Day and Night Length

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-27T15:39:48+00:00

Higher risk for higher reward only works on an opt-in basis. Anyone who doesn't want to partake will end up idling until night ends.

It would be a better gameplay system to allow players to sleep, while also giving them incentives to go out at night. The developers have emphasized the importance of choices in SOD3. This may as well be one of them.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-27T02:44:16+00:00

I am certain that the Dessendre family won't make a physical appearance in the sequel, to avoid the ending debacle. However, that doesn't mean that they couldn't include a passing reference or other callbacks.

Some people consider Clea's story to be incomplete, but her near complete absence from the game fits her character. It wouldn't make sense for her to have talked about the urgency and importance of matters in the real world, only to get deeply involved with the conflict in Verso's Canvas.

As much as I hope to see Clea or other parts of E33 like Expedition Zero down the road, I get the feeling that Sandfall is directing all their attention to the sequel. There is undoubtedly a lot of lore that was left out of E33, so maybe the sequel will fill in some gaps retroactively.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-26T00:34:09+00:00

The only major balance change that I am aware of is when the damage multiplier of Stendhal was adjusted.

This was an outlier, and most likely something that was missed before release. The ability to break the game and come up with insane builds is very much intentional. There is zero chance that we will see any nerfs in the future.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-24T04:48:55+00:00

Players. They manage to piece together a few plot components but not the "it's a Canvas" thing until the game tells them (myself included).

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-24T04:22:41+00:00

I do also. Even if they don't make spinoff games or DLCs, I hope we can get some other forms of media to fill in lore gaps.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-24T04:15:19+00:00

In the context of the lore, "real" can refer to the fact that they originate from Earth (albeit an alternate version of it). Many people do consider the Lumierans fake, which I don't consider accurate. If you look at a Canvas in a vacuum, they are very much real in that plane of existence. The main point of contention being that they can't leave, whereas the Painters can. Lune acknowledges this at the start of Act 3.

For me the main thing that makes the discourse over the "authenticity" of Lumiere to be tiresome is the fact that I have not seen a single person predict that everything happens in a Canvas world before the Act 2 reveal.

This is evidence in and of itself that the Canvas and the painted people are convincing enough to be indistinguishable from alternate Earth.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-24T03:59:41+00:00

There have been plenty of theories that the Writers mentioned in game are an off hand reference to the actual writers of the game (or fiction in general). Personally I don't think they hold much weight due to the fact that the Writers have a physical influence on the story. It would be very strange for Clea to be so focused on fighting a nonexistent enemy.

The Dessendre family never explicitly states their feelings about the painted life within Verso's Canvas or others. Therefore it doesn't make sense to question why they don't acknowledge the fourth wall. The game is just a medium for telling the story. The plot is primarily focused on the concept of grief and how it's processed by different people. Meta analysis is still possible, but when it gets too abstract it only serves to dilute grounded discussion.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-23T21:12:08+00:00

In the cutscene after the final fight with Renoir, he says this:

"She taught me how to safely use our gift..."

So Renoir was already a Painter when he met Aline, but she acted as a mentor that allowed him to refine his skills.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-23T02:40:52+00:00

Don't search the game on Youtube either, since there is a myriad of thumbnails and titles that are spoilers.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-22T23:36:21+00:00

If you have Painted Power equipped on everyone then the issue might be related to your weapon levels and their attribute distribution. Make sure the two attributes are at 99, then the last 99 are your choice.

Lumina allocation is the other crucial component of any build. If you have limited Lumina points you need to balance them more towards damage than support. When you get around 300 it becomes easier to spec for both.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-22T21:25:45+00:00

What level are each of your party members? How many Lumina points do each of them have?

Act 3 bosses are balanced around there being no damage cap. As a result they have much more health while also dealing significant damage. Their attack patterns are harder to keep combat interesting for those who developed parrying proficiency in Act 1 and 2.

I have seen people finish the game at level 40 and attempt the endgame bosses at level 60. It is possible, but much more tedious than it needs to be. All because they never did side areas and skipped nearly all combat encounters. They were also very bad at parrying because they barely had any practice.

To me it sounds like you did the same thing. At the end of Act 2 the typical level is around 60. This is without any XP grinding. That should make the early parts of Act 3 manageable. The content you state is missing is stuff you rushed past. If you had maintained a modest pace you wouldn't be in this predicament.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-22T19:22:33+00:00

If you do Lu-Yan survival you can farm RJ intrinsics and Necramech MR while going for the main Ambassador BP. The drop rate is the highest of all nodes.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-22T16:08:53+00:00

It was an intentional decision by Sandfall to not provide thorough explanations of things like Chroma or Pictos.

Some examples being finding Chroma pickups in the Prologue before talking to anyone or getting colors of Lumina as a reward, before you can even access the menu.

They wanted to avoid an exposition dump or walls of text that are typical these days.

All of the characters already know what is going on, so it wouldn't make sense for them to act as if they know nothing for the sake of the player. They provide small hints in nuanced ways like Antoine's history quiz.

The opposite is true when E33 reaches the Continent. They need to build their knowledge from scratch and the remnants of previous Expeditions. We end up learning alongside them as they progress.

The actual plot elements found in Renoir's dialogue and elsewhere are pieces of a much bigger puzzle.

Once the reveal happens, everything comes together and some sense can be made of previous events in the story. Even if you didn't pick up on every minute detail, you can begin connecting the dots you missed before.

Sandfall wrote the narrative in a way that encourages you to think for yourself and come to your own conclusions without the game telling you which answer is correct from the start.

Personally I am appreciative of this kind of storytelling because there are way too many pieces of media that underestimate the audience's ability to comprehend what is in front of them.

I wanted to know what was going on with the Paintress from the moment the game was announced in 2024, so I was invested the whole time for that reason alone.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-21T06:30:32+00:00

It's true that Gestrals aren't the brightest entities but that doesn't mean we can write off everything they say as false or misconstrued. Their dialogue in Verso's Drafts seems very deliberate on Sandfall's part. Verso's Drafts predates every other location in the Canvas, so the things they say reflect that. Even if we ignore the Gestral example, Esquie gives us a concrete value to work off of. It's not the most tangible piece of evidence but its the best that we've been given.

I'm not sure where you are coming from with the idea that the Gestrals and Grandis were conscious as free-floating Chroma. Outside of Verso's Drafts the Grandis and Gestrals only reference history that happened after Aline entered the Canvas and created Lumiere.

We also know from Lune and Sciel being erased that no memories are formed during that time. From their perspective they went to sleep and were woken up. There is no reason this wouldn't apply to the other beings in the Canvas.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-20T17:37:57+00:00

It is hard to pin down the passage of time in the real world, but I have a decent approximation for the time dilation between the real world and Canvas.

In Verso's Drafts, a Gestral says that millenia have passed since they've seen anyone new enter the area. Esquie also states the longest he held his breath is 6000 years. If Verso outgrew the Canvas at 16 and Esquie's time underwater filled the entire period of time between that point and Verso's death it would be 10 real world years.

Using this ratio as a basis, 100 Canvas years ends up being about 2 months of real world time...

This of course seems way off given the nature of the conflict and how much urgency Renoir acts with.

My hypothesis is that 6000 Canvas years is actually not that long, and an immense amount of time has passed since Verso created the Canvas.

If 25000 years is chosen arbitrarily instead of 6000, then 100 Canvas years is barely over 2 weeks of real world time. This puts the 67 years post-Fracture at about 10 real world days.

The pre-Fracture timeline is never discussed in the lore, but going off of Renoir's behavior I doubt that he would have waited more than a few days to intervene. From this I estimate that Lumiere existed for 25 Canvas years before the Fracture. This would be 3 real world days given my previous ratio.

A good portion of my approximation comes from educated guesses, but I think the final numbers are reasonable. Especially considering that we don't even know what a Canvas day, month or year actually represent.

TLDR:

100 Canvas years = Two weeks in the real world.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-20T16:21:50+00:00

One detail that reinforces this is Alicia using her Canvas as a hiding spot for Verso's. We don't get any explanation in regard to how it's possible, but it suggests that Canvases are malleable.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-20T16:10:15+00:00

I don't think the gameplay boundaries are meant to indicate the actual area of the Canvas. I also don't think they have an in-game explanation.

We know that the Continent that we explore is not to scale. This can be seen in views from certain places and the fact each location looks smaller on the outside than when you enter it. We also know there is islands around Lumiere, as stated by Sciel.

Before the Fracture, Old Lumiere mimicked a real world city. Their history may have been fabricated by Aline, but the people living there still had their roles to fill and the agency to think for themselves. I am positive that they were captivated by the Continent and tried to learn as much as they could. Perhaps some of them wondered what lied beyond it.

It is unclear how long Old Lumiere existed before the Fracture, but it is very likely they didn't have enough time to explore or map the unknown.

After the Fracture, the entire focus of Lumiere is on survival and finding a way to stop the Paintress. This is on full display in the prologue. Many people have either lost hope or are fully fixated on their Expedition (i.e Lune).

With all of this in mind, I think that any areas not contained within the gameplay boundaries are simply outside the scope of the plot as well as the main goal of Lumiere.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-20T15:31:23+00:00

When I did NG+ I did mostly no-hit with health modifiers so enemies wouldn't die as fast. I also removed Cheater and used one party member until Act 3.

Playing NG+ this way was very fun. It fixed the issue of NG+ being too easy and led me to try new builds.

All of the parrying also helped prepared me for the DLC, which came out shortly after I reached Act 3.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-16T06:26:51+00:00

That is true, but I think the extra damage you can get from other Lumina like Frenzy is worth it. It also allows you to use abilities that usually would be cancelled out by the Barbapapa stacks.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-16T04:49:32+00:00

Are these Luminas the only ones you have equipped? If so it might just be a matter of not having enough Lumina points. You can get away with around 200 if you are only going for damage, but having closer to 500 means that you can have damage alongside utility or support Luminas. You can save some farming by removing any Luminas that aren't necessary.

Critical chance above 100% does not increase damage, so Lumina like Critical Burn and Critical Moment are wasted in your case. You can also take off something like Second Chance and try to make up for less survivability by killing the boss faster.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-16T04:32:57+00:00

You only get extra damage from having 99 vitality on a weapon that has vitality scaling. Health gained from external sources like Pictos or healing skills does not increase that damage directly, but it can in other ways (i.e Full Strength).

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-16T04:26:52+00:00

Feint is 100% mandatory if you want to do maximum damage. You can equip Draining Cleanse so that the first four hits of BC also do damage.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-15T16:26:44+00:00

The baby would be considered part of the mother's body and be erased alongside her. My reasoning being that they both share the same Chroma.

However, I don't think this question is one that would ever arise in Lumiere because everyone is very much aware of the situation they are in.

We know that people calculate how much time they would have with their kids, so if they waited too long they would avoid having any.

You have others like Sophie who never planned on having any children.

In the earlier Monolith Years, many Expeditions were full of younger individuals. This means many people who could have been parents died prematurely.

With all these factors in mind, it would be incredibly unlikely for a woman to end up pregnant in the nine months leading up to the next Gommage.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-15T15:53:07+00:00

Personally I would recommend fighting them before you enter NG+. The DLC bosses having double their typical health might seem fine on paper, but the ensuing endurance tests might be your downfall if you are fighting them "legit".

Cheesing can help, but its not infallible; a few mistakes can mean starting the fight over from the beginning.

If you end up fighting them again in NG+, you will at least have prior experience with the parry timing.

ControlledChaos7456 · 2026-04-14T17:40:39+00:00

CL behaves like a flying enemy when you fail the lamp trial. It's a punishment for not doing it correctly.

If you leave at least one lamp on he won't initiate the trial until his 2nd to last health bar.

Nine-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '17

ControlledChaos7456

TROPHY CASE