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.
Best Viessa Build Guide for The First Descendant
Players who enjoy ice-themed characters with crowd control and status effect damage will find Viessa delightful to use. Viessa excels as a debuff character, making her a great choice for players who like to team up with friends for leveling and progression. However, if you prefer to play The First Descendant solo, missions, leveling, and acquiring mods will be more challenging with Viessa due to her lower solo damage output.
Viessa’s primary role as a debuff character is to debuff enemies and provide crowd control for her team. Her abilities help boost the damage output of other party members, making her invaluable in a solid team setup. However, because Viessa doesn’t deal much damage on her own, solo encounters will take longer, and bosses will be more challenging to defeat quickly.
Viessa specializes in applying the Ice Shackle status effect to debuff enemies. The key to playing Viessa effectively is to use her Frost Shards skill to build stacks of Ice Shackle. These stacks can increase your running speed, shields, or damage, enhancing your overall effectiveness in battle. While she is designed primarily to debuff enemies and support her team, her abilities can still benefit solo players with careful management.
| Viessa Build Pro | Viessa Build Cons |
|---|---|
| Crowd Control | Weaker Damage |
| Debuff Skills | Less Survivability |
| Passive Damage | Boss Fights |
Features and Mechanics for Viessa Build in The First Descendant
The following list presents all the essential Viessa Build Features and Mechanics for the First Descendant:
- Best Modules: Hypothermy, Chill Specialist, Skill Range Mastery
- Best Reactor Stats: fusion, chill
- Best Weapon: Clairvoyance Beam Rifle
- Best External Component: Max Shield
- 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 play Viessa in The First Descendant
The most effective way to play Viessa is by building stacks of Ice Shackles and then releasing them with Ice Wave for massive area damage. Viessa can enhance her running speed and maneuver around the battlefield, engaging in close-quarters fights to trigger Ice Shackle stacks. The stacks of Ice Shackle trigger your passive to do free damage. Thus, the gameplay revolves around constantly progressing Ice Shakcle stages (stacks) by rotating through your skills, both single target and AOE.
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.
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.
Skills
The overall premise with Viessa is to build up stacks of Ice Shackle for increased damage and movement speed of enemies. Using your abilities, you can build up to a maximum of four stages of Ice Shackle. It’s important to note how this debuff works with various skills. For isntance, Frost Shards builds 1 stage (stack) when hit and increased by 2 stages when hit by an exploding area. Therefore, to make the most out of your Viessa build, you will need to rotate through your skills, and maintain awareness of your Ice Shackle stacks and stages. Your passive can activate a ice sphere dealing free damage to nearby enemies increasing your DPS overall. 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.
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%
Descendant Modules for Viessa Build
Hypothermy, Chill Specialist, and Skill Range Mastery are the best modules (mods) for a Viessa Build in the First Descendant. Hypothermy is a transcendent mod that changes your Ice Shackle to do damage over time and radically increases your damage in exchange for no longer snaring targets. This is a much better upgrade and is rare but worth it. The second choice is Chill Specialist to increase chill skills and overall damage. Lastly, Skill Range Mastery increases critical hit damage and range, giving two benefits in one.
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.
Viessa Best Modules for Leveling
Below is a list of the best leveling mods for Viessa Build in the First Descendant:
- Nimble Fingers – Reduces your Skill Cooldowns
- Skill Extension – Improves your Skill Durations.
- Skill Expansion – Considerably increases Skill Effect Range.
- Chill Specialist – Boosts the power of your Chill Skills.
- Non-Attribute Master – Boosts your Skill Power and Non-Attribute Skill Power.
- Dual Claws – Attack with Dual Claws during Sub Attack and increase your Max Module Capacity.
- Energy Collection – You leech MP from enemies.
| Slot | Module | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (Skill Module) | Empty | |
| 2 | Nimble Fingers | Standard |
| 3 | Skill Extension | Standard |
| 4 | Skill Expansion | Standard |
| 5 | Chill Specialist | Standard |
| 6 | Non-Attribute Master | Rare |
| 7 (Sub Module) | Dual Claw | Standard |
| 8 | Empty | |
| 9 | Energy Collection | Standard |
| 10 | Empty | |
| 11 | Empty | |
| 12 | Empty |
Viessa Best Modules
Below is a list of the best mods for Viessa Build in the First Descendant:
- Hypothermy – Replaces Ice Shackle with Ice Needle, which no longer slows down enemies but instead deals continuous damage to the target and damage increases with each stack, up to 5.
- Nimble Fingers – Reduces your Skill Cooldowns
- Skill Extension – Improves your Skill Durations.
- Skill Expansion – Considerably increases Skill Effect Range.
- Chill Specialist – Boosts the power of your Chill Skills.
- Non-Attribute Master – Considerably boosts your Skill Power, with a smaller additional boost to Non-Attribute Skill Power.
- Dual Claws – Attack with Dual Claws during Sub Attack. Also increases your Max Module Capacity.
- Entropy Acceleration – Slightly improves Max MP and Skill Critical Hit Damage.
- Energy Collection – You leech MP from enemies.
- MP Accelerant – Slightly increases Skill Duration and Max MP.
- Skill Range Mastery – Increases Skill Critical Hit Damage, with a slight increase to Skill Effect Range.
- HP Concentration – Increases Max HP and Skill Critical Hit Rate.
| Slot | Module | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (Skill Module) | Hypothermy | Transcendant |
| 2 | Nimble Fingers | Standard |
| 3 | Skill Extension | Standard |
| 4 | Skill Expansion | Standard |
| 5 | Chill Specialist | Standard |
| 6 | Non-Attribute Master | Rare |
| 7 (Sub Module) | Dual Claw | Standard |
| 8 | Entropy Acceleration | Rare |
| 9 | Energy Collection | Standard |
| 10 | MP Accelerant | Rare |
| 11 | Skill Range Mastery | Rare |
| 12 | HP Concentration | Rare |
Best Reactor Stats for Viessa in The First Descendant
The best reactors for a Viessa build give you a boost of fusion and chill damage. Most of your damage comes from skills and status effects with heavy fusion or tech skills usage. A secondary choice would be tech and skill power.
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, Blue Beetle, and Secret Garden 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. Blue Beetle triggers an increased critical hit rate when using fusion skills and thus increases the critical chance of passively using skills. Secret Garden triggers Pest Control when using your passive Ice Sphere or active skill Blizzard. This buff increases Firearm ATK and boosts skill and power, and it is a solid choice.
The following list presents the best weapon choices for Viessa Build Guide in the First Descendant:
- Clairvoyance – Beam Rifle
- Blue Beetle – Scout Rifle
- Secret Garden – Tactical 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.
Blue Beetle
Blue Beetle features in the First Descendant:
- Firearm ATK: 62
- Fire Rate: 199
- Reload Speed: 2 seconds
- Effective Range: 35 meters
- Arcane Wave: when using a fusion skill, grants self the unique arcane energy with a set chance. When using a singular skill, it grants the self the unique ability of purification with a set chance.
This Blue Beetle scout rifle is a versatile choice for Viessa because we have a lot of Fusion skills. Arcane energy helps with skill critical hit rate and adds to her overall burst potential. Moreover, the range is nice if you plan on not using a sniper rifle or want something medium-range application.
Secret Garden
Secret Garden features in the First Descendant:
- Firearm ATK: 62
- Fire Rate: 199
- Reload Speed: 2 seconds
- Effective Range: 35 meters
- Gardener: When using a Dimension skill, recovers Custom Resource with a set chance. When using a Tech skill, grants the unique ability Pest Control with a set chance.
The Secret Garden tactical rifle is a good choice because you can trigger pest control debuff with a tech skill. Both Ice Sphere and Blizzard are tech skills, giving you a powerful way to trigger additional Firearm ATK and skill power boost.
External Component
The best External Component for a Viessa Build, per our guide, is focusing on Max Shield strength in the First Descendant. Unlike other parts of our build, you cannot enhance External Components. These are random (RNG) based drops only when you are at max level. Therefore, they are the finishing touches on your build. Prioritize the following stats for External Components:
- Max Shields
- Max HP
- HP Recovery
- DEF
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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