Clair Obscur: Expedition 33: How to break Paint Spikes

Have you come across a strange black tree with blue glowing lines in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33? Chances are you have, as they appear both in the overworld and in the levels of the game. Turns out, you can break them, and here's how.

To gain access to the extra areas and items hidden within these Paint Spikes, you'll need to progress through the Lost Gestrals side quest in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. In this side quest, you'll track down small Gestrals hidden in various locations, inviting them back to camp. Once you've got your first Gestral, you'll notice a new character has appeared at camp.

Sastro can be found on the path to the left of the Curator in the camp. He'll thank you for gathering his Lost Gestrals, and he'll tell you that he will reward you the more friends you bring back to him. There are nine total Lost Gestrals in the game, but you won't need to find them all to break the trees.

You'll only need to find four Gestrals in order to get the Paint Break ability. You can find these Gestrals hidden in various locations in the overworld, and can grab four of them by the time you reach Monoco Station in the main story.

The Paint Break ability doesn't add anything to your in-game damage output, but it does improve the attack you use to start combat and get the jump on enemies. By pressing F on PC or R1/RB on consoles, you can now shatter these Paint Spikes, revealing treasures within. So far, we've found hidden paths leading to Chromatic Nevrons, Colours of Lumina, and one of the blobs you need to shoot to unlock Paint Cages.

There you have it. Now you can get rid of those annoying roadblocks in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. In the Lost Gestrals questline, you can also gain a haircut for Verso by grabbing five Gestrals, and a Picto that lets you retreat from fights instantly if you find all nine. For your first three, you'll also get Gestral haircuts for Maelle, Lune, and Sciel.