In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 you can travel faster when you upgrade your Esquie. We reveal how to access all upgrades and what they bring.
To explore the vast world of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, it’s useful to have a “mount”. This becomes available quite early, although your mount is more like a full-fledged member of the group.
For Esquie not only clears dangers from your path, but also makes travel much more enjoyable and often has wise advice for you… or he’s just a bit scatterbrained. Our guide shows you how to unlock all of Esquie’s abilities.
Who is Esquie? Early on in your journey, you’ll meet the incredibly powerful yet somewhat clumsy being Esquie. He serves as your mount and can get you across the world map significantly faster than a normal march on foot.
If you want to move quickly across the world map, you cannot bypass Esquie—and it’s also essential for the story to treat the oversized, lovable creature well to access new areas.
Esquie in Expedition 33: All abilities and their locations
Esquie is practically omnipotent, after all, he is a legendary being. However, to carry other people, he needs special stones—which unfortunately, he’s lost again. Every time you bring him one of these special stones, he gains a new ability, expanding the exploration possibilities. In total, he has 5 different abilities that you can unlock throughout the game.
Riding (Standard)
You automatically unlock the normal Esquie in the story once you leave the Gestral village behind and visit Esquie in his nest. The “normal” Esquie can travel over land and destroy small bluish stone surfaces to access new areas.
Swimming
Being able to swim is the first new ability of Esquie that you will also inevitably unlock during the story. You only need to complete the events of Act 1, which occurs after visiting the “Stone Wave Cliffs”. This is right after you meet Esquie.
Once you’ve done that, Esquie can sink into the water at beaches in the game and travel through the sea to reach new shores. This immediately opens up many new areas, some of which can be quite deadly.
Destroying Corals
In the sea, your path is repeatedly blocked by corals that make further progress impossible. During Act 2, you will head to “Old Lumiere”. After completing the story in this area, Esquie receives the new stone from your group members.
Now, you are able to destroy corals and swim right through them. This opens up a large part of the world map, and you can basically land at any shore. Also, keep in mind that many areas and levels may still be too difficult and indicate “Danger!”, warning that you will only find a quick end to the expedition there.
Flying
Flying is also unlocked during the game’s storyline, but much later. You need to defeat the two Axons (Siren and Visages) in Act 2 and then complete the events at the Monolith. During the final battle there, Verso returns Esquie’s flight stone.
After that, you have the freedom to explore the entire world by flying. There are numerous flying islands with small bonus areas, but also many hidden places located on rises or mountains. Many of the chromatic bosses also become available only now. It’s worth it to explore the entire map thoroughly.
Diving
The last ability of Esquie is diving. To be able to dive, you must regularly speak with Esquie at the camp in Act 3 to increase his relationship level. Once you reach level 5, you receive a side quest where you need to retrieve a stone from Francois. Verso must win a duel against Francois here. The fight is relatively simple, as long as you manage to parry Francois’s spells.
Once you can dive, you can explore the sparkling spots in the water that grant many Lumina points. Additionally, there’s a new area that you can also dive into—but you should only venture there at a very high level (level 70+) because one of the nastiest bosses in the entire game is waiting there.
What happens to Esquie in a “New Game+”? If you start a “New Game+” after the end of the game, Esquie’s abilities will be reset, and you will unlock them again throughout the story—with one exception.
If you obtained them during the first playthrough, Esquie retains his ability to dive. This means that you can immediately explore the glowing spots right after acquiring the swimming ability and collect additional Lumina points.
Esquie is by no means the only big secret in Expedition 33. The developers have really gone all out and introduced a lot of hidden content into the game—from the very first minute. You can even overlook 3 special secrets in the first 10 minutes of the game.
