackle Expedition 33’s encounters in an order that respects your current skill and gear, and treat every death as feedback on which pattern you still need to master.
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