Expedition 33: Everything You Should Do in Act 3 Before the Final Dungeon

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an expansive RPG with a gorgeous fantasy world to uncover. While a large part of the game is fairly linear, once players hit Act 3, Expedition 33 truly opens up. At this point, you get the ability to fly and can go anywhere and everywhere. But that also means you might run into superbosses or drastically stronger enemies that can wipe you out in just a few hits. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of the things you should do first in Expedition 33’s Act 3 to help properly prepare you for the endgame.

Things to Do First in Act 3

Before we jump into what to do, it should be stated that if you simply want to progress the story and see the ending, all you need to do is fly to Lumiere and enter it. This is the final dungeon of the game and will lead to the ending. But you can also leave Lumiere after you enter it, if you want.

Go To Camp and Watch Bond Events

At the start of Act 3, you’ll be in camp seeing story bits play out, but once that’s over, you should talk to every single party member and watch all their optional bond scenes. This is because as your bond level goes up, each character will unlock their ultra-powerful Gradiant attacks. For the endgame, you’ll want all three of every character's Gradiant attacks, but raising your bonds will also unlock some exclusive dungeons and bosses — and mark them on your map to make it easy. These are typically a bit easier than the real endgame dungeons, so a good way to level.

Unlock Esquie’s Dive

Also tied to bond levels, you’ll want to unlock Esquie’s Dive ability as soon as possible. This will let you dive into the whirlpools found across the world map — which is essentially a limitless way of getting Lumina Stones. Each whirlpool gives you 5 Colour of Lumina stones, which means a lot more points for assigning abilities. You’ll also need Dive to access the game’s final, most difficult dungeon.

Find The Fountain

The Fountain is absolutely the first stop you’ll want to make. If you’ve helped any of the white Nevrons across the game (which you should have) — there’s a fantastic reward waiting. The location on the map will have the red danger warning, but don’t worry about it unless you’ve been cruel to the white Nevrons.

Head inside, go left, and talk to the creature Blanche. If you’ve been helping those Nevrons, you’ll be rewarded with a whopping 100 Colour of Lumina stones. This is a fantastic reward that lets you drastically increase your party’s strength by equipping a ton of skills, and you’ll need those points for some of the endgame Pictos.

Best Pictos to Get

There are a few Pictos you’ll absolutely want to get your hands on, as they drastically increase teh combat abilities of your characters. Here’s what we recommend getting.

• Cheater — Lets your character take two turns instead of one — Gained by defeating the Superboss Sprong. Found in the sea by Visage, look for the giant wandering metal enemy.
• Auto Rush — Applies rush at the start of battle — Found in Old Lumiere near the beginning of where you played as Maelle, in an alcove.
• Base Shield — Gives you one shield every turn automatically — Found at The Chosen Path after beating all mirrors.
• Second Chance - Lets you revive once per battle automatically — You get this Picto automatically after beating Renoir at the end of Act 2, just make sure to equip it.
• Combo Attack I - Gives your basic attack an extra hit — Go to the Ancient Battlefield dungeon and defeat the boss.
• Energy Master — Double your AP gain for every action — Defeat the Serpenphare boss (the giant purple dragon flying over the world map). You should be roughly level 70-75.

End-Game Dungeons

There’s a variety of endgame dungeons to tackle, some of which simply hold optional bosses and some of which have extra story context. Here are the ones we’d recommend doing at the very least.

As a note, if you need to grind some levels, the best place to do it is at the Endless Tower on the West edge of the map. It’s the huge tower you can’t miss. This area is a combat challenge with eleven floors of increasingly difficult battles, but you can make it through the first six or so fairly easily, and it dumps a ton of experience on you.

The Chosen Path - The Chosen Path is found just to the East of Old Lumiere, floating in the sky. This short dungeon is a series of five battles where you have to use one character in each. But it yields some great rewards, including Pictos. You should be roughly level 50-60 for it.

Endless Night Sanctuary - Found in the big red forest on the far East edge of the map, this is one of the absolutely best places for leveling near the end of the game. Letting you fight some high-level Gestral enemies that yield a ton of experience. You can also get some crucial items for upgrading weapons to their max. However, it’s a bit tough, so we’d recommend being at least level 75.

There are three story-related dungeons you’ll want to hit. The Reacher should be one of your very first stops in Act 3, as it’s not as high-level as everything else. It’s also quite long, so a good way to raise your character's levels between 60-80. The latter two are the hardest dungeons in the game, so maybe save those for last. Here’s how to unlock all three, as well as they’re locations on the map:

• The Reacher — Unlocked by getting Maelle to max relationship bond.
• The Flying Manor — Found in the sky near Endless Tower in Act 3.
• Renior’s Drafts — Found in a dive point near the Axon Islands in Act 3. To unlock Dive, get Esquie to max bond level.

Secrets in Expedition 33

There is a wealth of collectibles to find in Expedition 33, from music tracks and journals to a variety of costumes. We haven’t found the locations of absolutely everything, but if you’re looking for costumes in particular, you’ll want to hit two optional activities — Gestral Beaches and Mimes.

Gestral Beaches are little platforming or minigame challenges, each of which yields some kind of reward, or multiple rewards. There are four Gestral beaches to find. Here’s what they are and their locations on the map.

• Raft Volleyball
• Climbing: Ascension
• Climbing: Fireballs
• Racing

There are 12 Mimes to find. Each one you have to beat in battle, and they’ll yield a costume or new hairstyle for a character. They’re all found in dungeons, with the one exception, so here are the locations you need to look in.

• Lumiere - This one is missable and needs to be done in the prologue
• Spring Meadows
• Flying Waters
• Ancient Sanctuary
• Esquie’s Nest
• Yellow Harvest
• Frozen Hearts
• On the World Map — You can find two mimes together in a clearing Southwest of the Visages location.
• Visages
• Sirene
• Tainted Cliffs

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.