Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33 was officially named Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2025, as well as winning numerous other awards. If you join the game for the first time (or return for another playthrough) after this winning move, IGN will provide you with guides, explainers and wikis to facilitate you start your journey across the continent.
What is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33? Should you play it?
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG (a bit like Final Fantasy VII… kind of) set in the world of the Continent. It follows a group called Expedition 33 whose mission is to destroy the Malarka, a mysterious figure who annihilates anyone over a certain age in an annual ceremony called “Gommage”.
In addition to extremely unique turn-based combat that emphasizes various skills and parries to damage bosses with “says” and plenty of secret faint points, you and your party Explore different areas, encounter enemies, search for treasure, and discover what happened to the other Expeditions that previously tried to defeat the Malarka – but failed. You can also build your team to deal absurd amounts of damage based on combos, something die-hard players loved in Expedition 33.
If you’re a fan of RPGs but don’t have the time to spend 100+ hours on them, Expedition 33 may be for you perfect for you. If you focus solely on the main story, you can expect the credits to roll in about 28 hours. In the case of side quests, this time increases to 45 hours. If you want to complete Allit will take approximately 65 hours. And if you want to beat a bunch of optional bosses with crazy builds, you can do that too. Oh, and we gave the Expedition 33 a great rating in our review if you want a more detailed look!
What is the combat like in Expedition 33?
As we mentioned earlier, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 features turn-based combat, which means everyone involved in the battle, including enemies, attacks one at a time rather than all at once – think classic Final Fantasy, Persona or Baldur’s Gate 3.
However, you don’t just wait for enemy attacks to hit you. Here, one of the main advantages is the ability to parry, dodge and jump to avoid attacks and counterattack. When an opponent makes a move, you can press a button that will dodge, jump or parry at the right moment to completely avoid or deal damage to him.
As for your own skills, they are powered by Picto and Luminas. Pictos are special pieces of equipment that you equip to characters to provide special benefits and raise stats. Working hand-in-hand with Picto, Lumina is a special skill that is unlocked after winning a battle against Picto four times. They can be transferred and used with any member of your team.
Structures are a key part of combat in Expedition 33, and you’ll need to pay attention not only to your Picto and Lumina, but also to your weapons and attributes. Regardless of the character, we have building guides to facilitate you plan so you always have the best gear and the best stats.
If this all seems confusing or overwhelming, go to our Combat Guide this explains everything you need to know about Expedition 33’s combat system in more detail, including more sophisticated mechanics that we haven’t covered here. For more facilitate with combat and companion games, check out:
Explaining exploration and world design
After setting out on your journey to defeat the Malarka, you will reach the Continent, which is basically a giant world. Not only is this how you travel to novel areas during the main story, but there are also enemies that wander around the area waiting to be defeated (or avoided).
Additionally, you can find various collectibles on the continent, including: Optional bosses take off and Side quests to finish. If you are a completistyou can spend hours alone on the Continent, tracking every item, SecretAND Easter egg possible.
Our Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Interactive Map is the perfect companion tool to facilitate you explore the continent. Not only does it map out the entire area to facilitate you plan your next move, but it also tracks key locations such as novel areas, side quests, collectibles, and bosses so you always know where to go to achieve your goal.
We’ve got plenty of in-game facilitate to facilitate you explore and collect everything The Continent has to offer, including:
“Thank you” update.
Released as a thank you to the community, the free Expedition 33 “Thank You” update dropped unexpectedly during The Game Awards on December 11, 2025. It added novel content such as Lumina and weapons, bosses, photo mode, and a novel environment to explore, as well as a handful of improvements and bug fixes.
We’ll have a full breakdown of the novel content coming soon, and we’ll link to it when it’s available. For now, you can check out everything that has been added on our 1.5.0 patch notes page.
Meg Koepp is a Guides editor on the IGN Guides team, specializing in trends. When she’s not working, you can find her playing an RPG, earning a Victory Royale in Fortnite, or cuddling her corgi.
