The First Descendant Viessa guide: Best build, loadout, weapons, modules, and more

Viessa will rush around the stage inflicting Ice Shackle on any foe in her way in The First Descendant. If you want to make the most out of her cool abilities, you’ll need the best build.

How to unlock Viessa in The First Descendant

To start making the best build for Viessa in The First Descendant, you’ll first need to unlock her. Here’s how to get Viessa in The First Descendant:

• 400,000 Gold
• Viessa Enhanced Cells
  • 200,000 Gold
  • 422 Repton
  • 290 Semi-permanent Plasma
  • 40 Fusion Plasma Battery
  • Viessa Enhanced Cells Blueprint
• Viessa Stabilizer
  • 200,000 Gold
  • 239 Compound Coating Material
  • 499 Monomolecular Extractor
  • 14 Common Carbon Activator
  • Viessa Stabilizer Blueprint
• Viessa Spiral Catalyst
  • 200,000 Gold
  • 571 Superfluid
  • 386 hardener
  • 99 Synthesized Artificial Biometal
  • Viessa Spiral Catalyst Blueprint
• Viessa Code

As usual, you’ll need lots of Research Materials. However, the Code and Blueprints are typically the hardest things to get.

To streamline the process for you, I’ve lined up the best ways to get the Viessa Code and Blueprints in The First Descendant:

I have chosen the above methods to obtain the Viessa Core Research Materials as they each have the greatest chance of obtaining what you want when you deconstruct them, and the missions are all rather easy.

Note that for the Viessa Code, you’ll find Amorphous Material Patterns that have a greater chance of obtaining it, however, they require Hard mode to either obtain or deconstruct them.

Now that you know how to get Viessa in The First Descendant, let’s go over what it’s like to play as her.

Viessa playstyle and skills explained in The First Descendant

To properly use Viessa in The First Descendant, you’ll need to know her skills and how she plays.

Here are all of Viessa’s skills in The First Descendant:

• Ice Sphere is Viessa’s passive skill. Whenever you inflict Ice Shackle upon an enemy, they are slowed and an Ice Sphere spawns. It will fly around the closest enemy, dealing damage to the target enemy and those near it. The hit enemy is then inflicted with Ice Shackle again, which further decreases the speed although no new Ice Sphere will spawn for it.
• Frost Shards shoots frost shards forth toward your enemies, dealing AoE damage. Any enemies hit are inflicted with Ice Sphere.
• Frost Road is a state that increases Viessa’s speed and shield recovery. Whilst she runs, ice sheets are created on the ground that inflict Ice Shackle on enemies that walk across it.
• Cold Snap pushes forth a short force of ice that hits all enemies in front of Viessa. Any enemies hit are inflicted with Ice Shackle.
• Blizzard allows you to spawn a blizzard at a selected location. Enemies take damage for as long as they’re in the blizzard for, and the blizzard will explode when the skill expires. Enemies hit at any stage will be inflicted with Ice Sphere.

As you can likely tell, Viessa’s playstyle is orientated around the Ice Spheres. Whenever you perform your skills, alongside the raw damage, the Ice Sphere will spawn to provide extra damage and slow your enemies down.

The constant offense and slowing down of enemies allow Viessa to be both a damage dealer and support Descendant. This makes Viessa great for objective missions as your enemies will have a harder time progressing, which also means more time for your allies to be cutting them down.

When playing Viessa, make sure that you’re keeping up the pressure to make constant use of Ice Shackle and your Ice Spheres whilst shooting them down yourself.

Best Viessa build in The First Descendant

Now that you understand how best to play Viessa in The First Descendant, let’s go over the best gear for her.

Best Viessa Modules

The Modules you equip for Viessa will greatly change how she plays and where she’s effective. By prestiging her and using Energy Activators, you’ll be able to equip more Modules if you’re struggling to fit them all.

Here is a list of all the Modules I’d recommend for Viessa:

With Viessa, it’s advised to increase the critical hit rate and damage of her skills and then enable her to pop them often thanks to reduced cooldowns and increased MP. This means that you’ll be able to constantly inflict Ice Shackle and produce Ice Spheres that have a greater chance of causing staggeringly powerful hits.

As Viessa has moderate survivability, so you don’t need to worry too much about buffing her DEF, shields, or HP. Besides, her Reactor Stats can handle that themselves.

Make sure to level up your Modules to make the most out of them.

Best Viessa Reactor Stats

Viessa’s skills are all Chill skills, so you’ll want a Frozen Reactor, as these ones benefit from Chill Attribute Skills.

There are different types of Frozen Reactors that pair well with different skill types. Viessa’s Frost Shards, Frost Road, and Cold Snap skills are Fusion Skills, and Blizzard and Ice Sphere are Tech Skills.

This means that you’ll likely want to equip a Frozen Mixture Reactor, as these reactors buff Fusion skills and three of Viessa’s active skills are Fusion.

However, if you really want to buff Blizzard and Cold Snap, then you could go for a Frozen Mechanics Reactor, as this buffs Tech Skills.

I’d personally recommend you go with the Frozen Mixture Reactor as you’ll benefit from a higher damage output with three active skills.

Best Viessa External Components

Viessa may be pretty strong already with her skills and Modules, but the right External Components can go a long way.

As many different External Components in The First Descendant buff the same stats, I’ll tell you which buffs you will want and you can select the best ones you’ve got:

• Increase max Shields
• Increase max HP

As Viessa will be skirting around the battlefield, you’ll want to increase her pool of health and shields to soak up more damage before needing to retreat.

Viessa has a great shield recovery rate when out of combat, so it may be worth going all in on increasing her max Shields to take advantage of this.

Best Weapons for Viessa in The First Descendant

With Viessa being a Chill Attribute Descendant that can pop off constant Chill Skills, I can think of no other weapon to pair her with.

For Viessa, I’d recommend the Ultimate weapon Clairvoyance.

Clairvoyance is a special gun that is not only staggeringly powerful thanks to it being a beam rifle on Special Ammo, but makes Viessa hit much harder. This weapon reduces an enemy’s chill resistance, and considering how much Viessa relies on her Chill skills, you’ll be dealing even more damage with Ice Shackle.

As Special Rounds are harder to come across, for your other weapons I’d recommend either the Thunder Cage or the Python – or any other quick-firing weapon as you’ll be in and out of enemy engagement and will need a high DPS to take them down as quick as you can.

Now that you’re familiar with how to make the best build for Viessa in The First Descendant, make sure you know how to farm all the Gold necessary to make any important items you need.