Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a game that tests your skills through trial and error. Even basic fights require perfect timing, so the toughest bosses will really challenge your patience and precision. Some come with unique mechanics that you’ll need to master to win. Here’s a list of the top ten hardest bosses in the game, ideal for those seeking a tough challenge or wanting to know which battles to avoid.
Ten Hardest Bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
10. Golgra
By the time you reach Gestral Village in Act 1, Golgra already has a reputation for being a brutal warrior. After her recent Arena win, you might assume she’s just another early-game boss you can take down for some quick rewards. That assumption won’t get you far.
Despite showing up early, Golgra is meant to be an endgame-level challenge in the form of a one-on-one duel. Thankfully, the fight isn’t fatal, so there’s no real risk in trying—but unless you’re around Level 80, get ready for a serious beatdown. She’ll knock you down hard, and she won’t stop at just once.
9. Dualliste
Dualliste is a legendary Nevron that roams the Forgotten Battlefield, and if Verso is to be believed, it’s wiped out entire Expeditions on its own—and still has three hands left to keep swinging. Armed with dual blades and relentless combos, it can tear through your party before you even know what’s happening.
To make things trickier, Dualliste forces you to use Gradient Counters, a mechanic you’ve just picked up in the same area. It’s also the first enemy to hit your team with the Inverted status effect—a brutal, unavoidable debuff that flips healing into damage. And just when you think you’re done with Dualliste, think again—more of them show up in late-game dungeons, so hopefully, you’ll have those combo patterns burned into your brain by the time they return in Act 2.
8. Sirene
The Axons are some of the first truly tough opponents you’ll face in Clair Obscur, and in my opinion, they mark the point where the game really starts to test your skills. Up until now, most bosses have felt more like warm-ups by comparison. Both Axons are challenging in their own right, but I’d say Sirene is just a bit easier overall. That said, her fight is still no joke. The combo timings are tough to get down, especially with how cinematic and stylized her animations are.
But the most frustrating part? Her charm ability. She can take control of your party members, turning them against each other with devastating friendly fire. Once that happens, dodging their attacks becomes essential if you don’t want to watch your team fall apart.
It’s all too easy to get caught up in her mesmerizing dance and let your whole squad fall under her spell. But if you can stay sharp and manage those annoying status effects, you’ll be well on your way to breaking the barrier that leads to the Monolith.
7. Renoir
If you’ve played pretty much any video game before, you’ll probably see it coming the moment Renoir shows up on the beach—you’re going to have to fight him eventually. And sure enough, Clair Obscur throws not one, not two, but three Renoir boss battles your way throughout the story.
While Renoir isn’t as tough as many of the optional bosses in the game (the devs do want you to actually finish the story), he’s still a challenge—mainly because you never really get time to learn his moves. Every fight with him feels like a frantic scramble to adapt on the fly, which ties in perfectly with the game’s narrative.
Note: And that’s not even counting the unwinnable showdown with him at the end of Act 1.
6. The Paintress
As you journey across The Continent toward the Monolith, it’s easy to assume that The Paintress is the big final boss. But once the battle ends, our unsuspecting group of heroes quickly realizes there are even bigger threats ahead. That said, the fight definitely lives up to all the hype.
It’s a tough encounter—you’ll have to dodge her brutal Void Meteors, handle her gradient attacks, and more. But the real challenge comes from the fact that you still don’t have access to Painted Power, and by now, the 9,999 damage cap is starting to feel like a serious limitation on your team.
To stand a chance, you’ll need to rely on multi-hit strategies and get really comfortable with the combos she throws at you—which is no small task. Still, as tough as this battle is, it’s just a taste of the even greater challenges waiting down the road.
5. Sprong
Much like Golgra, Sprong is an endgame boss just hanging out on the Continent Map, waiting for unsuspecting players to stumble into a fight. The good news? This towering Nevron is massive—practically skyscraper-sized—so at least you get a visual warning that charging in unprepared might not be the smartest move.
Once you’ve leveled up enough to endure its brutal smash attacks and devastating laser beams, you’ll notice that Sprong actually sticks to a pretty predictable pattern. That definitely helps, but the real challenge comes from its Exhaust status effect, which stops your party from recovering AP. You’ll need to be ready to manage that if you want to make it through the fight.
4. Lampmaster
After finally cracking the Painted Workshop puzzle and unlocking its secret area, you’ll run into a familiar face—or rather, foe. By now, you’ve probably faced multiple versions of the Lampmaster since that first encounter at Stone Wave Cliffs. But none of them come close to what’s waiting for you in the Painted Workshop.
This version turns into a chaotic game of Simon Says. You’ll need to memorize the order the lamps light up and quickly free-aim to shoot them, or else suffer a brutal follow-up attack. The catch? It’s incredibly hard to see and react in time, turning this into a deadly test of memory and reflexes.
And that’s not all—this Lampmaster also comes with awkward combo timings, hits like a truck, and throws in blight just to make things worse. Compared to this one, all previous Lampmasters feel like warm-ups. Don’t take it lightly—this isn’t the same fight you’ve seen before.
3. Painted Love
We already know that Renoir and the Paintress are tough enough on their own—but what if you had to fight them together? That’s exactly what the final challenge of the Endless Tower throws at you, merging their boss forms into a single terrifying entity: Painted Love.
Normally, with dual bosses, the go-to strategy is to focus on one to make the fight more manageable. Unfortunately, that won’t work here—Renoir and Aline share a single health bar. That means you’re stuck dealing with the full onslaught from both: Renoir’s sword combos, black holes, and void crosses, paired with Aline’s relentless airborne attacks, all the way to the end.
2. Clea
Later in the game, it’s revealed that Clea—not Aline—is the true creator of the Nevrons, and her painted version is still churning out more from high above the Continent in the Flying Manor. Reaching her is no small feat—you’ll have to battle through a series of tough minibosses first. On the bright side, it’s the fastest way to farm enough Perfect Chroma Catalysts to fully upgrade your team’s weapons.
Once the fight with Clea begins, you’ll quickly discover just how tough she is. Her healing is insanely fast—if you don’t break her aura with counterattacks, she can recover over half a million HP every turn. It is possible to out-damage her regen, but unless you’ve memorized all of her many combos, you’ll need to bring some heavy-hitting tactics to finish the fight quickly. If you let up even a little, she’ll just heal back to full and undo all your progress.
1. Simon
Simon is Clair Obscur’s ultimate super boss—and trust me, he absolutely earns that title. By the time you reach The Abyss in Renoir’s Drafts to face this Expedition Zero member, every previous boss will feel like a warm-up.
The first phase is already brutal: Simon can one-shot you without much effort, his combo patterns are tricky to learn, and if any of your teammates fall in battle, they’re permanently removed from the fight—making your revive tints basically useless. But that’s just the beginning. In phase two, Simon gets even tankier, and his combos crank up to an entirely new level of difficulty.
Just surviving takes near-perfect timing, and if you want any hope of winning, you’ll need a flawless build capable of chunking down his massive health bar—fast. One small misstep on a combo and it’s all over. This fight is all about precision, power, and mastery. Only players who’ve fully honed their skills in Clair Obscur will stand a real chance.
