Best Valby build in The First Descendant

The First Descendant has plenty of characters for you to unlock, and Valby is a great option if you like strategically casting AoE skills to crowd control large groups of enemies.

Here’s what you need to know about the best weapons, Modules, and everything that will help create the best Valby build.

Module setup

SLOT	MODULE	Description
1 (Skill)	Water Play	Bubble Bullet skill conversion. Creates a rectangular-shaped pool of water in front.
2	Skill Expansion	Skill Effect Range + 12%, applies only to certain skills for each Descendant.
3	Skill Extension	Skill Duration +9%, applies only to certain skills for each Descendant.
4	Increased HP	Max HP +22%.
5	MP Accelerant	Skill Duration +5%, Max MP +3.7%.
6	Skill Cost Optimize	Reduces the overall cost of abilities.
7 (Sub-Skill)	Dual Claw	Increases Damage and Attack Speed of melee attacks.
8	Nimble Fingers	Skill Cooldown -6%.
9	Strong Mentality	Skill Cost -4%.
10	Technician	Skill Power Modifier +13%.
11	Increased Shield	Max Shield +15%.
12	Skill Range Support	Increases the range of special abilities.

Valby is a versatile character in The First Descendant who can easily dominate the battlefield thanks to her high mobility and high damage AoE abilities. However, she’s reliant on Water so you’ll need to prioritize Modules like Water Play, Skill Expansion, and Skill Extension to increase the duration and range of her most powerful skills.

Additionally, equipping her with Nimble Fingers and Skill Cost Optimize will let you reduce her skills’ cooldown significantly to spam them as much as you need.

Reactors

Reactors play a crucial role in boosting Valby’s performance, so you should focus on Skill Power and Sub Attack Power to increase the damage of her AoE skills.

You can also equip anything that buffs Dimension or Fusion skills since most of her abilities fall into these categories.

External Components

The best External Components to use with Valby in The First Descendant boost Shields, HP, HP Recovery, and Defense. 

Valby is an AoE damage dealer who has to keep her mobility to charge at large groups of enemies without losing her ability to quickly dodge any heavy attacks. To maximize her potential, focusing on External Components that boost her Shields and HP works great to make her overall build more sturdy.

Weapons

The best weapons for Valby are the Thunder Cage Submachine Gun and the Afterglow Sword Sniper Rifle.

Thunder Cage

• ATK: 18
• Fire rate: 666
• Reload Speed: 1.4 seconds
• Effective Range: 23m
• Overcharge: Defeating an enemy could release an electric shockwave, dealing firearm ATK to nearby enemies within 3m.

Equipping Valby with the Thunder Cage will let you multiply its damage thanks to its Overcharge effect which works great when combined with Valby’s Laundry effect that leaves opponents vulnerable to Electricity damage.

Afterglow Sword Sniper Rifle

• Firearm ATK: 240
• Fire Rate: 66
• Reload Speed: 2.5 seconds
• Effective Range: 55 m
• Nightmare Reaper: While hitting an enemy’s weak point, the Afterglow Sword inflicts the unique ability Death propagation. This means that when hitting an enemy commander or colossi, it increases firearm Critical Hit Rate and applies the effect to the attack.

You can use Valby’s great mobility to focus on enemies’ Weak Points, and using the Afterglow Sword will let her crowd control large groups of creatures and quickly shoot them down.

Blue Beetle Scout Rifle

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

Giving Valby the Blue Beetle Scout Rifle gives her a chance to use a lot of Fusion skills, where the Arcane Wave buffs her skills Critical Hit Rate. If you don’t want to position Valby too far away from the action, this medium-range gun will let her strategically use her AoE skills and deal with enemies up close.

Valby abilities explained

• Water Intake (Passive): When using skills while standing on water, she consumes less Mana.
• Bubble Bullet: Bounces a Bubble Bullet forward to create a small puddle where the Bubble Bullet impacts and where she stands. Enemies in the small puddle take continuous damage and are inflicted with Laundry.
• Plop Plop: Creates a large puddle where she is standing, then dives in. Valby then pops out at a selected location in the large puddle. Enemies in the large puddle take continuous damage and are inflicted with Laundry.
• Clean Up: Valby becomes Liquefied. While Liquefied, she cannot take her feet off of the ground or use skills, but she can move through enemies, and her Movement Speed and DEF increases. When moving while Liquefied, she creates a path of water that deals continuous damage to enemies and inflicts Laundry.
• Laundry Bomb: Changes the weapon equipped for the Launcher. When the Launcher is fired, a Bomb is created, pulling in enemies inflicted with Laundry and dealing continuous damage.

Valby is a DPS character that uses AoE skills based around Water that can crowd control enemies and focus on her Laundry debuff to deal damage over time.

How to unlock Valby

You can unlock Valby in The First Descendant by purchasing her from the store with 600 Caliber (Premium currency) or crafting her with the following materials:

• Valby Enhanced Cells
  • Repton x422
  • Superfluid x571
  • Data Processing Neural Circuit x38f
  • Valby Enhanced Cell Blueprint
  • 200,000 Gold
• Valby Stabilizer
  • Monad Shard x246
  • Compound Coating Material x239
  • Negative Ion Particle x4
  • Valby Stabilizer Blueprint x1
  • 200,000 Gold
• Valby Spiral Catalyst
  • Metal Accelerant x519
  • Hardener x386
  • Encrypted Neural Circuit x31
  • Valby Spiral Catalyst Blueprint x1
• Valby Code

After you gather the materials, you can speak to Anais in the Albion Mountains to access the Research Institute. There, you’ll be able to craft every Descendant you have materials for.

If you want to know more about Descendant builds, check out our recommendations for Bunny and Lepic. You can also check out how to get Amorphous Materials and what Mastery ranks can do for you.