Summary
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33offers a deep combat system with multiple layers, allowing players to customize their combat experience.Pictos and Lumina serve as essentialequipment components, enabling significant boosts to attack or defensefor each character. This versatility makes characters either deadly but vulnerable or capable of surviving enemy blows and enduring tough boss battles.
Unlike the rare attack-boosting Pictos,defensive Pictos are more plentifulinClair Obscur: Expedition 33. Players can easilyenhance vital stats like Health and Defensefor increased survivability. The true game-changers, however, are theunique perks of defensive Pictos. These bonuses significantly reduce damage taken, allow life leeching from enemies, or provide shields that completely negate incoming damage. Below, we’ll explore the most effective defensive Pictos inClair Obscur: Expedition 33that can carry the party through the toughest encounters.
Strong defensive Pictos like Second Chance, Clea’s Life, and Effective Heal are excluded due to theirhigh Lumina cost of 30 to 40points, which could be spent more effectively. However, they remain noteworthy for strategic use as Pictos with specific characters rather than general equipment through Luminas for the rest of the party.
Images below depict additional party members encountered later on in the story. Proceed with caution.
8Sweet Kill
Recover 50% Health On Killing An Enemy
The Sweet Kill Picto is invaluable for encounters with multiple enemies or during boss fights where bosses, like Petanks, occasionally summon extra targets to aid them in combat. With this Picto, players can forgo healing through skills or Tints (potions) andfocus solely on damaging and killing foes, as each kill grants substantial HP recovery.
While the Sweet Kill perk is highly cost-effective, this Picto loses all value in encounters against a single powerful foe, a fairly common scenario inExpedition 33. In such cases, players should swap this Picto or its perk for something more suitable.
7Shared Care
When Healing An Ally, Also Heal Self For 50% Of That Value
InExpedition 33, players have access to numerous tools for healing their party, from skills to recovery tints. With Shared Careequipped to the party healer, they will receive half of the healing effect whenever they heal another party member by any method available. This allows players to fully recover multiple party members in a single turn.
Like Defensive Mode, Shared Care is another excellent Picto for passively boosting vital survival stats — Health and Defense — which is less common than one might expect from defensive Pictos in the game.
6Survivor
Once Per Battle, Survive Fatal Damage With 1 HP
Survivor is another Picto that grants a character a second chance to survive and return to the fight. Sometimes, even skilled players can misjudge an evade or parry, and when an enemy hits hard, Survivor’s perk might be the only thing preventing a lost fight.
The good thing is that Survivor’s perk is significantly cheaper than Second Chance, though it doesn’t restore the character’s HP, making it less effective in scenarios with multiple enemies acting one by one, as they could finish off the Survivor at 1 HP.
5Defensive Mode
30% Less Damage Received For 1 Extra AP Consumed On Every Enemy Attack
For playersstruggling with timingsinExpedition 33, Defensive Mode is a true lifesaver. For just one Lumina point, any character can gain a substantial reduction in enemy damage, trading action points (AP) for extra survivability. While in many cases this might not be worth it, for those who aren’t adept at parrying or dodging, survival is all that matters, as even with no AP left during their turn, a character can still perform a base attack.
Beyond its effect and low cost, another strength of the Defensive Mode Picto is its passive bonuses, providing significant boosts to Health and Defense — the two most critical stats for surviving in combat.
4Solidifying
Once Per Battle, Apply 2 Shields When Health Drops Below 50%
InClair Obscur: Expedition 33, effectively utilizing Shields can be the secret recipe players need to survive the hardest encounters. Shields completely negate any attack, but they are rare, with very few skills and Pictos granting them. This is why Solidifying stands among the best defensive Pictos, applying two Shield points to a character once their HP drops below half.
With Solidifying equipped, a character is almost guaranteed to survive even the longest enemy combos, despite multiple dodging or parrying mistakes, by negating two attacks entirely and allowing players to recover lost HP during their turn. Another Picto worth mentioning for Shields is In Medias Res, though this perk is more expensive and comes with the severe drawback of reducing a character’s max HP to 50%.
3Attack Lifesteal
Base Attack Recovers 15% HP
For players who believe attack is the best defense, the Attack Lifesteal Picto is a godsend. Whenever a character attacks an enemy with a base attack, in addition to AP, they recover 15% of their HP, allowing them to strengthen before using a powerful skill the next turn.
However, Attack Lifesteal may be less effective for character builds that ignore base attacks entirely, focusing instead on skills or shooting. Additionally, the 15% HP recovery isn’t as significant compared to some Pictos that allow characters to recover 25% or more HP under certain conditions.
2Enfeebling Mark
Marked Enemies Deal 30% Less Damage
Enfeebling Mark is a highly effective defensive Picto inExpedition 33, requiring only that playersuse skills or abilities that place a Markon a target, which are fairly common in the game. Once marked, an enemy deals significantly less damage to a character equipped with this Picto or Lumina. This canprove invaluable against tough bossesor elite Chromatic enemies that hit like a truck, especially later in the game.
It is recommended that players equip the Enfeebling Mark Lumina to every party member and ensure an enemy is marked before their attack to greatlyreduce incoming damage to the entire party. This makes failing to dodge or parry feel far less like a fatal mistake.
1Confident
50% Less Damage From Enemies, But Can’t Be Healed
With sufficient Health and Defense, players may not need to heal at all inClair Obscur: Expedition 33, focusing instead on reducing all incoming damage. Confident is among the best ways to achieve this, granting an impressive 50% damage reduction for every instance of damage dealt by enemies. Its downside prevents a character from healing, so players must remember which character has this Picto equipped to avoid wasting a turn trying to recover their lost HP to no avail.
The advantage of Confident is that it still allows a character to be revived if they fall. With such significant damage reduction, healing may become unnecessary, especially when playerscombine the Confident Picto with other similar perks through Lumina, such as Enfeebling Mark and Defensive Mode. Even the most menacing opponents can become far less intimidating when their combo attacks deal negligible damage.
