Hitting level 99 in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is less about mindless grinding and more about building a repeatable loop that delivers high XP per minute. The game is generous with experience once you learn how to reset encounters efficiently, optimize your damage, and take advantage of the best Act-specific zones. If your goal is level 99 for trophies, New Game Plus prep, or simply to cap out your party, the most important shift is this: you are farming fights you can win quickly and consistently, not fights that are merely high level.
Below is a structured XP farming route from early game to endgame, plus the combat and build habits that make level 99 feel practical instead of painful.
How XP Farming Really Works in Expedition 33
The core of efficient leveling is the Expedition Flag loop. Enemies near flags are ideal because you can clear a small circuit, return to the flag to recover, and reset spawns. When you do this correctly, you cut out almost all downtime.
A few principles matter more than the specific location you pick:
Speed beats difficulty. A fight worth massive XP is not worth it if it takes three minutes and multiple heals. You want battles you can finish in seconds, ideally in a single turn cycle once your builds come online.
Consistency beats peak XP. If a route occasionally goes wrong and forces you to spend time reviving, resetting, or reloading, your XP per hour drops hard. The best farm is the one you can repeat while half-asleep.
No-damage runs can matter. In multiple places, finishing cleanly can increase your rewards. Even when the bonus is not huge, the real value is that “playing for no damage” forces you into the habits that make grinding faster: reliable parries, safer openers, and fewer recovery turns.
Builds are the multiplier. You can take an “okay” farm spot and make it excellent with the right Pictos, Lumina passives, and weapon upgrades. Conversely, even the best endgame farm will feel slow if your damage is capped by an underbuilt party.
Universal Setup Tips That Make Every XP Farm Faster
Before getting into the best zones, it is worth locking in a few setup habits that pay off everywhere.
Upgrade weapons first, then grind. If you are farming because fights feel slow, the solution is often weapon upgrades and better scaling, not more levels. Higher weapon levels frequently reduce a two-turn clear into a one-turn clear.
Lean into enemy weaknesses. Expedition 33 rewards matching elements, skills, and weapon properties to the enemies you are farming. If a zone is packed with a type that folds to Light skills, build around Light for that grind and respec later if needed.
Build one dedicated “carry” for farming. In my runs, the grind becomes dramatically smoother once one character can delete a pack on demand. That does not mean the rest of the party is useless, but it does mean your farm speed is anchored to one reliable damage engine.
Reduce animation time. This sounds small, but over hundreds of fights it matters. Use skills and openers that end fights quickly without long multi-step setups. The “best” damage combo is not always the fastest farm combo.
Rest at the flag on schedule. If your route is “two fights then rest,” do not get greedy and push four fights with low resources. Smooth loops beat heroic loops.
Best Act 1 XP Farm: Hidden Gestral Arena
Act 1 is the hardest time to power level because your tools are limited and XP numbers are smaller. The good news is that you do not need to overgrind early. You mainly want enough levels to stabilize the party and smooth out boss difficulty.
The best structured farm early is the Hidden Gestral Arena. Once unlocked, it provides repeatable fights that are straightforward to reset and fast to execute. The key is choosing an opponent you can beat reliably with minimal risk. Many players focus on a specific arena opponent because the fight cadence becomes predictable, which makes it easier to aim for clean clears.
If you are trying to accelerate Act 1 progression, the arena grind pairs well with a defensive, parry-forward approach. A clean parry rhythm is effectively an XP multiplier because it removes healing turns and lets you spend every action on damage.
Optional bosses are also a legitimate Act 1 leveling spike if you can handle them. If you are comfortable with your mechanics, taking down an optional boss can be more efficient than repeating small packs, because you gain a chunk of XP and often walk away stronger in other ways.
Best Act 2 XP Farm: Sirene Dancer Loops
Act 2 is where grinding starts to feel efficient because enemy groups become denser and your builds gain momentum. One of the most consistent midgame routes is farming in Sirene, where you can chain battles against Dancer packs and reset them at a nearby Expedition Flag.
Why this works well:
- The packs are frequent and close together.
- The battles are predictable once you learn their patterns.
- You can control your pace by resting at the flag whenever your resources dip.
This is the stage of the game where I recommend shifting from “survive and win” to “win in one cycle.” If your fights are taking multiple turns, treat that as a build problem. Revisit your Pictos, check weapon scaling, and tighten your opener. When Act 2 clicks, it becomes realistic to climb dozens of levels without feeling like you are stuck in place.
Best Act 3 XP Farm: Dark Shores Noire Trio
Act 3 offers your first truly high-yield, repeatable grind: Dark Shores. The common target here is a fight against a small group that rewards massive XP for the time invested, and it is close enough to a flag to loop quickly.
The Dark Shores grind also teaches a valuable lesson: farming spots are often designed around a damage check and a mechanic check. If you can bring the right tools, the encounter becomes a farm. If you cannot, it becomes a wall.
To make Dark Shores efficient:
Use the right damage type and weapons. If the enemies in your chosen fight are vulnerable to a specific element or approach, commit to it during the grind. Swap weapons, retool skills, and respec attributes if needed. You can always change back later.
Prioritize parry and counter reliability. Even if you are overleveled, sloppy clears slow you down. Dark Shores becomes dramatically faster when you are confident enough to play aggressively without taking hits.
A bonus to many Act 3 farming routes is that you often earn upgrade materials alongside XP, which helps you scale your damage even further. That creates a snowball effect where each loop makes the next loop faster.
The Best Endgame XP Farm: Renoir’s Drafts Merchant Fight
If your question is specifically “What is the fastest way to reach level 99,” most routes converge on one answer: the merchant fight in Renoir’s Drafts once you are strong enough to clear it quickly. This is the spot many players use to finish the final stretch from the 80s to 99 because the XP payout is enormous, and the reset loop is straightforward.
The fight is especially valuable because it is not only experience. You are also farming progression resources that keep your party scaling as you grind, which prevents the last few levels from feeling like a slog.
To farm this efficiently:
Aim for a repeatable one-cycle kill. The first time you reach this fight, it might feel like a real encounter. After you refine your setup, it becomes a scripted routine. The goal is to make the opening turn so consistent that you could repeat it ten times in a row without improvising.
Do not force the hardest variant if it slows you down. If the merchant fight is too inconsistent for your current build, there are nearby encounters that can still deliver excellent XP while being safer and faster. In leveling, the “second best” farm that you clear flawlessly often beats the “best” farm you clear messily.
Build around a single carry plan. A glass cannon style setup can work extremely well here because farming is about repetition, not endurance. If you can delete threats before they act, you avoid the biggest time sink of all: recovery turns.
New Game Plus XP Farming: The Monolith Entrance Loop
If you are taking your leveling into New Game Plus, the Monolith becomes a practical grind zone because you can find high-value enemies close to the entrance and repeat them quickly. This works well if you are already strong and simply want to cap everyone at 99 with minimal friction.
The same rules apply: fight near a reset point, keep the loop short, and optimize for fast clears. In NG+, the temptation is to chase the biggest number, but the best results still come from tight routes you can repeat without thinking.
A Practical Leveling Route From Start to 99
If you want a clean path instead of bouncing around:
In Act 1, use the Hidden Gestral Arena to smooth difficulty spikes and avoid excessive grinding. In Act 2, transition into Sirene loops until your party is consistently clearing fights in a single cycle. In Act 3, use Dark Shores to jump into the high-XP tier while you upgrade weapons and finalize builds. Once you can reliably delete endgame encounters, move into Renoir’s Drafts and finish the push to level 99 with the merchant fight loop or a nearby safer alternative if your clear speed is better there.
The moment you notice your loop slowing down, treat it as a signal to adjust your build, not a signal to grind harder. In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the fastest path to 99 is almost always the path where your damage and your consistency scale together.