Best Gley build in The First Descendant

If you’re up for a unique character who can deal a massive amount of damage in The First Descendant, you should take a look at what Gley has to offer, as it’s best to focus on getting a character that matches your playstyle.

Here’s what you need to know about Gley’s skills, including the Modules, weapons, and everything that goes into her best build.

The First Descendant Gley build

• Modules: Predator Instinct, Nimble Fingers, Strong Mentality, Technician
• Reactors: Materialized Phase
• External Components: DEF, Max HP
• Weapon: Smithereens Shotgun

Gley is a difficult Descendant to master, but getting grips on using her skills effectively turns her into one of the strongest characters on the roster. Nimble Fingers and Technician are a really important part of getting her there, as they decrease how long their cooldowns are and increase their power.

Secondly, although she has great potential to be unkillable, it’s important that your External Components are focused on bringing up her DEF and Max HP to help her a little more in fights. You can find a more detailed look at Gley’s best build below.

Best Module Setup

SLOT	MODULE	DESCRIPTION
1 (Skill Module)	Predator Instinct	Modifies firearm ATK to increase while firing a firearm during a frenzied state.
2	Skill Extension	Increase skill duration.
3	Increased DEF	Increase DEF stat.
4	Increased HP	Increase max HP.
5	Non-Attribute Master	Improves Skill Power and boosts to Non-Attribute Skill Power.
6	Skill Range Master	Increase critical hit damage and skill effect range.
7 (Sub Module)	Dual Claw	Changes attack and increases Max Module Capacity.
8	Nimble Fingers	Reduces Skill Cooldowns.
9	Technician	Significantly improves Skill Power.
10	Regeneration Boost	Leech a small amount of HP from enemies.
11	Strong Mentality	Reduced Skill cost.
12	HP Concentration	Increases Max HP and Skill Critical Rate.

Gley is an incredible damage dealer with a unique quirk that she doesn’t use shields, but instead relies on HP recovery obtained after every kill. While she works great when dealing with bosses, she can be quite vulnerable if you don’t time her cooldowns correctly.

I found equipping Modules like Increased DEF, and Increased HP were crucial to help buff her initial stats and make her a little less squishy, while giving her the Predator Instinct, Skill Extension, and Nimble Fingers will let you spam her skills as much as you need.

In harder challenges, giving Gley the HP Concentration, Technician and Skill Range Mastery will also give her the necessary edge to eliminate enemies faster to absorb their HP.

Best Reactors

The best Reactors for your Gley build is Materialized Phase, because it boosts the damage of Life Siphon and Massacre.

These two skills are the ones that do damage, so you’re going to need a Reactor that boosts these stats and get to their maximum potential. You can also consider using Materialized Singularity, but it’ll have less of an effect overall.

Remember to meet your Optimized Condition of the Reactor you use so that you can get the max stat boosts from it.

Best External Components

The best External Components to use with Gley in The First Descendant are those that boost HP Recovery, DEF, and Max HP.

These are Gley’s most vulnerable stats since her whole build revolves around her sacrificing HP to get to the Frenzied state. Boosting her DEF and Max HP is the key to making her less vulnerable when facing large groups of enemies.

Best weapons for Gley

The best weapons to use with Gley in The First Descendant are the Blue Beetle Tactical Rifle and Smithereens Shotgun.

Blue Beetle

• Firearm ATK: 62
• Fire Rate: 199
• Reload Speed: 2 seconds
• Effective Range: 35m
• Arcane Wave: When using a Fusion skill, it grants unique Arcane Energy with a set chance. When using a Singular skill, it grants the self the unique ability of Purification with a set chance.

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The Blue Beetle Scout Rifle gives an extra boost to Gley, since its buffs are activated when using both Fusion and Singular skills. The Arcane Wave passive will let her increase her DPS, and also give her extra range without having to use a Sniper Rifle.

Smithereens

• Firearm ATK: 20
• Fire Rate: 150
• Reload Speed: 1.6 seconds
• Effective Range: 10m
• Fearlessness: On hitting the enemy with all bullets, increase the Firearm Critical Hit rate and Firearm Critical Hit Damage of this attack. Upon landing a Critical Hit on an enemy, grants the Firearm’s unique ability Amplification.

The Smithereens Shotgun absolutely complements Gley’s skills, as its Fearlessness buff creates a perfect combo for burst damage. Its increased Firearm Critical Hit and Damage stack with Gley’s Frenzied state, leaving nearby enemies at her mercy.

Best Active Skill

Gley’s best Active Skill in The First Descendant is Life Siphon, as this is what gives her the ability to recover her HP and damage enemies at the same time. It’s a combination of what makes her such a strong Descendant.

In second place is Increased Sensory, which does something similar to Life Siphon, but in an area where you can recover ammo, gain certain immunities, and recover HP.

Abilities explained

• Thirst (Passive): Gley doesn’t have Shield or MP, but obtains Life Spheres by defeating enemies. Obtaining a Life Sphere restores HP and adds a stack of Power of Life.
• Frenzied: Increases Firearm ATK and Penetration, but reduces HP Recovery.
• Life Siphon: Damages enemies in range while recovering your HP. Grants additional effects depending on Gley’s Frenzied state.
• Increased Sensory: Applies different effects depending on Gley’s Frenzied state.
• Massacre: Switches the equipped weapon to Massacre. Enemies hit by Massacre take heavy damage and are afflicted with additional effects, depending on Gley’s Frenzied state.

Gley is a great Descendant to choose if you’re looking for a challenge. While she can be destructive in her Frenzied state, you’ll need to time her cooldowns right to make the best out of her damage output.

While this makes her a great character to deal with bosses, while playing with her I noted that her average mobility and speed make her vulnerable when dealing with waves of enemies. If you aren’t focusing on her Frenzied state, you can prioritize her survival by boosting her DEF and HP with Modules.

However, if you prefer to take Gley to the limit, you can enhance her ATK and place strong AoE attacks if you equip her with the right weapons.

How to unlock Gley in The First Descendant

You can unlock Gley in The First Descendant by researching her with Anais in Albion or purchasing her from the store. Here are the materials you need to research her:

• Gley Enhanced Cells
  • Monad Shard x246
  • Silicon x430
  • Cooling Metallic Foil x40
  • Gley Enhanced Cell Blueprint
  • 200,000 Gold
• Gley Stabilizer
  • Metal Accelerant x519
  • Flectorite x292
  • Complex Carbon Activator x60
  • Gley Stabilizer Blueprint x1
  • 200,000 Gold
• Gley Spiral Catalyst
  • Nanopolymers x363
  • Ceramic Composite x408
  • Synthesized Artificial Biometal
  • Gley Spiral Catalyst Blueprint x1
• Gley Code

If you want to know more about Descendant builds, check out our recommendations for Valby and Freyna. You can also check out how to open Encrypted Vaults and what Mastery ranks can do for you.