How Stagger Actually Works - The First Descendant

[@VashCowaii]

The site is now updated with the stagger/frenzy/rage stats. cowaii.io/TFD/BossStats/ Supporter link(gotta renew, it expires): creators.nexon.com/s/vashcowaii%236354?serviceId=74

[@cwtopel]

Samuel Beckett said, "We stagger on. We struggle. We exist. We dream. We die." In light of this, it's possible that Samuel is fairly new to the game and this guide will undoubtedly help with his farming.

[@cobobonzobobby]

I actually enjoy the randomized element of this. Keeps it fresh, rather than absolutely robotic.

[@Slayershini]

This information is all very staggering.

[@VashCowaii]

god damnit

[@mikerelf]

You know, when I thought "stagger feels so random", I didn't expect it to ACTUALLY BE random >.>

[@donmcgreevy7097]

As always thank you for the clarification

[@t3hpwninat0r]

So you're saying the reason why it sometimes takes longer to stagger and sometimes shorter is because.... it just does.

[@ChangedCauseYT-HateFoxNames]

No. More accurately the reason why it sometimes takes longer, and sometimes shorter is because it sometimes takes longer, and sometimes shorter.

[@Khiraza]

Totally watched the video already, it was great, 10/10 would lie again

[@IzanagiO]

It's gotten to the point where I click on these vids just to hear the yapping. I don't even care about how stagger works.

[@Zayne_79]

Thank you so much for all the work you put in to inform us! Very appreciated. The devs 100% said „fuck it, we ball“ 😂

[@jrcoool]

Holy shit, that makes so much sense. Explains why Swamp Walker is such a pain in the ass and why in some runs Molten Fortress would just not fall down when I'm using Hailey. Also, lmao, no wonder Gluttony is such a joke xD

[@Zero_ocxo]

Now these are the videos we need, thank you!

[@MaxenePain-tf1sj]

NGL, that Thumbnail got me lol, That's truly Ajax under the helmet lol

[@eisenford724]

when Vash talks, everyone should pay attention and listen

[@cainednd]

OMG this explains things so much now why my Gley Smithereens build would sometimes get owned before I could stagger Defiler, and other times I was the one owning Defiler. Now I can stop raging. =) Thank you for this explanation Vash.

[@Fromavyn2xaen]

Anytime I hear the line about sharks being found in only 2 places on Earth I always burst out laughing and think about Strange Wilderness 🤣

[@TyTimeIsAwesome]

Vash's analytical approach is always a big W.

[@jimbomaker]

and now let us wait for all those YT content creators , you know who they are , jump onto this band wagon , thanks Vash as always top man . Oh and sorry I missed the twitch stream .

[@DiliosBR]

Your videos are so fun to watch!

[@Jo30136]

I hate that Stagger is random, but I also kind of understand why they did it this way. Regardless, this video presents a lot of useful information! Thanks!

[@thefrostbite]

She should be called staggering beauty

[@Tigerbro6]

i miss your remnant vids, probably one of my fave yt channels but I don't care about first descendant so i'm ehre just you go on bro get your content

[@bknight3391]

Well now i know why Defiler goes into rage before I stagger him on something like 1 in 10 runs. Thanks for the break down.

[@TyTimeIsAwesome]

Who are you using? If I use Ines, I almost always stagger him before he rages.

[@Too_Restless]

This video needs to be seen by more people

[@nyaughty8561]

For swamp walker I wait for him to play a long animation like the cannon charge or multi rockets to push beyond frenzy into stagger and 1phase him.

[@dohtje5029]

You say weak point shots doesn't matte right? But if I use my VI Freyna, and shoot the shoulders (or MF's huge ass weak points) the bosses often just frenzies, but when I focus on the chest weak point area (or no weak point at all with MF) they do go into stagger just about always. It's especially happens a lot with MF and Observer, but occasionally with others as well when I'm not paying attention and accidentally shoot the shoulders anyway... Yes... Even freaking pyro... 😒 You have an idea why that is?

[@tientrung9x1998]

Quality work as always, you earn your sub my dude

[@yorhaa7560]

now it all makes sense! Thanks Vash!

[@spudbyte7621]

Anyone that can say Jayber queef without cracking, and then do it again, is why we all listen with gobs open... oh, and the maths help.

[@thepenitence]

We had Dark Current with us all along

[@theshellderinslowbrostail5422]

So it wasnt just a skill issue of mine, its RNG. Even this has rng, wtf. Also Vash, the Ines Void Erosion build works wonders. Thanks

[@DaShikuXI]

Dude I literally looked for this like an hour ago and couldn't find anything proper on it. This is exactly the video I needed.

[@titan_main]

So it actually is just random to a certain point. Annoying but definitely good to know. Also makes a lot of sense with Swamp walker. I thought Ines would finally be the Swamp Queen but I still have to pull out a weapon and break his knee caps most of the time which takes longer than soloing Defiler.

[@DaShikuXI]

So I've been trying to one phase gluttony recently and have had wildly inconsistent results. Sometimes I'd get the stagger and sometimes I wouldn't. I've been blaming my aim and my builds, thinking i was just doing something wrong. Knowing now that on like half the gluttony fights his stagger threshold is just arbitrarily higher than his frenzy threshold actually pisses me off. I feel like I've wasted so much time trying to fix faults that I didn't have.

[@leoskykuni]

Alot of these make quite a bit of sense like gluttony and swamp being a pain and i have a clip of getting pyro into frenzy twice during one lepic ult

[@truepixls]

I knew gluttony had something going on with his scan; I'm not smart enough to figure it out but I'm so happy i was right when i came to waiting on the scan

[@Retrospxa]

sometimes u need only 1 shoot zenith from hailey, too fully frenzy in pyromaniac

[@surtalogi3704]

I guess there is no Stagger build up at all when you break a colossus part, stagger them that way and damage him while he's down? Or does staggering by grappling and destroying a colossus part even completely reset the Stagger bar?

[@DangerousDave-j4k]

Very informative. Thanks

[@Geoffrey.McDonald]

Perfect thumbnail

[@jamieosu]

Just using Devourer as an example, wouldn't it still be possible to frenzy him without stagger if you were to die or not apply damage and it triggers stagger decay? Or does the frenzy decay as well in that situation? Say you needed to do 5.5mil to stagger, you get to 5mil then die and the stagger decays enough that you end up doing another million damage and reach that 6 mil frenzy mark before making your way back up to that 5.5mil stagger mark.

[@augiesaint]

Jayber queef most powerful thing about jayber 10/10

[@arnaldob.g.9934]

Now I know why I can't one phase Gluttony and sometimes big tortoise goes to frenzy and that's a painful in the a##

[@exarkunn69]

I got the moves like stagger!

[@violenceandpoetry]

Hey Vash, would Walk a Tightrope work for a 1hp build Enzo? Or would his 1HP be 100% of his health, giving him no benefit from the module?

[@pillagius]

Huh... Interesting. I wanted more randomized aspects to enemy encounters, but that's not what I had in mind...

[@joeyperry3211]

Valby build next?

[@Graplevader]

You ever say a word enough times and it starts sounding odd or "fake"?

[@moosetrees]

A stagger video before a Valby video? 2025 truly is a terrible year. 😂😢

[@VashCowaii]

BRO

[@FalseFateX]

The way you word / phrase things is pure comedy man, "at the speed of a dying turtle" got me

[@HunterDigi]

7:55 how are minions giving frenzy to colossi? Would be useful to know :P

[@thefrostbite]

They talk shit about his mom

[@random2wins570]

Does Yujin benefit from HP recovery/heal modules?

[@su88906]

finally🎉 thank you now just go for strategy, when is it to burst or hold.

[@su88906]

or just wait to burst or use which first then use which after

[@LzHiei]

This is cool and all but where is Jayber video ?

[@robtrzci4365]

When you hear "stagger" you drink

[@delephantz]

o thats what changed with gluttony? weird

[@KaidenTXD]

Take a shot for every time he says stagger

[@JamescMichel]

You know who else is at two hemispheres. My mom! Woooooooooooooo!

[@ChangedCauseYT-HateFoxNames]

Muscle man! Nooo!

[@Slyspa]

Yujin vid when? Since you use his outro music every video

[@Daddiewarrbucks]

The Stagger Dagger

[@TCGSyphax]

the stagger range being completely random and the player not being able to see it on the UI is a CHOICE nexxon

[@VashCowaii]

The range is kinda w/e but if it's not consistent, the inability to see a bar for it, especially since it decays crazy fast, is a little annoying

[@TimoNaaro]

actually. damage is bad it kills you!

[@TimoNaaro]

how do I do grapple part break? saw like one tutorial for it year ago when started but never done it and never noticed any teams mates doing it. so wtF :D

[@ChangedCauseYT-HateFoxNames]

Shoot a weak point until it turns yellow. When the weak point is yellow, proceed to aim at it and grapple to it. When you have done this correctly, *DON'T MINDLESSLY PRESS THE FIRE BUTTON* . I don't know the other platform inputs so I'll use the PS5 controller scheme so do the equivalent on your platform. R2 does a punch and is the fire button, heavily damaging the weak point/breaking it. Holding L2 gives you a tighter grip to the colloses and will mean when it's thrashing around to throw you off, you won't get tired out any faster. YOU WILL NEED TO HOLD ON TIGHTER WHEN GRAPPLING, YOU CANNOT IGNORE THIS MECHANIC AND BREAK THE LIMB. YOU WILL TIRE OUT *LONG* BEFORE THE LIMB BREAKS. Breaking the limb via a grapple ALWAYS results in a stagger. With this in mind, *DON'T BE THE DUMBASS SHOOTING THE LIMB A TEAMMATE GRAPPLED ONTO* . You don't know its health, and the grapple punch will always be able to break the limb in 1 attempt so long as they aren't a glue sniffer mindlessly punching the limb. The stagger on the colloses is guaranteed *ONLY* if the grappler breaks it, *NO ONE ELSE* . Extra important information You need to break the limb in 1 grapple attempt for 2 major reasons. 1, all colloses have a grapple cool down which is displayed by yellow weak points turning a grey color. The colloses can't be grappled in that moment so wait. 2, colloses cannot be frenzied while grappled which is why more advanced players grapple the weak point, punch it until it breaks in one hit and then hold L2 until they're about to naturally fall off and yes, this's why for the third time I'm saying this, *DON'T SHOOT THE GRAPPLED LIMB. YOU WILL BREAK IT AND HAVE A VERY HIGH CHANCE THE INTERCEPT FAILED BECAUSE OF YOU* .

[@thepenitence]

You damage a boss weakpoint, the ones that glow blue when you scan, until they glow yellow. During this you can grapple onto them and use the attack button to punch it until it breaks. And not all weakpoints can be grappled either.

[@QwertyBoredom122]

You use your grapple hook when a part is yellow, from there you can either hold on to it with RMB during which time the Colosi won't gain frenzy or you can hold LMB to break it off, ideally you should try to achieve both.

[@Robstar0]

Thanks, but this raises a new question. If frenzy is not random, why does a boss go into frenzy after taking very different amounts of damage? Using bubble bullet on molten fortress gives such a different results every time!

[@MeltonCrest]

You sure tell people to uninstall a lot lately. Well, jokes on you i'll keep doing everything wrong until you lose even the last of your hair.

[@myorigaccisbroken]

Stagger being a range explains SO MUCH. WTF. I thought I was dumb all these months.

[@SKSolomon1]

LOW KEY FIRST

[@FriedGear]

You seem so much angrier at your viewers in your recent videos. Don't let the stupid redditors get you down mate.

[@Keyshawn13]

Nah seems pretty normal as usual

[@ChangedCauseYT-HateFoxNames]

I can't blame him. Although bad character is unacceptable, right now his anger is derived from the fact that he's an educating channel which means he must deal with people that don't know what they're doing or saying BUT think they know something.

[@siladjyzer]

you're a cat guy, i'm disappointed

[@VashCowaii]

You're just NOW finding that out? Is there a tfd video I've made that DID NOT have a cat?

[@kingsizesenpai8208]

​@@VashCowaiiLuna..... lol

[@JordanIJordan]

And none of this even remotely matters if you play smart instead of always brute force. Example: I have never frenzied a boss as my Kyle can easily stagger and Ult any boss 3x for free. It's not a "6 second fight" but I personally find it more fun and satisfying. It even works on 4 man runs when there are no knuckleheads to ult with their lepic, frenzy the boss die and leave the battle

[@VashCowaii]

"instead of brute force" "My kyle can-" Bro. One of the highest burst characters in the game, the literal definition of brute force, is kyle.

[@JordanIJordan]

@VashCowaii He can also play strategic tank. and I used "brute force" as more official version of "barf dmg and run". And Kyle was just 1 example, works with Viessa, Gley, Freyna, Enzo, Esimo, Sharen, Blair, Hailey. Don't focus on a single example

[@simonrandall7532]

stagger is NOT random, for instance it always triggers on the last bullet in the mag of my enduring legacy......lol

[@VashCowaii]

Nah.

[@AlanJustWokeUp]

Also, while a boss is grappled, breaking a part adds to the frezy bar and can cause the boss to frenzy while grappled, so PLEASE stop breaking parts when i grapple Deathstalker and the frenzy bar is on the edge 🥲

[@iamzer0938]

That shouldn’t happen, the boss shouldn’t be gathering frenzy when damaged during a grapple, unless that’s a fix they called out in the patch notes that should not be happening. Whether it is damage or breaking other parts. Side tangent, I know if you make a boss flinch while the final animation for the grapple break happens at the same time, the topple doesn’t happen. Kinda lame tbh, and really unfortunate timing.

[@xXimakidXx]

so it's just bullshit rng u can't work around? like swamp walker farm you gotta wait for him to start some kind of animation and then rail his ass?

[@allisonsantos1808]

tip: if you are farming the colossus that have Frost/Swamp Walker model using someone like Hailey or Freyna, try targeting the center weakpoint and the region around It. Try and see if there is any difference...

[@xXimakidXx]

@@allisonsantos1808 i just did 20 swamp walker runs with piercing light fully kitted and he doesn't ever seem to frenzy. after the first shot to his eyeball he always gets stunned so whatever. 100% winrate i'm fine with it :)