How to defeat Simon, The Divergent Star in Clair Obscur Expedition 33: Builds, setups, and more

Simon, The Divergent Star, in Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is a late-game, optional boss that truly tests your parrying skills in combat. You can challenge it after beating Simon in the Abyss to earn a variety of rewards. However, to do so, you will need to put up a near-perfect defense, show strong gradient management, and even build two strong parties capable of defeating it.

This guide breaks down how to find and defeat Simon, The Divergent Star, in Clair Obscur Expedition 33, along with information about the best character builds and team setups for the challenge.

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Simon, The Divergent Star in Clair Obscur Expedition 33: Location, team setup, and build

Where to find Simon, The Divergent Star

Interact with Simon's painting in the Endless Tower (Image via Sandfall Interactive || YouTube/SonicDolphin117)

After clearing the base Simon in the Abyss, you can challenge Simon, The Divergent Star, in Clair Obscur Expedition 33 as an optional boss. To reach its location, simply climb the Endless Tower until you go past the canvas. Afterward, use the grappling hook to get to the next platform. Continue ahead to find a distinctive painting of Simon. Just interact with it to begin the battle.

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Team setup and character builds

The fight against Simon, The Divergent Star, is divided into three phases, with the first phase ending as soon as the foe reaches 30% HP. At this point, the enemy will remove your entire party from play, forcing you to rely on your reserve characters.

As such, it is recommended to use the following team setup when facing Simon:

• Team 1: Verso, Monoco
• Team 2: Sciel, Maelle, Lune

When it comes to Verso and Monoco, both of them should be built to deal damage. Their only objective in the battle is to slash the enemy's HP and bring it down to 30%. After that, they will be removed from play, beginning the real fight.

From Phase 2 onwards, you will be using a team of Sciel, Maelle, and Lune. As for Lune, she is here to support and should focus on applying Defenceless on the enemy. As for the other two, they will be the main attackers.

Use Sciel in the second team (Image via Sandfall Interactive || YouTube/SonicDolphin117)

Here are the recommended builds for Sciel and Maelle to fight Simon, The Divergent Star:

Sciel

• Weapon: Litheson
• Skills: All Set, Fortune's Fury, Intervention, Delaying Slash, Our Sacrifice, Marking Card

You can use the weapon and the skills to buff teammates, debuff Simon, and ensure Maelle attacks immediately after.

Maelle

• Weapon: Lithium
• Skills: Spark, Pyrolyse, Burning Canvas, Gustave's Homage, Swift Stride

Along with the offensive moves of your choice, it is important that you include Swift Stride in Maelle's build to ensure she remains in Virtuose Stance during battle.

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Recommended Pictos against Simon, The Divergent Star

Along with the weapons and builds of your characters, it is also imperative that you customize Pictos when facing off against Simon, The Divergent Star, in Clair Obscur Expedition 33. With so many new Pictos introduced in the latest Verso's Drafts DLC, choosing suitable ones can be quite confusing.

Let's look at the best offensive and defensive Pictos you can use in this challenge:

Defensive Pictos

• Cheater: Lets a character act twice per round, pairing perfectly with Clea’s Life and AP engines.
• Clea’s Life: Fully heals a character at the start of their turn if they took no damage since their last, synergizing with Cheater to auto-reset HP on the second move.
• Healing Parry: Convert parry skill into reliable sustain.
• Second Chance and Survivor: Provide one-shot protection and revival from lethal damage once per battle.
• Defensive Mode and Draining Cleanse: Reduce incoming damage at the cost of AP and nullify status effects like stuns from sword-plant combos.

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Offensive Pictos

• Augmented Counter I–III and Empowering Parry: Scale counterattack damage heavily with each successful parry.
• Full Strength, First Offensive, Augmented First Strike, and Warming Up: Stack multiplicative bonuses for characters that stay at full HP and survive multiple turns.
• Painted Power: Removes the standard 9,999 damage cap, making gradient one-shots and hyper-buffed ultimates viable.

Also read: All new weapons in Clair Obscur Expedition 33 DLC and how to get them

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How to beat Simon, The Divergent Star in Clair Obscur Expedition 33

Look out for the light pillars behind Simon (Image via Sandfall Interactive || YouTube/SonicDolphin117)

Simon uses three main phases with increasingly powerful attack combos. Behind him, you can see white, cyan, red, and yellow light pillars indicating the attack sequence. It is essential that you dodge and parry his incoming attacks as he deals significant damage.

Additionally, if Simon kills a character, he often gains extra actions. Not only that, some of its moves can effectively remove party members from the fight. Moreover, since Simon always attacks first, you cannot trivialize the fight with common first strike auto‑death plus revive tricks.

As such, you must rely on your attacks while ensuring their survival tille Phase 3 to overcome the enemy and complete this optional boss fight in the game.

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Also check out our other Clair Obscur Expedition 33 articles:

• How to solve the Seesaw challenge in Clair Obscur Expedition 33
• How to get and use the Toy Boat in Clair Obscur Expedition 33
• How to get Chic Outfits in Clair Obscur Expedition 33

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Edited by Virat Fumakia