In the earliest chapters ofClair Obscur: Expedition 33, you’ll have the chance to attend a festival, where you’ll have various opportunities to earn tokens and spend them on fabulous prizes. But there are a few different ways to earn tokens, and only a few things to spend them on. The festival is also a limited-time offer; as soon as you move on from this area, you’ll be pushed forward inClair Obscur’s story, never to return until your next playthrough.
So, before you have to move on, here’severything you need to know to make the most ofClair Obscur’s festival. That includes a complete guide to getting tokens, and a rundown of all the prizes available.
How To Get Festival Tokens In Clair Obscur
You Get One Freebie
As soon as you enter the festival,you get one free token just for showing up. Nothing else to worry about here, although I’d wait to spend that one until you know exactly which of the prizes you want, or can manage to earn enough to buy all three.
Trivia Mini-Game
To earn your second token, go and speak with the bald fellow standing behind a table nearby. His name’s Antoine, and he’ll engage you in a quick game of trivia. If you can answer all three of his questions,he’ll give you another token. All but one of these have already been answered for you if you’ve been paying attention (and even the harder one is fairly intuitive). The questions and answers are below:
With that, Antoine will congratulate you and give you your second token. Do note, though, thatyou may attempt Antoine’s quiz as many times as you wantuntil you win. You can’t actually fail, even if you repeatedly get the same question wrong.
Fighting Maelle
To earn your third and final token,you’ll need to beat Maelle in a friendly battle. You can find her at the end of the dock, looking forlornly at the sea by herself. Walk up to her and speak with her to begin the fight. Like Antoine, she’ll let you try the fight as many times as you need until you can beat her and win the token.
Maelle is a tough fightat this early stage of the game - there’s really no trick to winning. All you really have to do ismaster the parry timing, which may take you a few tries. The best advice I have for you is that you should pay attention to the sound effects of Maelle’s attacks as much as you do her animations. These are far easier to time, and learning how to time your blocks based on sound is an important skill you’ll need to develop for later in the game.
What You Can Get With Your Festival Tokens
Weird Pictos
First, head to the leftmost stall and speak to Tom. He’ll offer you a Weird Pictos for one of your tokens. For now, this item is completely useless. However, later in the game,when you reach the Gestral Village, one of the merchants will offer to convert it into a working Pictosfor you free of charge.
It becomes Augmented Aim, which increases your Free Aim damage while also giving you boosts to your speed and crit rate. You may have found lower-level versions of this Pictos elsewhere in the game, but this one’s level 5, which is a pretty significant upgrade. Even so, it doesn’t number among thebest Pictos inClair Obscur, but it’s not without its uses.
A Haircut
At the booth next to Tom, the rather fashionable Amandine will offer you a haircut for one of your tokens, so you may head out on the expedition looking your best. If you choose to buy this,you’ll unlock the Bun haircut for Gustave, which you can swap to and from via the character menu. This is purely cosmetic, and hasno effect on Gustave’s stats.
Personally, I don’t like this look on Gustave and greatly prefer his default hairstyle. If you can only get two tokens (most likely because you’re struggling to beat Maelle),I would spend them on the Pictos and the artifact(see below), and leave the haircut alone. You’re not missing much.
An Artifact
Finally, at the rightmost booth, speak with Colette, who’ll offer you an artifact. She doesn’t know what it unlocks, but for one token,she’ll present you with the Old Key. Much later in the game, you’ll have the opportunity to explore a location called Old Lumière. While here, your party will be split in two - wait until you get to the Maelle and Verso section of the level.
Beginning from the Left Street rest point, head forwards down the path and past the glowing sword stuck in the ground. Pass through the opening in the wall, then turn right and walk between the two buildings. You’ll see a tower sticking out sideways from the ground below you; jump down onto it, and remember to grab the Polished Chroma Catalyst before dropping through the hole; inside, you’ll find a gate. Open the gate, and you’ll receivea unique journal entrywritten from the perspective of a Lumière resident who survived the Fracture.
This doesn’t have any impact on gameplay, butit is a central component of the lore. The characters scarcely talk about the Fracture - for most of them, it began well before they were even born, and for the rest of them, it’s a distant memory they don’t quite understand.
With that, you should be able to gather all three tokens available and collect all three prizes at the festival. They’re certainly not all useful, and two of them take quite a while to become usable, but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth collecting as you play throughClair Obscur: Expedition 33.
