Best Smithereens Build for Season 3 – The First Descendant

by JFFK · September 26, 2025

Welcome to The First Descendant Smithereens Build. This Smithereens Build is updated for Season 3. Smithereens grants an increased critical hit rate and damage when all bullets hit the enemy!

Table of Contents:

You can also view our All Ultimate Weapons in The First Descendant list.

Smithereens Summary

The Smithereens is an Ultimate Shotgun. This weapon was named so because even the Colossi and Vulgus are said to have been smashed to smithereens by the gun’s owner. The closer it is to its target, the more powerful it is.

Name: Smithereens
Type: Shotgun
Bullets: High-Power Rounds
Tier: Ultimate
Unique Ability: Fearlessness

Unique Ability “Fearlessness”

On hitting the enemy with all fired bullets, increases the Firearm Critical Hit Rate and Firearm Critical Hit Damage of the attack. Upon landing a Critical Hit on an enemy, grants the Firearm’s unique ability Amplification.

Amplification

Duration 2s
Shell Capacity 4

On landing all bullets

Firearm Critical Hit Rate Fixed 100%
Firearm Critical Hit Damage 10

Smithereens Build for The First Descendant

This is a Single-Target DPS setup.

Next, let us take a look at an optimized Smithereens Build for The First Descendant. The Smithereens is best optimized to have as much burst damage as possible.

Here is all the info you need to create a powerful Smithereens Build:

Note: High-Level Weapon Cores boost your weapons’ damage numbers into insanity. Make sure to get weapon cores as soon as possible!

Smithereens Modules

Modules are an important part of every weapon build in The First Descendant. For the Smithereens shotgun, we want to focus on Multi-Hit damage.

Smithereens Module Configuration Table
Module Slot	Module Name
1	Multi-Percussion Sight
2	Multi-Trigger Support Ammo
3	Multi-Piercing Trigger
4	Multi-Fire
5	Shell UP
6	First-Class Marksman
7	Fire Rate UP
8	Hawk-Eye
9	Vibration Absorption
10	Fire Enhancement

Weapon Readjustment

You can use the Weapon Readjustment at the Weapon Workbench in Albion. Here are the best Weapon Readjustments for the Smithereens:

Firearm ATK
Elemental Damage
Multi-Hit Damage
Multi-Hit Chance

Try to upgrade the Weapon Readjustments to at least purple quality.

Weapon Cores

Weapon Cores juice up your damage quite tremendously. However, especially the later-level Weapon Cores are difficult to get. So start with whatever weapon cores you have available. Weapon Cores drop in the Void Erosion Purge endgame activity.

Higher level Weapon Cores drop in the higher level Void Erosion Purge levels in The First Descendant. However, you can gradually work towards the highest level. I recommend trying to get to level six as soon as possible, since it won’t require clearing many stages and will already increase the power of your weapon tremendously.

Best Weapon Cores for the Smithereens:

Fire Rate (Free Augmentation)
Firearm ATK (Firepower Augmentation)
Aimed Shot Accuracy (Precision Augmentation)
Aimed Shot Accuracy (Precision Augmentation)
Flex (Special Augmentation)

The first two cores are most important, the others don’t really matter that much!

Smithereens Lore

The name “Smithereens,” which may sound a bit odd for a firearm, was originally a nickname given to the weapon shortly after its development.

It was first created to serve as a powerful countermeasure against giant enemies like the Colossi. The shotgun’s characteristic firepower was effective against large targets like the Colossi.

Once completed, its destructive power and kinetic energy far exceeded early estimations. It got the name “Smithereens” after its synergy with the CLSS Buckshot Shotgun Bullet, developed specifically to target large Colossi, demonstrated overwhelming power to destroy everything in its path.