How Reactors and Skill Power Actually Work - The First Descendant

[@VashCowaii]

Supporter link(it expires every few months, so renew it): creators.nexon.com/s/vashcowaii%236354?serviceId=74 Nuke your purple reactors, save a life (and a storage slot). EDIT: I think at the time this was still when I thought crit res was a ceiling, but cdmg CAN beat out a type bonus on your reactor if your character is a 100% crit character like hailey or sharen on ambushed, etc. I've talked about this a lot in the discord since this video, I just kept forgetting to adjust the pinned comment. Type rolls on the reactor are still amazing and best in slot for everyone else, and they're future proof against higher crit res bosses because there IS a breakpoint at which cdmg is def worse regardless. Also completely forgot to say it in the video: don't wanna do the calcs yourself and wanna know how it applies to specific characters and their specific contexts? I gotchu ~ cowaii.io/TFD/Calculator/ (More will be added to the site over time, it's a new project)

[@Chebfly26]

I have a challenge for you can you do a Sharen build video?

[@dinvsl]

What if I care only about sub-stats, such as cooldown and duration ? For example Gley “infinite” ammo build, where the reactor type is basically irrelevant because you use only her “3”. From my experience gold reactors roll the same sub-stats as the purple ones (please correct me if that’s wrong assumption).

[@undertaker8187]

actually purple reactor are very usefull if u want lvl up a weapon/prestige it but its not a weapon that works for ur build in ex u wanna lvl up enduring w ur thundercage mounted bunny THEN a purple reactor come in glutch so u get aleast the 140 instead of only the 100% but only for that scenario u should use purple reactors

[@mr.g1672]

this game would be 1000000 times easier if the tooltip just gave you the final damage your skills would do

[@devin300]

That would be misleading because of all the different types of damage resistance on every specific enemy

[@mr.g1672]

@@devin300 with the base damage your skills do, you can just simply factor in the dmg resistance and that's it, it is still much much much easier

[@TheBeankill]

Yeah that would be alot easier

[@adrianteodorczyk5904]

Go play fortnite if you want easy game. I love the the complexity of this game.

[@mr.g1672]

@@adrianteodorczyk5904 that's not what I meant you troglodite

[@zemisushi7241]

So look for a reactor that: 1. ultimate, w/ weapon you use in battle 2. gold rolls on type (tech, fusion, etc.) 3. gold roll on colossus I'll change my filters now. Thank you

[@yaoalvin7635]

And all purple reactors are trash

[@SpecieAR]

I spend half my time in this game crunching numbers, I'm happy we're coming to the same results. Amazing videos, keep up the great work.

[@AlexSilva-rg8qt]

I love these videos, its not like the average basic streamer, theres really good info to learn there, thanks alot!!

[@navandozer]

At first I was wondering why people would be confused but then I remembered a lot of people I talk to nowadays don't actually understand how percentages and probability even work so I get why it's a problem. I like seeing all the calculations being crunched out but I'm just a nerd who likes seeing the math in games. Good work.

[@KB-ql8cx]

🙄

[@Casevaiandando]

1 question. from what i got from the video i should almost always get a boost/colossus than a crit/colossus? speaking in dps builds

[@navandozer]

@@Casevaiandando specifically a type boost if you can, attribute boost if you can't. Crit damage boost only better if you're able to reach 100% like Blair can.

[@Casevaiandando]

@@navandozer thx

[@Guurzak]

Nobody can reach 100% actual crit rate because of crit resistance.

[@Night_Crawler_3]

I use crit & crit for mobs/dungeons and col dmg and tech for bossing. Did a lot of testing myself and found this was best for me. Great video glad to see a video where someone understands, additive, multiplicative and buckets! Just stumped onto your channel love this video.

[@t3hpwninat0r]

Thank you. I had many suspicions but too lazy to test and this cleared it all up for me :D

[@mephisto5030]

That closing text is mint! That kinda shit is why I subscribe!

[@spencer9733]

I subbed before I even started the video

[@hikmatmarashdeh2293]

😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@dacks3375]

I'm doing my part! I'm not a whore...err wait what?

[@manih5393]

Thank you, so many people get this wrong, and not many CCs cover this correctly. Keep it up!

[@daveboone5561]

Thanks for the videos, your the only person that has something left to teach me. Your accuracy is on point and a breath of fresh air from all the fake a@& click bait… The last, I don’t know 15 videos or so have been fake/edited, or someone with 50-100 play hours giving giving advice on mechanics they have utterly wrong. Not inaccurate, plain wrong. Kuddos to you my man!!

[@kingjade]

Just droppong in to say that you are my favorite content creator right now. I love math, and I love games and you bring me both.

[@canadianduch8867]

Love your videos. Always happy to see a notification from your channel. Keep up the beautiful work

[@myorigaccisbroken]

This is a really good explanation of how to choose a good reactor. Thanks!

[@HeyMyNameIsTony]

Good shit as always, man. Been watching since your rem 2 vids and you always nail the maths. RIP my wasted resources on purple reactor upgrades I guess.

[@VashCowaii]

Oof, yeah the only reason to keep purple is for mobbing/farming builds, but boss builds purples should never be equipped, ever.

[@HeyMyNameIsTony]

My TDC Blair is the only boss build I have with a decent gold reactor. At least I can crit for like 10mil a fireball sometimes lol

[@iiCExNiNE]

When comparing an elemental boost(i.e. chill) vs a skill type boost(i.e. singular), you also have to consider elemental resistances. I don't believe any enemies have skill type resistances so that boost is consistent, but if an enemy is even slightly weak to an element, then that elemental boost becomes more effective than the the basic damage formula may make it seem. Just something to consider.

[@hunter123455567]

Subscribed for the good content. Been watching since you dropped the bunny guides and love how you explain each calculation. Lookin forward for more content from you

[@MrLabraiki]

I have like 400 + hours in this game and yet I feel like I'm barely discovering the real game now with these videos ..

[@get_troll]

the best video that explain the skill damage

[@17aaga]

This is wild 13:36. thank god i was subscribed the first 5 mins

[@nytrul3159]

Your work is genuinely invaluable, thank you

[@GamerX9428]

Love this type of content! Thank you so much and please keep it up!

[@dannyphillips5865]

thanks for your time to help us understand the reactors better.

[@syrusmarks1]

Thank you for this. Made more sense. I tried asking world chat and most other ppl had to do their plugs or just kept it with "ya know"... no I don't know, or I wouldn't be asking.

[@JasonHenderson-cloutier]

Great job brother your vids have helped way more compared to others

[@Zero_ocxo]

Your mathing is sending me for a loop, but I love it.

[@spiraale5278]

I just recently hit hard mode and saw this video recommended, which was a blessing because I was going to lose my mind on how I maximize my loadouts in the new difficulty God bless, now i can begin properly to master the game (slowly)

[@davidstone9117]

Thanks Vash, subscribed for the maths and effort of factchecking said maths by throwing many grenades at pyro. So it does seem that additive and multiplicative sources of damage & different dmg buckets (dmg types, crit) are pretty commonplace across the few games I've played (POE, FO76, even Genshin Impact to a small extent etc) so seems like a standard in gaming these days. Helps to quickly identify how best to min max, granted there isn't that many elements to optimise across builds for now.

[@fall0rn]

Awesome educational vid on tfd! Keep it up

[@xFearZe]

Here is the hero of TFD we've all been waiting for 🗿 Thank for your content and your explanations/tips boss!

[@ashvinn15]

Brilliant thanks for the explanation, I assumed all this like a gut feeling never tried to under stand math , thanks for doing the heavy lifting

[@yuttawatbunpormee5764]

I love your work. It's like a piece of art! ❤

[@OrionK-oq2ss]

great vid, thanks for the info

[@IsoSpira]

watched to the end and subbed!

[@MrNorker77]

I love TFD and I love math. Your videos? Chef's kiss!

[@AndrewYoung-y4f]

So which reactor do I use?

[@AndrewYoung-y4f]

Tell me about it. All of this math and other noise. Just tell me

[@Guest-iy3tc]

I like the numbers keep it up

[@DIPPY004]

You hurt my brain, thanks.

[@mz_chipz]

This helped a lot.

[@s8nwulf]

Could someone explain what is Custom Resource like on the Secret Garden for example

[@su88906]

thank you for your testing and result sharing.. I wanted to do that but I do not like going to loading screen, and did not think of just having +atkimmortality or their friend to lab. Just be little something: it is basic algebra. Next: to actually obtain enemies' stats (atk, def, res, mitigation, etc.) and to translate those defensive numbers to simplified %reduction version

[@w1mark275]

One of the weird quirks on how skill power works is it's almost never useful to equip the elemental master mods because they force you to build for elemental skill power which is way more difficult to get than just base skill power boosts. Even if you get a perfect elemental roll on a reactor, a simple unranked spear and shield mod is enough plain skill power to make elemental master not worth it. (with an additional syncytium mod you need 13% skill power) In the very best circumstances you can get 31.1% additional toxic skill power with a perfect reactor, a toxic syncytium mod, and two 6.2% toxic set bonuses, and even still, an additional 22% skill power is all it takes for the master mod to become worthless again.

[@rafizkk]

So , if i have a gold tech skill power boost ratio on freynas reactor , its better than a gold toxic skill power boost ratio? For colossi and mobbing?

[@valtor12]

I almost forgot to subscribe until you called me out, well played xD great vids, loving the content

[@illidanstormrage1915]

I found my colossus + tech gold rolls for lepic on an after glow mounting...is it worth it or should i just ignore it and aim only for the impact rounds because of sharp precision shot?

[@nappy4617]

hey quick question, what if i have reactor for freyna (tech toxic), what is the equivalent TECH roll value to get TOXIC 0.85? i wanna know the value difference for future reactor grinds

[@mrpenshi]

Can you do Firearm attack and bonuses on guns, thats the biggest point of contention between people and I also suspect ajax firearm dmg is bugged

[@munsme420]

I think one of the main reasons I like this game is learning how the math works and making my own builds. Can't wait for Monster Hunter Wildlands.

[@Hawaiian_Brian]

You blew my mind 🤯

[@y_strikes2770]

What about both element and type boost instead of colossus?

[@Shiirya]

So overall unless i get it wrong - Allways go for attribute first its yur highest boost overall > if you care about global damage - then elements if you only care about global damage > but if its for bossing - colossus damage first and then attribute second - if its for mobbing general you dont care you can either go double needed stats like skill cost/effect range or whatever you need but if you still feel like damage then attribute first and whatever needed second crit rate beeing generaly useless and crit damage only good if you dont care about min maxing and your character got a good crit rate base skill Do i have it all good or those rules are not absolute and depends on descendant and there skills ?

[@xPookinator]

I have close to 5K Ion Particles also, best I got is purple ATK on Colossus and blue crit damage... This grind is unbearable.

[@stareatyou]

im at 8889 atm... :(

[@xPookinator]

@@stareatyou oof, good luck. The farm is coming back in a week

[@donmcgreevy7097]

Great video man as always appreciate all the information and the breakdowns, sidenote, are you getting excited for remnant 2 dlc?

[@Bradleythebarbell]

With all that. For Lepic, wouldn’t it be more beneficial to have a secret garden reactor and run explosive stacks?

[@VashCowaii]

Sadly Garden's buff is lost on a weapon swap. And since using the 4th skill counts as a weapon swap, Garden is useless for his 4th

[@samchenmusik]

So basically... 7.1% guaranteed increase in damage when using a skill type ratio boost, but a 10.7% increase from skill crit damage but ONLY if you can guarantee 100% crit (which you cannot).

[@pillagius]

Pretty much Still, because amount of sources you can use to increase your Skill Power and Skill Power Modifier are limited and in case with mods - mutually exclusive (like "Spear and Shield" and "Iron Defense"), you have to go for crit if you want more damage with your powers. Crit mods provide fairly large damage boost so it's quite viable, as example: Bunny receives about 123.08% damage increase from all four maxed out crit mods installed.

[@alexandervowles3518]

Power Modifier Bucket includes technician (skill power modifier) and specialist (element skill power), so either one serves the same purpose in terms of damage?

[@VashCowaii]

element skill power isn't the same as skill power modifier

[@alexandervowles3518]

@VashCowaii thanks!

[@corndog9482]

wait... so Singular + Colossus with Hailey will be better than CritDmg% + Colossus? On his later video on Infernal Walker it says CritDmg%... I'm confused now lol

[@goldengrain9851]

Excuse me sir, can you give some of us the urban and rural version of your tutorials? Math was my least favorite subject. 😂😂😂😭

[@evilknight89]

LOL, subbed! end credits too strong.

[@hollowman1345]

So i assume that the best reactor for hailey is colossus dmg singular skill pwr with impact rounds weapon. Would that be correct?

[@VashCowaii]

that's super subjective, snipers still have a very good place on hailey and for good reason

[@AB-wf2js]

I recently got a toxic reactor with gold colossus damage and tech boost (all her abilities except for her 2 are tech), so if I understand correctly, I just got the best possible rolls for a freyna reactor? Shame it's only a purple though :(

[@AngelosRitter]

to be fair, i use a purple Reactor with Gold Cooldown and Skill cost on Ult ajax for Tanking. he dont need too much power. but yeah, ultimate is better

[@marshallobed7511]

I want to ask.... If i add tech specialist module and fire skill module on ult lepic with a reactor with gold tech boost ratio and atk vs colluss sub stats can i still get more damage with lepic ults

[@marshallobed7511]

Fire specialist I mean....can I still roughly get good damage with his ult or should I switch tech specialist for spear and shield

[@Xiomaio]

would a enemy with towed status be considered immobile?

[@sylwestermodzianowski9569]

13:34 aye now i fell caled out and i have to subscribe not fair

[@theprancingrat]

Im so interested in this topic despite not understanding a damn number told to me..

[@timothymclain]

So what’s the best Ultimate bunny reactor for mobbing? Electric boost w/skill critical hit damage? Or electric and singular boosts?

[@timmylaw]

"if you're running a purple reactor you're trolling yourself" YES!! I hate how many people run purple reactors.

[@hexerin]

Some of the strongest weapons aren’t Ultimates. Don’t just blindly look at numbers on papercraft, context and practical gameplay are just as (if not more) important.

[@timmylaw]

@@hexerin if you're using a tamer or eternal willpower you're trolling yourself.

[@hexerin]

@@timmylaw Of the three claims you've made in this comment thread so far, you're correct only for one of them. Improve your game knowledge.

[@timmylaw]

@@hexerin 1. I hate how many people run purple reactors. True, I do hate that. 2&3 I guess, tamer and eternal willpower suck for end game. There are better options

[@hexerin]

@@timmylaw Incorrect. 1 of 4.

[@untitled4841]

What about colossus and skill crit dmg? Edit: thanks for answering at the end. It seems type will be better in general.

[@VashCowaii]

We talked about both. Watch the video.

[@untitled4841]

Yup, i edited my comment. ​@@VashCowaii

[@VashCowaii]

@@untitled4841 nothing is better than colossus, we have a whole section on how that works. Type is AFTER colossus.

[@untitled4841]

​@@VashCowaiiyup. I meant type is better than crit dmg in general (unless guaranteed crit). Thanks for the video. Subbed and looking forward to your Hailey's janky skill calculation video 👍

[@xfrail]

best explanation to date! quick question 😅- why do we multiply the 0.261095262 into the equation twice? thank you in advance!

[@Fromavyn2xaen]

I'm really enjoying your First Descendant videos, I found you through Remnant 2, but one question I really had was about debuffs in this game. I love helping my team with buffs and debuffs, but you see a lot of players with an Enduring Legacy and I wanted to know how debuffs stack against Colossi, for example: is it better to bring Enduring Legacy x4 or 1 Enduring Legacy, 1 Nazeistra's Devotion, 1 Clairvoyance, or a gun with Analysis Master?

[@Redman12345tfd]

I’d love to see a valby build from you

[@felipeschmidt1190]

Which reactor do you suggest this week for Hailey?

[@JamesMichael333]

Anyone ever play Guild Wars? The first one, not the second one GW2 which was trash imo. Guild Wars 1 was a great game. Capping elite skills, grinding for ectos, learning and testing different skill builds, etc. There was a definite learning curve but it was manageable. This game the First Descendant seems to have a massive learning curve and seems to take some of the fun away for me. It seems they definitely could’ve simplified it just a teeny bit here and there.

[@VashCowaii]

I'll always remember GW1 fondly. I remember playing vanilla and the death of prince rurik in the shiverpeaks, I remember factions coming out, nightfall, so on and so forth. Usually bought each expansion with my brothers back in the day. I am not a fan of GW2 either in comparison, felt gutted though I am sure it's probably better now over the years but holy shit GW2 release was bad and I never went back after that letdown Quick edit: the irony is most people I talked to that played GW1 feel the same way btw, you're not alone there. Imo, the peeps that love GW2 just never played 1

[@JamesMichael333]

@ thanks for your reply. You mentioning Factions and Nightfall really brought me back. Such a good game. GW2 was NOTHING like the first. I mean it even had jumping puzzles. Just stupid and annoying. Gw1 was around for 7 years i think. And unfortunately i think i only caught the last 3 or so. Gw2 coming pretty much destroyed GW1. It emptied out and unfortunately nobody really came back after. I remember going to the most popular place in the game, The outpost Kamaden where everyone went to sell and buy, and it was pretty empty even in Zone 1. My favorite character to play was the Ritualist but i played many others as well. Supposed GW1 is still being played in a 2024 post. And supposedly Guild Wars 3 has quietly been confirmed as well. I wonder if they’re going to expand on GW2 or maybe go back to their roots with making it like GW1.

[@TruongNguyen-kc5ed]

I was wondering if you will be doing any new videos on space marines 2?

[@VashCowaii]

Probably not, between this and Remnant 2's upcoming DLC, I will have my hands full

[@jdurbois56]

🤣🤣 that ending text. your vids are always the best, found you when looking for remnent 2 builds, thanks for jumping over to tfd, are you planning on playing the new DLC for rem when it drops?

[@thepenitence]

We absolutely are 😎

[@AntiScxial]

Math make my brain hurt. Fk it I'll just believe you 😂

[@Casevaiandando]

cant wait for the Hailey video

[@VashCowaii]

Don't take this vid to mean a hailey vid is coming this week. Idk what my descendant order is gonna be yet.

[@Casevaiandando]

@@VashCowaii ik i read some of ur comments. i will be watching ur videos anyway. thx for ur guides

[@ader701220]

Math is beautiful

[@thepenitence]

0:08 Hey I know that guy :o

[@CasualTS]

Dang, how long were you farming?

[@thepenitence]

@@CasualTS Almost the whole week 😤

[@pillagius]

The oddly specific numbers in the game are confusing. Not in sense of calculation, but "why?!". I won't believe for a second that Nexon actually is balancing things at 1/10000th accuracy, so why the hell we have numbers like 11`1060.96 and such? So weird...

[@omarelrefai3570]

im too stupid for this, have a bucket

[@Cuddasforu]

Nice

[@D.Mom0]

Well shit, good thing i subscribed some time ago lmao

[@ervicguitang941]

Did they patch your lepic build? For some reason i only get 11 shots from my ult

[@VashCowaii]

I already replied to your other comment saying no, pick a video man :(

[@carlricher2324]

I have 14 shot and my max mp is blue so if you followed it you should get more than 11

[@ervicguitang941]

​@VashCowaii huh? This my first time commenting on your video lol

[@ervicguitang941]

​@@carlricher2324I followed everything on the lepic video, I'm still getting 11 shots. I don't know why

[@VashCowaii]

@@ervicguitang941 I can literally see your comment history, on this vid and others.

[@hypyo]

Love the witty smart mouth information lol

[@xyBano]

that sentence at the end made me click subscribe really fast lol - i feel threatend

[@Metro5oh]

Me sees new Vash upload: Gladge

[@edk.6306]

Didn't want to go out a "whore" so I subscribed. I hate math but this is good stuff to know actually. Funny, as you used Lepic build as an example, as I'm taking my Ult Lepic out "of the oven" today. Cheers!

[@hellianxlite]

i have a gold electric attk on my thunder cage's roll, does it contribute to my bunny electric skills dmg?

[@Smokedship]

Dude..... not sure if you meant to do this but this video just confuses the hell out of the whole thing far more than required.

[@gamingfordaysraw]

Where is his build? Does he even have it in the video?

[@VashCowaii]

May I ask what in the entirety of this video's existence, suggested it would be a build video?

[@TheBester94]

Day *45 B.C* of waiting for the unkillable Ajax build

[@AdventureStreamingGuys]

whacked but good info

[@SealFormulaMaster]

I'm going to argue for Purples for a few minutes, because there are some instances where they might be worth it. 1: If your character is a weapons specialist, you don't overly care about the Reactor since you aren't concerned with ability bonuses for the most part. For someone like Gley, you might not care about anything other than the sub stats to help cooldown. Also, if you're Rocket Gley, you REALLY don't care about Golds since Vestigial Origin isn't an Ultimate weapon. 2: Depending on what character you're using, you may not have the ability to both boss and mob. If I'm using Hailey, a character who can't mob effectively, and I'm running a dungeon like magister lab, I'll want to use a weapon like Thunder Cage as backup until I get to the boss. If my Reactor isn't a Thunder Cage specific one, I'll be losing out of skill power until I switch back to whatever weapon is required for that Reactor. Hailey doesn't overly care since her 2 is going to demolish Elites with or without the extra 60%, but for another like Valby or Blair you might need that extra bit.

[@kiddkammakazi2943]

Same here. I disagree on his purple reactor point. 15,485.344 skill power (purple matching), is significantly better than not matching it at all. It's much easier to farm with no annoying condition. I've done all the content with gold and purple reactors, but to say to not use purple reactors at all? That's quite a bit of a reach. This is gonna be a lot of misinformation and fearmongering to the new players who see this video. Until the looter filter is fixed/changed, a new player should not be worrying about perfect rolls. Just settle for a matching purple reactor with both skill boost ratios, so you can focus on other farms of the game.

[@VashCowaii]

I did specifically say it'd be trash for bosses in that context if you missed it. Purples for dungeon runs and whatnot if you've nothing else ye that's fine. As for the other bit I didn't add the distinction bc I didn't think I'd need to when talking about skill damage, but ye you're correct in that the difference only matters on skill damage characters, but it absolutely matters on those characters, the difference is not slight. I'm not advising for a complete genocide of purple reactors, only that nobody should settle for a purple on a boss specific, skill dmg build.

[@Av1]

​@@kiddkammakazi2943you have to be trolling, this is malicious levels of bad faith or poor comprehension

[@rgbxavier4289]

I’m trying to play a game not get a degree these numerical builds are just too much. I gotta pull out a calculator just to play this game like really…Bro just give me a weapon and some range and I’m good.

[@mr.g1672]

Ok so... I'm bilingual. I'm pretty fluent in English but there were so many words and technical stuff thrown around that i hand to rewind several times throughout the whole video cuz i got confused fast. Idk if this is a bad thing to ask but would it be possible for you to simplify your explanations just a little bit?

[@VashCowaii]

I can't say that I plan to change how I talk, sorry man

[@mr.g1672]

Fair, my apologies for the dumb question

[@bigmiki2620]

I don't fucking get it.

[@Retrospxa]

So bonus stat from exrra damage to colossus is useless

[@VashCowaii]

How on earth is that your takeaway here. When did I even come close to saying that. You did not watch this video dude.

[@Ccubed92]

This is definitely what 90 percent of the playerbase needs claiming the game is to hard because they dont know how to properly build a character and read what the items say