Simon is possibly the hardest boss in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. This guide will take you through all that you need to do, including where to find him, surviving combat, and your best builds and equipment for your main characters.
Simon Location
Simon is a difficult boss in the Clair Obscur Expedition 33. He’s among the most challenging in the game and is located in The Abyss, which is in Renoir’s Drafts. To get to him, you’ll have to level up and proceed with the story until you access Esquie’s flight ability. It’s advisable to be at least level 90.
The Abyss can be found in Renoir’s Drafts, and you can only reach it by swimming underwater in The Continent. You’ll have to use Esquie’s swimming skills to do so. Just approach the Simon Expedition Flag in The Abyss, then walk towards the boss to begin the battle.
How to Beat Simon
In order to defeat Simon, you must survive 3 phases. Here are the 3 phases:
Phase 1
During Phase 1, the battle with Simon is quite simple, and you just have to remember his moves to avoid it afterwards. Observe his attacks carefully to know how to counter them. When he does a Short Combo, he will do an overhead attack very slowly that you can easily parry. Simon will jump two times, and after the second jump, you will also need to do a jump counterattack. Then be ready for the third overhead attack.
If Simon Puts His Sword on the Ground, he’ll perform a slow 5-hit combo, which begins with jumping up in the air and punching down, punching to the sides, jumping back, and ending with another jump attack. If you’re missed or hit by the last punch, it will stun you, but if you have Anti-Stun, you won’t be stunned.
Simon also uses a Powerful Combo, in which he swings his sword slowly and finishes it up with a 3-hit combo. This move is simple to parry, although it’s difficult at the beginning because the first swing is slow.
During the battle, Simon will perform a Long Combo in Phase 1. It has a brief delay, but it’s a 6-hit combo. When he does this, parry slowly because there’s a brief delay before he swings his sword. If your original team is wiped out, you can resume the battle with your reserve party, and when you enter Phase 2, you’ll begin with the original party members.
Phase 2
Phase 2 increases the level. Simon gets a second hit on some of his combos and adds 2 new sets of attacks. His Short Combo is the same, but now, a phantom will follow up every attack in a split second. Therefore, when you parry, you must parry twice for every move. The attack flow is the same as the first phase: Simon jumps twice, then you counterattack after the second jump, and end with another jumping attack.
For the Long Combo, the same pattern, yet now a phantom attack follows each swing. In other words, for the initial two swings with phantom swings behind them, parry them at a fast rate. Following it, be ready for the third swing and then parry the fourth and fifth swings after a pause preceding the last jump and attack. In total, you’ll need to parry or dodge 12 hits from this move.
His Powerful Combo is the same as before, but now it includes a phantom follow-up attack after each swing. So you’ll need to parry or dodge 6 hits. Keep an eye on the first swing because it starts slowly.
Simon uses a new attack in Phase 2 known as the Light Speed Attack. During this, he rises into the air and begins swinging hard and fast. You can parry or dodge these attacks. At first, he makes two fast swings. Next, it’s one swing, a break, and then another swing. Then he does three swings and breaks again before doing two swings. Lastly, he uses a large area-of-effect (AOE) damage.
The other new attack is the Sword of Lumiere Attack. Simon spins and a follow-up with a fast 2-hit combo, followed by a 4-hit delayed combo before attacking again. The final hit ends with him jumping in the air and casting light, which is easy to parry by sound; it will make a high-pitched sound before the attack. It’s best to parry this to receive Gradient Charges.
When Simon’s HP drops to around 40-30%, he will remove the current party from the fight, and you’ll be forced to use reserve members if the initial party survived that far.
Phase 3
In Phase 3, Simon’s attacks are the same as in Phase 2, but they’re now stronger:
- Short Combo: Phantom follow-up is now 2 hits instead of 1. Therefore, what was a 6-hit combo in Phase 2 will be 9 hits now.
- Powerful Combo: Simon continues to execute the 3-hit combo, but now each of his swings will have a phantom attack on top, making a total of 6 hits that you will need to parry or dodge.
- Long Combo: This will now take 3 parries per swing, so it’s now a total of 18 hits.
His Sword of Lumiere and Light Speed attacks have the same sequence but are stronger.
Fight Strategy
Start with two active party members you don’t use too much. Keep Sciel, Maelle, and one more strong character in reserve. You need them for the later phases.
Before you start the fight, make sure everyone’s equipped with Luminas that increase your Gradient bar, like Charging Attack, Charging Counter, and Charging Critical. You’ll also want Luminas that let you attack more with basics. Combo Attack I and III are great picks.
When preparing for the fight, make sure to equip damage-boosting Luminas. Equip yourself with At Death’s Door, Augmented Attack, Teamwork, and the Augmented Counter series (I, II, and III) to increase your damage output. Painted Power is also important and can make a major difference in the final phase of the battle.
A few more Luminas you need to bring along:
- Cheater: gives a bonus turn after the first one.
- Energy Master: doubles the AP gain.
- Energising set (like Energising Attack I & II, Energising Parry, Energising Burn, Energising Turn): speeds up your AP gain.
- Exposing Attack: makes enemies vulnerable by applying Defenceless with basic attacks.
- Second Chance: revives a fallen character once.
- Anti-Stun: protects against Simon’s stun.
In the first phase of the fight, take time to learn Simon’s attack patterns. But things get harder in Phase 2. Here, your main focus should be on parrying instead of dodging, since parrying helps you build up Gradient charges much faster. If someone from your team goes down during Simon’s turn, he’ll completely remove them from the battle, so they won’t come back.
Also, don’t use healing or shields, they won’t help here. Your goal in this phase is to keep your main team alive until Simon’s health drops to around 40 – 30%. At that point, he’ll force them out, and you’ll bring in your backup team to finish the fight. In the final phase, it’s important to keep Maelle and Sciel alive.
Party members
Maelle
Build her to deal heavy damage. Make sure she has Spark, Pyrolyse, Burning Canvas, and Gustave’s Homage. Swift Stride is important. It lets her instantly enter Virtuose Stance if she hits a burning target. Use the Lithum weapon, as this helps her switch to Virtuose stance when she counters.
Sciel
She’s your support. Equip Charging Alteration and give her these skills: All Set, Fortune’s Fury, Intervention. For the rest, use damage-dealing sun/moon skills like Delaying Slash, Our Sacrifice, or Marking Card (which makes the enemy take 50% more damage from the next hit). Give her the Litheson weapon, which slows Simon down (Greater Slow) with sun charges and boosts your team’s speed (Greater Rush) with moon charges. In Twilight, both effects trigger.
Other characters
Go full damage. Skip healing and shielding as they won’t work. Simon cancels heals and steals shields. It is better to stack raw power.
After defeating Simon, you will be rewarded with Simoso, 50x Colour of Lumina, and 2x Perfect Chroma Catalyst.
