The First Descendant: Luna build guide and Arche Tuning setup

Luna was introduced in Season 1 of The First Descendant and is getting an Ultimate variant in the Season 3 update. She was added as a support character, but can also act as a damage dealer with one of her Transcendent modules. Among all Descendants, she has a unique gameplay that requires you to click the music notes at the right moment to provide various buffs to teammates, or deal damage to enemies.

While we do not know her upcoming Transcendent mods, the current ones are still used in some of the best DPS and support setups, and this guide will provide builds for both.

Luna build setup in The First Descendant

As a support, Luna can reduce cooldown, recover mana, and increase allies' skill power. Meanwhile, as a damage dealer, she deals damage upon every successful music note trigger. Here are the build setups for both gameplay styles:

Note: Luna’s first ability remains the same across all builds and is required to use other abilities.

DPS setup for Luna in The First Descendant

DPS mod setup for Luna (Image via Nexon)

To make a DPS Luna, you’ll need her Transcendent mod, Noise Surge. When equipped, all of her abilities, apart from the first, will turn into various surges and provide self-buffs and deal damage to enemies each time you hit the music note.

Exciting Surge (second ability): Instead of providing skill power and critical hit/damage increase to allies, this buff will now grant skill critical hit rate to self.
Relaxing Surge (third ability): Instead of MP recovery and skill cost reduction to allies, this buff will now grant skill critical hit damage to self.
Cheerful Surge (fourth ability): Instead of cooldown reduction to allies, this buff will now grant skill power modifier increase to self.

Successfully hitting a music note grants one stack of related buff from abilities to a maximum of 13 stacks. Since Luna’s abilities will never go on cooldown when hitting the music notes perfectly, you can invest completely into mods that increase skill power.

Mods like Maximize Power, Focus on Non-Attribute, and Multitalented will improve the damage. The downside is that if you hit a few wrong notes, the abilities will go on a long cooldown. Luna also has a good base critical rate for abilities. Use all four critical mods — Skill Insight, Skill concentration, Front Lines, and Emergency Measures — to guarantee red crits against enemies.

The final focus is on increasing range and survivability. Skill Extension and Amplification Control will max out the AoE, while Increased HP will help you tank enemy Hits.

Arche Tuning board for DPS Luna in The First Descendant

Arche board for DPS Luna (Image via Nexon)

The mods alone will not provide the maximum range or critical chance. However, the Arche Tuning board will fill the remaining gap needed to max out every aspect. The path we take covers the Mutant Cell Slot on the left corner.

Heading left, pick up skill power, skill cost, and skill range nodes. Then move up towards the MP, critical nodes, and more skill power to reach the empty slot. Luna can equip Singular Dimension Tuning that improves skill range and provides cost reduction. An alternative would be Non-Attribute Cohesion, which provides 6.4% skill power, stacking up to three times on defeating enemies.

Also Read: The First Descendant: How to prepare for Season 3

Support setup for Luna in The First Descendant

Support mod setup for Luna (Image via Nexon)

Playing as a support isn’t super popular, but if you are doing endgame content like Void Abyss or Void Intercept fights, her abilities can be very beneficial. Without any Transcendent mod, Luna provides cooldown, MP, and skill power to the team. However, many prefer Aggressive Melody, which affects her second and Fourth abilities:

Passionate Stage (second ability): Instead of providing skill power and critical hit/damage increase to allies, this buff will now grant attack and critical hit/damage increase to firearms.
Relaxing Act (third ability): Remains the same and provides MP recovery for allies in its radius.
Delightful Stage (fourth ability): Instead of cooldown reduction to allies, this buff will now grant a weak point damage increase and firearm penetration.

As a support, your job is to stick with the team members and keep them at max stacks of your buff. For that, you’ll need range and duration. Use Skill Expansion along with Amplification Control for range and MP Acclerant, Skill Extension, and Battle of Stamina for duration.

Battle of Stamina will also increase HP, but just to be extra safe, use Increased HP. This will also counter HP Conversion (MP), which you’ll need to increase your mana for casting skills. The last few slots are quality of life, but we recommend using Energy Collection to provide as much MP from a single block during Boss fights.

Arche Tuning board for Support Luna in The First Descendant

Arche board for Support Luna (Image via Nexon)

Since we are not dealing damage, the focus will be on survival, skill duration, range, and increasing MP. Start by going up and taking the MP recovery node, and move to skill duration. You can either take the critical hit damage for mana to save a few points, or go with skill cooldown.

Move towards MP recovery out of combat, which will be useful, as the boss will target your team members most of the time. Then make your way to skill cost reduction and increased range. Invest the leftover points into HP or any other node you want.

Reactor and External Components

External components for Luna (Image via Nexon)

In both of the builds, all of her abilities become Singular Non-Attribute, making Materalized Singularity Reactor the best choice. For sub-stats, damage Luna will benefit from critical damage and non-attribute power boosts, while a support Luna will benefit from skill duration and cost reduction.

For external components, the damage build can take advantage of the Enlightened Mage Set that provides 6% skill power on a 2-set and 84% Non-Attribute skill power upon reaching three stacks. The support build will benefit from a 2-set Fire Brand that provides skill range and duration, and a 2-set Ascending Armory that provides skill cost reduction.

If you already have Luna with an Energy Activator and Multiple Crystalization Catalyst, you can transfer everything to the Ultimate variant by using a Photon Imprinter.

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About the author

Mayank Singh Rathour is an MMO writer at Sportskeeda. He graduated from college with a degree in Business Administration and has over two years of experience as an esports journalist.

Mayank was introduced to gaming at an early age and played Contra, Double Dragon, Castlevania, etc., on his Nintendo DS. When he was a little older, Counter-Strike — a title that majorly helped develop his passion for gaming — became his favorite pastime. Though he's played a bunch of games since then, his love of CS has remained strong. Shroud, a former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro, is an inspiration to him. He's also a fan of series' esports scene, following teams like Vitality, NAVI, and The Mongols closely.

When Mayank has some free time, he plays basketball and helps people build PCs.

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Edited by Abu Amjad Khan