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Hailey Build Guide — Sniper Boss Nuke in The First Descendant

Hailey is the best single-target sniper in The First Descendant — here is her Chill build, Piercing Light setup, reactor, and how to unlock her.

6 min read

Hailey is the boss-melting sniper. She’s not a mob clearer — she’s the Descendant you bring when a Colossus needs to die from a safe distance, fast. Her whole identity is range: the further you are, the more weak-point damage you do.

What Hailey actually does

Safe Strategic Retreat (passive) means weak-point damage goes up the farther you are from the target — play at 25m+ and you’re golden. Storm Snare is the nuke: a massive Chill beam that’s one of the highest-scaling skills in the game. Cold Fury trades movement speed for crit rate, and Zenith (ult) borrows the mods from your on-hand weapon and fires them as a sniper shot.

Best weapon pairing

Piercing Light is the god pick — its Purification Light dispels enemies shot in weak points, setting them up for burst. Afterglow Sword is the alternate sniper. For trash, Enduring Legacy and Thunder Cage cover you (Cold Fury boosts their crit). Build your sniper with weak-point damage, crit damage, and Colossus damage.

Reactor + skill match

Frozen Singularity (Chill + Singular) is the match since Storm Snare and Zenith are Singular. Substats to chase: Skill Critical Hit Rate, Skill Critical Hit Damage, Chill Skill Power Boost, Singular Skill Power Boost, and Additional Skill ATK vs Colossus. Match the sniper optimization condition.

Core modules

Spear and Shield, Front Lines, Emergency Measures, Skill Insight, Skill Concentration, Shot Focus, Chill Specialist, Glacial Syncytium, and either Strong Mentality or Frugal Mindset. Mid-Air Maneuvering helps if you need capacity. Increased HP keeps you from getting one-shot while standing still.

External components

The Slayer set is the standard 4-piece — it boosts skill power and helps with Cold Fury’s MP hunger. Cores: Max MP, Max HP, MP Recovery.

Transcendent Module

As of current patches Hailey doesn’t have a build-defining Transcendent, so lean on the base kit and a clean sniper.

How to get Hailey

Research her for 400k gold (or 900 Caliber). Her DNA materials come from Invasion dungeons and Hard Infiltrations — see the unlock guide.

Beginner friendliness: High skill, safe playstyle

She’s strong even on a budget and plays safely at range, but she’s a boss specialist, not a farmer. Check the tier list and the beginner guide before investing.

More TFD build guides: Serena · Ines · Freyna · Bunny · Gley · Nell · Viessa · Valby · Sharen · Lepic · Blair · Kyle

Useful resources: best weapons · tier list · modding · unlock descendants · common mistakes · beginner guide

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