The First Descendant: Blair Build & Best Loadout

Welcome to The First Descendant Blair Build Guide.

In this guide, we will explain how to create a powerful build for the Blair Descendant. We’ll cover how the skills work and which weapons, stats and modules you need to create the most powerful build for Blair. Visit The First Descendant Builds page for more TFD Character Builds.

He can clearly distinguish cooking from incineration. He enjoys cooking for his teammates.

Table of Contents:

How to play Blair
How to unlock Blair
Skills Explanation

Blaze Up
Extinguish
Burn Taste
Deadly Cuisine
Pitmaster (Passive)

Descendant Modules
Best Weapons & Weapon Modules
Reactor
External Components
Blair’s Story

Here is a quick list of the pros and cons of the Blair Build for The First Descendant.

How to Play Blair in the First Descendant

Blair is a fairly beginner-friendly Descendant in TFD because his skills are all simple and easy to use, and his passive is easily triggered by using these skills without giving it much active thought or strategy. That said, understanding how Blair’s skills and passives fit together obviously makes you better at playing him.

Blair’s combat style is centred around setting enemies ablaze, causing the Burn debuff to tick for extra damage over time and creating fire AoEs, which also deal damage over time to any enemies too close to the flames. Blair excels at dealing DPS to groups of enemies due to these skills.

Blair’s passive is called Pitmaster, and it rewards players with extra Critical Hit Chance for having Flame Zones active (the buff can stack up to three times for the maximum bonus), and you also get extra Critical Damage when you attack an enemy who is Burning. This passive incentivizes the proper use of Blair’s skills and emphasizes the importance of proactively finding ways to catch as many enemies as possible in Blair’s fire AOEs.

Once sufficiently levelled up, Blair can throw a giant fireball with the Deadly Cuisine skill. On impact, this fireball splits into three smaller fireballs, which fall nearby and explode. This skill not only activates all aspects of the Pitmaster passive, it also deals huge damage to groups of enemies and is pretty good against single-targets too. The large cooldown of this skill does mean that you shouldn’t be too wasteful with it when possible, but don’t be too afraid to use it, either.

We also ranked Blair’s kit and playstyle and added him to our The First Descendant Tier List – Best Characters.

How to Unlock Blair in The First Descendant

Let’s take a quick look at how to unlock Blair in the First Descendant. To unlock Blair, you have to purchase him from the store, or research him. You need the following items to research Blair:

1x Blair Enhanced Cells

Location: White-night Gulch Normal – Mystery’s End

1x Blair Stabilizer

Location: White-night Gulch Normal – Bio-Lab

1x Blair Spiral Catalyst

Location: Hagios Normal – The Haven

1x Blair Code

Location: Hagios Normal – Old Mystery

400k Credits

When you visit Magisters Anais at the Research Institute you can hover over each item. Then click on Acquisition Info and it will tell you where this specific item drops. You can also view an in-depth guide on How to unlock Blair in The First Descendant.

The First Descendant Blair Skills Explained

In this section, we are going to explain the skills available to our Blair Build in the First Descendant, how each skill works and the best ways for you to use them.

Blaze Up

Spurts flame to deal damage to nearby enemies and creates Stove. Stove inflicts constant damage and Burn effect to nearby enemies.

Blaze Up Skill Description:

Fire – Dimension
Spews fire and creates a Flame Zone on the ground.
Enemies that enter the Flame Zone receive continuous damage and are inflicted with Burn.

How to use Blaze Up:

Blaze Up is an AoE DoT (area of effect damage over time) skill. It is good when fighting against groups of enemies, as you’ll get much more value from the AoE, although it’s still worth using against a strong single target for extra damage. The damage from Blaze Up is rather tame – the true value of the skill is its ability to inflict Burn on many enemies at once, playing into the Blair’s Pitmaster passive for extra Critical Hit Damage. The skill will also spawn a Flame Zone, increasing your Critical Chance (also thanks to the Pitmaster passive).

Extinguish

Retrieves Stoves in the battlefield and restores Mana. Retrieving Stoves increases DEF for a short period of time.

Extinguish Description:

Fire – Singular
Retrieves the Flame Zones created on the battlefield and recovers MP in proportion to the amount retrieved.
On retrieval, gain Taste of Aggression for a period of time.
Taste of Aggression increases Firearm ATK and Skill Power.
Flame Zones summoned earlier are retrieved first.

How to use Extinguish:

You can use Extinguish to “pack up” at the end of an engagement, retrieving your Flame Zones in return for MP recovery. Alternatively, you can use the skill at an opportune moment in combat (for example, if you have a good shot on a boss Weak Point) to gain a modest buff to Firearm ATK and Skill Power, provided you retrieve at least one Flame Zone.

Burn Taste

Spurts flames forward. Enemies near the flames’ arrival point are inflicted with constant damage and Burn effect.

Burn Taste Description:

Fire – Dimension
Emits flames forward, inflicting continuous damage and Burn upon enemies near the fire.

How to use Burn Taste:

Another AoE DoT attack, Burn Taste is essentially a flame breath attack that will hit enemies at close range in front of Blair. Use it alongside Blaze Up to inflict enemies with extra Burn damage. Unlike Blaze Up, Burn Taste does not create a Flame Zone.

However, the upside of this skill is that the main DoT (not the Burn effect) ticks very quickly, so it’s very good when you need a rapid burst of damage.

Deadly Cuisine

Throws a large fireball forward. Large fireball splits into small fireballs causing extra explosion. Explosion damage inflicts the Burn effect and creates a Burn Zone on the ground.

Deadly Cuisine Description:

Fire – Dimension
Fires a Giant Fireball forward.
On explosion, the Giant Fireball inflicts AoE damage to nearby enemies and splits into multiple Small Fireballs, which create additional explosions.
Small Fireballs deal AoE damage to enemies near the explosion site, inflicting Burn and creating a Flame Zone.

How to use Deadly Cuisine:

Deadly Cuisine is your most damaging skill when playing as Blair in TFD. It is great against both many and single targets (especially if the single target is large). It creates three Small Fireballs after the initial hit, which then explode. The Small Fireballs actually deal more damage than the large one. They also apply Burn and create a Flame Zone, dealing extra damage over time and playing into Blair’s Pitmaster passive for extra Critical Chance and Critical Damage.

This skill has a very long cooldown and is expensive, so try to use it wisely. But at the same time, don’t hold off on using it too much – if you barely ever use it because you’re too weary of the long cooldown, then you’ll end up just wasting the damage potential of the skill!

Pitmaster (Passive)

Critical Hit Damage increases when attacking Burning enemies. Critical Hit Chance increases depending on the number of active Flame Zones.

Pitmaster Passive Description:

Fire
When attacking enemies inflicted with Burn, increases Firearm and Skill Critical Hit Damage.
Increases Critical Hit Rate based on the number of Flame Zones created on the battlefield.

How to use Pitmaster:

Pitmaster is a passive skill, which means it is always active. It incentivises you to make the most of Blair’s ability to set enemies alight and create Flame Zones, as doing so will buff his other Skills and firearm attacks with extra Critical Chance and Critical Damage. This passive is quite beginner friendly because it works quite well by itself, as Blair will often set enemies alight as long as you are using his Skills. To get the most out of the passive, ensure you set alight every enemy that you are fighting, and have three or more active Flame Zones as often as possible.

Blair BUild Modules for The First Descendant

In this section, we will explain the recommended Descendant Modules for this Blair Build in the First Descendant.

Important! When equipping Modules on Blair, make sure that as many modules as possible are in a slot with a matching icon (top left corner on tooltip). This will halve their Module Capacity Cost.

Your Module Capacity Cost limits how many modules you can equip, and can be upgraded as you level up your character. Different modules have a different Capacity Cost, which generally depends on how powerful the Module is. This is a balancing system to prevent players from only equipping the strongest modules and having a totally overpowered character.

Module Guides:

Module Basics – The First Descendant
How to Level Up Modules in The First Descendant
How To Farm Modules in The First Descendant
How to increase Module Capacity in The First Descendant

Blair Leveling Modules Setup

You should be able to get the following Blair Leveling Setup with approximately level 25-30. This is a good base setup to have before preparing to farm the max-level Blair Build for The First Descendant.

We recommend using the following modules:

Truly Deadly Cuisine – Significantly increases the damage of Giant Fireball. When Giant Fireball explodes, spawns Small Fireballs instead of Flame Zones
Focus on Dimension – Improves Dimension Skill Power Modifier. Decreases Skill Cooldowns.
Front Lines – Improves Skill Critical Hit Damage and Rate
Skill Insight – Improves Skill Critical Hit Rate
Increased HP – Increases your Max HP
Nimble Fingers – Reduces Skill Cooldowns
Shock Punch – Changes your Sub Attack to a Shock Punch. Also increases max Module Capacity, depending on the enhancement level of this Module. You can use a different Sub Attack Module if you prefer; the only important part is the Module Capacity increase.
Dimension Master – Improves Skill Power, with a smaller increase to Dimension Skill Power Modifier
Skill Concentration – Improves Skill Critical Hit Damage
Emergency Measures – Improves Skill Critical Rate and Damage
Time Distribution – Reduces Skill Cooldowns. Increases Max HP.

Important: When fighting against Colossi in Void Intercept Battles, we recommend replacing this Module with either the Cold, Electric, Heat or Toxic Antibody Modules, depending on the attack attribute of the Colossus you are facing.

Spear and Shield – Improves DEF and Skill Power

Blair Max Level Modules Setup

We recommend using the following modules:

Truly Deadly Cuisine – Significantly increases the damage of Giant Fireball. When Giant Fireball explodes, spawns Small Fireballs instead of Flame Zones
Focus on Dimension – Improves Dimension Skill Power Modifier. Decreases Skill Cooldowns.
Front Lines – Improves Skill Critical Hit Damage and Rate
Skill Insight – Improves Skill Critical Hit Rate
Increased HP – Increases your Max HP
Nimble Fingers – Reduces Skill Cooldowns
Shock Punch – Changes your Sub Attack to a Shock Punch. Also increases max Module Capacity, depending on the enhancement level of this Module. You can use a different Sub Attack Module if you prefer; the only important part is the Module Capacity increase.
Dimension Master – Improves Skill Power, with a smaller increase to Dimension Skill Power Modifier
Skill Concentration – Improves Skill Critical Hit Damage
Emergency Measures – Improves Skill Critical Rate and Damage
Time Distribution – Reduces Skill Cooldowns. Increases Max HP.

Important: When fighting against Colossi in Void Intercept Battles, we recommend replacing this Module with either the Cold, Electric, Heat or Toxic Antibody Modules, depending on the attack attribute of the Colossus you are facing.

Spear and Shield – Improves DEF and Skill Power

Which Modules Should I Upgrade?

The first upgrade priority should always be the Sub Attack Module, because fully upgrading this will improve your Module Capacity. Next, fully upgrade the Modules that give you HP and DEF. If you have the Truly Deadly Cuisine Module, upgrade that next, because it starts out very expensive but gets cheaper with each upgrade.

When you’ve done all of these things, use your remaining Module Capacity to fully upgrade the Modules that provide Skill Power, then distribute your remaining capacity evenly between Crit and Cooldown and any other  Modules you haven’t upgraded yet. How far you take it depends on how much time and effort you’re willing to put into the build. If you use a lot of Crystallization Catalysts to fine-tune your Module Slots, then you can make the Modules in the build a lot cheaper to slot, allowing for more upgrades.

Best Weapons & Weapon Mods for our TFD Blair Build

In this section, we will explain the best weapons for our TFD Blair Build and the ideal weapon mods for them. The Thunder Cage Submachine Gun is the only important weapon for our TFD Blair Build Loadout. To max out all the mods listed here your Weapon module capacity must be maxed. If you don’t have enough slots yet, make sure to follow the prioritization queue.

How to get modules: Go to your map and then select Access Info on the top of your screen. Select Modules and type in what module you want to search for. Next, click on Acquisition Info and you will see where those have a chance to drop.

We recommend using the following weapon for Blair in the First Descendant:

Enduring Legacy – Machine Gun

Enduring Legacy is a powerful ultimate-tier machine gun that puts a debuff on enemies when you hit them, causing them to be weak to fire damage.

If you don’t have Enduring Legacy yet, you can use a different Machine Gun weapon and it won’t affect the build much.

This is a high DPS weapon with a quick fire-rate. It suits Blair’s Build very well in The First Descendant due to its great damage output, allowing you to add to the fire from your summoned turrets with your own rapid hail of bullets.

We are using the following weapons mods for the Enduring Legacy Weapon:

Hawk-Eye – Improves your Accuracy
Rifling Reinforcement – Significantly improves your Firearm Attack
Concentrate Support Ammo – You get more rounds per magazine, and slightly more Firearm Critical Hit Damage
Action and Reaction – Improves Firearm Attack and Recoil
Marksman – Improves Firearm Critical Hit Rate, and slightly improves Attack
Weak Point Sight – Greatly improves Weak Point Damage
Fire Rate Up – Significantly improves your Fire Rate

Nazeistra’s Devotion – Hand Cannon

Nazeistra’s Devotion is a great secondary weapon for the Blair Build. It works especially well if you’re good at aiming and are confident at hitting enemy Weak Points.

Hitting an enemy’s weakpoints with Nazeistra’s Devotion reduces their Defence by 30% for 3 seconds, indirectly buffing the damage of all of your attacks. A carefully-aimed shot from Nazeistra’s Devotion therefore makes for a great opener when fighting strong single targets.

We recommend the following Modules for Nazeistra’s Devotion:

Rifling Reinforcement – Increase Firearm ATK
Better Insight – Increase Firearm Critical Rate
Better Concentration – Increase Firearm Critical Damage
Vibration Absorption – Reduces Recoil
Fire Rate UP – Increases the Fire Rate
Hawk-Eye – Improves Accuracy
Expand Impact Magazine – Improves Magazine Size

Prioritize upgrading Modules that increase Firearm ATK, Critical Rate and Critical Damage. Then upgrade the others, if you still have remaining capacity.

Afterglow Sword – Sniper Rifle

Another great secondary weapon can help buff Blair’s damage if you hit enemy Weak Points. Hitting an enemy’s Weak Point with the Afterglow Sword will inflict Death Propagation, improving Weak Point Damage by 5% per stack. You’ll also get extra Critical Rate when hitting Commanders and Colossi with this weapon.

We recommend using the following Modules for the Afterglow Sword:

Weak Point Expansion – Increases Weak Point Damage on Weak Point Hit, with a 15 second Cooldown.
Rifling Reinforcement – Increases Firearm ATK
Weak Point Sight – Increases Weak Point Damage
Pinpoint Shot – Increases Firearm ATK and Weak Point Damage.
Weak Point Detection – Increases Weak Point Damage and Firearm ATK
Slow Art – Increases Firearm ATK, with a smaller decrease to Fire Rate
Fire/Chill/Electric/Toxic Enhancement (optional) – Recommended when fighting against Colossi in Void Intercept Battles. You should use the Enhancement Module that the Colossus is weak to.

The Weak Point Expansion, Rifling Reinforcement and Weak Point Sight Modules are by far the most important, and we recommend enhancing these to max level before adding/upgrading the other Modules.

Please note that it’s perfectly fine to swap out the Hand Cannon or Sniper with a different weapon if you prefer something else; doing this won’t have any real impact on the build’s performance and is mostly a matter of personal preference.

Best Reactor Stats for Blair in The First Descendant

Your Reactor is a very important item that determines your skill damage and can also include extra modifiers that buff certain aspects of your build. The better your Reactor is, the more damage your skills will deal to enemies.

We recommend prioritizing using a Reactor with a high Skill Power and Sub Attack Power. Secondly, look out for a Reactor that buffs Fire and/or Dimension skills, as most of Blair’s damaging skills fall into these categories. After that, look out for Reactors with a boost to your Skill Critical Hit Damage, which will improve the amount of damage dealt when you land a critical hit.

Also, look out for an Optimization Condition that you can easily fulfill with your Blair build. For example, we have a Reactor that requires an equipped Sniper Rifle to meet the Optimization Condition. Meeting the condition increases the Skill Power of your reactor, so it’s important to meet this whenever possible.

The name of a reactor can be determined by the following. For example a reactor with the name Tingling in it means it is good for anything that deals Electric damage.

The First Descendant Blair’s attribute is Fire and his skills use the following types:

Singular (Blaze Up)
Dimension (Extinguish, Burn Taste, Deadly Cuisine)

That means you want to pick a reactor with the following names:

Burning Phase: Boost to Fire Dimension type
Burning Singularity: Boost to Fire and Singular type

The First Descendant Blair Build has more Dimension type skills (3 vs 1). Therefore, we want to select a Burning Phase reactor. However, any will do until you have a proper version of a reactor!

External Components

Finally, we have the best External Components for the Blair build in the First Descendant.

With your External Components, you will be somewhat subject to RNG, at least until you’ve played the game for long enough to find basically every possible combination with good stat rolls.

In general, we recommend prioritizing components with the following stats:

Max Shield
Max HP
HP Recovery
DEF

Blair’s Story in The First Descendant

A chef who deals continuous damage and who manipulates fire.

Fresh vegetables, toast free of sawdust, savoury and thick soup, and a juicy, processed meat steak that has been perfectly matured and grilled. Such a meal would be considered excessive even during a festive period for the desperate members of humanity, but whenever this menu appeared at the mess hall, the troops were unable to hide their gloom. Known as “The Last Supper”, it was part of a military tradition where soldiers were fed this meal just before a dangerous operation.

As the best chef in Albion who has prepared the final meal for many years, Blair possessed an incredible talent for cooking which had even exempted him from conscription, but he no longer wished to cook for the military. After all, did his best cooking have any meaning for those who ate it with a heavy heart? Instead, Blair always wanted to be able to cook delicious meals for the troops who may be having their final meal on any given day, and he had a promising plan to realize this desire. If he could find and open the hyper-cold ingredients vault that had been designed a century ago, during humanity’s golden age, his plan would no longer be unachievable.

However, one day, there was an incident during which a Colossus had appeared above the ingredients vault which the Recon Squad had painstakingly discovered. After a failed intercept battle, the Colossus landed in Ingris and the nearby area was bathed in an infernal blaze. Hearing this, Blair followed the Descendants who had been deployed, only to find that the vault door had been twisted beyond imagination by the scorching heat and the ingredients within withering away in the flames. Stunned at this sight, Blair failed to realize that he had become the next target of the Colossus. Blair was engulfed in the flames that the Colossus spewed towards him, leading the Descendants present at the scene to believe this to be the end of Blair. It seemed that Albion’s greatest chef, full of dreams and romance, had met his demise.

However, their predictions would soon be proven wrong. A grappling hook shot out from the flames and lodged itself in the Colossus’ weak point, and Blair flew forward, bombarding the weak point with the fire emanating from both of his hands, and thus defeating the Colossus. In his moment of crisis, he had awakened as a Descendant.

After this, Blair found himself facing two choices: become a soldier as a Descendant, or remain a chef and continue to cook “The Last Supper”. Blair made the decision to become a Descendant. The reason: If he became a Descendant and incinerated all of the Vulgus, then “The Last Supper” would no longer need to be cooked.

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