ByJustin ClarkPublished4 hours agoWe may earn a commission from links on this page.Screenshot: Sandfall Interactive / Justin Clark / KotakuJump ToNote: This guide contains light spoilers for the end of Act I of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33Suggested ReadingThe Top 10 Most-Played Games On Steam Deck: June 2023 Edition Share SubtitlesOffEnglishSuggested ReadingThe Top 10 Most-Played Games On Steam Deck: June 2023 Edition Share SubtitlesOffEnglishThe Top 10 Most-Played Games On Steam Deck: June 2023 EditionIt’s Act II. The plot thickens. Big Daddy Gollum’s still wreaking havoc on your damn team, and the role of Gustave will now be played by Clive Rosfiel—er, Verso. Despite trading the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen for Final Fantasy VIII’s number one simp, it’s a relatively easy transition, but not one without its quirks—and a whole new gimmick to learn. Once you learn that gimmick, and get into some of the deep skills in his tree, though, Verso can become the linchpin of your team. We’ll show you how. Screenshot: Sandfall Interactive / Justin Clark / KotakuSo, one of the things right upfront that eases the Gustave-to-Verso transition is the fact that he immediately inherits all of the weapons you collected as Gustave. Remember back in the day when a party member left, and they’d take all the good armor and weapons with them? God, we lived as savages in the 90s. Anyway, that means you’ve got a nice deep armory of sword options to start with. That said, sticking with Verso’s basic loadout for a bit is the best way to go, given that he’s the only character who can wield Light magic right out of the gate without having to prime the skill. This is handy as all the enemies in the first major area you get to after Verso joins up are weak to Light. You’ll get plenty of practice if you just stay the course of the main story. In addition, it’s not quite his default loadout per se, but the Dualliste boss at the end of that area drops the Dualliso sword. This allows Verso a second turn after a basic attack To get such a weapon so early after obtaining him makes it worth mentioning as a crucial part of his kit, especially because of his... Screenshot: Sandfall Interactive / Justin Clark / KotakuDevil May Cry fans will be right at home with this mechanic. Verso basically just has that game’s ranking system as a gimmick. Very simply, you start at grade D, and landing attacks, dodging, and parrying all add a certain amount of Perfection Points that raise the grade from D, C, B, A, all the way up to S, with points taken away if you take a hit. If you’re willing to take a risk, you can build Verso into a devastating glass cannon. The twist, however, is that while all of Verso’s skills get a damage boost depending on his rank, many of them also have a specific rank where they are enhanced even further. Using an ability tied to a specific letter rank that Verso has achieved enables a secondary effect. This can be anything from earning more Perfection if the attack hits, to dealing more damage, or it can even make expensive skills cheaper. An excellent example here is Verso’s Perfect Break Skill. By itself, it’s a pretty powerful Light attack. However, if you hit it while you’re exactly at Rank B, it only costs five AP to cast. So, while getting to rank S does have its benefits, building your offense around specific ranks—especially in the early goings of Act II—is where the real fun lies. It’s not always about racing to get an S lined up for him.Screenshot: Sandfall Interactive / Justin Clark / KotakuThere’s another running aspect of Verso’s skill tree that, while not necessarily a core gimmick, does deserve shouting out. That’s the fact that there are quite a few skills predicated on sacrificing either health, status, or rank to either benefit the party, or dealing absurd amounts of damage. That’s actually a really well-implemented way to tie combat in with his place in the narrative, but it also means that on top of being able to build a character based around skills hovering around a certain rank, if you’re willing to take a risk, you can build Verso into a devastating glass cannon.Even if you don’t go fully down that road, Berserk Slash should be a permanent skill for any Verso player. It allows him to deal more damage the less health he has left. If you feel like getting extra nuts, pair that up with Overload, and watch Berserk Slash send your enemies screaming into the goddamn Shadow Realm. This is a safer strategy once you get ahold of the Cheater Picto from beating Sprong—and it’s one of those combos that can utterly break the game once you get the Painted Power Picto that removes the 9,999 damage cap. There’s glory waiting for those who can walk the edge of life and death with Verso. But hey, if you’d like to keep your boy safe and still do a number on enemies, there’s plenty of options for that too. As mentioned, the Dualliso blade you get from the Dualliste grants a second turn after a basic attack, Pair that up with Energizing Shotsand Blitz, and you can absolutely monopolize an enemy if you get lucky enough. Pair Strike Storm up with any Pictos that enhance critical hits, and you’re almost always guaranteed to hit Rank S in no time. Once you get into the latter portions of Act II, you can basically just spam that and Perfect Stars—his most powerful Light attack—and you’ll put a whole lotta Nevros in the dirt. In the early going, though, your options will be a bit more limited. Depending how not-adept you are at dodges and parries, it’s perfectly viable to build Verso’s whole loadout around staying at C rank. Berserk Slash and Strike Storm both benefit at that rank, which helps the case, but you can also build Verso as a support character using Leadership and Paradigm Shift. In which case, you’ll want to pick up the Lanceram sword at some point in your journey, since it guarantees you’ll never drop lower than C. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs. #beginner039s #guide #mastering #verso #clair

When you reconnect with Sciel in the Gestral Village, she’s been champion at their local arena tournament for a while, and absolutely dominant at that, like a sexy, French Roman Reigns or something. It’s not till you finally get around to using her in your party that you really figure out why. She obviously took it easy on you in your arena fight. If Sciel wanted to, she could turn your ass into mirepoix faster than she puts up her ponytail. Suggested ReadingThe 3 Best And 3 Worst Korok Challenges In Tears Of The Kingdom Share SubtitlesOffEnglishview videoSuggested ReadingThe 3 Best And 3 Worst Korok Challenges In Tears Of The Kingdom Share SubtitlesOffEnglishRead More: That might not be totally obvious at the outset though, because my girl’s combat mechanics are the most unique and complex in the game; and it’s so easy to blow so many turns doing chip damage to low level grunts when you could and should be an unstoppable death dealer. Let’s show you how. 1. Basic kit2. Special mechanic: Foretell and Twilight3. Recommended builds and synergiesThere’s not too much to say here since even compared to the rest of her Team, Sciel’s entire loadout is inextricable from the Twilight mechanics. But, just to keep it real simple, Sciel uses a double-sided scythe for a melee weapon. There are actually really heartbreaking reasons for that, but in context, it does mean that despite everything else, she’s still got some powerful melee capabilities you can and should take advantage of. In particular, though, one of her bread-and-butter abilities, Sealed Fate, will depend on what element and what weapon you’ve got equipped, so more than some of the others, you still wanna choose her main weapon wisely, and not just for max Attack power.The main reason for that is because the vast majority of her abilities cast some form of Dark energy. She and, later, Monoco are the only ones who have consistent access to Dark skills, and given how rare it is for enemies to have a defense against it, that makes her innately pretty useful. But, of course, that’s the tip of the iceberg.Screenshot: Sandfall Interactive / Justin Clark / KotakuAnd now, the feature presentation: Sciel’s tutorial technically tells players all they need to know to use the Foretell system, but it sucks at telling you how to use it effectively. And you can see why, given how easy it is for Sciel to become Death, Destroyer of Worlds with the right loadout. So, there’s actually two special mechanics going on here. The first is Foretell. Think of Sciel’s Foretell cards like they’re little sticky bombs. You can stick a maximum of 10 onto an enemy, and whenever you’re ready, you can Consume them, which detonates some or all of them for additional damage. Obviously, you want a full payload of 10, and to hopefully not waste too many turns getting there. The second is the Twilight mechanic. Each of Sciel’s skills is coded as either a Light or Dark skill, noted by the little sun and moon icons in the upper right of the descriptions in the menus. Using a skill generates a card with either a Sun or Moon on it. Once you’ve generated at least one Sun card and one Moon card, Sciel enters Twilight mode, which increases damage by 50%, but also doubles the amount of Foretell you can slap onto an enemy from 10 to 20. That damage increase actually goes up by 25% for every card of one type you generate before generating the opposite card to enter Twilight (i.e. adding multiple Sun cards before generating a Moon and vice versa). It’s not a hard mechanic to grasp, but the trickiness mostly comes in the fact that the skill descriptions get very Magic the Gathering real fast, and especially when you’re just getting acclimated, they’re throwing a LOT at you. Screenshot: Sandfall Interactive / Justin Clark / KotakuWe could honestly be here all day with this one. Synergizing means spending some considerable time in your skill menu optimizing your personal easiest path to a strong Twilight. But oh, believe us, it’s worth it. It’s kind of a shame you can’t actually pin Skills in the menus, because Focused Foretell (applying 5 Foretell to enemies with no other Foretell) is going to be the way you say hello to every enemy 99% of the time. Searing Bond is the closest you get to a replacement later on, but the four-AP cost upfront can put you at a disadvantage a bit too early. That said, Searing Bond is still a pretty excellent second skill to have in your arsenal to get an enemy you hit with Focused Foretell to 10 Foretell in a hurry, and it pairs nicely with Maelle and Lune’s multi-enemy Fire skills and Sciel’s own Firing Shadow for clearing out group fights in a hurry. Screenshot: Sandfall Interactive / Justin Clark / KotakuSealed Fate is Sciel’s Ace maneuver, though. It’s the best go-to trigger for Twilight once you’ve got your cards stacked. It’s right next to Phantom Blade on the Skills tree, so you can grab it early on; it does a pretty absurd amount of damage for only a fourAP cost. Pair it with the Critical Burn or Critical Break Picto/Lumina, and you’ve basically taken a chainsaw to a massive chunk of every enemy’s lifebar.The main thing to remember is that it does attack using your weapon’s element, so be aware if your opponent’s immune so you don’t wind up healing your enemy for thousands of points like a dumbass. And oh yeah, if you think that Skill hurts enemies now, once you’re actually in Twilight, Sealed Fate can be an absolute wrecking ball, especially once you’ve got the enemy up to 20 Foretell. Once you’ve unlocked Gradient Attacks, drop this right after Shadow Bringer, and watch enemies melt away. While this is just a guide to get you started, it is worth noting just how much the game can and will change once you’ve got stuff like Fortune’s Fate in your back pocket. Also, when you’re finally brave enough to take down the colossal Sprong enemy hanging out in the southwestern part of the map, he’ll drop the Cheater Picto, allowing you to take two turns in a row, and putting that thing on Sciel makes her an absolute monster in terms of building up high Twilight percentages fast. If you go that route—and should—just make sure she has a skill that can trigger a Break, because she can get an enemy there fast. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs. . Source: https://kotaku.com/clair-obscur-expedition-33-sciel-foretell-twilight-1851780506 #beginner039s #guide #mastering #sciel #clair #obscur #expedition