The First Descendant has a great deal of appeal, which is due in large part to its attractive Descendants and their Skills. Of those, Valby immediately caught my attention because I’m a free spirit who longs to be in a New England cottage by the sea. That, and she’s a water bender who can rule the battlefield like Poseidon angered by tourists urinating in the shallows. What follows is the best all-around build for tackling mobs and Colossi alike.
Flow like water
Valby is unique in her fighting style. She’s a mixture of DPS, add-clear, and support. Her Skills coat the floor like a sloppy janitor with a DoT. This standing water primes her other abilities by decreasing MP cost when standing in it. Coupled with an Ultimate that sucks each enemy afflicted by the DoT into a suffocating bubble and Valby, like Cheddar Bay Biscuits, is a great addition to any setting.
Valby Skills
(Passive) Water Intake: MP cost is decreased when using Skills while standing in water. This includes water created by Skills.
Bubble Bullet: Fires a bouncing projectile that creates a puddle where it collides. Inflicts DoT and applies the Laundry affliction to enemies either hit by it or those standing in the AoE. Bubble Bullet is an inexpensive opener that paints the floor and creates a larger area for Valby to deploy other skills.
Plop Plop: Valby creates an AoE around herself and teleports to a designated area where another AoE is created, knocking down surrounding enemies. Plop Plop’s cooldown is reduced based on the number of foes knocked down. There’s a wind-up for this Skill during which Valby isn’t immune. While not a “get out of jail free” card, it’s great for disrupting a large mob and applying Laundry.
Cleanup: Valby adopts the shape of water and glides along the ground, leaving a wake of damaging water. While in this state, Valby can’t use weapons or skills and cannot jump. The tradeoff is well worth it as Valby lays down a gigantic kill field, is largely invulnerable, and is the second fastest Descendant in the game. Cleanup is a great way to get mobs under control, get away from an aggressive boss, and revive downed allies.
Laundry Bomb: Valby pulls out a launcher and can fire off three water bombs. Upon impact, these bombs create large bubbles which ensnare foes and deal DoT. When used by itself, Laundry Bomb is all but worthless. It’s hard to aim, doesn’t do a lot of damage, and is useles against bosses. However, when used on a pack of enemies already afflicted by Laundry, this Ultimate will yank each one of them into a tiny bubble. Combo that with a weapon like Thunder Cage and not much is standing in your way, you sassy electric eel.
Recommended Weapons & Mods for Valby
Tamer: This machine gun is one of the absolute best weapons in The First Descendant thanks to its utterly insane scaling. Not only does it usually come with some incredibly high stats, but those are easy to take to Super Saiyan levels with the right Mods.
Tamer is going to be your bread-and-butter weapon, but is best used against bosses and Colossi. The following Mods will buff not only the overall Firearm ATK level, but massively improve its Critical Hit Damage. It’s time to make the numbers go up!
- Action and Reaction: Increases Firearm ATK and Recoil
- Rifling Reinforcement: Increases Firearm ATK
- Fatal Critical: Increases Firearm Critical Hit Damage and Firearm Critical Hit Rate
- Better Concentration: Increases Firearm Critical Hit Damage
- Fire Rate UP: Increases Fire Rate
- Hit Rate Insight: Increases Accuracy and Firearm Critical Hit Rate
Thunder Cage: I generally don’t like SMGs in any game, but it’s hard to argue with the murder baby that Valby and Thunder Cage create. Its unique ability, Overcharge, has a chance to turn defeated enemies into Electric bombs. Using this in conjunction with Valby’s Laundry Bomb (which conveniently groups enemies), and our little water bender is an add-clearing machine.
- Rifling Reinforcement: Increases Firearm ATK
- Action and Reaction: Increases Firearm ATK and Recoil
- Electric Enhancement: Adds Electric ATK based on a percentage of Firearm ATK
- Electric Gunbarrel: Increases Electric ATK while reducing Fire Rate
- Bullet Rain: Increases Fire Rate and Firearm ATK
Recommended Descendant Mods for Valby
Valby’s kit is all about continuously throwing out abilities to create a kill area. As such, we want maximum duration, cooldown, and Skill damage. Additional buffs to DEF and Max HP will turn Valby into a watery tank.
- Mid-Air Maneuvering: Modifies the Grappling Hook to be cast mid-air and increases maximum Module capacity.
- Time Distribution: Decreases Skill Cooldown and increases Max HP
- Skill Expansion: Increases Skill Effect Range
- Nimble Fingers: Decreases Skill Cooldown
- Power Increase: Increases Skill Power
- Skill Extension: Increases Skill Duration
- Increased HP: Increases Max HP
- Technician: Increases Skill Power Modifier
- Increased DEF: Increases DEF
