5 things to know before modding your weapon in The First Descendant

The First Descendant tutorializes you for its Modules system, but this is far from enough to properly get started with modding. The game only explains the basics of installing and upgrading modules, but not which mods to use on what. The 'Suggested Mods' section is only there as an aggregate of what people generally use, but this is not a good thing to rely on.

In this guide, we will go over some modding practices that could help you deal way more damage in The First Descendant. Instead of providing 'best mods' for some stat or the other, our aim here is to explain the principles, so you also know what weapons you should pick. You will only want to invest your Energy Activators in weapons you are confident about.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the opinions of the writer

5 things you should know about modding the right weapons in The First Descendant

1) The DPS counter can lie

When you are just starting out in The First Descendant, sorting the many weapon drops you get by DPS is not a bad idea. However, relying completely on the DPS gauge to select the top guns and dismantling other weapons is indeed a terrible idea.

The DPS counter can give you a broad estimation of the sheet DPS, but it does not account for a lot of things, ranging from Weak Point damage to reload time and weapon handling.

Instead of DPS, try to look at the Firearm ATK (base damage), Fire Rate, and magazine size to estimate what kind of sustained DPS you might be getting. You can get these detailed stats by pressing F1 (PC) when hovering a weapon.

2) Should you mod for Criticals?

The Crit stats are not all that counts (Image via Nexon)

Critical hits are something you will find on every mod guide on the internet, but it's best to not blindly put them on any weapon you get. To see whether you should mod for crits, you should look at the following stats:

base critical chance
base critical multiplier
fire rate

If any of these stats are high enough, it can make up for the other stats being low. For example, Noziesta's Devotion has one of the highest base crit chances in The First Descendant, on top of a 2x crit multiplier. This makes it good for critical mods, despite its pitifully low fire rate.

It is also not a good idea to mod for critical chance if you cannot make space for critical damage mods on your build. Instead of going all-in on one, try to get a balance of two mid-ranked mod for each stat.

Also Read: The First Descendant tier list: Best characters to play

3) When to mod for weak point damage

Weak point damage is good on bossing weapons (Image via Nexon)

Broadly speaking, you should mod for weak point damage when specifically building a weapon for Void Intercept battles. For regular field missions or Operations, it is better to just run a mobbing weapon with AoE capabilities like Thunder Cage.

Weak point damage bonus is multiplicative with Firearm ATK bonus after all other bonuses are applied. In other words, a weapon with high base weak point damage bonus tends to be good for bossing. These are also usually weapons with high per-shot base damage.

4) Damage type and attribute chance

Each part can be vulenrable to a specific type of damage (Image via Nexon)

If you are stuck on one tricky The First Descendant boss fight like the Dead Bride, it's a given that you should try to exploit their attribute type vulnerability. It is also a given that weapons that have a high fire rate are good at proccing attribute types (per-projectile chance determined by attribute trigger rate).

However, few know that bosses also have specific physical damage-type vulnerabilities on their destructible parts. There are three physical damage types in this game: Crush, Burst, and Pierce. A weapon can have only one of these types, and there are no ways to mod for it.

To check the weapon's damage type, look at the tiny icon before their weapon class on the card.

An arrowhead indicates Pierce
A broken pillar indicates Crush
A star indicates Burst

If you match the physical damage vulnerability of a boss weak point, you get a flat 10% extra effective DPS. However, not matching it does not give you a damage penalty - it simply means you do not get this bonus.

5) Don't sleep on non-Ultimate weapons

Tamer has quickly become meta (Image via Nexon)

Ultimate weapons in The First Descendant provide some Unique traits that can be enhanced with duplicates. These generally also determine what kind of activity they're meant for and what kind of synergy they can be put into. Under the right circumstances, most Ultimate weapons are the best-in-slot DPS options you can get.

However, there are also a couple of Rare weapons that absolutely wreak havoc if the setup is correct. The biggest example is the Tamer, a steady machine gun that has become a meta staple for bossing since the game's release. If you like how a specific weapon handles, keep it around and look into its stats. Chances are, you'll be surprised by how well some purple weapons hold up in The First Descendant.

Check out our other guides on The First Descendant:

Edited by Rachel Syiemlieh