The First Descendant – Valby Spiral Tidal Wave Build (Calculations & Tips)

Ultimate Guide to Valby Spiral Tidal Wave Build

By ComplexNeko.

Purpose of the Build

This build is designed to help you clear runs against the Gluttony boss more effectively, particularly in public games.

Gluttony Boss Mechanics

In many public games, teams often wipe because players are unfamiliar with Gluttony’s mechanics. A key aspect of the fight is managing Gluttony’s immunity bar and the charge on his weapon. If his weapon reaches full charge, your team will wipe unless you feed him bubbles.

• Immunity and Bubbles: If Gluttony becomes immune, purple bubbles will start to appear. These purple bubbles drag the normal bubbles toward Gluttony. You must prevent Gluttony from consuming these purple bubbles, as they will cause his gun to charge more quickly.
• Bubble Management: To avoid a wipe, destroy the purple bubbles when they are near Gluttony. The more normal bubbles you have chained together, the better. Chains can trigger a chain reaction that helps Gluttony come out of his immunity phase faster. However, if a purple bubble is too close to Gluttony, destroy it immediately, even if it is not part of a chain.
• Bubble dispensers: After each immunity phase, the bubble dispensers move further away, increasing the difficulty of maneuvering the bubbles towards Gluttony. Nevertheless, this build makes it manageable due to cost reduction, cooldown, and MP recovery.

Module Breakdown

This section explains each module’s role and how it boosts the effectiveness of the Spiral Tidal Wave build against Gluttony.

Spiral Tidal Wave Module

• Effect: Bubbles no longer bounce off the ground; instead, they become projectiles fired forward, attracting Gluttony’s impurities.
• Description: Lets you fire projectiles that pull normal bubbles, making it easier to direct them toward Gluttony. The skill also gains slightly more damage, can float through the air, and now has 3 stacks.

Grappling Hook Module

• Effect: Increases module capacity.
• Description: Expands your module slots, allowing you to add more modules. You can also choose an alternate capacity-increasing module based on preference.

MP Conversion

• Effect: Skill cooldown -36.5%, Max MP -15%.
• Description: Lowers the cooldown of your first skill, helping you regain stacks faster. The reduced MP is a minor trade-off for increased skill uptime.

Nimble Fingers

• Effect: Skill cooldown -25.6%.
• Description: Further decreases the first skill’s cooldown, speeding up stack recovery. Essential for keeping bubble control consistent.

Multitalented

• Effect: Using a Dimension Active skill reduces skill cooldown by -20.5% for 5 seconds.
• Description: Reduces the first skill’s cooldown for 5 seconds whenever you use a Dimension skill, ensuring frequent availability of Spiral Tidal Wave during critical moments.

Maximize Conservation

• Effect: Skill cost -35.4%, Skill power modifier -20%.
• Description: Lowers the MP cost of your first skill, allowing more frequent use. The slight reduction in power is outweighed by improved MP conservation and sustained usage in the fight.

Strong Mentality

• Effect: Skill cost -15.2%.
• Description: Further reduces MP cost, enabling more efficient skill use. Paired with Maximize Conservation, it ensures constant bubble manipulation.

Antifreeze Solution

• Effect: Frostbite immunity, Chill resistance +29%.
• Description: Grants immunity to freeze effects and boosts chill resistance. This prevents interruptions from Gluttony’s freeze attacks, keeping you mobile and in control.

Cold Antibody

• Effect: Chill resistance +4,614.
• Description: Significantly increases chill resistance, helping you withstand Gluttony’s ice-based attacks. Works well with Antifreeze Solution for optimal protection.

Increased DEF

• Effect: DEF +160.4%.
• Description: Increases your defense, allowing you to absorb more damage from Gluttony’s attacks. Crucial for surviving long engagements.

Stim Accelerant

• Effect: Max HP +234%, Max MP -15%.
• Description: Greatly boosts health, letting you survive more hits from Gluttony. The lower MP is offset by cooldown and cost-reduction modules.

Increased HP

• Effect: Max HP +218.5%.
• Description: Further increases health for enhanced survivability. Combined with Stim Accelerant, it makes you more resilient against Gluttony’s attacks.

Module Summary

With these modules, you can effectively:

1. Spam the first ability (Spiral Tidal Wave) to manipulate bubbles and prevent Gluttony’s gun from charging too quickly.
2. Maximize survivability with increased HP and defense, ensuring you can endure multiple attacks.
3. Remain immune to freeze effects from Gluttony’s bubbles, maintaining full control during the fight.

This build strikes a balance between consistent bubble control and high survivability, making it highly effective against the Gluttony boss.

Testing Module Combinations for Gluttony’s Attacks

In this section, I tested various module combinations to determine the best setup for surviving Gluttony’s attacks. The goal was to compare the effectiveness of defense, chill resistance, and shield-related modules. After testing the following combinations, I found that Increased DEF + Cold Antibody was the most effective for overall survivability.

Module Combinations Tested:

1. Increased DEF + Shield Conversion
   • Health Remaining: 4,215
   • Result: This combination offers decent survivability, but relying on shield conversion alone didn’t provide enough protection against Gluttony’s attacks. The defense boost helps, but the shield’s limited protection leaves you more vulnerable to sustained damage.
2. Increased DEF + Cold Antibody
   • Health Remaining: 7,625
   • Result: This was the most successful combination. The high defense provided strong mitigation against physical damage, while Cold Antibody significantly boosted chill resistance, preventing damage from ice-based attacks. This combination allowed for maximum survivability during Gluttony’s phases.
3. Shield Conversion + Cold Antibody
   • Health Remaining: 6,507
   • Result: This setup provided good chill resistance, but the reliance on shields wasn’t enough to offset the damage taken during Gluttony’s other attacks. The combination worked well for negating chill effects, but lacked overall physical defense.
4. Cold Antibody + Maximize Chill Resist
   • Health Remaining: 6,029
   • Result: The lack of increased defense resulted in taking higher overall damage, which led to lower remaining health after testing. When building for survivability, it’s important to maintain a balance between maximum health, defense, and resistances.

Module Calculations

All calculations are performed separately and rounded to the nearest decimal.

Valby Base Stats (Level 40)

• Max MP: 243
• Max HP: 1,402
• Max Shield: 671
• Defense (DEF): 2,120
• Chill Resistance: 13
• Skill Cooldown: 0
• Skill Cost: 0

Spiral Tidal Wave Base Stats

• Stack Cooldown: 14.0 seconds
• MP Cost: 32.0

Cooldown Modules

1. MP Conversion
   • Skill Cooldown Reduction: -0.365x
   • Calculation: 14 x 0.365 = 5.11 seconds
   • New Stack Cooldown: 14.0s – 5.1s = 8.9s
   • Max MP Reduction: 15%
     • Calculation: 243 x 0.15 = 36.45
     • New Max MP: 243 – 36.45 = 206.55 (Loss of 36.45 Max MP)
2. Nimble Fingers
   • Skill Cooldown Reduction: -0.256x
   • Calculation: 14 x 0.256 = 3.584 seconds
   • New Stack Cooldown: 14.0s – 3.6s = 10.4s
3. Multitalented
   • Skill Cooldown Reduction: -0.205x
   • Calculation: 14 x 0.205 = 2.87 seconds
   • New Stack Cooldown: 14.0s – 2.9s = 11.1s
4. MP Conversion + Nimble Fingers + Multitalented
   • Combined Skill Cooldown Reduction: -0.826x
   • Calculation: 14 x 0.826 = 11.564 seconds
   • New Stack Cooldown: 14.0s – 11.6s = 2.4s

Skill Cost Modules

1. Strong Mentality
   • Skill Cost Reduction: -0.152x
   • Calculation: 32 x 0.152 = 4.864
   • New Skill Cost: 32 – 4.9 = 27.1
2. Maximize Conservation
   • Skill Cost Reduction: -0.354x
   • Calculation: 32 x 0.354 = 11.328
   • New Skill Cost: 32 – 11.3 = 20.7
3. Strong Mentality + Maximize Conservation
   • Combined Skill Cost Reduction: -0.506x
   • Calculation: 32 x 0.506 = 16.192
   • New Skill Cost: 32 – 16.2 = 15.8

Chill Resistance Modules

1. Antifreeze Solution
   • Chill Resistance Increase: +29%
   • Calculation: 13 x 0.29 = 3.77
   • New Chill Resistance: 13 + 3.77 = 16.77
2. Cold Antibody
   • Chill Resistance Increase: +4,614
   • New Chill Resistance: 13 + 4,614 = 4,627
3. Antifreeze Solution + Cold Antibody
   • Combined Chill Resistance Increase: +29%
   • Calculation: 4,627 x 0.29 = 1,341.83
   • New Chill Resistance: 4,627 + 1,341.83 = 5,968.83

Survivability Modules

1. Increased DEF
   • DEF Increase: +160.4%
   • Calculation: 2,120 x 1.604 = 3,400.48
   • New DEF: 2,120 + 3,400.48 = 5,520.48
2. Increased HP
   • Max HP Increase: +218.5%
   • Calculation: 1,402 x 2.185 = 3,063.37
   • New Max HP: 1,402 + 3,063.37 = 4,465.37
3. Stim Accelerant
   • Max HP Increase: +234%
   • Calculation: 1,402 x 2.340 = 3,280.68
   • New Max HP: 1,402 + 3,280.68 = 4,682.68
   • Max MP Reduction: 15%
   • Calculation: 243 x 0.15 = 36.45
   • New Max MP: 243 – 36.45 = 206.55 (Loss of 36.45 Max MP)
4. Increased HP + Stim Accelerant
   • Combined HP Increase: 452.5%
   • Calculation: 1,402 x 4.525 = 6,344.05
   • New Max HP: 1,402 + 6,344.05 = 7,746.05

Inversion Reinforcement Buffs

1. High Density Chill Particle Membrane
   • Effect: +9.8% Chill Resistance for 0.5s per stack (up to 2 stacks) when you hit an enemy with a firearm.
   • This Reduces Gluttony’s chill damage by stacking resistance whenever you deal damage with a firearm
2. Composite Element Particle Membrane
   • Effect: +10.7% all attribute resistance when any particle membrane effect is active.
   • This Activates whenever you have your stacks of High Density Chill Particle Membrane, providing an additional resistance boost on every shot.

Components

When selecting components, focus on those that increase your Max HP or Max DEF for better survivability. Additionally, consider adding Chill Resistance to your sensor to further improve survivability. However, you may need to swap Chill Resistance with either Max MP or MP Recovery during combat.

Suggested Component Sets:

• 2 Set Tomb Vanguard: This set offers a +25% boost to Defense (DEF). Based on my observations, this component is worth using.

Reactor

For this build, the primary focus is on preventing Gluttony from wiping the team rather than dealing damage. As such, the choice of reactor is not crucial. However, for optimal performance, prioritize having the following two substats on your reactor:

• Skill Cost
• Skill Cooldown

These substats will allow you to use your first skill more frequently. While not strictly necessary, having these will provide additional benefits to your build.