One Expedition 33 skill is so OP, the game’s dev says it has no choice but to nerf it

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s massive success is mostly due to its engaging story and fun, turn-based gameplay. But for some, combining skills and powerful builds to destroying the game’s enemies has become its own genre.

Since the game launched, E33 players have been posting their screenshots of outrageous damage numbers in the multi-billions using Maelle specifically, thanks to this one specific skill. It’s called Stendhal, it costs eight ability points to use, and it’s been breaking the game.

Maelle and Stendhal have become so busted, in fact, that the game’s dev, Sandfall Interactive, says its hand is being forced to nerf it in an upcoming update for Expedition 33.

“We hadn’t planned to make any balance changes this early—just bug fixes, unless something clearly stood out,” Sandfall said. “Well, Stendhal did. It was underwhelming for most of development, so in our final pre-release balance pass, we gave it a big damage boost—and clearly overdid it. It ended up overshadowing most other options.”

For those who enjoy seeing big numbers go boom, don’t fret. Sandfall says it still wants players “to be able to break the game—and you absolutely still can—but Stendhal was making it a bit too easy,” so the change will go live very soon.

For those who want to record some record-breaking damage, time is of the essence, because the hotfix will go live on May 9, meaning today is the final day to use Stendhal to make the biggest damage numbers possible to add to your bragging rights and screenshot collection.

“After the change, it’ll still be a strong single-hit skill with great synergy potential… just more in line with everything else,” Sandfall said. This is nice to know for those who have re-spec’d Maelle into a nuclear weapon, even in New Game Plus.

Maelle’s entire identity as a character in-battle is about buffing her damage to create some outrageous one-shot potential, so this news is somewhat disappointing—albeit probably necessary. Combining different Pictos and attributes, she should still be capable of some disgusting numbers with her Virtuous Stance and high critical hit chance.