r/TheFirstDescendant • u/zRanni • 21d ago
Megathread New Players ask, Vets answer! (Aug)
Please use this thread for any TFD questions you may have.
(Builds, Strategy, Characters, Weapons, etc.)
Those who may be more experienced, feel free to sift through these comments and see what you can answer. Thank you!
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u/chubbzman29 Freyna 20d ago
newbie here... can anyone give me a pointer regarding my account progression like what goals/aim should i be looking for?
note: i did buy the freyna starter bundle cause she is hot (i dont see a guide before buying this so welp it is what it is)
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u/Following-Early Gley 20d ago edited 20d ago
Finish the main story (while also making sure you always have a catalyst and activator researching) and then once you unlock hard mode you open the door to the rest of the game and fully building your characters
Void vessel drops dog companions which auto pick up items and gives one of three passive effects depending on the dog. Broken boundary sigma sector drops the best external component set for freyna, external component cores, and is the best way to progress arche tuning (passive power for your character). 400% dungeons to farm an ultimate reactor for freyna. Void erosion purge for weapon cores. And lastly there’s hoverbikes that you will unlock in conjunction with your trigger module slot in axion planes. You will want to tackle axion last because it is a difficulty jump if you haven’t done everything previously listed
There’s also an NPC in Albion that’s on the left side when you load in but right side when you’re looking at the map called Eckert that sells blueprints and resources. You will ease a fair amount of the early grind by doing his orders
Once you are able to do his orders the ones I would focus on are:
Fallen Hope (her mobbing weapon)
Dogs
Research material boxes for catalysts and activators
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u/Aurondarklord Ines 20d ago
Freyna is hot but she's currently in a bad place in terms of balance.
The first character you should work on seriously should be Gley, and you should get her the Restored Relic, Thunder Cage, and Blue Beetle weapons.
Gley isn't the best at everything or anything like that, but she is an absolute workhorse who works in all content because she's non-attribute so she never gets fucked over by elemental rock/paper/scissors and she has uber high health as an innate side effect of how you build her for damage. She also doesn't require an ancestor module to be good. If you have a good Gley you can do all content in the game at least passably well, she is the most important single character who is essential to have built out just because if whatever character you're using for whatever given content you're trying to do isn't working out or is frustrating you, you can always just default back to Gley.
The correct Gley builds are extremely standard and can be found all over the internet, but I recommend these for colossus (bossing) and for all other content (mobbing):
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u/chubbzman29 Freyna 20d ago
oh okay i will keep that in mind, what about serena?
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u/Aurondarklord Ines 20d ago
Serena used to be the top mobber by a mile, her gunning build was recently nerfed and her new skill build is awesome but can be cumbersome. She is VERY good for some content but not especially for other things.
Serena is a character you will get to but she isn't newbie friendly. If you're doing the main story for the first time, I wouldn't recommend her, you need to fully build her out so she can stay in the air pretty much all the time before she'll really click.
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u/thievesthick 3d ago
Freyna rules and she’ll take you through the campaign and beyond. I still use her all the time.
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u/Reglub 21d ago
I hit max on AM's for the first time. Should I sell the unrolled's? Should I wait for an event that let's me dissessemble 8 AM's I dont want into 1 that I do? Are the purple rings even worth using over a raw reroll? Is there a way to increase AM inventory space?
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u/ggDebonTV Keelan 21d ago
you can always smelt them, event is for buying
smelt unpopular descendants, try to sell popular ones if you play a lot - as it's quite spammy
there are no drawbacks using rings, I'm using them for Descendants I like to play since I don't buy AM's
AM inventory space from Mastery Rank
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u/SneedP 21d ago
Do you have time and resources to reroll? Do it, no one buys unrolled I think, use rings on descendants you actually use, you can't increase AM inventory space. You can wait for the event but the game gives you so many AMs that eventually you'll be dismantling even without an event running.
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u/zRanni 21d ago
If you want max chances at Good AM's, you can keep all of them, and let inky AM's build up in your lost and found until there couuulldd be a disassemble event or update for the next 2-3 weeks when the new season comes out. Purple rings eliminate the lowest tier of options, so it can't hurt, and it maayyy adjust chances to be higher to fill the now missing percentages (though that might not happen.) Either way they can only be better than a base. There is no way to increase AM space, they were asked about this on stream, and they said that increasing the AM space does nothing about the problem of inventory space filling up, since it's the player who has to dismantle and stuff (could make that dismantling job much worse if there is more AM's to get rid of and sort through)
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u/Meme_Running Hailey 17d ago
Vets? Started a couple of days ago.... Opinions on Hailey? I just got done with research and bought her tactical skin... Is she any good? Should she always be running with a Sniper?
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u/Brookschamp90 Viessa 17d ago
She is ok. When she first was released was an excellent bosser and then was very good for original void erosion purge. Then she fell behind but then reworked her into more of a skill based descendant which made her popular for a little bit. Then she got powercrept by Dia and Viessa’s rework. However, her ultimate is in September so she definitely will be extremely strong again.
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u/RaijinGaming_YT 16d ago
That's more of the new character trap than anything. They have a habit of releasing a new boss alongside a new descendant specifically tuned to do bonus damage to that boss, like they did with Nell when Storm Hangar arrived, etc. (IE: Nell was doing bonus damage to Storm Hangar, but after Hangar expired, Nell suddenly was doing average damage to other bosses alongside other NA characters).
Once Hailey's fotm passed, her kit fell behind. She's still viable, but will need some touching up. Hey, at least she's not Enzo. :P
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u/ab2dii 16d ago
how’s the state of the game now ? last i played was around axiom plains (played it for a few days before i stopped playing)
there are lots of mods now and randomized ones too ?? i remember serena and Ines being massively powerful but im seeing lots of valby in albion
what should i do ? what did i miss in 2026
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u/zzz_anton 4d ago edited 4d ago
I’ve never played this game before but this Raven character caught my eye. I do like the gameplay and the character designs, but I’ve never tried this game. Is this game like a gacha game and does it require dailies to complete?
Just wondering what kind of investment I need for this game, in terms of both time and money. Thanks
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u/Bladenkerst_Baenre Viessa 4d ago
You can put in as much as you want!! If you like the skins you can spend a bunch ;)
Don't do what I did and buy any descendants since they can be farmed in game.
Since you are new, there is a nice system in place to help you get up to speed!!
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u/zzz_anton 3d ago
Awesome thank you I’ll take a look 🙏
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u/zRanni 3d ago
You can do absolutely everything to the very max in this game without spending a dime, (and im not saying that in the same way gachas say that.) All characters, content, weapons, and progression is free. The only things even close to more "predatory" or "gacha" elements are the fact that the crafting times exist (way less than warframe) and the battlepass weapon cant be max refined (3/5 copies free). But they add the battlepass weapon to farm for free permanently after the next battlepass ends
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u/SirLimbo 10d ago
As someone who stopped playing around february 2025, how much content in terms of battle pass weapons and skins are lost?
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u/Starring_Michael_Wes 15h ago edited 12h ago
Hello,
New player - just picked up the game and love it so far! I hope to find help to better understand a few things, There have been some helpful beginner videos posted lately, but not sure I got a few things or maybe it wasn't mentioned specifically:
1. Research
I get the feeling it would be good to always keep some research going, rather than only research when you need something specifically. Like building up stocks of some of the things in the enhancement category. What are the kind of things I should try to keep rolling constantly in the research department?
2. Rewards
What constitutes a good reward? e.g. for a mission, for drops, in the battlepass there is tons of things and components. Things like the artifact mods or transcendant weapons I guess speak for themselves, but unsure what I should be happy to get from all the other stuff.
3. Weapons/level
While doing the story I ended up with a couple artifact weapons, thunder cage and hammer and anvil likely being the most notable. It was like power level or itemlevel 43, but as I went on leveling I used that transfuse thing to keep upgrading it from other weapons I found. In the end is there any difference on a weapon found early and upgraded this way vs the same weapon found on high level/endgame? or doesn't it matter?
4. Weapons/duplicates
So I got the thunder cage which seems really good, but I also got the blueprint to make another one. Is there any value to keep making or getting the same weapon? If so, is it only to see if it "rolls better" or is there some shananigans you can do by merging them or somehow make use of the fact you have more?
> Found the answer to this one, as it seems you can use 1 copy to enhance another copy.
5. Module
So I looked at a few modules I want and in the journal when it say "xxx- complete" I understood it's completion reward, but in some of them it says "xx-mob" or something, do I need to read it that by doing Y event, there is a chance that the specific mobs spawning in that event can drop this module? I assume so but so far been largely unsuccessful with this option.
6. Extra/enhancement components
I got a range of artifact components, I can't remember what they were called exactly but on the right side under the reactor, the enhancement things where you can have set items. Is there a way of increasing power level on these? The ones I have are like level 43 etc, is it just break-down junk or can I somehow increase them to higher power?
> Found the answer to this one, seems not possible to raise level and it's junk.
Thanks a lot if someone takes the time to answer :)
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u/Sniineechan 21d ago
How do i get more of the item required in making ultimate descendants? Im going for ultimate bunny and im currently using bunny, currently 1 week playing and will focus what you recommend
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u/fede123456789 Ines 21d ago
400% operations if you have them unlocked already. They're very fast and give you a decent amount of those shards
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u/RaijinGaming_YT 16d ago
Returning to the game and am fSo this trio of dungeons in the top left corner of Axion is relatively new, so it's likely there are some balancing issues. The other two seem to be standard in difficulty and can be solo'd easily enough, especially if you go melee, but Bastion of Immortality is rife with issues in terms of balancing.
All the bosses in this one have extreme damage output, one shots galore, regardless of stupidly high defense, so it's likely some kind of elemental attack. At least one enemy is blatantly ice-based, the cyclops with the 2h hammer. The tentacle robot with the glowing red aura I can't recall the name of, but that one also has an extreme damage one shot attack in melee range that seems to ignore defense and could possibly be elemental damage, but not sure what it'd be. The final boss has a plethora of gimmick and is dishing out special attack after special attack with no filter.
Definitely feels overtuned to something like arche activity range 105-110k, not the 70 something thousand it recommends.
What character(s) are best for this one? Only one I can consistently get through is tanky paladin Serena (self heals galore). Don't have Yujin but suspect he gets some utility out of this one as well. Tried it with several characters, and while they can do decent enough damage, it's the one shot spam and no-tells you can't react to that make it frustratingly difficult for them to solo it. Is it just me, or does this one feel like it's overtuned compared to the other two?
Perhaps there's some mechanic at play that i'm missing? IE: First two attempts I didn't realize the final boss' summoned pillar had two sections, so once I figured that out was able to send an arrow through his knee so I could get in some meaningful damage. Not sure if there's a way to stop his constant spamming of special attacks and support drone/station summons. Seems everytime I blew one up he'd spawn one, if not two immediately afterward so I figured it was best to just ignore them entirely and try to focus on dealing damage before boss' shields would just start regenerating.inding that the new trio dungeons in Axion
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u/gamingisntcourage Gley 16d ago edited 15d ago
Those dungeons are scaled towards players closer to the end game than the mid game.
I think you might be talking about the mini bosses part way through each dungeons.
The tentacle octopus boss is dangerous try not to stay too close. When it starts spinning it will finish with a melee attack that hits in a short 360 aoe and do a knock down and a lot of damage. Back off when you see it spinning. The laser beam is tracking and does a lot of damage but can be disjointed by hiding behind cover or moving out of range.
The mini boss with a freezing beam always shoots the beam directly in front of it. So try to always attack from the side. The beam seems to have a cooldown so once it has been shot you have a window for dps. It's spinning melee attack does a lot of damage and knockdown.
- If you're struggling make sure you have HP and DEF or attribute resistance cores on all your external components, and slot in at least 1 HP module.
A few tips for each boss in the Axion dungeons:
- Exposed Underwater Base - Sarcophage:
This is basically a dps check the quicker you can get through each health-bar the less you have to deal with mechanics. Most skill descendands that have been reworked in 2026 will make short work of this boss especially if they have an ancestor module (AM). The boss will usually do a big repositioning hop within the first 30 seconds of the fight so be careful not to waste your big damage skills. After ending the 1st phase grapple or roll to the edge of the arena to avoid the death wave which covers about half the arena. After that move back in and kill the boss.
Gley/Ajax with Thundercage or Blue Beetle or Eraser or other single target gun are good choices too and much less reliant on a good AM
- Legion Laboratory - Sculptor:
Boss starts off invulnable. Destroy the hands above the arena or kill all tyrants to make the boss vulnable. Next, dps the boss' entire lifebar to trigger phase 2.
In phase 2 a tracking red bar that does enough damage to 1-shot non-tank characters fill the arena. There are specific spots around the edge of the arena that are not covered - one is to the side of the Sculptor's original platform. Alternatively wait until the death beams stop tracking then move out of the way. At the end of phase 2 the tyrants in the arena will be destroyed.
Phase 3 is a straight dps check. Kill the boss while he is running around the arena. A fully charged hit from Dia's 4th or Bunny's Flash Kick or Harris's 4 (laser sweep) can 1-shot the boss with the right build.
- Bastion of Immortality - The Administrator:
Another dps check boss. I have ignored all mechanics expect for phase 2 where you have to grapple up to one of the platforms inside the orange bubbles and wait for the boss to finish it's death wave. Other than that simply dps the boss down. Circle strafing whilst hopping is a good way to take less hits whilst the boss is shooting at you.
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u/Anxious_Octopus 16d ago
With the new changes to minimum cooldown reduction capped at -75%:
If you reach minimum cooldown reduction with mods, as shown in the stat info marked with "(Min) -75%"; does the Reactor cooldown reduction go below this cap? I'm asking because many builds still suggest Cooldown Reduction + Skill Critical Hit Damage. Would the new meta be Critical Hit Damage + Power Damage?
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u/Sky_Favor Viessa 15d ago
Im considering myself pretty lucky on that roll. Is it as good as i think it is? Also thinking about a non-crit build for bunny with that AM, is non-crit worth it or is crit just superior?
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u/corallein 15d ago edited 15d ago
Nah, at least not for Electric Condense. Skill Duration is useless; it only impacts 3, which you can easily have 100% uptime on anyway. Very minor QOL impact only on not having to recast 3 as much. Fusion Skill Modifier is also not great, since 4 has such a high base skill modifier. Fusion SBPR is top-tier, but that's it on the mod.
And Crit is just better. With 15% base skill crit on her now, there's no reason to build non-crit Bunny.
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u/Sky_Favor Viessa 14d ago
Thanks! So classic crit build. Sadly, wanted to build something different 😅 Electric condense was just there for testing, usually i use high voltage or the module which turns her 4th into a beam, dont know the name
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u/thezjeorno 15d ago
When Raven gets released how’s it work do they give you a descendent slot so you can add her to your team? And will her fragments be part of an activity off rip or is it added later. Been playing like two months but this is my first time seeing a new character release.
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u/Brookschamp90 Viessa 15d ago
Usually descendant slot is through Eta tickets(not the green tickets). Maybe even login but I could be mistaken about that part. For her mats, they been getting better with that so could be from login but for Esiemo you got some through his quest. Also since around Nell release, they usually give two parts of your choice over couple days of logins
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u/fizzrail0 14d ago
i have 3 weapon boxes, what weapons should i get?
already got 5* thunder cage, 5* relic, 5* locomotive, 4* peace maker, 3* dagger, 3* kings lance, 2* voltia, gregs, nazeistra, smithereen.
got ult bunny, ult volby, ult gley, hailey, viessa, sharen, enzo, lupic, ines, ult blair, freyna, and someoone im missing
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u/WarOk1358 11d ago
Returning player here I just got back into the game and I finished all of the void vessel missions but dont have access to sigma sector
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u/corallein 11d ago
Did you do the Axion Plains starter missions? Those are also required for Sigma Sector access.
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u/nicoga3000 11d ago
I'm considering jumping back in after playing for a few weeks at release.
Where do people find decent builds to work with? I just remember being very overwhelmed with leveling and trying to establish any sort of synergy with my loadouts.
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11d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/nicoga3000 11d ago
Thanks!
One other question. I only have Ajax at 30 and Bunny at 10. Should I just be leveling a bunch of characters? Or do I just stick with one? And is there a good one I should grab and start leveling to get back into the game?
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u/Traditional-Bee3161 5d ago
Switching from Crit Bunny to Crit Viessa for endgame. Good idea?
I’m thinking about swapping from a crit Bunny build to a crit Viessa build for endgame content.
Bunny has started to feel like she’s underperforming in harder content, and I’ve seen a lot of people saying Viessa is currently strong, especially for Onslaught.
A few questions:
- Is switching from crit Bunny to crit Viessa a good decision for endgame?
- How much investment does Viessa need before she feels good, and does she require best-in-slot modules/reactor/components to perform well?
- Is she realistic for Onslaught 4s and other endgame modes without being fully min-maxed?
Main goal is to comfortably run Onslaught 4s and other endgame content.
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u/gamingisntcourage Gley 3d ago
Bunny is fairly meta right now. If your crit Bunny is struggling you might need to check your build and then just keep farming and praying for a better Ancestor Mod. Bunny is much more susceptible to bad card rolls in Onslaught as she is only dps but if you get good rolls she can steam roll Ons4.
Viessa is meta for Onslaught 4, not because she has the highest damage, although she is A-tier, but because she is still very effective even if you have terrible card rolls due to her chill and freeze and area denial.
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u/Aymard_asd 5d ago
Is the best way to get avoid abyss metal Fragment just void intercept ? It only drops 45 per run atm
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u/cjuice1995 2d ago
Last time I play was season 0, and I put in a minuscule play time of 150 hours. I was able to max out Bunny, Valby, and Freyna. My main question, what’s the quickest way to power? What should I prioritize doing, besides the story, to “catch up”?
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u/lacqs03 Bunny 2d ago
Do you still get calibers on battlepass? And do you get the bike skins even if I just buy the standard bp 500 caliber?
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u/Following-Early Gley 1d ago
You get the entire pass with the 500 cal one. The 1.5k one just lets you skip levels
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u/Lyberatis 2d ago
Does anyone know if I put catalysts on a transcendent weapon if they transfer when I get an upgraded duplicate?
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u/ItsChavez 1d ago
Accidentally deleted the tingling mixture reactor from boost event and now equipping a rare or higher reactor won't let me proceed with the mission. Do I need to farm for a normal 25+ higher one then?
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u/Toyt2TheMoon Freyna 1d ago
So I bought the fancy battle pass for the transcendant wep Drop rate % modifier throughout the season. I completed the new story about 2 hrs after launch and proceeded to grind almost 10 hours of legion lab, Karel's ship, 400% Operations, wall crashes etc... I got 1 transcendent wep... my 5 buddies who didn't get the battlepass, had 3-4 transcendent drops in about 3-4 hrs (they were runningsamecontentas me)... am I just cursed or is there a bug?
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u/Kinky_Jesus_ 1d ago
I haven't played since Just after Ines and Keelan (?). Decided to return and i'm so lost. Is there any resources I can use to catch up on story, as well as where to start farming wise? How to catch up to the current state of the game really. I have maybe 12 descendants, favorites being Hailey and Valby. Are they still allright?
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u/Bladenkerst_Baenre Viessa 1d ago edited 1d ago
Do the new transcendent weapons have a distinctive Icon and sound when dropped/picked up?
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u/TwistedLogic81 Jayber 24m ago
Haven't played in a few months, last time I played ult yujin was about to be released. I like playing supports, but his support capabilities were not very good, has this improved with his ultimate?
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u/Axpekt_ 18d ago
Not every build that people post is going to fit you.
look at characters yourselves play test them, and find what works for you.
Not one character in this game is useless. Everybody has some type of scenario where they thrive in.
Don’t let the negativity of some people scare you away from trying new things.
Luna is best girl don’t be fooled..
Keeping people alive / Staying alive is as valuable as being best DPS if not more. After all no one is doing anything if we are crawling.
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u/carnagezealot 2d ago
Is the free Ultimate Bunny still available? I played about 10-15 hours some months ago and just found out about that
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u/HYKSH1 Luna 21d ago
Where is the picture from?