No matter who it is, from Goro to General Grievous, you just can’t trust a guy with more than two arms. The creep factor is part of it, but I think you just learn fast that while two of those arms are fine, the most devastating attack always comes, from the other two arms you didn’t even know were there.
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That goes double for the Lampmaster boss, who’s one of the more persistent pains in the ass you’ll meet in your travels through the Paintress’ domain in Clair Obscur, and they’re all arms. That doesn’t mean they’re invincible, but it does mean you’re gonna be putting in a little overtime taking this ugly son of a bitch down. Let’s hit the lights.
Preparation
You’re gonna be playing around with Free Aim a lot during the course of this fight; That’s really the main gimmick with this guy. That won’t be a huge problem later on, for reasons we’ll get into, but at the outset, it means blowing a lot of AP on things that aren’t the major skills you need to do the real damage. So, anything you can slap onto your characters to keep them flush with AP is gonna be your best friend.
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Thankfully, aside from an obvious resistance to Light, they don’t have any other major restrictions. So, getting some good Burn Pictos/Lumina going is gonna be pretty effective here, same for letting Sciel load up some Foretell.
Phase one
So, the second you get control, you’re gonna want to spend the AP to Free Aim and shatter the lamps floating around Lampmaster’s head before they fire a couple of hard-hitting projectiles at you. Feel free to take out all four, but if you’ve got the reflexes, you can keep one lamp alive just to parry that shot for massive damage.
Aside from that, Lampmaster’s got a fairly basic move set of combos and jump attacks. The big issue is that there’s so many goddamn arms that it’s hard to figure out where the hit’s coming from. The easy tip is that only one of the arms is holding the sword, but even that can be hard to see at this stage thanks to the dark background. Still, if you can get a visual grasp on it, that’s what you’re keying off of.
The only other move of note is an energy blast where the lights in their hands turn purple and they hit you with a wave of Dark energy. The dodge timing on that is that it’s hitting after the second gathering of purple energy. Go with the visual cue on that.
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Aside from those, they have no weaknesses and is only resistant to Light. You’re mostly just laying into this guy with any and everything you’ve got. Stack up a ton of Burns and Overdrives, that lifebar will go down fast.
Phase two
And just when everything seems to be going so well, you find out this asshole has a second phase. Here, their sword combo is now four hits and has some genuinely weird delays and timing that makes it hard to dodge. Best we can tell you there is that their sword will shake a little before the first hit swings down; and the big delay is between the second and third hits. The good news is it’s easier to see them against the new backdrop, and no individual hit in the combo is dangerous on its own, just try your damndest not to eat all four strikes. They also get a second four-hit combo that’s easier to dodge, but the final hit has them flying backwards to charge at you. There’s a subtle audio cue when the charge is coming, and it’s easily parried. Take advantage of that.
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The real new shit in their arsenal includes a move where they summon a sword made of light after a strange ritual with the lamps. The dodge timing on the sword of light’s not terrible, just wait for them to spin around after drawing the sword. But here’s a better idea: Stop them from pulling that shit in the first place. Just before he busts out the new sword, you’ll get a message about them performing a strange ritual with their lamps. The lamps in their hand will glow red in a particular order. Your job is to shoot those four lamps in Free Aim in that exact order. Get it right, and Sword of Light never happens, and you do a nice chunk of damage to Lampmaster in the process. They also have a Ball of Light attack that telegraphs itself from a mile away, but you’ll need to jump the attack.
As before, keep up the steady Burning for passive damage, and unload with everything you have, they’ll go down, but recognizing the dodge on these attacks is crucial.
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When they’re done for, you’ll get the At Death’s Door Picto along with a Shape of Life, some Chroma Catalysts, and some permanent emotional damage once a certain someone shows up and…well, you’ll see. Bring Kleenex.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs.