Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 gives players a lot of freedom to create powerful character builds to destroy even the toughest enemies in your path, but it turns out that developer Sandfall Interactive might have made one powerful skill just a tad too good, and it’s about to be nerfed.
The skill in question is Stendahl, learned by Maelle. Stack up eight AP, and you can unleash “extreme single-target Void damage” on an unsuspecting foe. Thanks to Maelle’s unique ‘Stance’ mechanic, which allows her to take on different Stances in battle for different buffs, including the Virtuous Stance, which boosts her damage output by 200%.
Combine the two, sprinkle in some extra buffs from Pictos and Lumina abilities, and Maelle can very easily decimate any foe that so much as looks at her. It’s undeniably fun, but as Sandfall Interactive explains on Twitter, “it ended up overshadowing most other options.”
In a new statement, the developer explains that “we hadn’t planned to make any balance changes this early – just bug fixes, unless something clearly stood out. Well, Stendhal did.”
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/JwmC6luh3pMay 8, 2025
Even though it’s an unstoppable force now, Stendhal was actually “underwhelming for most of development,” prompting the devs some make some changes “in our final pre-release balance pass.” Specifically, “we gave it a big damage boost – and clearly overdid it.”
Sandfall Interactive continues: “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 then, the end is nigh. Players have “got one more day to enjoy it in its current form and set some wild records” before the skill is adjusted tomorrow across all platforms. Don’t worry about it the skill being totally useless afterwards, though, as the devs reassure Stendhal fans that “it’ll still be a strong single-hit skill with great synergy potential… just more in line with everything else.”
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been a massive hit for Sandfall Interactive, recently achieving a rare milestone of an even higher Steam concurrent player count over a week since its launch. Let’s just be thankful that its director was “bored” at Ubisoft, leaving to found Sandfall and consequently bringing 2025’s current best-rated game to life.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s brilliant parry system solves a classic JRPG problem: I can win any match-up on skill alone, so being under-leveled is just a state of mind.
