Best Viessa build in The First Descendant: Skills, Weapons, Reactor & Modules

Viessa is one of the starter characters in The First Descendant, so she’s pretty easy to get your hands on. If you’re looking to make the most of her strengths with the right skills, weapons, reactor & modules, here’s what you need to know.

It’s worth noting that, while Viessa has her strengths as a character, she’s the worst starter option. Her lack of defense makes her worse than Ajax on paper, and Lepic‘s AoE damage is a bit better with more consistent CC.

However, Viessa’s got a ton of strength in other areas that only become apparent once you’ve got the right build. Her abilities don’t stand up well on their own, but, with the right weapons and modules, she’s a strong choice.

If she feels weak at the beginning, ride it out. Despite being a starter character, Viessa is more of a late-game scaler. Here’s what you need to know to get the most out of her.

Best Viessa build in The First Descendant – Recommended

Best Viessa Skills

Viessa’s a bit different from other characters in The First Descendant cast. While most characters have a few Skills that stand above the rest as the ones you should be using that precious MP on, Viessa’s more based on having the proper ability rotation and build.

While playing her, you have two build options: Either you all-in on MP gain and cooldown to spam her abilities at close range, or you grab just cooldown and keep her Ice Road up 100% of the time.

Her passive, Ice Sphere, gives her bonus damage for afflicting enemies with Ice Shackle, a stacking status effect that slows enemies. You’ll want to spam Frost Shards to keep those Spheres stacked regardless of build, but investing additional MP and MP regen is a must if you want to use Cold Snap and Blizzard on CD.

You don’t want to run out of MP on Viessa considering how squishy she is. If you aren’t constantly moving and freezing enemies, you’ll be dead quick.

All Veissa Skills

Here’s what all five of Viessa’s abilities do:

• Ice Sphere (Passive): Upon using a skin to put an enemy into an Ice Shackle stage, Viessa creates an Ice Sphere. The Ice Sphere flies at a nearby enemy, dealing damage in an AoE upon landing.
• Frost Shards: Viessa fires Frost Shards that deal damage in an AoE. Inflicts Ice Shackle.
  • Note: The range on these is short, so make sure you’re up close before using this ability.
• Frost Road: Activates the Frost Road state. While in Frost Road, create ice sheets on ground you touch. Enemies that touch the ice are inflicted with Ice Shackle and take damage.
• Cold Snap: Launches Chill in front of Viessa. Inflicts damage and Ice Shackle on enemies.
• Blizzard: Creates a Blizzard at a designated location. Enemies within the Blizzard take continuous damage. When the Blizzard ends, it explodes and deals damage in an AoE. Inflicts Ice Shackle on each hit.

Best Weapons for Viessa

The best weapons for Viessa to use are:

• Clairvoyance
• The Perforator

Viessa’s late game build is absolutely made by the weapons she uses. You’ll want two main guns to make the most of her unique strengths:

Clairvoyance pairs perfectly with Viessa’s Ice Shackle, especially against bosses. You’ll want to have Viessa on your squad for raids, She’s somewhat lacking when it comes to room clearing and mobbing in comparison to someone like Bunny, but she makes up for that weakness in spades once she’s got this gun in hand.

NEXON/Dexerto

Additionally, Viessa’s ability to slow targets down makes her a great precision weapon user. The Perforator will let her make the most of those easy crit hits by punching right through enemy shields, making her even better at killing bosses than she already is.

If you don’t have access to either of these weapons, running a bog-standard SMG will do just fine. Viessa excels at close-range, so you’ll want to run weapons that reward her for being up close.

Best Reactor

For Viessa, you’ll want a Frozen Mechanics reactor to get the most out of her skills. Considering how centered she is on doing damage with abilities, having a reactor that gives the max amount of extra Skill Damage is vital to your success.

You’ll want Chill and Tech skills, along with an optimization that matches one of your weapons. Your best bet is to get a module that’ll net you 160% Skill power that pairs with an Ultimate weapon, but 140% will do you just fine up until the late game.

Best Modules for Viessa Module

While Cold Snap Watch is a popular Skill Module option over Cold-Bloodedness, getting a lower CD and MP cost on Frost Road lets you spam those Frost Shards that much more often. This is more of a run-and-gun build that’ll really bulk you up and let you solo through some of the hardest content.

If you’re looking to tackle certain bosses, you may want to swap modules around, but this build is ideal for clearing missions fast and farming out the loot you want while remaining durable enough to get up close.

Best External Components

Though you’ll want the typical tank stats like Defense, Max Shield and HP, Shield and HP recovery, etc., you’re really going to want MP recovery both in and out of combat. Getting enough MP back to stay in the fight without having to rely on RNG MP drops from enemies is essential.

Here are the most important stats to look for:

• Max MP
• MP Recovery in combat
• Max Shield
• Shield Recovery in combat

Considering Viessa wants to stay up close almost all the time, getting resources back in the heat of battle is essential. Also, if you have to choose between health and shield recovery, always opt for shield first. You can find health drops, but shield drops don’t exist.

How to unlock Viessa

Viessa can be unlocked by collecting different resources in the game, these are:

• Enhanced Cells
  • Flectorite x422
  • Reverse Charging Coil x455
  • Divided Plasma Battery x22
  • Yujin Enhanced Cells Blueprint
  • Gold x200,000
• Stabilizer
  • Compound Coating Material x239
  • Carbon Crystal x544
  • Pure Energy Residue x40
  • Yujin Stabilizer Blueprint
  • Gold x200,000
• Spiral Catalyst
  • Hardener x386
  • Ceramic Composite x408
  • Anode Ion Particle x27
  • Yujin Spiral Catalyst Blueprint
  • Gold x200,000
• Code
  • Echo Swamp: Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor – Echo Swamp Muskeg Swamp
  • Fortress: Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor – Fortress Fallen Ark
  • Sterile Land: Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor – Sterile Land Restricted Zone
  • White-night Gulch: Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor – White-night Gulch Observatory

Once you’ve gathered all the resources, talk to Magisters Anais and you can research Viessa for 400,000 Credits.

That’s the best build for Viessa in The First Descendant. If you’re just getting started with her as the first character you chose, don’t get discouraged. She gets a lot better once you get her leveled.

For even more builds, check out guides for Bunny, Enzo, Sharen, and Freyna.