In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's farewell update, players are introduced to an Endless Tower that stacks some of the game's most punishing challenges. A superfan, Reddit user Recordbreaks, has defeated the Duollistes boss after an eight-hour, two-minute, and 36-second marathon, logging 10,545 successful parries and not a single dodge. The feat has quickly become a touchstone for community conversation around endurance play and the balancing act between timing and persistence in the final stretch of Clair Obscur's storyline.
Recordbreaks describes the run as a near-continuous shift, noting that they took one brief break for snacks, roughly five to ten minutes, before returning to the fight. The bout was fought at a pace that showcased the game’s demanding timing: the player was technically underpowered for high-damage scenarios, with a squad hovering around level 80, and the enemy occasionally dealing hits in the hundreds of thousands of damage when certain conditions aligned. Recordbreaks himself estimated that a single Duollistes hit could reach around 200,000 damage if Roulette mechanics lined up in the boss’s favor, underscoring how the encounter demanded precision, not just raw power.
Community reaction has skewed toward admiration for the stamina on display, with a notable debate about whether the run could or should have been optimized by adjusting builds mid-run. Many commentators praised the discipline required to maintain parries for eight hours straight. In rough math that fans shared, the run translated to roughly 22 parries per minute—about one parry every three seconds for the duration of the battle—turning the boss encounter into something akin to a part-time job in itself. While some fans argued that a strategic reset or rebuild could yield a shorter total time, the prevailing sentiment celebrated the sheer dedication and timing consistency as an achievement worthy of recognition within Clair Obscur’s community.
With Expedition 33 now complete, players are speculating about what could come next. The developer has described Clair Obscur as a franchise name, with Expedition 33 representing just one story within a larger universe, leaving fans to wonder about future chapters or scope in the series. The final update also brings patch notes that summarize balance changes and the introduction of the Endless Tower’s more challenging content, reinforcing the notion that Clair Obscur remains an ongoing, evolving platform for high-skill play in the community. IGN’s coverage keeps the notes and player reactions in one place for those following the series through its conclusion and beyond.
This report is by IGN's Tom Phillips.