In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a game that is inspired by and on par with Final Fantasy, you'll face a lot of Nevrons that will try to take your whole team out. Not to fret, as this best Gustave build guide will help you out in the early stages of the game.

This will include Gustave's list of the best weapons, skills, Pictos, and Luminas for him. He is mainly played as a support character, but he can deal significant damage due to his bionic arm, which has a great unique passive.

Understanding Gustave's Kit

Gustave has a simple skill set compared to all the members of Expedition 33, but it's his unique passive that helps him dish out an extreme amount of damage against the enemies. He has a bionic arm that features an Overcharge, which stacks up to 10 charges by dealing damage, parrying, or dodging, and enhances the damage he deals.

For example, his active Overcharge skill deals more damage if there are more charges. During one of my runs, he was able to absolutely obliterate the enemy with a 10 Charge, Overcharge attack.

Credit: Sandfall Interactive

Best Gustave Build

Gustave (voiced by Charlie Cox) is the goofy and lovable engineer you play as soon as you start your journey in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. He is equipped with a sword and a gun, capable of unleashing some devastating blows if done right.

So, without further ado, let's take a look at the best build for Gustave!

Overcharge & Support Build

Weapon

Compared to the other characters in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Gustave's weapon choices are simple. You can choose any of the weapons you already have at hand. However, you may want the following for better Attributes:

• Cruleram
  • Element: Ice
  • Attribute focus: Defense, Luck
• Lanceram
  • Element: No specific element
  • Attribute focus: Vitality, Agility

There isn't much to look into since there aren't any passives with Gustave's equippable weapons. So, the primary focus will be on which attributes are affected by the weapons and invest his points towards those. Lanceram scales with Vitality and Agility, allowing Gustave to have a good amount of HP while being able to be one of the first to have their turn and possibly have more in the attack order.

I prefer using the Cruleram, which you can get by defeating the Cruler in Flying Waters, due to it scaling with Defense and Luck. It allows him to withstand more damage while increasing his critical hit chances as well, which are suitable for his multiple hit skills to increase the charges.

Credit: Sandfall Interactive

Skills

Gustave's skills are limited, with only 8 available. They mainly consist of his support abilities and some offensive attacks.

Support skills:

• Powerful
• Marking Shot

It's always good to have some support abilities from Gustave, especially in the early game. Powerful applies the effect to 1 to 3 allies, which increases the damage that the characters deal to the enemies. Marking Shot places a Mark on a single enemy, which also enhances the damage that they receive.

I'd say that these two should always have a place in Gustave's six skill slots. These will help your team deal good damage since you'll still be collecting your Pictos and Luminas in Act I.

Offensive skills:

• Overcharge
• Lumière Assault
• Shatter
• Strike Storm

The primary skill that you should always include in any of Gustave's builds is Overcharge. Even at around 6 to 8 charges, it deals a good amount of damage, almost half of the enemy's HP. Lumière Assault is a low AP cost skill that generates charges for you, while Shatter and Strike Storm are show-stoppers.

Credit: Sandfall Interactive

Shatter deals high Lightning damage, and if you've broken the enemy using this skill, you'll immediately have the full 10 charges for your Overcharge. Strike Storm's crit hits generate around 2 additional charges, so it's good to have it around as well (Lumière Assault only generates one additional charge).

You can also replace Lumière Assault with From Fire if you want some healing in your Gustave build. However, you'll need to include skills like Wildfire under Lune's build for some team synergy (Burn is actually helpful for many of the characters' skills). You'll only be able to heal Gustave if the target has the Burn effect on it. If you don't want to deal with any of that, then you can include Recovery instead, which self-heals and grants 0-2 charges.

Pictos & Luminas

Pictos and Luminas are essential to have, and I can say that it's better to focus on these than the attributes that each character has. Again, there aren't a lot of choices to include in Gustave's build, but having some is better than nothing.

• Marking Shots - Has a 20% chance to apply Mark on enemies during Free Aim
• Burning Shots - Has a 20% chance to apply Burn on enemies during Free Aim
• SOS Shell - Applies Shell when HP is below 50%
• Exposing Attack - Applies Defenseless on an enemy for 1 turn after a Base Attack

Credit: Sandfall Interactive

These are the Pictos and Luminas I prioritize. I primarily utilize his Free Aim hits to apply status effects on the enemies, which helps him and his team deal more damage. SOS Shell is also great for some survivability, not letting him get knocked out immediately if you haven't placed any Vitality or Defense on him.

Make sure to explore Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's overworld, The Continent. You'll eventually encounter interesting locations, such as the Gestral Beaches, for some fun times.