The First Descendant Viessa Guide: Farming and Best Build

Viessa is a character in The First Descendant that excels most in a party. By being a full support character, her skills give enemy debuffs and crowd control. However, for solo grinds, she’s pretty weak. In this article, we’ll look at Viessa’s build and how to farm for her growth.

Who is Viessa?

Viessa was part of a smuggling group that brought in items from different parts of the world. The particular items that she brought in were of high-caliber and prestige, leading her to be the envy of her peers. But where exactly did she get her wares?

Viessa found her loot through an abandoned city frozen by a Colossus called DeadBride. The frozen remains of the city’s former inhabitants, and the Colossus itself, made it easy for her to take the expensive items and smuggle them.

However, on one of Viessa’s visits to the city, the Colossus awakened. What was thought to be dead was just lying dormant. It is believed that Viessa’s presence changed the temperature of the city. This and the reawakening of the Colossus gave Viessa an unexpected battle.

She defeated the Colossus, thanks in part to the arrival of the Descendant Corps, who had received intel about an anomalous energy generation being detected in the area.

Viessa served as a Descendant as her sentence for the mishap in the abandoned city.

How to Unlock Viessa

Like other Descendants in the game, Viessa must be researched by accepting the quest in Albion through Magister Anais. To unlock her, you must obtain the following materials:

• Viessa Enhanced Cells
• Viessa Stabilizer
• Viessa Spiral Catalyst
• Viessa Code

You must have at least 600,000 Gold to research Viessa. This includes the price for the materials needed and the cost of the research.

Alternatively, you can choose her as your starting character or purchase her using the premium currency, Caliber.

Skills

Every Descendant in The First Descendant has one passive skill and four active skills, the last of these active skills being the most powerful. Here is Viessa’s skill list:

• Ice Sphere (Passive): Creates an Ice Sphere that floats around Viessa when inflicting enemies with Ice Shackle effect. The sphere will then fly towards nearby enemies and deals damage to them and their surroundings.
• Frost Shards: Viessa fires an Ice Beam that explodes around the area it hits. It also inflicts the Ice Shackle effect.
• Frost Road: Increase Movement Speed and Shield. Creates Ice Sheets on the ground where Viessa stands. Ice Shackle applies when enemies come into contact with the Ice Sheets.
• Cold Snap: Releases an arc of cold air in front of Viessa. Deals damage and applies Ice Shackle on enemies hit.
• Blizzard: Creates a snowstorm that explodes over time. Enemies caught within the snowstorm are inflicted with Ice Shackle.

Ice Shackle is a stackable attribute of Viessa’s skills. The stacks are up to 4 stages and will augment her passive skill, Ice Sphere.

Best Use of Viessa’s Skills

Since Viessa relies on stacking the Ice Shackle effect for the Ice Sphere to trigger and inflict additional area-of-effect (AOE) damage, it is recommended to learn a skill that has a low cooldown for you to keep using the skill and stack Ice Shackle. In this case, Frost Shards is the best first skill to learn. Its less than 10 second cooldown and low MP cost gives you the optimum way to earn the Ice Shackle stacks.

Frost Road is Viessa’s main mobility skill. Use this to escape tough battles. The skill also inflicts the Ice Shackle effect when enemies come into contact with the created Ice Sheets. However, be wary of its more than 20 second cooldown.

Cold Snap is a good second choice for offense. Its seven second cooldown is on par with Frost Shards and can be considered her two important attacks. Its range (10x3 meters) gives you a big coverage for attack.

Blizzard is considered as Viessa’s ultimate skill, having a long cooldown and highest damage among her skills. This is a great AOE skill and very useful in a party. On solo play, though, it can only be used in very particular situations like a tight chokepoint or a small room.

Best Modules

In The First Descendant, modules provide additional effects to your character’s abilities, stats, and performance. These can be obtained through quests, loots, and vendors. Here is the best Modules for Viessa:

• Nimble Fingers: Cooldown Reduction
• Skill Extension: Improves Skill Duration
• Skill Expansion: Increased Skill Effect Range
• Chill Specialist: Boosts the power of Chill skills
• Non-Attribute Master: Boosts to Skill Power and Non-Attribute Skill Power
• Dual Claws: Enables the Dual Claws Sub-Attack and increases Max Module Capacity
• Energy Collection: Lifesteal
• Hypothermy: Replaces Ice Shackle to Ice Needles, which deals continuous damage. This scales in damage in proportion to the stacks earned. Ice Needles does not slow down enemies, unlike Ice Shackle.
• Entropy Acceleration: Improves Max HP and Skill Critical Hit Damage
• MP Accelerant: Increase Skill Duration and Max HP
• Skill Range Mastery: Increase Skill Critical Hit Damage and Skill Effect Range
• HP Concentration: Increase Max HP and Skill Critical Hit Rate

Best Reactor Stats

Reactors are enhancements, like Modules, that improve the character’s skills, stats, and performance. The difference between Modules and Reactors is that Reactors have a special condition for it to be in optimum performance. This is usually in the form of a weapon. Thus, it is recommended that the specific weapon should be Viessa’s primary weapon.

The Frozen Mechanics Reactor is the best Reactor for Viessa as it buffs her Chill and Tech skills. Chill is her primary attribute while Tech enhances her Ice Sphere passive and Blizzard ultimate.

Frozen Mixture is the second choice as it buffs her Chill and Fusion skills. This affects her Frost Shards, Frost Road, and Cold Snap skills.

Best Weapon for Viessa

The Clairvoyance beam rifle is Viessa’s best weapon since it is the one that is needed for the Reactors. It has the effect, The Thing Beyond, which has Frostbite effects through the Void Gaze and Appalled Calling unique attributes. This is perfect for Viessa’s Chill damage.

Other weapons to consider are:

• Blue Beetle: An all-around choice for Viessa because of her Fusion skills. It has the Arcane Wave effect that grants the user the unique arcane energy with a set chance. This is triggered when using a Fusion skill. The arcane energy adds Skill Critical Hit Rate.
• Secret Garden: The Gardener effect, when a Tech skill is used, triggers the Pest Control ability which benefits Viessa as this ability raises firearm attack and boosts her Skill Power. Viessa’s Tech Skills are Ice Sphere and Blizzard.

Farming

As mentioned, Viessa relies on her stack of Ice Shackles—or Ice Needles if the Hypothermy Module is added—and her AOE support. By cycling through her Cold Snap, Frost Shards, and Ice Sphere, Viessa can inflict a good deal of damage to enemies. However, if you’re going to use her solo, she won’t do as much. Her low damage output is not ideal for solo grinds and her AOE can only do so much. That said, it is recommended that you should farm for her Modules and Reactors as soon as possible so you can use her for a more appropriate situation.