The First Descendant: Best Thunder Cage Build for Dominating the Battlefield
Key Takeaways:
- The Thunder Cage submachine gun in The First Descendant is a powerhouse, capable of dealing immense critical damage when built correctly with the right modules.
- Understanding and optimizing both early and late-game builds for the Thunder Cage allows players to maximize their damage output in different scenarios, whether farming mobs or taking on Void Intercept bosses.
- Crafting the Thunder Cage is straightforward, but refining its build for endgame encounters requires a keen focus on critical hit scaling, fire rate, and elemental damage mods.
In The First Descendant, few weapons can match the explosive power and versatility of the Thunder Cage, an electric-type submachine gun known for its high critical hit potential and flexibility in module combinations. Whether you’re just starting out or preparing for endgame Void Intercept battles, building the Thunder Cage correctly is key to unlocking its full potential.
This guide will take you through everything you need to know about the Thunder Cage how to craft it, the best builds for different gameplay scenarios, and which modules will help you dominate the battlefield. We’ll also cover optimal configurations for early-game progression, endgame boss fights, and farming builds to ensure you get the most out of this ultimate weapon.
What Is the Thunder Cage in The First Descendant?
The Thunder Cage is a submachine gun (SMG) categorized as one of the ultimate weapons in The First Descendant. It’s an electric-type weapon that excels at dealing high critical damage, making it a great choice for players who enjoy fast-paced, high-DPS (damage per second) gameplay.
This weapon comes with a solid base critical chance of 20%, which can be boosted significantly with the right module setup. Thunder Cage is ideal for clearing mobs of enemies, thanks to its explosive electrical damage, but it’s equally potent in boss fights when equipped with precision-enhancing modules.
The weapon’s flexibility comes from its two pre-installed socket polarities, which allow you to mix and match various mods to customize its performance for different tasks, whether you need a fast-firing setup for farming or a boss-melting configuration for tougher encounters.
Crafting the Thunder Cage: How to Get It
Unlocking the Thunder Cage is relatively easy, especially compared to other ultimate weapons in The First Descendant. You can start working towards the Thunder Cage early in the game by collecting components from missions in the Sterile Lands region.
Here’s a breakdown of the missions that drop Thunder Cage components:
- Nano Tube – Found in the High-Powered Jammer mission (Restricted Zone).
- Polymer Syncytium – Obtained from the External Reactor mission (Rockfall).
- Synthetic Fiber – Dropped in the Kuiper Mine Repository mission.
- Thunder Cage Blueprint – Collected from the Logistics Facility mission (Ironworks).
After completing these missions, you will have all the necessary components to craft the Thunder Cage. Additionally, a free Thunder Cage is given to players during one of Albion’s tutorial quests, ensuring you can access the weapon early on without too much grinding.
Once you’ve crafted the Thunder Cage, you can start refining it with the right modules to suit your playstyle.
Early Game Thunder Cage Build
In the early stages of the game, your goal should be to maximize the Thunder Cage’s base damage and critical hit chance while working with the limited module capacity you have. The following build is optimized for progressing through the campaign and early endgame content.
Early Game Build Modules:
- Rifling Reinforcement: Increases the Thunder Cage’s base damage.
- Action and Reaction: Buffs base damage to offset the penalty from Edging Shot.
- Edging Shot: Provides a significant boost to critical hit chance.
- Better Insight: Enhances critical hit rate, helping you land critical hits more often.
- Better Concentration: Boosts critical hit damage, making your crits hit even harder.
- Chill Enhancement: Multiplies all outgoing damage for additional DPS.
With this setup, you’ll achieve a critical hit chance of 36% early on, thanks to Better Insight and Edging Shot. Better Concentration amplifies your critical damage, allowing you to take down enemies quickly, while Chill Enhancement offers a cost-effective DPS increase for clearing waves of mobs.
This build is perfect for advancing through the campaign and handling the early challenges you’ll face as you progress in The First Descendant.
Late Game Thunder Cage Build
As you approach the endgame, your Thunder Cage becomes even more lethal, thanks to the increased module capacity and the ability to stack critical hit damage. In this phase, you should focus on maximizing critical damage, fire rate, and precision for boss encounters.
Late Game Build Modules:
- Rifling Reinforcement: Further increases base damage, ensuring every shot hits hard.
- Action and Reaction: Continues to offset the Edging Shot penalty by buffing base damage.
- Better Insight: Maintains a high critical hit rate.
- Better Concentration: Enhances critical damage, scaling your critical hits to devastating levels.
- Concentration Priority: Increases the critical damage multiplier to 6x.
- Fire Rate Up: Increases your fire rate for faster DPS.
- Expand Weapon Charge: Increases magazine size for sustained fire, allowing for longer bursts of damage.
- Weak Point Sight: Boosts precision damage, making it easier to target enemy weak points for maximum damage.
- Elemental Damage Mods: Add elemental damage (Electric, Toxic, Chill, or Fire) based on the enemies you’re facing.
This late-game build is designed to turn the Thunder Cage into a boss-melting machine. With Better Insight and Concentration Priority, your critical hits will deliver devastating damage, while Fire Rate Up and Expand Weapon Charge ensure you maintain a high DPS output.
Weak Point Sight is especially useful for boss fights, as it allows you to focus on hitting weak points for extra damage. When dealing with specific enemies, you can switch between elemental mods to take advantage of their weaknesses, such as using Electric Enhancement against mechanical bosses.
Farming Build for Thunder Cage
If you’re using the Thunder Cage for farming mobs and clearing waves of enemies, the key is to focus on increasing your critical hit chance and inflicting status effects like poison. This build will help you quickly dispatch groups of enemies and farm resources efficiently.
Farming Build Modules:
- Rifling Reinforcement: Increases base damage for faster kills.
- Action and Reaction: Buffs base damage while countering the Edging Shot penalty.
- Better Insight: Increases critical hit rate, ensuring consistent crits.
- Better Concentration: Enhances critical hit damage for bigger crits.
- Concentration Priority: Further increases critical damage to a 6x multiplier.
- Fire Rate Up: Boosts fire rate for quicker DPS, allowing you to take down enemies faster.
- Expand Weapon Charge: Increases magazine size for longer firing periods without reloading.
- Toxic Enhancement: Adds poison damage to improve your ability to clear mobs quickly.
- Edging Shot: Continues to provide a significant boost to critical chance.
- Toxic Priority: Enhances poison damage from Toxic Enhancement, making it even more effective against groups of enemies.
This farming build focuses on maximizing poison damage and critical hits, making it perfect for clearing large numbers of enemies in a short amount of time. Toxic Enhancement and Toxic Priority inflict poison, while Edging Shot and Better Insight keep your critical hits frequent and powerful.
Thunder Cage Build for Void Intercept Boss Battles
Void Intercept battles are some of the toughest challenges in The First Descendant, requiring precision, high DPS, and sustained damage output. For these encounters, the Thunder Cage needs to be optimized for weak point damage, accuracy, and elemental scaling.
Void Intercept Boss Build Modules:
- Rifling Reinforcement: Maximizes base damage for each shot.
- Action and Reaction: Continues to boost base damage, helping you deal more damage over time.
- Better Insight: Ensures a high critical hit rate during boss fights.
- Better Concentration: Provides enhanced critical hit damage for devastating crits.
- Concentration Priority: Increases your critical damage multiplier to 6x, maximizing your DPS.
- Fire Rate Up: Increases fire rate for quicker damage output during boss phases.
- Expand Weapon Charge: Increases magazine size to reduce reload times and keep up sustained fire.
- Elemental Damage Mods: Choose the right elemental mod based on the boss’s weaknesses, such as Electric Enhancement for mechanical bosses or Fire Enhancement for organic ones.
- Hawk-Eye: Increases precision and accuracy, allowing you to hit weak points consistently.
- Vibration Absorption (Level 2): Reduces recoil, ensuring better accuracy and more consistent hits on weak points.
This build focuses on maximizing your damage output during boss fights by increasing accuracy and weak point damage. Hawk-Eye and Vibration Absorption help you land precision shots, while Fire Rate Up and Expand Weapon Charge maintain a high DPS rate. The Elemental Damage Mods allow you to tailor your build for each boss encounter, ensuring you can take full advantage of their vulnerabilities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: How do I get the Thunder Cage in The First Descendant?
The Thunder Cage can be acquired early in the game by collecting components from missions in the Sterile Lands region. Completing specific missions guarantees the components needed to craft this weapon. Additionally, a free Thunder Cage is given during Albion’s tutorial quests.
Q2: What is the best build for the Thunder Cage in the late game?
The best late-game build for the Thunder Cage focuses on maximizing critical hit scaling, fire rate, and weak point damage. Modules like Better Insight, Concentration Priority, and Weak Point Sight ensure that you deal massive critical damage, especially in boss fights.
Q3: Can I use the Thunder Cage for farming mobs?
Yes, the Thunder Cage is great for farming mobs, especially with a build focused on crit chance, crit damage, and poison damage. Toxic Enhancement and Toxic Priority are ideal for quickly clearing groups of enemies.
Q4: How do I maximize DPS with the Thunder Cage?
To maximize DPS, focus on increasing your critical hit chance and damage through modules like Better Insight and Concentration Priority. Fire Rate Up and Expand Weapon Charge also boost your sustained damage by increasing fire rate and magazine size.
Q5: Which Elemental Damage Mods should I use for Void Intercept boss battles?
Choose your Elemental Damage Mods based on the boss’s weaknesses. For example, use Fire Enhancement against the Dead Bride and Electric Enhancement against the Swamp Walker.
