7 most difficult bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, ranked

There are numerous difficult bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 ready to give a reality check to players. This RPG by Sandfall Interactive has both mandatory and optional boss encounters that forces one to use every bit of strategy and preparation to come out victorious, as they try to reach the Paintress and stop her from painting death.

This article guides you through some of the hardest bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Note: This list is subjective, as the adversity of these bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 depends on your party build and the difficulty you're playing at.

Spoiler Warning: This article spoils boss battles throughout all of Clair Obscur and their various mechanics.

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7 incredibly hard bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

7) Golgra

Golgra in Clair Obsur (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Kepler Interactive)

You'll need to fight Golgra a total of four times throughout the game to get a particular weapon. The aspect that makes her a difficult boss is her sheer damage output. You won't be at the required level when you first battle Golgra. Chances are you'll often get one-hit or two-hit KO-ed. You're only allowed one party member throughout the fight, adding an important condition to the duel.

The boss isn't extremely difficult if you buff up your defenses and use parries/dodges well. She can also become a great way to grind weapon upgrades after you've mastered the battle. Thus, while she may be one of the hardest bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, adversaries can get a lot more challenging from here on.

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6) Sirene

Fighting Sirene in Clair Obsur (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Kepler Interactive)

What makes Sirene one of the hardest bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is her long attack strings; some have timing differences, while others require multiple defensive methods. For example, her Grand Ballet move has its final attack strike after a bit of delay, so if you're following a rhythm, you'll probably miss the counter and take damage.

Another example of the same is her Final Act, where you need to alternate between jumping over shockwaves and parrying/dodging against ballet dancers. Thus, if you're not accustomed to mixing defensive actions in Clair Obscur, you'll have a tough time fighting her.

An annoying ability of Sirene is that she can cast Charm on your allies, but you can defeat the Tisseur boss and get the Anti-Charm Pictos to counter it.

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5) The Paintress

The Paintress is one of the toughest bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Kepler Interactive)

Your entire campaign has built up to defeating this mystical entity, and her fight lives up to the hype, at least in terms of its scale and presentation. What makes The Paintress boss fight hard is that there isn't anything alike before it. So you'll have to learn how to dodge her rocks, giant Void Meteors, or her brush strokes almost immediately to survive the bout.

Boss healths get progressively larger as you progress, but you're still limited to the 9,999 damage cap. Thus, you'll need to focus on multi-attack strategies where each touches the damage limit to make a dent in her health bar. But the longer the battle goes on, the more chances of things going wrong, and her battle is long if not anything else.

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4) Serpenphare

Fighting Serpenphare in Clair Obscur (Image via Kepler Interactive || YouTube/ @chobijas)

You can only fight the third Axon near the end of the game, and there is a justified reason for it. Serpenphare's difficulty stems from the fact that it can consume your team member's AP, a unit required to do almost everything in a combat encounter.

So, you not only have to fight an enemy with high speed and damage, but you'll also be barred from using your most effective attacks at regular intervals. Thus, you'll need to get creative with their character mechanics or rely on consumable items to replenish AP.

The only reprieve you have on the boss is if Serpehphare consumes too much AP, it will blast, taking a large chunk of damage and getting stunned. You'll need to know the game's mechanics inside out to defeat Serpenphare, one of the hardest bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

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3) Painted Love

Fighting the Painted Love boss (Image via Kepler Interactive || YouTube/@GhostOfRedSeas)

Renoir is a boss fight that is on a similar scale to The Paintress. Both of these fights individually aren't the most difficult, but what about battling the two at once? You'll find the answer at the Painted Love fight. It is one of the most difficult bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 simply because you'll have defend against two foes that were tough enough on their own at the same time.

One important information that works as a double-edged sword here is that both the Paintress and Renoir have a combined HP. So while this means you cannot take down one boss to make the fight easier, attacks that hit both bosses will do double damage to the health bar.

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2) Clea

The Clea boss battle (Image via Kepler Interactive || YouTube/ @chobijas)

With Clea, we enter the tier of bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 that enter unfair territory. She has only one major tactic, but it is effective and doesn't have any set counter-strategies. She won't attack you herself, but will summon Nevrons to do her job. But each time you don't counter, she'll heal herself. By what amount, you might ask? Half a million HP.

This boss can be somewhat hard or almost impossible, depending on how good you are at countering. But what makes her infuriating is that if you make even one mistake, all your efforts will go to waste as she'll heal almost all of her HP. She can summon a lot of different Nevron combinations, so you cannot just memorize all of the attacks.

While you can build your party setup to out-damage her healing, it will require just as much preparation. Clea's insane healing capability makes her one of the hardest bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

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1) Simon

Simon in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Image via Kepler Interactive || YouTube/ @chobijas)

Simon is considered the game's hardest boss by many. Aside from his damage output, where just one strike of his 5-7 attack combos does 5,000-7,000 damage, he has a ton of moves that outright change the rules. For example, if a party member is dead when Simon starts his turn (and he'll get a lot of turns in the fight), they will be removed from the canvas, barring you from reviving them.

The fight against Simon is one where even your reserve party needs to be maxed out and have perfect synergy. Aside from these obstacles, each phase will effectively double or triple the number of times you'll need to parry or dodge his attacks. You might as well treat the guy like a Soulsborne boss.

This has been all about some of the hardest bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

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