You might’ve caught a few vibes here and there that the good folks at Sandfall might’ve had a Souls game or two on the brain while designing Clair Obscur. But right around here is the point where reasonable doubt gets kicked off a skyscraper, because the Dualliste is the most Souls-game shit ever. It’s a lot of long combos, a second phase, and a lot—and I do mean a lot—of dying.
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And expect even more death if you’re trying to just face this bastard cold on your first try. Hopefully you got a handle on Clair Obscur’s dodge/parry system, because you’re gonna need it—and there’s no Mimic Tears coming to save you. Thankfully, you have us.
Preparation
The bad news is this dude has only one weakness: Light Magic. The sorta good news is that you just picked up a kind stranger who happens to deal pretty exclusively in Light attacks and has in fact spent the entire level doing so. Which means yes, Verso being in your party is non-negotiable. Get him in there, just take Radiant Slash off him if you’ve been using it for the rest of Forgotten Battlefield, switch over to a single-target Light skill.
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His backup for this fight is going to be Lune. A few of her skills will leave her with Light Stains, but you’re mostly gonna keep her in the role of healer, since each time you use Healing Light, it just gives you Light Stains and no other elements. Once you’ve got a full plate of Light Stains, though, Mayhem is now on the table; and goosed up properly, you can end this man’s whole career with it.
Unfortunately, that leaves everyone else at a disadvantage, especially if you’ve crafted entire builds to depend on Fire or Sciel’s Twilight skills, since the Dualliste will take way less damage from both. That doesn’t mean zero damage though, and it’s still worth bringing Maelle to the dance to keep a burn on him just to give yourself an easy in to switch to Virtuose Mode. You’ll also want everybody rocking a Lumina that gives more AP for dodges and parries. If you’re going to be doing this much of it, you should be getting something out of it.
The best strategies for victory against Dualliste
As far as offense goes, you’re going to want to lean on Verso pretty heavy here. If this is your first go around, build around anything that’ll still be effective at lower grades, since chances are decent Monsieur Dualliste is keeping you below C level this whole fight. Have Lune on Healer duty, and don’t be afraid to skip her turn to preserve her Stain board. You want all Lights on that thing as often as possible. If you are gonna break that pattern, though, at least stack Fire on there. It won’t do as much damage on its own but it will set Maelle up for Virtuose Mode and all the high-level damage therein.
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Past that though, this is, basically, a turn-based Souls fight. Your job is gonna be getting out of each of this asshole’s combos alive, and hopefully with enough AP to exploit him when he’s done. We can’t actually git you gud at parrying and dodging, but we can at least tell you what’s coming.
Dualliste’s initial attacks
- Dualliste attacks the Expedition: This is an area of effect move where he sticks his sword in the ground and creates an explosion. The second his sword’s vertical in front of him, wait for the audio cue and make your move.
- Dualliste performs a combo: This move features two slashes from the left, two from the right, one vertical. It’s a lot easier to follow the metallic slicing audio cue than watching his movements on this. Parry/dodge ‘em all.
- Dualliste performs a swiping combo: Dodge the first slash, jump the second, the last two hits are vertical slashes from above with a pretty sizable telegraph. Probably the easiest combo to parry.
- Dualliste attacks swiftly: Here the boss will slash from the left, one overhead, then a jumping slash. Parry/dodge ‘em all, but there’s a sizable two-beat delay when he jumps for that final hit.
- Pour on the offense whenever you get a chance, eventually, you’ll get him down and you can finally go bury—LOL JK of fucking course he has a second phase!
Dualliste’s second phase
After you take down his first lifebar, he’ll remember he brought his second sword from home, and it’s a whole new annoying ballgame. Let’s run it down.
Dualliste’s second phase attacks
- Dualliste attacks the Expedition: This attack now hits twice, once when the sword hits the ground, and once when he pulls the blade back out. There’s a nice handy glow and an audio sting before the second hit you can use to parry.
Dualliste attacks swiftly: Now, instead of a three-hit combo, it’s six: swipe from left to right, two sweeps, and three overhead swipes. First swipe is really the hard part. If you can parry that, the rest is easily telegraphed. Again, use the audio cues.
- Dualliste performs a combo: So, uh, now this is eight hits. The attacks mostly come in groups of two, with delayed single swipes as punctuation. The best I can notate is 1-2, 1, 1-2, 1-2, 1, with the commas representing a delay. If you survive that nightmare, though, the final hit is a Chromatic Attack you can parry for huge damage, as a treat, I guess.
- Stormblood: Here, the Dualliste summons some outside, hooded interference. Thankfully, they’re the easiest thing to dodge in this fight. The attacks will come from the left, right, above, and the Dualliste will perform a lunge as the last hit.
- Inverted: He’ll hit your party with this when he’s down to half health, and it makes it so healing items/Skills actually do damage. Unfortunately, there’s no way to dodge this, but, you’re in the home stretch. Please try not dying.
- Heartbreak and Tears: Oh, no, this isn’t actually a move, it’s just what happens in the cutscene after Dualliste is finally dead. Be ready for that too.
…oh, and I guess you also get the Dualiso weapon for Verso, and the Combo Attack Picto which makes Base Attacks hit twice.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs.
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