The First Descendant: Best Gley Build Guide

Discover the Best Gley Build Guide for The First Descendant and how to create a powerful character with Skills, modules, and weapons.

Creating an effective build in The First Descendant involves carefully selecting and optimizing various components of your character, including modules, reactor stats, weapons, weapon mods, and skills. For a Gley build, we will focus on optimizing your skill power and survivability. Let us walk you through creating the best Gley Build in the First Descendant with our guide below.

This guide has been updated for Season 1, Hotfix 1.1.0 of the First Descendant.

Best Gley Build Guide for The First Descendant

The character Gley is unique amongst The First Descendant characters, not using shields, but HP recovery through kills. She has two states, one being Frenzied, where she increases damage but decreases HP recovery. Therefore, she plays at a high-risk, high-reward style based on aggression and kills outside of frenzied to restore health.

Gley overall feels like one of the strongest characters in The First Decesendant due to her damage, survivability, and skill combos. However, her overall power is limited due to her complexity and unique gameplay features. If you pick Gley, commit to learning to activate and reactive Frenize when needed. If you do, she’s one of the most powerful but also the most complex and different.

Gley Build Pro	Gley Build Cons
Damage	Complex
Skill Kit	High Risk
Life Leach	Low Mobility

Features and Mechanics for Gley Build in The First Descendant

The following list presents all the essential Gley Build Features and Mechanics for the First Descendant:

• Best Modules: HP Collector, HP Amplification, MP Conversion
• Descendant Attribute: Non-Attribute
• Best Reactor: Materialized Singularity (Non-Attribute and Singular)
• Best Weapon: Vestigial Organ
• Best Weapon Mods: Sharpshooter, Defense Master, Rifling reinforcement
• Best External Component: Annihilation Set
• Skills
  • Frenzied
  • Life Siphon
  • Increased Sensory
  • Massacre
  • Thirst (Passive)
• Playstyle: Utility dealer with max HP build and no shields.
• How to Unlock: Can be purchased or crafted
• Story: Gley was the captain of the Albion’s Medical Corps and gave everything she had to her work.

How to play Gley in The First Descendant

An effective Gley build relies on three key factors: equipped weapon, character modules, and player skill. Gley’s gameplay centers on absorbing life spheres from defeated enemies, which boosts her overall power. Additionally, she can activate a Frenzied mode by consuming health (HP), significantly increasing her damage output. This requires a strategic balance between gathering life spheres and carefully using HP to maximize damage potential when it’s safe to do so.

Area Damage and Single-Target Damage: Gley’s damage depends more on her weapon than any other Descendant character. Her abilities enhance her ATK or defense rather than dealing elemental damage. She is highly effective at single-target damage but can also deliver strong AOE damage with the right equipment and ammunition.

Movement and Speed: Gley has average mobility and speed for the game. However, use caution with her Increased Sensory ability. Activating it while in a Frenzied state will decrease her Movement Speed.

Bosses and Ultimates: Gley excels at dealing with bosses, as most of her abilities focus on single targets.

Defenses and Survival Tips: Many of Gley’s abilities have two versions, depending on whether she is in a Frenzied state. The non-Frenzied versions focus on defensive buffs or HP recovery, allowing you to prioritize survival over damage based on the situation. This dual functionality provides flexibility, making her adaptable in various combat scenarios.

How to unlock Gley in The First Descendant

To unlock the Gley character in the First Descendant, you should speak with the Magister Anais in the Albion Mountains to conduct research for materials. Below are the required research/crafting materials for Gley:

• Gley Enhanced Cells
  • Monad Shard x246
  • Silicon x430
  • Cooling Metallic Foil x40
  • Gley Enhanced Cell Blueprint
  • 200,000 Gold
• Gley Stabilizer
  • Metal Accelerant x519
  • Flectorite x292
  • Complex Carbon Activator x60
  • Gley Stabilizer Blueprint x1
  • 200,000 Gold
• Gley Spiral Catalyst
  • Nanopolymers x363
  • Ceramic Composite x408
  • Synthesized Artificial Biometal
  • Gley Spiral Catalyst Blueprint x1
• Gley Code

Gley’s Exclusive Equipment

Gley’s exclusive equipment is her Variable Arche Firearm, obtained as soon as you unlock her as a Descendant. You can access it by clicking details in the Descendant menu and customizing the appearance of her suit. Below are the details on Ultimate Gley’s Exclusive Equipment:

“Creating a weapon that suits Gley, the only being who can use Arche, as well as switch between the genetic structures of humans and Magisters, was a serious challenge. The main issue was deciding the basis for the output point, and while both Anais and Deslin suggested creating the weapon based on when she’s in human form, Gley was adamantly against it. She wanted a weapon that would allow her to slaughterher enemies, even if it meant it ate away at her own life. After much wrangling, the output point was set based on when Gley was in a frenzy. When she finally received the weapon, Gley wordlessly stared at it for a long time before slipping it into her holster and leaving.”

Skills

The premise behind a Gley build is her unique passive Thirst, which gives HP back for killing enemies but removes shields from Gley. You can enter a Frenzied stat for more firearm ATK but the reduction in HP Recovery. Therefore, her playstyle is about purposefully activating Frenized when going on the offensive and deactivating and killing enemies to trigger the Thrist Passive. The second important ability is Life Siphon, which also rewards HP recovery and can change depending on Gley’s state. You will want to recognize your state based on Gley’s appearance, skill bar colors, and UI.

Below are the skills of Gley’s character:

• Frenzied: Increases Firearm ATK and Penetration but reduces HP Recovery.
• Life Siphon: Damages enemies in range while recovering your HP. Grants additional effects depending on Gley’s Frenzy state.
• Increased Sensory: Applies different effects depending on Gley’s Frenzy state.
• Massacre: Switches the equipped weapon to Massacre. Enemies hit by Massacre take heavy damage and are afflicted with additional effects, depending on Gley’s Frenzy state.
• Thirst (passive): Gley cannot have Shield or MP. Defeated enemies drop a Life Sphere. Obtaining a Life Sphere restores HP and adds a stack of Power of Life.

Best Skill for Gley

Frenzied is Gley’s best ability because it’s what makes her such a dominant boss damage descendant. While active, it gives a boost in Firearm ATK and Penetration at the cost of reduced healing. However, the negative of the skills can be negated by toggling the buff off when collecting Life Spheres or other sources of healing.

The user interface will display a stack bar at the bottom of the screen where normal MP is displayed. This indicates how many Power of Life stacks you have available for your skills. Killing enemies generates Life Spheres while a non-Frenzied state generates more. Collecting these grants Power of Life Stacks allows you to use your other skills. You must have three charges to activate any of your other abilities.

One of these skills, Increased Sensory allows you to not use ammo when firing your weapons for a short time. When paired with Frenzied, you are buffing your weapon’s damage and gaining free ammo to tear into enemies with. This allows Gley unrivaled boss damage without the need for an intense skill rotation, or managing MP use and regeneration.

Since the idea of Gley is to melt with your weapons, there is a transcendent mod, Predator Instincy, that increases our Firearm ATK by using a firearm while Frenzied. This is optimal with our build to ensure we have a massive uptime on as much Firearm ATK as possible. You can find this in the Hard Pyromaniac Intercept Battle.

Frenzied

Frenzied Features in The First Descendant:

• Description: Consumes HP to enter Berserk mode. In Berserk mode, the distance weapon’s ATK and Penetration increase.
• Descendant Attribute: Non-Attribute – Singular
• Cooldown: 1 second
• HP Cost: 10% of Max HP
• Firearm ATK Increase: 25%
• Firearm Explosive ATK Increase: 25%
• Firearm Penetration Increase: 51
• Incoming Recovery Decrease: 50%

How to Use Frenzied: this is the most important skill to activate to increase overall damage at the cost of Max HP. This skill has a low cooldown and is meant to be used frequently. Only activate Frenzied when your health is high, and you need increased damage. Your HP recovery will be low, so rely on Life Siphon or a non-frenzied state to kill enemies and recover health.

Life Siphon

Life Siphon Features in The First Descendant:

• Description: Deals damage to nearby enemies and restores HP. In Berserk mode, damage increases; in Normal mode, damage inflicted by enemies decreases for a certain period of time.
• Descendant Attribute: Non-Attribute – Dimension
• Cooldown: 20 seconds

How to Use Life Siphon: This skill is the best way to recover HP in a frenzied state. The lower Gley’s HP, the better for the build, so it incentivizes you to risk it and drop low purposefully, then activate Life Siphon for an HP and damage boost. If low HP is in a non-frenzied state, it works to lower incoming damage and stacks that effect based on enemies hit. The damage radius is 6 meters, so use it near as many targets as possible.

Life Siphon Advanced Stats

Below are the advance stats for Life Siphon skill:

• Power of Life Cost: 4
• Damage: Skill Power x 317.5%
• Damage Range: 6 meters Radius
• Max Expandable Range: 300%
• Health Recovery Amount: Max HP x 5% per Enemy Hit
• Frenzied Damage: Skill Power x 453.3%
• Per 10% of HP consumed: Skill Power + 10%
• Non-Frenzied Damage Decrease: 2%
• Non-Frenzied Duration: 8.0 seconds
• Max Stacks: x10

Increased Sensory

Increased Sensory Features in The First Descendant:

• Description: Her Increased Sensory adds an infinite ammo effect for a certain amount of time during Frenzy, and when in a Non-Frenzied state, increases Movement Speed and HP Recovery during which Life Sphere generation is increased.
• Descendant Attribute: Non-Attribute – Singular
• Cooldown: 40 seconds

How to Use Increased Sensory: another skill to increase damage at the expense of movement speed while in a Frenized state. You won’t consume bullets while Maximize Lethality is active, a perfect skill for a boss burn where you don’t need to move out of mechanics. In a non-frenized state, you gain increased life spheres and recovery, making it the best survivability skill. However, Increased Sensory has a long cooldown, so use sparingly.

Increased Sensory Advanced Stats

Below are the advanced stats for the Increased Sensory skill:

• HP Cost: 5% of Max HP
• Maximize Lethality
  • Duration: 5s
  • Running Speed: 50% Decrease
  • Sprint Speed: 50% Decrease
  • Movement Speed When Aiming: 50% Decrease
• Maximize Recovery
  • Duration: 10s
  • Running Speed: 30% Increase
  • Spring Speed: 30% Increase
  • Movement Speed When Aiming: 30% Increase
  • Life Sphere Drop Rate: 60%
  • Health Recovery Amount: 8% of Max HP

Massacre

Massacre Features in The First Descendant:

• Description: Changes current Firearm to Massacre. Adds additional skill damage during Frenzied state, and inflicts Stun effect on hit enemies.
• Descendant Attribute: Non-Attribute – Dimension
• Cooldown: 1 second

How to Use Massacre: this skill acts as your ultimate ability, which switches the firearm to the massacre. Your Massacre firearm stuns enemies (non-frenized) or deals additional damage during the Frenzied state. Therefore, you want to activate Frenzie and swap to Massacre when your health is high and damage is needed. Additionally, you can use this as a defensive tool when under pressure and needing stuns to avoid incoming enemy damage.

Massacre Advanced Stats

Below are the advanced stats for the Massacre skill:

• HP Cost: 15% of Max HP
• Minimum Use Condition: 3 or more Power of Life
• Damage: Same as Equipped Weapon
• Frenzied Additional Damage: Skill Power x 64.7%
• Per 10% of HP Consumed: Skill Power +10%
• Non-Frenzied Stun Duration: 2.7 seconds

Thirst (Passive)

Thirst Features in The First Descendant:

• Description: Creates Life Spheres upon killing enemies. Recovers HP and stores Power of Life when absorbing Life Spheres.
• Descendant Attribute: Non-Attribute

How to Use Thirst: this always active passive rewards Gley for playing aggressively and killing enemies. While not frenzied, you gain damage reduction and life spheres. This is how you replenish your HP; the amount is proportional to Max HP. Therefore, you want as much HP as possible to keep your survivability and replenishment high. Moreover, you want to constantly be aware of this unique mechanic and reactive Frenzied when needing HP, and Gley plays radically differently because of this passive alone.

Thirst Advanced Stats

Below are the advanced stats for the Thirst skill:

• Non-Frenzied Damage Reduction: Total Damage x 4%
• Life Sphere Drop Rate: 30%
• Health Recovery Amount: 4% of Max HP
• Duration: 8 seconds
• Power of Life Obtain Amount: x1

Descendant Modules for Gley Build

HP Collector, Battle of Stamina, and MP Conversion are the best modules (mods) for a Gley Build in the First Descendant. HP Collector is an Ultimate mod that gives HP when killing enemies. This helps keep your survivability high since you have no shields with Gley. Battle of Stamina not only increases your max HP but also boosts your skill duration. Lastly, MP Conversion reduces skill cooldown at the cost of lower MP, which we also have none with Gley. Therefore, you gain survivability and faster skill usage, and these three should be your priority to collect.

In The First Descendant, modules are essential components that enhance and customize your character’s abilities, stats, and overall performance. Modules can be acquired through questing, missions, loot drops, and vendor items. Moreover, you have limited resources to slot mods; therefore, some slots may be empty depending on your chosen setup.

Gley Best Modules for Leveling

Below is a list of the best leveling mods for Gley Build in the First Descendant:

• Focus on Dimension – Dimension Skill Power Modifier +X%, Skill Cooldown -X%
• Nimble Fingers – Skill Cooldown -6%.
• Dual Claw – Use a Dual Claw to attack when performing a Charged Sub Attack.
• Safe Recovery – Outgoing Heal +X%, Incoming Final DMG -X%
• Skill Extension – Skill Duration +X%, applies only to certain skills for each Descendant
• Increased DEF – DEF +16%.
• Increased HP – Max HP +22%.

Slot	Module	Quality
1 (Skill Module)	Empty	N/A
2	Empty	N/A
3	Focus on Dimension	Rare
4	Nimble Fingers	Standard
5	Empty	N/A
6	Empty	N/A
7 (Sub Module)	Dual Claw	Standard
8	Empty	N/A
9	Safe Recovery	Rare
10	Skill Extension	Standard
11	Increased DEF	Standard
12	Increased HP	Standard

Gley Best Modules

Below is a list of the best mods for Gley Build in the First Descendant:

• MP Conversion – Skill Cooldown -9%, Max MP -4%.
• HP Collector – When defeating an enemy, instantly recovers 9% of max HP.
• Safe Recovery – Outgoing Heal +X%, Incoming Final DMG -X%
• Long-Distance Maneuvering: Modifies grappling hook range to 25 meters but increases charge time. Also allows more module capacity.
  • Dual Claw remains a good alternative until you find Long-Distance Maneuvering
• Battle of Stamina – Max HP +12%, Skill Duration +8.8%.
• Increased DEF – DEF +16%.
• Increased HP – Max HP +22%.

Slot	Module	Quality
1 (Skill Module)	Empty	N/A
2	Empty	N/A
3	Empty	N/A
4	MP Conversion	Rare
5	HP Collector	Ultimate
6	Safe Recovery	Rare
7 (Sub Module)	Long-Distance Maneuvering	Ultimate
8	Empty	N/A
9	Empty	N/A
10	Battle of Stamina	Rare
11	Increased DEF	Standard
12	Increased HP	Standard

Best Reactor Stats for Gley in The First Descendant

Materialized Singularity is the best reactor for a Gley build in the First Descendant because it boosts your Non-attribute and Singular skills effectiveness.  Non-Attribute is your descendant attribute, and Singularity increases Frenzied and Increased Sensory skill effectiveness.  The most important part of your reactor is finding one with increased skill duration. The second choice is Materialized Phase, which buffs Non-Attribute and Dimension type, Life Siphon and Massacre skills.  Below is our recommendation for the best Gley reactors:

1. Optimization Condition: Launcher (Vestigial Organ)
2. Skill Power Boost Ratio
   • Materialized Singularity: Boost to Non-Attribute and Singular type
   • Materialized Phase: Boost to Non-Attribute and Dimension type
3. Bonus Conditions: Skill Duration, Skill cost decrease

In The First Descendant, reactors are powerful enhancements significantly impacting a character’s abilities, stats, and overall performance. They function as core components that provide substantial boosts and unique effects, enabling players to tailor their characters to specific playstyles and strategies. Change your reactor based on if you need damage or survivability when using the First Descendant: Best Gley Build Guide.

Weapons for Gley Build

Vestigial Organ, Tamer, and Nazeistra’s Devotion are the best weapons for a Gley Build. The Vestigial Organ launcher shoots rockets with a chance to trigger the status effect. Gley can not consume ammunition for a time, giving this weapon the best damage potential. Secondly, the Tamer is the boss melter using general rounds if you’re doing Void Intercept battles. Nazeistra’s Devotion is a useful backup weapon that triggers a DEF debuff on bosses. The following list presents the best weapon choices for Gley Build guide for the First Descendant:

• Vestigial Organ – Launcher
• Tamer – Machine Gun
• Nazeistra’s Devotion – Hand Cannon

Vestigial Organ

Vestigial Organ features in the First Descendant:

• Firearm ATK: 128352
• Fire Rate: 199
• Reload Speed: 4.2 seconds
• Max Range: 150 meters

This weapon allows for Gley NOT to consume ammunition and fire off many rockets while Increased Sensory is active. With an increased fire rate over other launchers and status effects, this weapon is the meta nuke for Gley. Build for duration and skill cooldown reduction and use when Increased Sensory is active. Below are the recommended traits for the Vestigial Organ:

• Weak Point Detection – Weak Point Damage +5%, Firearm ATK +1%
• Bullet Rain – Fire Rate +8%, Firearm ATK +1%.
• Poison Priority – Toxic ATK +13%, Reload Time Modifier -8%.
• Electric Enhancement – Adds Electric ATK equal to 8% of Firearm ATK
• Sharpshooter – Explosive ATK +8%, Firearm Critical Hit Rate +1%.
• Defense Master – when defeating an enemy, DEF +120% for 10 seconds with 25 second cooldown.
• Weak Point Sight – Weak Point damage +10%, Accuracy -5%.
• Stance Stabilizer – Recoil -8%, Firearm ATK +1%
• Rifling Reinforcement – Explosive ATK +12%

Tamer

Tamer features in the First Descendant:

• Firearm ATK: 17631
• Fire Rate: 624
• Reload Speed: 2.6 seconds
• Effective Range: 55 meters

This is the meta weapon for killing bosses in single target fights. Below are the recommended mods focusing on critical hit, critical damage, and weak points for the Tamer Machine Gun:

• Better Concentration – Firearm Critical Hit Damage +19%
• Concentration Priority – Firearm Critical Hit Damage +30%, Reload Time Modifier -8%
• Rapid Fire Insight – Fire Rate +8%, Firearm Critical Hit Rate +1.5%
• Rifling Reinforcement – Firearm ATK +12%
• Better Insight – Firearm Critical Hit Rate +10%
• Weak Point Insight – Weak Point Damage +8%, Firearm Critical Hit Rate +1.5%

Nazeistra’s Devotion

Nazeistra’s Devotion features in the First Descendant:

• Firearm ATK: 81
• Fire Rate: 150
• Reload Speed: 1.5 seconds
• Effective Range: 25 meters

It is a good medium-range handgun that triggers a DEF debuff when attacking bosses. Use this when out of general rounds and Increased Sensory isn’t active. Below are the recommended mods for Nazeistra’s Devotion:

• Fire Rate UP – Fire Rate +6%
• Sharpshooter – Increase Firearm ATK and Critical Hit Rate
• Marksman – Increases Firearm Critical Hit Rate and ATK
• Weak Point Control – Increases Weak Point Damage and Firearm Critical Hit Rate
• Rifling Reinforcement – Firearm ATK +12%
• Concentration Priority – Increases Firearm Critical Hit Damage and reduces Reload Time
• Concentrate Support Ammo – Increases Rounds per Magazine and Firearm Critical Hit Damage
• Weak Point Sight – Increases Weak Point Damage

External Component

Due to increased skill duration, the Annihilation set is your best external component set. This set is available at Void Intercept battle, the Devour Hardmode. You want Max HP external components because Gley does not have shields. Each external component will have three random traits. Look for increased HP, DEF, or one defensive stat with Toxic, Chill, Fire, or Electric Resistance. This will give you a balanced defensive approach; most survivability comes from these pieces. Below are the set bonuses for the Annihilation External Component Set:

• 2 Piece bonus: Skill Duration +5.7%
• 4 Piece bonus: Firearm ATK increases proportionally to the ratio of Maax HP to HP lost, up to +26% when HP is 50% or lower, MP Recovery -22%, HP Recovery +16%, for 10 seconds with 30 second cooldown.

Recent Updates and Changes for Gley Build

The biggest change and update to Gley during Season One is the addition of Invasions and Inversion Reinforcement. Players are rewarded for completion time and materials used for the newest Descendant Hailey. Inversions should be done often to work toward unlocking new gear and the newest Descendent.

Gley Story in the First Descendant

“If you keep looking after others until the very end, who looks after you, mom?”

Dia Elias asked her mother. ‘Until the very end’ was the slogan of Albion’s Medical Corps, and it was the first time that their captain, Gley, faced someone who questioned this slogan. A question that had never been asked by, nor asked to, someone who had declared and lived by this slogan all her life. Hearing this question from her own daughter brought about complicated emotions within Gley, but she could not grant her daughter’s request to allow her to protect herself. Gley, who had lost her entire family on the battlefield, was afraid. If she were to lose her daughter as well, then she would lose everything.

Undeterred by Gley’s stubbornness, Dia went to her mother’s old colleague and fellow military academy professor, Ajax, for a recommendation letter and thus enlisted in the military. Gley, feeling betrayed by Ajax, who knew of her past scars and yet still wrote the recommendation letter, refused to even speak to him.

Gley’s Story Continued

Despite feeling much concern over her daughter who had stubbornly become a soldier in the end, Gley decided to give Dia a chance and trust in her decision which she would end up regretting when an incident occurred, in which all forces that had been deployed to the Vespers strike operation, excluding the Descendants squad, suffered massive casualties, with many going MIA. Among those who had gone missing were Gley and her daughter. While Albion Headquarters frantically searched for the missing personnel, Gley and Dia were subjected to horrible experiments performed by the Order of Truth. The mother and daughter duo were used as test subjects for the Order’s experiments to create a new ‘species’ by injecting Vulgus DNA into human bodies. Gley despaired at her situation, as she could only tremble in anger helplessly as her daughter’s agonizing screams echoed around her.

When Gley, who had lost consciousness in her rage and despair, came to her senses, she was met with the sight of her adjutant cowering in a corner and a completely destroyed intensive care unit. Regaining her composure, Gley asked “Where is my daughter?”, to which nobody replied. Just as she was about to enter another frenzy in her rage, her adjutant shouted, “Her body was never found! She may still be alive, Captain! We’re the Medical Corps, remember? We shouldn’t give up hope until the very end!” Hearing this, she felt a warmth surround her body. Gley, who finally calmed down, felt a spark of hope. If Dia was still alive, then she could be saved. As it is the duty of the Medical Corps to never give up until the very end, Gley picked herself up. Her mission to retrieve her daughter was only beginning.

Best Gley Build Guide Summary – The First Descendant

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