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Discover the Best Viessa 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 Viessa build, we will focus on optimizing your skill power and survivability. Let us walk you through creating the best Valby 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 Viessa Build Guide for The First Descendant
The Viessa Descandant build is great for players who love skill-based damage and mobility. Viessa excels at chill damage, applying status effects and large area (AOE). Her Blizzard skill and passives can melt bosses quickly and are also helpful when leveling and clearing out waves of enemies.
Viessa is one of the best base builds in the First Descendant. However, the main issue with her is picking the right Transcendant mod in the game to either buff AOE damage or Skill Power. Moreover, she won’t be the best boss when facing an enemy with resistance to chill, so you’ll have to change your approach or swap characters. Lastly, she doesn’t have the best survivability, but she’s good all around with Frost Road and mobility.
| Viessa Build Pro | Viessa Build Cons |
|---|---|
| Powerful Skills | Transcendent Mod Dependent |
| Status Effects | Less Survivability |
| Mobility | Boss Specific |
Features and Mechanics for Viessa Build in The First Descendant
The following list presents all the essential Viessa Build Guide Features and Mechanics for the First Descendant:
- Best Modules: Hypothermy, Chill Specialist, Skill Range Mastery
- Best Reactor:
- Frozen Mechanics (Chill and Tech)
- Frozen Singularity (Chill and Singular) if using transcendent mod Hypothermia
- Best Weapon: Clairvoyance Beam Rifle
- Best External Component:
- Skills
- Frost Shards
- Frost Road
- Cold Snap
- Blizzard
- Ice Sphere (Passive)
- Playstyle: Debuff with Ice
- How to Unlock: Base game or research
- Story: Viessa was a runner for a smuggling gang that brought in banned goods.
How to unlock Viessa in The First Descendant
To unlock Viessa in The First Descendant, choose her as your starting character, purchase her from the store, or research her. If you pick another character at the start of the game, you can choose Viessa later to gain access to the character. Furthermore, to craft Viessa, you will need:
- Viessa Enhanced Cells
- Repton x422
- Semiconstant Plasma x290
- Fusion Plasma Battery x35
- Viessa Enhanced Cell Blueprint
- 200,000 Gold
- Viessa Stabilizer
- Compound Coating Material x239
- Monomolecular Extractor x499
- Common Carbon Activator x15
- 200,000 Gold
- Viessa Spiral Catalyst
- Superfluid x571
- Hardener x3867
- Synthesized Artificial Biometal x88
- Viessa Spiral Catalyst Blueprint x1
- Viessa Code
Furthermore, to research and craft Viessa, you must speak to Anais in the Albion Mountains. She will grant you access to the Research Institute, where you can choose to craft additional descendant characters. Additionally, there is an ultimate Viessa character to unlock, but it will require more farming and is an advanced character.
Viessa’s Exclusive Equipment
Viessa’s exclusive equipment is her Arche Refrigerant Release Drone, a cosmetic drone and suit that is automatically given to the player upon acquisition of the Descendant. You can access it by clicking details in the Descendant menu and customizing its appearance. Below are the details on Viessa’s Exclusive Equipment:
“The Arche Refrigerant Release Drone is a battle sub-system modified specifically for Viessa. It uses thermal sensors to automatically track down and attack the Vulgus who become colder than their surroundings, i.e. enemies that have been attacked by Viessa.
The drone is linked to Viessa’s Arche; when Viessa uses her abilities, the drone is summoned automatically.
Various drone technologies have been researched to enhance Viessa’s battle capabilities. The very first fruit of such efforts was the Arche Refrigerant Release Drone. Since then, it became possible to link the Arche of other Descendants to dedicated drones and turrets, and Viessa would sometimes joke that she was what started the Arche drone technology.”
Skills
The overall premise with Viessa is to build up stacks of your passive Ice Shackle for increased damage. Your passive produces an Ice Sphere that does free damage for you. Therefore, you want to use your skills to trigger this effect every 20 seconds. Moreover, you use a combination of AOE skills to control enemies and limit their movement. Blizzard is your long cooldown skill for boss kills or targets with high HP. Viessa can either play as a weapons platform or skill character, depending on the situation. Be aware that enemies in Void Intercept Battles (bosses) and certain zones have resistance to chill. Therefore, during these encounters, it’s best to focus on weapons-based damage rather than skills to complete the encounter. Below is a list of Viessa’s skills and how to use them:
- Frost Shards – Fires Frost Shards to damage enemies and deal AOE damage to nearby enemies. Inflicts Ice Shackle.
- Frost Road – Increases Movement Speed and Shield, and creates Ice Sheets on the ground that inflict Ice Shackle.
- Snap – Deals Chill damage to enemies in front of Viessa and inflicts Ice Shackle.
- Blizzard – Creates a Blizzard that deals continuous damage, debuffs DEF, inflicts AoE damage and Ice Shackle.
- Ice Sphere (Passive) – Inflicting Ice Shackle creates an Ice Sphere that flies to another nearby enemy, dealing AoE damage and inflicting Ice Shackle.
All characters in The First Descendant have one passive skill and four active skills.
- Passive skills: Passive buffs and bonuses are automatically applied or under certain conditions.
- Active skills: These are activated by a player (effects on demand) and vary by character. Each character has unique skills to match their role and playstyle.
Best Skill for Viessa
Blizzard is the best skill for the Viessa build in the First Descendant due to its damage, size, and synergy with the Ice Shackle passive. Your Blizzard ability is meant to be placed down on top of bosses or with dense enemies in a choke point. Over 6 seconds, the damage scales off your skill power with a radius of 4 meters, which can be expanded by up to 250% with mods. Blizzard is Chill and Tech, which can also increase the damage of this skill, making it one of the best in the entirety of the First Descendant.
You can further enhance Blizzard by using the Transcendant mod Cold-Bloodedness, which turns Frost Road movement skill into a skill power buff. Therefore, you activate Frost Road, build stacks of Ice Shackle, and drop Blizzard for massive damage. You’ll want to use mods like Focus on Chill, Emergency Measures, and Front Lines to boost the chill damage, critical chance and critical hit damage. Additionally, you can further add damage by focus on tech mods as well.
The Transcendent mod Hypothermia does change Blizzard to a Singular skill rather than tech. The advantage of Hypothermia is instead of a small ball that sporadically attacks via your passive; you gain damage over time on every enemy inflicted. This produces massive AOE damage, though it is weaker in boss battles. Therefore, use Frozen Mechanic reactor by default and Frozen Singularity only if using Hypothermia.
Frost Shards
Frost Shards Features in The First Descendant:
- Description: Fires Frost Shards to damage enemies and deal AOE damage to nearby enemies. Inflicts Ice Shackle.
- Descendant Attribute: Chill and Fusion
- Cooldown: 7 seconds
- MP Cost: 25
- Ice Shackle effect: Increases by 1 stage when hit or Increases by 2 stages if hit by the exploding area
- Damage: Skill Power x 863.6%
- AOE Damage: Skill Power x 863.6%
- AOE Damage Range: 3.5-meter radius
How to Use Frost Shards: The best skill in the Viessa kit due to its low cooldown, single target, and AOE applications. The trick to using Frost Shards is hitting an enemy directly to build 1 stage of Ice Shackle, but the explosion effect following builds 2 stages. Therefore, try to aim this at a pack of enemies; the 3.5-meter radius explosion can further boost your ice shackle.
Additionally, this skill is useful for a debuff to movement speed and should be your priority skill when starting combat due to its low cooldown and MP cost.
Frost Road
Frost Road Features in The First Descendant:
- Description: Increases Movement Speed and Shield, and creates Ice Sheets on the ground that inflict Ice Shackle.
- Descendant Attribute: Chill and Fusion
- Cooldown: 25 seconds
- MP Cost: 24
- Duration:16 seconds
- Effect Range: 1.6m x 2m
- Max Expandable Range: 200%
- Movement Speed Increase Amount: 30%
- Shield Increase Amount: 10%
- Ice Shackle effect: Increases by 2 stages on contact
How to Use Frost Road: use this for mobility and increasing ice shackles by two stages on contact. The duration of Frost Road is 16 seconds, and you have to boost your speed and shield amount, which serve as your primary defensive skill. This is also considered a fusion skill important for weapon choices. Additionally, the small range is useful to touch enemies slightly as you leave the area to debuff them and build stacks of Ice Shackle. Keep this handy when you need an escape mechanism or a shield boost.
Cold Snap
Cold Snap Features in The First Descendant:
- Description: Deals Chill damage to enemies in front of Viessa and inflicts Ice Shackle.
- Descendant Attribute: Chill and Fusion
- Cooldown: 7 seconds
- MP Cost: 22
- Ice Shackle effect: Increases by 2 stages on damage.
Chill Status Effect
- Damage – Skill Power x 1084.4%
- Effect Range – 10m x 3m
- Max Expandable Range – 250%
How to Use Cold Snap: this is a powerful frontal AOE damage skill that increases shackle by 2 on damage. This ability’s strength is in a 10 by 3-meter range. Thus, you can hit many targets in front of you. Moreover, the chill status effect damage is substantial, and it only has a 7-second cooldown. Therefore, you can constantly cycle between Cold Snap and Frost Shards for high AOE damage and status effect debuff.
Blizzard
Blizzard Features in The First Descendant:
- Description: Creates a snowstorm that explodes over time, inflicting damage and Ice Shackle on enemies caught within.
- Descendant Attribute: Chill and Tech
- Ice Shackle effect: Increases by 3 stages when hit or Increases by 4 stages if hit by the exploding area.
- Cooldown: 40 seconds
- MP Cost: 38
- Duration: 6 seconds
- Continuous Damage: Skill Power x 1,423.5%
- Damage Interval: 2 seconds
- Continuous Damage Range: 4-meter Radius
- AoE Damage: Skill Power x 1,830.2%
- AoE Damage Range: 6-meter Radius
- Max Expandable Range: 250%
How to Use Blizzard: this skill acts as your long cooldown “ultimate” ability that is amazing for AOE damage. The strength of Billzard is its duration, range, and skill power damage. You increase ice shackle by 3 when hit and 4 when the explosion triggers, making it your best tool for building up stacks. Moreover, this skill uses both chill and tech and can be boosted to high damage with modules.
The ideal time to use Blizzard is during AOE fights when you want to drop enemies within a small radius, take continuous damage, and snare them within a field of chill. This is also your boss burn skill when you don’t suspect the enemy is moving out of a tight area to do great damage over time in a brief window.
Ice Sphere (Passive)
Ice Sphere Features in The First Descendant:
- Description: Creates an Ice Sphere floating around her body when inflicting enemies with the Ice Shackle effect, proportional to the effect stage. The Ice Sphere will automatically fly towards nearby enemies and deal damage to the target and its surroundings.
- Descendant Attribute: Chill and Tech
- Ice Shackle debuff: decreases the enemy’s Speed and increases in stage when the effect stacks. When the stage increases, the Speed reduction and duration both increase.
- Cooldown: 20 seconds
How to Use Ice Sphere: the Ice Sphere passive essentially does free DPS by triggering Ice Shackle stages. The damage automatically targets and travels to enemies and has a longer cooldown. This passive is the main reason you focus on building your stacks of the debuff to constantly provide free consistent damage radically increasing your kill potential with Viessa.
Ice Sphere Advanced Stats
- Trigger Condition – Level 2
- Damage – Skill Power x 259.3%
- AoE Damage – Skill Power x 259.3%
- AoE Damage Range – 1.5m Radius
- Max Expandable Range – 250%
- Ice Shackle Increase Amount
- On Damage – Level 1
- On AoE Damage – Level 1
Normal Enemies Ice Shackle
- Level 1: 5 seconds duration and 20%
- Level 2: 5 seconds duration and 40%
- Level 3: 5 seconds duration and 60%
- Level 4: 8 seconds duration and 90%
Boss Enemies Ice Shackle
- Level 1: 5 seconds duration and 2%
- Level 2: 5 seconds duration and 4%
- Level 3: 5 seconds duration and 7%
How to play Viessa in The First Descendant
The most effective way to play Viessa is by building stacks of Ice Shackles for passive damage, then using Blizzard on boss targets for burst damage. With Viessa, you build towards chill damage increase and trigger your passive for free damage every 20 seconds. You’ll want to use your abilities frequently to maintain Ice Shackles on targets producing free damage. Moreover, save Blizzard for stationary bosses for burst damage over 6 seconds. Also, use Frost Road as your escape tool for survivability or charging into combat.
Area Damage and Single-Target Damage: Use Frost Road to come into contact with enemies, increasing Ice Shackle stacks. Once you reach maximum stacks, release them with Ice Wave or Cold Snap for maximum AOE damage. For single-target damage, use the Frost Shards beam.
Movement and Speed: Viessa is agile and can boost her movement speed with Frost Road for a limited time. Utilize this ability strategically to avoid damage and navigate the battlefield effectively.
Bosses and Ultimates: Viessa is crucial in a team setting due to her debuffs and crowd control. However, she is less effective against bosses, who are typically defeated with high DPS. Additionally, her primary debuff, Ice Shackle, which reduces enemy speed, does not work on all enemies, including some bosses.
Defenses and Survival Tips: Frost Road also enhances her Energy Shield and boosts her movement speed, making it an excellent defensive ability. It helps build protection and provides a quick escape if needed.
Descendant Modules for Viessa Build
Hypothermia, Focus on Chill, and Front Lines are the best modules (mods) for a Viessa Build in the First Descendant. Hypothermia is a transcendent mod that changes your passive to do continuous AOE damage over time. An alternative selection is Cold-Bloodness, which boosts skill power after using a skill, ideal for bosses. Focus on Chill will buff all of your skill’s damage and Front Lines help with critical hit chance and damage. You can also select HP Collector for better survivability and Battle of Stamina if you need even more survivability.
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; some slots may be empty depending on your chosen setup.
Viessa Best Modules for Leveling
Below is a list of the best leveling mods for Viessa Build Guide in the First Descendant:
- Increased HP – Max HP +22%
- Focus on Chill – Chill Skill Power +X%, Skill Cooldown -X%
- Nimble Fingers – Skill Cooldown -6%
- Dual Claws – Attack with Dual Claws during Sub Attack and increase your Max Module Capacity.
- Emergency Measures – Skill Critical Hit Rate +16%, Skill Critical Hit Damage +7%
- Skill Extension – Skill Duration +X%, applies only to certain skills for each Descendant
- Skill Expansion – Skill Effect Range +X%, applies only to certain skills for each Descendant
- Focus on Tech – Tech Skill Power Modifier +X%, Skill Cooldown -X%
Viessa Best Modules
Below is a list of the best mods for Viessa Build Guide in the First Descendant:
- Transcendent Mod Choice – there are two primary transcendent mods at the end game Viessa can use. Hypothermia is best for AOE damage, while Cold-Bloodedness is purely for boss battles. In general, we found Hypothermia to be the best for all gameplay, though it changes your passive and Blizzard skills to Singular rather than tech. Therefore, watch your reactor selection, which depends on your Transcendant mod choice.
- Nimble Fingers – Skill Cooldown -6%
- Focus on Chill – Chill Skill Power +19%, Skill Cooldown -6.1%
- Increased DEF – DEF +16%.
- Skill Insight – Skill Critical Hit Rate +14%
- Emergency Measures – Skill Critical Hit Rate +16%, Skill Critical Hit Damage +7%.
- 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.
- Increased HP – Max HP +22%
- Skill Concentration – Skill Critical Hit Damage +14%
- Front Lines – Skill Critical Hit Damage +16%, Skill Critical Hit Rate +7%
- HP Collector – When defeating an enemy, instantly recovers 9% of Max HP (cooldown 11 seconds but can be reduced to 2 with upgrades).
- Flex – Battle of Stamina or Iron Will depending on mod capacity.
Best Reactor Stats for Viessa in The First Descendant
Frozen Mechanics is the best reactor for a Viessa build in the First Descendant because it buffs your Chill and Tech skill combinations. Chill is your descendant attribute, and tech buffs Ice Sphere are passive and Blizzard’s ultimate ability. The second choice is Frozen Mixture, which buffs Chill and Fusion type damage, effective Frost Shard, Frost Road, and Cold Snap skills. Below is our recommendation for the best Viessa reactors:
- Optimization Condition: Beam Rifle (Clairvoyance)
- Skill Power Boost Ratio
- Chill and Tech
- Chill and Fusion
- Bonus Conditions: Chill skill power boost ratio and Skill critical hit rate
In The First Descendant, reactors are powerful enhancements significantly impacting a character’s abilities, stats, and overall performance. Each reactor comes with an “optimal condition,” which requires a specific weapon type to be equipped to activate. Therefore, this should be your primary weapon for the build. They function as core components that provide substantial boosts and unique effects, enabling players to tailor their characters to specific playstyles and strategies. Adjust your weapon and reaction choices to fit your selection when using the best Viessa Build Guide in the First Descendant.
Weapons for Viessa Build
Clairvoyance, Thunder Cage, and Afterglow Sword are the best weapons for a Viessa Build. Clairvoyance can trigger Frostbite on a beam hit, aiding in action speed and duration, perfect for a chill status effect build. The Thunder Cage is the best choice for clearing waves of low HP enemies. You can alternatively use the Tamer as your general round weapon for boss battles. Lastly, the Afterglow Sword is the best weapon for high-impact rounds due to its boss burst damage.
The following list presents the best weapon choices for the Viessa Build Guide in the First Descendant:
- Clairvoyance – Beam Rifle
- Thunder Cage – Submachine Gun
- Afterglow Sword – Sniper Rifle
Clairvoyance
Clairvoyance Beam Rifle features in the First Descendant:
- Firearm ATK: 23
- Fire Rate: 399
- Reload Speed: 2.2 seconds
- Effective Range: 35 meters
- The Thing Beyond: Hitting an enemy with a Stage 2 Beam inflicts Void Gaze on the target. Hitting an enemy with a Stage 3 Beam inflicts Appalled Calling on the target. This effect is considered to be the same effect as Frostbite in some modes.
The Clairvoyance Beam Rifle is the best weapon for Viessa due to the Frostbite status effect. This beam rifle allows you to synergize your ice shackle debuff and skills. Moreover, a stage 3 beam can significantly reduce your action speed and last four to 5 seconds, a perfect gun to complement Viessa chill damage.
Thunder Cage
Thunder Cage features in the First Descendant:
- Firearm ATK: 18
- Fire Rate: 666
- Reload Speed: 1.4 seconds
- Effective Range: 23 meter
- Overcharge: defeating an enemy prompts that enemy to unleash electric shockwave, dealing firearm ATK to nearby enemies within 3 meters, with additional damage.
The Thunder Cage Submachine emits an electric shockwave and grants a bonus to damage after a kill. It’s the best weapon for add clear though you can swap in the Tamer Machine Gun for boss kills. Below are the best weapon mods for the Thunder Cage Submachine Gun:
- Fire Rate Up – Significantly improves your Fire Rate
- Hawkeye – Improves your Accuracy
- Reload Concentration – Reloading is quicker, and Firearm Critical Damage is improved
- Rifling Reinforcement – Significantly improves your Firearm Attack
- Concentrate Support Ammo – You get more rounds per magazine and slightly more Firearm Critical Hit Damage
- Electric Conductor – Improved Firearm Attack when attacking Electrocuted enemies
- Action and Reaction – Improves Firearm Attack and Recoil
- Marksman – Improves Firearm Critical Hit Rate and slightly improves Attack
- Weak Point Control – Improves Weak Point Damage and Recoil
- Weak Point Sight – Greatly improves Weak Point Damage
Afterglow Sword
Afterglow Sword Sniper Rifle features in the First Descendant:
- Firearm ATK: 240
- Fire Rate: 66
- Reload Speed: 2.5 seconds
- Effective Range: 55 meters
- Nightmare Reaper: on hitting an enemy’s weak point, inflicts the unique ability death propagation. On hitting an enemy commander or collossi, increase firearm critical hit rate and apply the effect to the attack.
The Afterglow Sword is the best choice for ranged precision weak point damage. Once you trigger Death Propagation, you gain increased reload and damage on weak points. Use this weapon for ranged headshots if possible.
External Component
Two-piece Polar Night and two-piece Annihilation are the best modules for the Viessa build guide in the First Descendant. Combining two pieces gives you increased skill duration and chill skill power. This allows your Blizzard ability to hit additional times and be more powerful. The four-piece bonuses aren’t worth it. You can also use a two-piece Tomb Vanguard, which increases DEF by 25%, so if you struggle with survivability, swap Tomb Vanguard for Annihilation.
Below is a list and chart of the best stats for your External Component Stats:
First Bonus:
- HP
- DEF
- Shields
Second Bonus
- Max Resource (HP, MP, DEF, Shields)
- Elemental resistance (fire, chill, electric, toxic)
| Auxiliary Power | Sensor | Memory | Processor |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Bonus Priority | First Bonus Priority | First Bonus Priority | First Bonus Priority |
| HP DEF Shields | HP DEF Shields | HP DEF Shields | HP DEF Shields |
| Second Bonus Priority | Second Bonus Priority | Second Bonus Priority | Second Bonus Priority |
| Max HP Fire Resistance | Max MP Chill Resistance | DEF Electric Resistance | Max Shields Toxin Resistance |
Recent Updates and Changes for Viessa Build
The biggest change and update to Viessa during Season One is the addition of Invasions and Inversion Reinforcement. Her AoE damage and relatively faster speed make Viessa a great choice for doing Invasions. Players are rewarded for completion time and materials used for the newest Descendant Hailey. What you should know is to work towards unlocking the Inversion and completing Invasions to progress this new piece of equipment.
Viessa Story in the First Descendant
Hailing from Albion’s underbelly, Viessa was a runner for a smuggling gang that brought in banned goods from the old, abandoned lands. During those years, Viessa was known for her ability to bring in items that were more luxurious and expensive than what the other gang members brought in.
Viessa’s sphere of activity was a city that was frozen a century ago by a Colossus called the DeadBride. The place was eerie, filled with frozen corpses and the fallen Colossus, but items deemed expensive have been preserved, remaining intact. Moreover, because of the cold, the other gang members couldn’t even get near it. But for her, it was her own paradise; she couldn’t understand why everyone would shiver so much in the cold.
Viessa Story Continued
But this paradise turned into a cold hell overnight. The Colossus DeadBride, which was thought to be destroyed, was simply lying dormant, and the slight change in temperature caused by Viessa’s presence awakened it. In the end, Viessa was forced to fight the Colossus. She was barely able to defeat it, thanks in part to the Descendant Corps, who joined her and were deployed after an anomalous energy generation had been detected. Of course, their encounter was awkward, to say the least.
5 years? 10 years? Viessa let out a frosty sigh as she contemplated her sentence in the Albion prison, but for the second time that day, she experienced something she never thought would happen in her life. Her sentence? To join the Descendant Corps. Viessa’s peculiarities piqued the interest of the Magisters, who conducted an Arche Factor Test on her and discovered that she was indeed a Descendant.
For the first time in her life, Viessa broke out in a cold sweat but quickly regained her composure.
Become a Descendant? Beats being in a prison. No biggie, let’s give it a shot.
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