Expedition 33’s already being hailed as a potential “Game of the Year” and could even be one of the greatest RPGs of all time. However, despite its brilliance, the game has some difficulties that players should be aware of to get the most out of their adventure and avoid unnecessary frustration.
In this article, we’ll discuss 8 mistakes that can RUIN your experience in Expedition 33—and how you can avoid them. Let’s get started with this –
1. Ignoring Items in Combat
One of the most fundamental mistakes players make in Expedition 33 is underestimating the significance of combat items such as Healing Tints, Energy Tints, and Revive Tints.
Unlike other RPGs, where consumables are often abundant, Expedition 33 restricts your access to just these three crucial items. However, these aren’t just tools for survival—they play a vital role in strengthening your party later in the game.
As you advance through the game, you’ll obtain special pictos that enhance your characters when they use these items during battle.
Eventually, you can transform pictos into luminas, unlocking powerful buffs that complement your build. Ignoring the use of items early on would mean missing out on a critical opportunity to make your characters stronger and more adaptable.
2. Neglecting Elemental Weaknesses
Expedition 33’s combat relies heavily on exploiting elemental weaknesses, a mechanic that adds complexity to battles.
Every enemy has an elemental vulnerability, and attacking them with the right weapons or skills can increase your damage output by 50%. On the other hand, attacking enemies with elements they resist will reduce your damage to 50% of its normal value.
Many players make the mistake of disregarding this system, using the same weapons and skills as they advance through the game. E
ven worse, some continue to force their way through enemies resistant to their builds, resulting in inefficient battles or complete failure. To avoid this, pay attention to enemy types in each new area and adjust your strategies accordingly.
If you encounter an enemy immune to all six of your character’s skills, it’s probably time for a significant overhaul of your weapons, skills, and team synergy. Don’t be stubborn—adaptability is essential!
3. Wasting Your Color of Luminina
About an hour into Expedition 33, you’ll start collecting Color of Luminina, a crucial resource for increasing your characters’ overall luminina points. While this may seem like a simple system, one expensive mistake players make is spending these resources carelessly.
Investing all your luminina into a single character (like Lune), only to later bench them due to personal preference or incompatible team compositions, can leave you in an unbalanced situation.
Although luminina is obtainable throughout the game, it’s not unlimited, so plan ahead before investing. Consider building a well-rounded team and avoid focusing too much on one favorite party member.
Pro tip: Distribute your resources carefully across your rotation, ensuring that your entire squad remains effective for challenging battles and unexpected situations.
4. Skipping Companion Relationship Building
At its core, Expedition 33 is a story-driven game with deep character development. While it might be tempting to skip through dialogue and optional interactions to focus on combat and exploration, doing so can mean missing out on significant gameplay benefits.
Spending time with companions at camp and building relationships opens new opportunities. For example, raising Lune’s relationship level to six unlocks a unique quest tied to an entirely new area with exclusive gear.
Similarly, interacting with Maelle and Manoko unlocks valuable quests connected to their character arcs.
In addition to quests, increasing companions’ relationship levels to four and then seven grants access to powerful Gradient attacks, making your party stronger in combat.
By building bonds with your expedition team, you’ll gain essential tools to enhance your journey. The lesson here is: don’t rush past dialogue—relationships are worth their weight in rewards.
5. Ignoring Exploration
Once you move past the prologue, Expedition 33 opens up a vast continent for exploration. Yet one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to focus solely on the main objectives, ignoring side content and optional areas.
Side zones like Yellow Harvest (available early in the game) offer not only valuable loot and experience but also incredible encounters that prepare you for future challenges.
By neglecting exploration, players miss out on gear upgrades, luminina, and unique encounters that make the later stages of the game more manageable.
6. Attacking White Nevrons
Nevrons—the deadly enemies scattered across Expedition 33—are typically hostile. However, the game introduces a rare subset of White Nevrons who are non-aggressive and can even offer rewards if you help them.
Many players make the critical mistake of attacking these creatures, which can permanently block access to a major endgame prize.
Helping all nine White Nevrons opens up the optional Fountain zone after unlocking SGA’s flying ability. If you haven’t attacked too many of them, you can receive a staggering reward—100 Color of Luminina, which can drastically power up your party.
If you want to avoid this mistake, approach White Nevrons carefully and complete their specific tasks. Their rewards are more than worth the extra effort, especially if you’re aiming for endgame dominance.
7. Delaying Paint Break Unlocks
Throughout your adventure, you’ll encounter Paint Pylons—objects that often conceal loot or hidden areas. However, breaking them requires the Paint Break ability, which you can unlock by returning four out of nine Lost Gestals during the early game.
Players who wait until late-game to unlock Paint Break may inadvertently create hours of unnecessary backtracking, revisiting zones to uncover secrets they missed.
Instead, prioritize finding at least four Lost Gestals early, and keep Paint Break handy as you explore new areas.
8. Underpreparing Secondary Characters
While Expedition 33 allows you to form a core three-character squad, the game emphasizes teamwork for its major encounters.
One devastating mistake players make is failing to prepare their two reserve party members for crucial battles, particularly the challenging Paintress fight.
If your main characters fall during a boss battle, your reserves will automatically substitute in. However, if their weapons, lumininas, and skills aren’t up-to-date, they won’t be ready to carry the team to victory.
Avoid this by regularly upgrading every party member’s loadout, regardless of whether they’re part of your primary squad.
Remember, character synergy is critical—assign pictos and skills that align well with team composition, so your reserves are just as formidable as your primary fighters.
Final Thoughts
Expedition 33 is a great game that combines planning, discovery, and growth of your characters. While the game offers many hours of fun, it’s important to stay away from these traps to fully enjoy everything it has to give.
From making the most of your items to forming strong bonds, every choice you make can have long-term effects.
Get ready carefully, explore openly, and always be ready to change—you’ll be on the right path to beating Expedition 33 like an expert.
Have you faced any of these problems in your game? Tell us in the comments below, and share your plans for dealing with the game’s hard parts!
