The First Descendant: Best Hailey build and loadout

Hailey has become an instant fan-favorite in The First Descendant, so if you are looking for the best build for her to melt (but technically freeze) bosses, we have you covered. Her kit revolves around ranged play and accuracy, so we’ll break down everything you need.

Best Hailey build in The First Descendant

To start, let’s put a mod setup to start focusing on her strengths. This will focus mostly on her Singular damage. Here’s the setup to get started:

Best Hailey mod setup

• Increased HP
• Spear and Shield
• Front Lines
• Emergency Measures
• Skill Insight
• Skill Concentration
• Shot Focus
• Chill Specialist
• Glacial Syncytium
• Strong Mentality or Frugal Mindset

This build for Hailey implies that the mods you’re using are maxed or almost at max rank to have the greatest effect. Even if they don’t because of resource restrictions like not having an Energy Activator or enough Crystallization Catalysts, use this as a general blueprint for maximum output.

With this setup, we’re massively increasing the damage output of Hailey’s class-specific sniper with crit and frost damage. At this time, there are no Transcendent mods for her to further increase her power, but this will do.

The mod setup isn’t all. What we need to do next is boost her power with a Reactor.

Best Reactor for Hailey 

The best Reactor for Hailey is the Frozen Singularity. It’ll boost Chill Skill and Singular Skill Powers by 20%, which will only make her sniper that much stronger. Keep an eye out for where these specifically drop as they rotate.

As for what kind of attributes these should have, look for the following stats and combine two:

• Skill Critical Hit Rate
• Skill Critical Hit Damage
• Chill Skill Power Boost Ratio
• Singular Skill Power Boost Ratio
• Skill Cost

Ideally, you also want these stats to be yellow or purple, meaning they will have a greater effect. 

The weapon of choice will depend on what weapon you use. Reactors will get the extra Skill Power when your on-hand weapon matches the type. For her, you’d want one with a sniper rifle and another like an assault rifle or SMG for general mobbing.

Best weapon for Hailey

Hailey is a sniper character, so as such, you want to be using a sniper with high crit to fully maximize her potential. You should either use the Piercing Light or Afterglow Sword and build those with crit and weak point damage in mind. Her final ability, Zenith, borrows the damage mods from your on-hand weapon and transfers the stats to it. 

There are some restrictions, so because of that, you need a decently-built sniper to go with this build. Here’s a mod setup to get that going:

• Rifling Reinforcement
• Better Insight
• Better Concentration
• Concentration Priority
• Action and Reaction
• Weak Point Sight
• Focus Fire
• Consume Magazines
• Maximize Weight Balance
• Weak Point Expansion or Snowflake Conductor

This build does imply that you can consistently hit the weak points of enemies. Hailey is a sniper class, after all, so it’s all about precision. There is some leeway if you aren’t the best shot by replacing the Special Mod Weak Point Expansion for something more general like Snowflake Conductor.

Still, Hailey will be used primarily for bossing like the Void Intercept Battles. She can also be used for general content purposes too, so don’t write her off completely.