Clair Obscur Expedition 33: New Game + guide — what you keep and what you lose

Once the credits roll, Clair Obscur: Expédition 33 doesn't warn anyone: the New Game + option appears on an Expedition Flag, asks for two confirmations, then overwrites the existing save. Many players confirm without knowing they're about to start over without their journals, without their relationship levels, and without Esquie's movement abilities.

Here's the precise breakdown of what carries over, what resets to zero, the steps to launch NG+ without sacrificing a 100% run, and the progression order that makes this second playthrough two to three times faster than the first.

As of August 6, 2026, this is also pretty much the only content relaunch available: since the free Esquisses de Verso update in December 2025, Sandfall Interactive has only released patches. The latest one, version 1.5.6 from June 30, 2026, only adds Arabic — the twentieth supported language — along with a series of combat fixes.

Launching a New Game +: the exact steps

NG+ isn't accessible from the main menu, which accounts for a good chunk of the questions that keep popping up on French-speaking forums. Here's the procedure:

• complete Act 3 and see at least one of the two endings all the way through the credits;
• return to the menu, select Continue — the game places you back at the last rest point, in Lumière;
• interact with the Expedition Flag and select the New Game + entry;
• confirm twice.

This double safeguard isn't decorative: launching NG+ overwrites your save file. There is no second save slot created for the occasion. Before confirming, back up your save to the cloud on console, or duplicate your save folder on PC. Doing so will let you come back later to see the second ending, or pick up a missed achievement, without redoing forty hours of adventure.

What carries over into New Game +

Everything related to raw power is kept. This is what makes the second playthrough so comfortable: right from the end of the Prologue, the full team becomes playable again, at its end-game level.

A decisive point for your builds: the Overpainted Power Lumina, the one that breaks the 9,999 damage cap, remains learned. Equip it on your three active party members as early as the Prologue of your second run, otherwise you'll be hitting like a level 20 with a level 90 character.

What starts from scratch

The trade-off is clear-cut, and it applies almost exclusively to narrative progression and exploration:

• All side quests, along with their associated quest items, starting with the Old Key from the Prologue.
• Relationship levels with each companion. Camp scenes have to be redone entirely — only the Gradient attacks already obtained remain unlocked.
• Collectibles: expedition journals and the 33 musical recordings reset to zero in the logbook.
• The 9 Lost Gestrals, and therefore the Paint Breaker ability they unlock upon finding the fourth one. Without it, it's impossible to destroy the painted rocks that lock off some of the shortcuts.
• Esquie's abilities — swimming, climbing, flying, diving. They unlock again following exactly the same schedule as in the first run.
• Instant fast travel between flags, which needs to be reactivated.

In other words: your team has become a deity, but your world map is locked once again. This is a deliberate design choice — without this lock, a NG+ could be completed in a handful of hours.

What NG+ changes in terms of difficulty and rewards

A useful first clarification: NG+ is not a difficulty mode. It stacks on top of the setting you chose in the options, between Story, Expedition, and Expert. Nevrons gain health points, defense, and speed in NG+, and this increase stacks with each additional cycle — a third playthrough hits harder than a second one.

On the other hand, the gains are massive:

• experience gains skyrocket: the first fights already yield millions of points, which pushes the team toward the level 99 cap well before Act 3;
• high-end materials become widely available: perfect and grand chroma catalysts drop noticeably earlier, which finally makes it realistic to upgrade a weapon to rank 33 without spending a week on it;
• weapons you already own are picked up a second time and automatically level up instead of becoming duplicates: that's catalysts saved.

The checklist before hitting the button

1. Save elsewhere. Cloud on console, a copy of the folder on PC. Non-negotiable, since NG+ overwrites the current save.
2. Finish your missable achievements from the current run. NG+ gives you another chance at them, but you'll pay for it in hours of gameplay.
3. Max out relationships before leaving: the Gradient attacks obtained this way are kept, while the gauges themselves reset.
4. Don't worry about your Lumina Points. Spent or not, they carry over. No need to rush to burn through them.
5. Decide on the team composition you want to try. NG+ is the best time to play the characters you left aside — Sciel and Lune chief among them — since the difficulty wall of the early hours is gone.

The order to follow for an efficient second run

The Prologue concentrates the game's most vicious traps, and that's also where the value of a NG+ comes into play.

1. Prologue: pick up the Old Key, deal with the optional Mime lurking at the end of the first street, and grab the local music records before leaving Lumière.
2. Acts 1 and 2 in a straight line, with one deliberate detour: the first four lost Gestrals, to get Paint Gust as quickly as possible and reopen blocked passages.
3. Esquie abilities right after. Each unlock reopens an entire section of the map, and this time you have the level to go there immediately instead of waiting until Act 3.
4. Relationship quests: stop by camp between each zone. A skipped dialogue can't always be recovered, and an incomplete gauge deprives you of rewards.
5. End-game: this is where NG+ really shines, with super-bosses that are approachable on the first try and catalyst farming that no longer eats up your whole evening.

The three mistakes that ruin an NG+

• Starting without Overpaint Power equipped. This is mistake number one: a level 90 character capped at 9,999 damage gives the illusion of a poorly balanced NG+, when it's really just a forgotten Lumina.
• Thinking NG+ replaces Expert mode. The two stack. If you're after real challenge, keep Expert enabled during your second playthrough: it's the combination that makes perfect parries mandatory again.
• Rushing to Act 3 as soon as the map opens up. Paint Gust and the Esquie abilities gate access to half of the optional zones. Skipping them means replaying the game stripped of its best content, and coming away without the journals still missing from your collection.

Should you really start an NG+ in 2026?

No, if your only goal is to see the other epilogue: the automatic save triggered just before the point of no return is more than enough, and it costs a quarter of an hour instead of thirty. Also no, if you simply want to clean up the remaining super-bosses: they're all accessible after the credits, in your current playthrough.

Yes, on the other hand, if you're aiming for 100%, if you want to redo the companion quests while systematically choosing the opposite options, or if you're finally looking for opponents capable of standing up to a level 99 team decked out at rank 33. In a summer 2026 without any new content announcement for the Expedition, it's the most honest way to reopen the travel journal—provided you don't forget to back up your save before confirming twice.