Archmage Lune
Overview
Learn how to use one of the strongest characters in Expedition 33 with the Lune Archmage build. Our guide on Lune will show you the best recommendations for weapons, luminas, skills and combos. We hope you enjoy this build on your journey to defeat the Paintress.
Archmage Lune will have her carrying your team for the entire game and is the perfect character for those who prefer Mage oriented playstyles in games. Through the use of high damage skills and pictos we will make her absolutely one shot all who stand in your way.
Stains
Lune wields the power of Stains – elemental imprints that allow her to amplify both damaging and healing abilities. Before we dive into the buildcrafting, it’s important to understand how Lune’s Stains work. Each ability she uses creates a stain. You can see which stains each ability creates by looking at the top right of the ability frame. These stains match the element of the ability. For example, using Wildfire creates a Fire Stain. Some abilities, like Wildfire, also generate Light Stains – these are flexible and can count as any element, making them more valuable than the standard Fire, Ice, Electric, or Earth Stains. Stains empower your other abilities, adding new effects or enhancing damage. Take Wildfire, for example—it needs two Ice Stains to deal increased damage. You can get those by using an Ice ability, or substitute in Light Stains. So if you have one Ice and one Light Stain, that’s enough to power up Wildfire’s bonus for increased damage. This means Lune thrives on rotating through all elements. If you’re trying to play her as a pure Fire or Electric mage, you’re playing her wrong—you won’t generate enough stains to power her abilities. Lune needs a mix of every element to hit her full potential. She might seem complex at first glance, but once you understand her, she’s incredibly rewarding.
Act 1 & 2
Piloting this build will change from early to late game so first let’s talk about the skills you will need for the first half of the game.
Wildfire, your go-to AoE spell and the first part of your core early-game combo. Wildfire hits all enemies and sets them on fire, doing burn damage over time. Burn damage synergizes really well in this game, especially with Sciel and Maelle, who have fire abilities built into their kits. This spell is incredible, and when combined with Sciel’s setup (which I’ll cover later), it clears out fodder enemies and sets Lune up for her big finisher – Lightning Dance.
Lightning Dance is one of Lune’s best spells. The damage in the early portions of the game is simply unmatched. To make it work well, you have to empower it with Fire Stains. Without them, it will feel underwhelming but it’s very easy to build toward. This spell single handedly can one-shot nearly every major boss in Act 2. The reason it’s so strong is because the game’s damage cap in act 1 and 2 is 9999 per hit, Lightning Dance hits multiple times – often hitting the cap 6 times in a row, leading to a total of 59,994 damage which no other ability can achieve with such ease.
Thermal Transfer, the second step in our three-part “win the game” combo. I recommend using this instead of Ice Lance just for the early game. AP is hard to come by early, and this skill refunds AP if used on a burning enemy. It occasionally gives you a bonus turn too, which is insanely powerful.
Ice Lance deals solid single-target damage, generates stains, and slows enemies. If you aim the slow at the right enemy, you can manipulate turn order to let a teammate leapfrog ahead. Turn order is king in this game – if your characters can act before the enemy, then you will not have to worry about dodging, increasing your survival which will in turn increase your damage output. Use this when you feel you have enough AP generation on Lune and no longer need Thermal Transfer.
Elemental Genesis, deals Lightning Dance-level damage but in an AoE. It requires one stain of each element, which makes it harder to obtain, but this build is designed to make that easier. If you’re fighting a group of strong enemies, build toward Genesis. If it’s a single boss, go Lightning Dance. Lightning Dance is much easier to prepare until you get the Kralim weapon.
Crustal Crush is our last skill and is great for breaking tougher enemies, which becomes important later on. It also gives you Earth Stains, which the rest of the early build lacks.
Early Game Combo
Your early combo is simple: Wildfire → Thermal Transfer → Lightning Dance. This sequence will carry you through 95% of early fights, especially if your teammates are pulling their weight. You’ll always start with Wildfire into Thermal Transfer. The final spell depends on the situation—Lightning Dance for bosses, Elemental Genesis for groups of enemies, or even Crustal Crush to prep a break on a meaty enemy to stop them from attacking.
Leveling
|
Level |
Spell/Passive |
|
1 |
Thunderfall |
|
2 |
Wildfire |
|
3 |
Electrify |
|
4 |
Lightning Dance |
|
5 |
Earth Rising |
|
6 |
Thermal Transfer |
|
7 |
Storm Caller |
|
8 |
Elemental Genesis |
|
9 |
Rockslide |
|
10 |
Crustal Crush |
|
11 |
Terraquake |
Attributes
For attributes you should always level the same attribute as your weapon scalings, for Lighterim you will be leveling Agility and Defense, once you acquire Kralim then respec to level Agility first, Vitality second and Might third. Use your highest Crit Chance Pictos to raise Crit Chance as high as possible for maximum damage. Agility, Vitality, and Might are your main focus but it’s still important to have high crit chance. Do not invest points into anything else.
Act 1 & 2 Luminas
|
Lumina |
Location |
|---|---|
|
Augmented First Strike |
Esquie’s Nest – Defeat Francois |
|
Breaker |
Ancient Sanctuary – Defeat Ultimate Sakapatate |
|
Burn Affinity |
Frozen Hearts – Glacial Falls |
|
Confident Fighter |
Visages – Joy Path |
|
Critical Burn |
Spring Meadows – Small Cave |
|
Dead Energy |
Spring Meadows – Through a cave |
|
Dodger |
Spring Meadows – Defeat Portier |
|
Energising Break |
Flying Waters – Past the Chromatic Troubador |
|
Energising Start I |
The Continent – Beach North of Gestral Village |
|
Energising Turn |
Sirene – Defeat Boss |
|
First Strike |
Stone Wave Cliffs – Near Paintress Shrine Flag |
|
Glass Cannon |
Visages – Sadness Path |
|
Immaculate |
Visages – Boss |
|
Inverted Affinity |
Forgotten Battlefield – Trader Kasumi |
|
In Media Res |
Dark Shores – Sneak Past Mobs |
|
SOS Shell |
Flying Waters – Before Flag |
|
Staggering Attack |
Flying Waters – Before Flag |
|
Weakness Gain |
Inside the Monolith – Near Tainted Cliffs Flag |
Weapons
|
Item |
Location |
|---|---|
|
Weapon 1  Lighterim |
Spring Meadows – Abbest |
|
Weapon 2 Kralim |
Yellow Harvest – Chromatic Ophelin |
Weapons Overview
Early game, one of the best choices is Lighterim. It scales with Agility (the best stat in the game), buffs Wildfire’s damage, and reduces its cost. Perfect for your early combo.
Endgame, it’s all about Kralim. You can get it before Act 1 ends if you’re very good, but it will be hard. Still, it’s worth the grind – Kralim is Lune’s best weapon for this build and arguably one of the best in the entire game.
It scales with Agility and adds Electricity as an element, which is rarely resisted. Kralim gives three powerful effects:
- Bonus damage for rotating elements (up to +80%).
- Generates 2 stains when empty – amazing for lunes opening turns.
- +1 AP per stain consumed – solves all AP issues.
Combined with Cheater and First Strike, Lune often gets three actions before enemies can move once. This lets her adapt her spell sequence based on the encounter and dominate any battlefield. Kralim alone keeps her competitive with Verso and Maelle well into the endgame. So get to the Yellow Harvest Zone and grab that weapon as soon as possible.
Act 3 Luminas
|
Lumina |
Location |
|---|---|
|
Auto Powerful |
Floating Cemetary – Chalier |
|
Charging Critical |
Endless Tower – Stage 5, Trial 3 |
|
Charging Weakness |
The Reacher – Purchase from merchant |
|
Cheater |
The Continent – Defeat Sprong |
|
Energy Master |
The Continent – Defeat Serphenphare |
|
Greater Powerful |
Sirene – Purchase from merchant |
|
Painted Power |
Defeat the Final Boss of Act 2 |
|
Powerful Shield |
Endless Night Sanctuary |
|
Roulette |
Flying Manor – Petank |
|
Full Strength |
Lumiere – Purchase from merchant |
Pictos Overview
For Pictos use Roulette, Confident Fighter and Energy Master. These will give you full critical chance and save you a bunch on Lumina cost.
How to Play
In Act 3, Lune starts to get outclassed in raw damage by both Verso and Maelle. But she still holds her own, especially with a few tweaks. Thermal Transfer is the first to go. It falls off hard and becomes irrelevant once you have the Cheater lumina, which already gives us extra turns. She’ll have enough AP from luminas and gear that it’s no longer needed.
Officially replace it with Ice Lance if you have not already. It’s stronger in the late game, helps slow dangerous enemies so we can abuse turn order, and still generates useful stains.Lastly swap out Crustal Crush for Terraquake. Terraquake helps with breaking and still does solid damage while generating Earth Stains. It’s especially good if you pair Lune with Verso or Monoco who are the best breakers in the game.
Endgame combo logic stays the same—build toward Lightning Dance or Elemental Genesis, but how you do it changes. With Kralim, you get two random stains when you have none. Because they are random you will either want to start with Terraquake, Wildfire or Ice Lance depending on what stains you need next. Sometimes they’ll both be the same, which can lock you out of Genesis, but it’s worth it – Kralim is one of the best weapons in the game.
Lune is the glue of any composition and works well with anyone but some companions synergize better than others, her favorite partner in crime is Sciel, in the early game if you put Lune first in your turn order to setup wildfire, with Sciel using the ability searing bond as a follow up you can almost instantly win every early engagement through sheer Area of Effect damage. Sciel also comes with the ability to double Lune’s damage via Fortunes Fury, have Lune go instead of Sciel with Intervention, and also refill Lune’s AP through various means, Lune and Sciel are pretty much meant for eachother. As a strong second companion choice Maelle with a fire build is great as well, Lune can also act as a pseudo support for Maelle by starting everything on fire for Maelle to destroy them while Lune acts as a secondary carry without changing your build at all.
Check the links below to browse more of the Best Builds for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33!
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