Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 nerfing ability that deals literally 2 billion damage

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 devs have revealed they’re nerfing an ability that does over two billion damage, as players were one-shotting bosses. 

While Clair Obscur: Expedition’s characters all have powerful abilities that let them shine in combat, there’s one who has been taking center stage – Maelle. While this 16-year-old girl may be the youngest member of Expedition 33, she is the most powerful unit in the game. 

This is thanks to one broken ability that allows the nimble sword fighter to deal dizzying amounts of damage. In this case, players have been using her Stendhal ability to deliver over two billion damage. 

Currently, nothing in the game can withstand a hit from this OP skill. PC Gamer reported that with the correct Stendhal setup, Maelle can deal enough damage to kill the hardest endgame boss 45 times over. 

Clair Obscur devs nerf 2 billion damage ability 

As you can imagine, this build has quickly become very popular amongst players looking to break the game and stomp through Expedition 33’s toughest bosses. After all, why parry or dodge when you can just one-shot your foes? 

However, Sandfall Interactive has revealed they will be nerfing Stendhal in the May 9 patch:  “We hadn’t planned to make any balance changes this early – just bug fixes, unless something clearly stood out. Well, Stendhal did,” wrote the devs via X. 

As for how Maelle’s Stendhal ability became so OP, the devs revealed that it was originally an underwhelming skill, so during the final pre-release balance pass, they gave it a huge damage boost. 

Expeditioners, a quick note on Stendhal and balance changes:

We hadn’t planned to make any balance changes this early—just bug fixes, unless something clearly stood out.

Well, Stendhal did.

It was underwhelming for most of development, so in our final pre-release balance… pic.twitter.com/JwmC6luh3p

— Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (@expedition33) May 8, 2025

“[We] clearly overdid it. It ended up overshadowing most other options. We still want you to be able to break the game – and you absolutely still can, but Stendhal was making it a bit too easy.”

So, players have just one more day to use the OP damage ability before it gets nerfed. For those worried that Stendhal will be unusable after the May 9 patch, Sandfall Interactive has reassured Clair Obscur players that it will remain a powerful ability. 

“After the change, it’ll still be a strong single-hit skill with great synergy potential… just more in line with everything else.” 

The Clair Obscur May 9 patch will roll out on Steam first, with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S following shortly after. For more powerful damage options, be sure to check out our best builds for Maelle, Lune, Sciel, and Verso.