The Best Thunder Cage Build in The First Descendant and How to Unlock It

Best Thunder Cage Build

The Thunder Cage is a solid choice against mobs and bosses thanks to its overload ability and high rate of fire. Here's our build to exploit the weapon's main strengths:

• Descendant: Bunny, Lepic, Viessa.
• Improved modules: Rifle reinforcement, Action and reaction, Rain of bullets, Shooting improvements, Electric cannon, Better insight, Hawk eye.
• Improved Overload: When you defeat an enemy, they have a 40% chance to unleash an electric shockwave that deals bonus damage to nearby enemies. Upgrade this by sacrificing a duplicate Lightning Cage at the crafting table.
• Faster Passive Reload Speed: Reduces reload speed by 25% by default.

Best descendant to use with Thunder Cage

While most Descendants can use this weapon effectively, Bunny, Viessa, and Lepic synergize well with it. This is because Bunny's Electric Focus will allow you to power up his Electric attacks anyway, making it a good combination with the Thunder Cage's special ability. As for Lepic, his Pull Grenade will clump enemies together, making them easy prey for the special ability that hits nearby enemies. Viessa's Slow and Cool attacks are also great for keeping enemies close together before wiping them out.

Best Mods for Thunder Cage

Here are the modules we recommend for your build:

Mods can make a significant difference to how your weapon functions in-game. Upgrade them with Kuiper Shards to improve their effects. We focused on gun attack bonuses and elemental damage buffs, as well as stats like critical hit rate and accuracy. If you want to focus on critical hits, consider Better Concentration as well. Keep an eye on the symbols of mods and mod slots, as matching them will reduce their ability costs by 50%. You can increase the weapon's mod capacity later with an Energy Activator.

Best Stats to Increase for Thunder Cage

Here are the weapon stats at level 1:

Remember that stats scale with weapon level, so increase them via Weapon Level Transfer. Use a Precision Phase Swapper (250 Liquid Metal, 50,000 Gold at Anais) to upgrade your weapon level and take it to the endgame. You can also reroll four bonuses in Weapon Rescale: Gun ATK, Critical Hit Damage, Elemental Damage, and Weakpoint Damage. Use 2x Fine-Tuning Control Axes (200 Liquid Metal, 30,000 Gold at Anais) at a workbench to reroll these values. Adjust them based on the bosses or Void Interception missions you plan to take on.

Tips for using Thunder Cage effectively

Here's how you can unleash the full potential of the Thunder Cage SMG in-game:

• Keep an eye out for low-health enemies: Since your Overload AoE attack is triggered when an enemy is KO'd, focus on weaker enemies to maximize how often you can trigger this special ability to deal extra damage. This will help you clear out monsters quickly.
• Don't forget its damage reduction ranges: The Thunder Cage is a mid-range weapon that will reduce its damage at a distance of 23 meters. It will decrease even more beyond 43 meters. So focus on close-quarters combat with this weapon, unless you're facing a Void Interception boss.
• Pair it with long-range weapons of a different ammo type: a scout rifle, hand cannon, or sniper rifle will let you fire bursts of damage from a distance. The first two choices rely on impact rounds, while a sniper rifle or launcher will consume high-powered rounds. This will ensure you don't run out of ammo quickly in a firefight.
• Switch weapons often: You can switch SMGs when an enemy is out of range or if you need to target a weak point on a Void Intercept boss. For example, while you can weaken the Stunning Beauty’s kneepads up close, her shoulders are easy targets for a long-range weapon.