TL;DR: One-Shot Him Before He Acts
You do not grind item:simon down. He has tens of millions of HP across his phases, he drops your characters to 1 HP on command, and he steals every shield you make. This is not a damage race you win on stamina, so we do not try. We end it before he gets a real turn.
The winning answer is a buff-stacked burst that lands a fully loaded item:maelle ultimate as early as turn one. Stack item:guard-down on Simon, pile damage buffs onto Maelle, hand her an extra turn with item:sciel, and fire item:stendhal with item:painted-power equipped so the 9999 cap comes off. That single hit carries the fight.
If you would rather earn the kill on the merits, the legit parry route works too, and we cover both below. The burst gets you the trophy faster. The parry route is the one to learn for the rematch and the challenge modifiers.
For the full standalone version of this finisher, see our Maelle Stendhal Build Guide.
Who Simon Is and How to Reach Him
Simon is an optional secret boss, and most of the community calls him the hardest fight in the game. He waits in The Abyss, inside Renoir's Drafts. Getting there needs Esquie's underwater dive ability, which gates The Abyss on the Continent, so you reach him by pushing the main story far enough to unlock the swim.
Once you are in The Abyss, follow the path to a dead end and drop into the pit lined with glowing swords. Pass the Expedition Flag, walk up to Simon, and the fight begins. Beat him once and you can rematch him whenever you want. The rematch starts straight into Phase 2, and there are challenge modifiers for harder reruns.
Prep Checklist Before You Walk In
Bring your level and gear to the ceiling. The clean benchmarks our sources cite:
| Requirement | Target |
|---|---|
| Character level | 90+ (94 is a safe benchmark) |
| Main weapons | Level 33 (max) |
| Attack Power (for the burst) | ~10,000+ |
| Critical Rate (on the finisher) | 100% |
The Attack Power and Crit Rate numbers only matter for the one-shot finisher. If you plan to parry the fight straight, you still want the level and weapon caps, but you can run a survival-leaning setup instead.
The Burst Kill, Step by Step
This is the route we recommend first. The whole plan is to give Maelle one maximally buffed turn before Simon can interfere.
The trio: Maelle swings the hammer, Sciel sets her up, and item:monoco handles the buffs and the mark. Build your active party by removing everyone, then adding this trio back in the order that guarantees they move before Simon. Party order is the lever that lets you act first.
What each character carries:
- Maelle runs the Barrier Breaker weapon at level 33, with item:stendhal, item:guard-down, and item:last-chance slotted. She holds her gradient charges maxed and stays in Virtuose Stance.
- Sciel runs Charnon at level 33, carrying Fortune's Fury and item:intervention. Fortune's Fury multiplies Maelle's next hit. Intervention hands Maelle an immediate extra turn.
- Monoco runs Joyaro at level 33, using Chapelier Slash to mark Simon and Orphelin Cheers to buff Maelle.
The lumina that makes it real: Painted Power. Without it your Stendhal slams into the 9999 damage cap and the one-shot is impossible. With it, the full multiplied number lands. This is the single most important picto for the kill, full stop.
The rotation:
- Apply Guard Down to Simon so he takes amplified damage.
- Trigger Last Chance through item:cheater for the extra play.
- Have Monoco mark Simon with Chapelier Slash.
- Fire Orphelin Cheers to stack buffs onto Maelle.
- Sciel casts item:fortunes-fury, then Intervention to grant Maelle her bonus turn.
- Maelle unloads Stendhal from Virtuose Stance.
With Defenceless or Guard Down applied, the damage multipliers stacked, the gradient maxed, and the cap removed, that Stendhal does enough to drop Simon outright or gut him so deeply the fight is already over.
[[build:XJKN4A]]
There is a second, equally valid version built around Maelle's Gommage ultimate instead: run her on the Lithum weapon with item:spark, item:pyrolyse, item:burning-canvas, item:gustaves-homage, and item:swift-stride. Chip Simon down to roughly 30 percent with item:lune and Monoco first, swap to the burst trio, then stack Defenceless, item:all-set, Fortune's Fury, Intervention, and Burn before the ultimate. Pick whichever finisher matches the skills you have unlocked. Both end the fight the same way.
[[build:PI6BOQ]]
The Legit Parry Route
If you want the swordfight, here is how the phases break down.
Phase 1 is the teaching phase. Simon's patterns are slow enough to read. Learn these four combos:
- Short Combo: 4 hits (two overheads, a horizontal, an overhead). A jump-counter window opens after the third hit.
- Plant Sword in Ground: 5 hits, and the final swing can stun you. Run Anti-Stun lumina to negate it.
- Powerful Combo: 3 evenly spaced swings. Parry all three, and do not jump the gun. That slow first swing punishes early presses.
- Long Combo: 6 hits, rare, with a spin on the fifth.
Phase 2 gives every slash a phantom follow-up, so each swing now lands twice. Your parry counts roughly double. Short Combo becomes 6 parries, Long Combo 12, Powerful Combo 6. Two new attacks join the rotation. Light Speed is a run of about ten or eleven strikes ending in a giant-sword blast, so parry the slashes then the finisher. Sword of Lumiere opens with a 2-hit spin launch, then four slower slashes, then a leap and a light blast; double-dodge the spin and parry the rest.
Phase 3 triggers below roughly 30 percent HP. The phantoms now double up again, two extra hits per swing, and a Long Combo can stretch to around eighteen hits. The big twist: your active party gets swapped out and your reserve team has to finish the job. That is why you hold your closers in reserve.
The core principle across all three phases: parry, do not dodge. Parrying builds the Break gauge far faster than attacking or dodging, and it fuels everything. Wait until each hit nearly lands before you press.
What Not to Do
Simon punishes the standard safety nets, so throw them out.
Do not lean on healing. His Health Siphon (also called Chroma Shift or Gather Chroma) drops a target to 1 HP regardless of defense or shields, and it cannot be dodged or parried. He siphons your healing right back, so heals are mostly wasted chroma.
Do not run shield generation. Shield Steal pulls the shields you create and hands them to Simon. A shield build actively arms him against you.
Do not try to stun him. He is stun immune. The lone exception worth carrying is Anti-Stun, which protects you from his Plant Sword stun.
Never let a downed ally sit. Remove from Canvas permanently deletes any character who is not revived before Simon's next turn. Carry item:second-chance for a free res per character and revive same-turn, every time. Slow effects, on the other hand, are gold: Greater Slow on Sciel can cap Simon to a single turn per rotation, which buys the room your burst needs.
Team Composition for the Long Fight
If you stage the fight rather than one-shotting from full, open with two expendable front-liners, Lune and Monoco or item:verso, and survive to the 30 percent threshold. Keep Sciel and Maelle in reserve for the Phase 3 swap. Sciel brings burn, slow, and gradient generation; Maelle delivers the closing burst. Because Phase 3 forces the reserve team in, your finishers arrive exactly when you need them, fully charged.
For the staged-opener version of this comp, see our Buffed Opener Comp Guide.
Recommended Luminas and Pictos
The build-defining picks for this fight, beyond Painted Power:
- Cheater for double AP and extra plays, which also softens the shield-steal handicap.
- Energy Master for extra turns and faster AP gain.
- Exposing Attack to apply Defenceless.
- Anti-Stun to negate the Plant Sword stun.
- Second Chance for the free revive.
- Damage amps: At Death's Door, Augmented Attack, First Strike, Teamwork, Powered Attack.
- AP generators: Energising Attack, Parry, Turn, and Start, all feeding the burst.
For where these picks rank against the rest of the cast, check the Character Tier List.
Rewards
Clearing Simon drops the Simoso weapon, 50 Colour of Lumina, and 2 Perfect Chroma Catalyst, plus a hefty 1,237,500 EXP. The kill also unlocks the Simon achievement. After that, the rematch is yours on demand, starting in Phase 2, with challenge modifiers waiting if you want to fight him the hard way.