Unlike most turn-based RPGs where your party members have to tank through enemy attacks and hope for the best, the hard-to-pronounce Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 gives several reactive defense options to avoid damage and turn the tables on your foes. Defense can get quite complex, so here’s a rundown of all your options and how to better use them.
Dodges are the cornerstones of defense
Pressing the Dodge input at the right time during an enemy’s attack will allow your attacked party member/s to evade and avoid taking damage. An “EVADE” signal will appear on-screen after a successful Dodge. Timing evades to the last possible second triggers a Perfect Dodge, denoted by a “PERFECT” signal.
As the timing for Dodges is less strict than other defense options, they are a good place to start when learning enemy attack timings. Enemies generally have one or two attack combos at the start of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 but will perform more multi-hit combos towards the middle and end of the game. Learning an enemy’s attack rhythms can be quite difficult, so it’s always a good idea to start with Dodges before moving to the more advanced Parries.
Parries and Counters are high-risk and high-reward
Parries share the same timing as Perfect Dodges, but with the added base bonus of rewarding one Action Point (AP) per successful parry. Considering AP is the resource used to perform Skills, you’ll want to get the hang of Parries so you can use more powerful Skills during your turns. All dodgeable enemy attacks can be parried using the associated Parry input, so you’ll have to decide if you want to parry an enemy’s attacks or dodge them instead. Successful Parries will cause a “PARRIED” signal to appear on-screen.
Parrying all of an enemy’s multi-hit attacks in a combo will reward you with an automatic Counterattack on top of any received AP and avoided damage. Missing an attack will cause the enemy to either finish their combo or add on extra attacks (the latter one is specific to certain enemies, however.) The exception to the Counterattack prerequisite is when an enemy executes a multi-hit combo on the entire party. Your party can get hit by the enemy’s multi-hit combo and still perform a counterattack provided you manage to parry the combo’s last attack.
The trick to parrying is patience. Similar to games like Elden Ring, enemies in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will feint their attacks to mess up your Parry timings. As mentioned, it is wise to start with Dodges first as their input windows are more forgiving. Once you have a general idea of an enemy’s moveset, you can use the acquired knowledge to parry its attacks afterward.
Jumps are rare but essential to avoiding big damage
On occasion, an enemy will either slam the ground or perform a wide horizontal sweep, creating an attack that cannot be Dodged or Parried. When this happens, a bright gold Jump flare shines onscreen, indicating that you should press the Jump input.
Attacks that need to be Jumped aren’t as common as those that can be Dodged or Parried and are very telegraphed thanks to the giant Jump flare. Successfully avoiding a jumpable attack will allow you to counterattack, but be wary of any follow-up attacks that require a different response (this serves as a general rule for enemy multi-hit combos.)
Gradient Counters turn the tables on some of the strongest enemy attacks
Just as rare as Jumpable attacks are attacks that require Gradient Counters. Enemies start to perform these attacks at the start of Act II and are denoted by a black-and-white greyscale filter. To counter them, press the Gradient Counter input just as the enemy attack lands. A successful Gradient Counter will prevent you from taking damage and perform an automatic counterattack.
While Gradient Counters are easier to counter than Parries, the slow-motion effect and greyscale filter can mess with finding the right timing. You want to ignore the onscreen effects as much as possible and keep an eye on the enemy’s animations.
Reactive defense options in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 can be augmented with Skills, Luminas, Pictos, and weapons. Some award extra bonuses on top of the base Counterattacks or AP gains. Others remove the base bonuses in exchange for other boons (such as the Energizing Pain Pictos which removes the ability to gain AP on Parry but gives you +1 AP whenever you get hit). Part of the fun of combat is experimenting with the different ways you can build your party, so make sure to tune your characters to your preferred playstyle on top of understanding the basics of combat.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X|S.
The gradient counters. Nobody seems to know which button you push on Xbox, for this. There is nothing in the tutorials as well. So frustrating.