How to defeat Stalact in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

The Stalact boss in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 takes place almost immediately after defeating the Gestral Monoco. While not as dangerous as some of the other bosses you’ve fought before now, like the Lampmaster, Stalact does teach players a crucial combat skill: Gradient Attacks. These attacks can be used once you’ve built up enough meter.

The Gradient Meter fills up more for each AP you use to cast Skills. Once it’s full, you’ll receive a Gradient Charge, that you can use on any character, to cast their Gradient Attacks. You will unlock more of them as time progresses as well. While Stalact is technically a tutorial boss, you can still lose to him in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Here’s what you need to know.

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Tips for defeating Stalact in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

• Stalact switches stance to Fire: Changes his stance to being fire-based.
• Stalact creates earthquakes: Stalact jumps three times, back to back. Proper jump/counter timing deals a significant amount of damage.
• Stalact is heating up: Stalact gains six Shields, and cannot be hurt until they’re all gone.
• Stalact is about to explode: One more turn, and the boss will detonate, almost certainly wiping the party.

Gradient Attacks are incredibly powerful, provided you can build the meter fast enough to make them trigger (Image via Sandfall Interactive)

You will start the Stalact fight in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 with 1 Gradient Charge, so use it when you’d like. I used it with Lune, who dealt about 4K Earth damage. It’s also worth noting that Gradient Attacks do not waste your turn, in the same way that shooting doesn’t. Stalact starts off as an ice monster and is weak to Fire, so Lune’s Immolation, and any other method of inflicting fire damage will be welcome here.

However, Stalact can also switch to Fire stance, to fix that. You also need to worry about the fact that he uses a trio of fist-slam attacks, causing devastating earthquakes. If you don’t time your jumps right, this will hurt quite a lot. If you do get all three counters, it could almost kill the boss in one go, depending on how powerful you are. I’m likely quite overleveled at this point.

Make sure to jump all three times and counter hit! (Image via Sandfall Interactive)

When Stalact starts heating up, it’s going to gain 6 Shields, and begin the process of exploding. If you let it go on too long, it will explode, and can potentially kill your party. If you defeat it before the explosion triggers, it will still explode, but near its allies instead (there are no allies in this fight, at least, not for us).

Success will reward you with 17,280 XP, 1,744 Chroma, and a Polished Chroma Catalyst. It’s not an especially challenging fight, but if you take it lightly, you could certainly wind up being pummeled by his earthquakes, and overwhelmed by the shields he has access to.

Multi-hit moves, or simply having a lot of AP to shoot at him will help with the Shields —- that’s usually how I deal with them. However, this fight has a more important role, and that’s unlocking Gradient Attacks for your Expeditioners deeper into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

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Sandfall Interactive’s epic turn-based RPG/Soulslike Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is coming soon, and with it an unforgettable, emotional journey. You can learn more about it in our in-depth review.