Monsieur Frappe turns Clair Obscur’s parry system into a mind game. Instead of a normal boss with an HP bar and elemental weaknesses, he is a self-contained counter challenge inside Verso’s Drafts: survive his feints and land three clean counters to win.
Where to find Monsieur Frappe in Verso’s Drafts
Monsieur Frappe lives in the Candy Land section of Verso’s Drafts.
Step 1: Travel to Verso’s Drafts and push forward until you reach the purple tunnel that drops you into the Candy Land area. Activate the Candy Land Expedition Flag when you see it so you can fast travel back here later.
Step 2: From the Candy Land flag, move into the theme-park clearing with the carousel. Look to the right side of the carousel for a large umbrella. Monsieur Frappe, a portly Gestral, is standing near that umbrella and will talk to you when approached.
Agreeing to his insult-laced challenge starts the encounter.
How the Monsieur Frappe challenge works
The fight against Monsieur Frappe is closer to a rhythm mini-game than a traditional battle.
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Quest type | Optional boss / counter challenge in Verso’s Drafts |
| Weaknesses | No elemental weaknesses, resistances, immunities, or absorbs |
| Win condition | Land three successful parries on his real attacks |
| Damage dealt | Irrelevant; the fight ends as soon as the condition is met |
| Primary reward | Feint Pictos (and a large chunk of EXP) |
Two slightly different rule sets appear across the late-game content:
- In the standalone “Monsieur Frappe” entry, you only need three parries total; they do not have to be consecutive.
- In the Verso’s Drafts walkthrough, Monsieur Frappe demands you counter three attacks in a row, restarting the challenge if you fail.
If your game is patched with Verso’s Drafts content, treat the encounter as a three-in-a-row test. Either way, the core skill is identical: ignore the fake swings and parry only when the real hit is coming.
Best setup for Monsieur Frappe (Pictos and party)
Monsieur Frappe has no elemental weakness and cannot be burned down with damage, so build around survivability and comfort rather than DPS.
- Prioritize HP-boosting Pictos. Anything that raises maximum health or makes you harder to kill is ideal, since all failures are caused by mistimed parries. A larger HP pool gives you more room to learn his patterns without wiping.
- Skip damage Pictos. Extra attack power, burn extensions, or crit setups do not accelerate the encounter; the fight ends when the parry condition is satisfied.
There is one notable trick if you are struggling to hit three perfect counters in a row:
- Lune with Snowim can “cheat” one counter. With Lune in the active party, wielding her Snowim weapon, taking a hit, and being Frozen can register as one of the three required counters. That reduces the number of actual parry inputs you need to land cleanly to two.
Monsieur Frappe’s core pattern: real hits vs feints
Every Monsieur Frappe attack starts from one of two “stances” — a giant lollipop or a paintbrush — and then chains through multiple swings, hops, or spins. Most of those motions are fake. The fight only checks your timing on specific frames near the end of each sequence.
Two broad rules hold across almost everything he does:
- Early motions are bait. The first few swings in any lollipop string are never the real hit.
- The real strike is always accompanied by either a clear pause or a final dramatic movement like a stomp, dash, or slam.
Once you internalize that, you can treat each named pattern as a countdown to a single parry instead of a flurry you need to block repeatedly.
Lollipop patterns and how to parry them
When Monsieur Frappe conjures a lollipop, watch the number of swings and whether he transitions into a stomp. The game internally breaks these out into several variations.
| Pattern | Visual cue | When to parry |
|---|---|---|
| Lollipop Attack (3rd Swing) | Three overhead swings with the lollipop | Ignore swing one and two; parry only as the third swing is about to land. |
| Lollipop Attack (4th Swing) | Multiple swings, then Frappe pauses midair | Wait for that small hover/pause in the air, then parry as he comes down. |
| Lollipop Attack (5th Swing) | Lollipop appears and disappears with each swing | Watch for the fifth swing where the lollipop stays visible; parry on that strike. |
| Lollipop Attack (6th Stomp) | Rapid hits that lead into a big stomp | Do not parry the fifth hit. Only parry immediately before the stomp connects with the ground. |
Brush patterns and how to parry them
When Monsieur Frappe switches to a paintbrush, the feints become longer and more theatrical. The advantage is that the real hits sit inside very drawn-out animations, so you can still recover from an early failed attempt and land the correct parry on time.
| Pattern | Visual cue | When to parry |
|---|---|---|
| Brush Attack (1st Smash) | Brush rises overhead into a simple vertical strike | Parry as the brush is swung straight down toward the party. |
| Brush Attack (2nd Swing) | Brush swings horizontally around him | Parry as the brush cuts across your characters. The animation is long enough that a slightly early press can still register. |
| Brush Attack (3rd Smash) | Another, slower downward swing | Again, parry on the downwards impact; a premature parry can still convert if you hit the tail end of the swing. |
| Brush Attack (4th Dash) | Monsieur Frappe begins spinning | Wait for the second spin, when he corkscrews or dashes towards you, and parry during that spin. |
Pay attention to an important behavior for brush patterns: if he performs a diagonal slash that turns out to be another fake, the actual hit often comes as either a subsequent corkscrew dash into the party or a sudden, quick vertical slam. Both are telegraphed by a brief reset in his posture, then a very committed forward motion.
Surviving Frappe’s extended feints
Monsieur Frappe’s entire design revolves around getting you to press parry early. The fake swings do not count against the challenge; they only punish your HP bar. The actual failure condition is missing the real hit three times before you can string together your required counters.
Step 1: On each new pattern, identify whether he’s holding a lollipop or a brush and mentally attach the matching “count”: third swing, fourth swing with the pause, fifth swing with no disappearance, or stomp, plus the brush smashes and second-spin dash.
Step 2: Commit to a minimal input rhythm. Do not spam parry on every movement. Press the button once per pattern on the expected impact frame. If you are unsure, deliberately wait later than your instincts suggest; the game is generous about reading slightly-late parries on his big finishing motions.
Step 3: If you do mistime a parry early in the sequence, especially on brush swings, keep watching the animation. Several of those attacks are long enough that a second, better-timed press inside the same attack window can still register as a successful counter.
Winning and rewards
Once the game has counted three successful counters, Monsieur Frappe ends the fight himself. There is no need to chip away his health bar; the win state is entirely parry-based.
| Outcome | Reward |
|---|---|
| Clear Monsieur Frappe’s challenge | Feint Pictos, 168,750 EXP, plus some Colour of Lumina from nearby jars |
The Feint Pictos ties neatly into how this encounter plays: it is themed around deceptive animations and timing, and is one of several late-game Pictos that reward mastery of Expedition 33’s defensive mechanics.
Once you have claimed your reward, use the tunnel behind Monsieur Frappe to continue deeper into Verso’s Drafts and take on Chromatic Machinapieds and the other high-end encounters that sit downstream of Candy Land’s carnival of micro-challenges.
