The First Descendant is an online looter-shooter game that prioritizes challenging the players by testing their knowledge about game mechanics and proper Descendant builds, which they can showcase in the game’s Void Intercept Battles, currently the hardest content available on The First Descendant. This guide will help you navigate to beating Death Stalker, the latest and arguably the deadliest Colossus in the game right now that can destroy your team’s runs if you’re not careful enough. Let’s begin.
Nexon released The First Descendant on July 2, 2024, on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and recently launched the Season 1 Invasion Update Part 2 on October 10, 2024, and will welcome Season 2 Void Chaser Update on December 5, 2024.
If you are looking for more guides and content on The First Descendant, then you can read them here on KeenGamer through the links below:
- The First Descendant Season 2 Overview | New Descendants, Ultimate Sharen, and Many More
- The First Descendant: Ultimate Bunny Build Guide | Best Modules, Weapons, and Reactors
- The First Descendant: Ultimate Freyna Build Guide | Best Modules, Weapons, and Reactors
- The First Descendant: Hailey Build Guide | Best Modules, Weapons, and Reactors
- The First Descendant | Ranking the Ultimate Descendants from Best to Worst
What Is Death Stalker in The First Descendant?
Before tackling the Death Stalker in The First Descendant, let’s take a look at its background lore, and why it is one of the deadlier Colossi that the humans have fought against, which we will showcase below, courtesy of the Death Stalker’s in-game description:
Inside the darkness of the Void, a new Colossus slowly appeared, posing an enigma for the Descendants. When they first faced this Colossus, the Descendants had great difficulty and were paralyzed with fear, since it had different abilities from previous Colossi. The bizzare-looking Colossus chasing the Descendants and leading them to their deaths was entirely different from any humanoid Colossus ever seen before. After receiving a report from the Descendants, Scholar Seneca named this Colossus “Death Stalker,” for its eerie looks and its pursuits through darkness.
From this passage, we can understand that due to its alien nature to even the veteran Descendants, the Death Stalker poses a danger unlike other Colossi before it, since it can unleash its nightmare-ish Toxic attacks to subdue and kill its prey easily and fast.
Death Stalker’s Strengths and Weaknesses
Death Stalker, besides being a very demanding Void Intercept Boss in The First Descendant, can also be tricky to analyze the correct pattern to successfully dodge its Marks of Doom and Floating Skulls. In this section, we’ll explain how to understand Death Stalker’s resistances and weak points to identify the best characters and builds for success.
Death Stalker only appears in Hard difficulty. Electric, followed by Fire and Non-Attribute, are the best elements to use against the Death Stalker, and we have curated the entire Element resistances that the Death Stalker has below:
- Fire Attribute: Normal
- Electric Attribute: Very Weak
- Non-Attribute: Normal
- Toxic Attribute: Very Strong
- Chill Attribute: Strong
To effectively take down Death Stalker in The First Descendant, it is crucial to understand its characteristics. Death Stalker’s primary weak point is its Pierce damage vulnerability, and it employs Toxic-based attacks that can overwhelm unprepared squads.
Its elemental resistance chart reveals specific strengths and weaknesses: it has normal resistance to Fire, a severe weakness to Electric Attribute, strong resistance to Ice, and extreme resistance to Toxic Attribute, meaning bringing Freyna against the Death Stalker, although still feasible, will heavily reduce her damage against the Colossus.
Death Stalker has several weak points that all players can target throughout the battle. They are its Back Core Cap, Core Cap, Sensor, and Balancer, with Balancer being the easiest to target thanks to its massive size and ease of access, sitting at the ‘legs’ of the Death Stalker. Hitting these weak points can greatly help your success rate in defeating the Death Stalker, though there are still several tricks it can play against you, which we will discuss further in the next sections of this guide.
Death Stalker Boss Interface.
Best Descendants Against Death Stalker
Once you get to understand a little bit about Death Stalker’s background lore and its strengths and weaknesses, it’s time to analyze what Descendants are the best to use when you decide to fight it in The First Descendant. Generally, we will differentiate them into two groups, Offense/DPS and Support Descendants.
Offense/DPS
One of the best Descendants you can bring against the Death Stalker is Freyna. While it is true that her Toxic Attribute will see diminishing results against Toxic Void Intercept Boss such as Death Stalker, with the help of one of her newest Transcendent Modules, Toxic Injection, you can build her into a Shield-focused build to nullify any HP reduction debuff, while still dishing out massive damage to Death Stalker’s weak points.
Gley is another powerful option, but she embodies a high-risk, high-reward playstyle. Gley specializes in dealing massive damage to bosses, making her a strong contender against Death Stalker. Utilize Skill 3: Increased Sensory to boost Gley’s effectiveness against Death Stalker, and follow up with Skill 4: Massacre to capitalize on staggered windows for maximum damage. Always keep an eye on your health, as Gley’s power comes with a fragility that can cost you if you aren’t careful, particularly against Death Stalker who can reduce your maximum HP by up to 50%, which massively impacts Gley, so position her at a safe distance and dodge any incoming Flying Skulls and other hazards whenever possible.
Ultimate Gley, while potent, can become very squishy if you can’t dodge Death Stalker’s debuffs and Flying Skulls.
Support
For optimal squad synergy, consider bringing Ajax or Yujin. Ajax provides a sturdy defense to tank Toxic damage, while Yujin offers excellent mobility and healing utilities, helping to manage the chaotic battlefield effectively. Thanks to his consistent healing abilities, Yujin plays a critical role in any boss fight. His continuous healing keeps the team alive, especially during long encounters like the Death Stalker fight. Having Yujin on your team ensures that your group doesn’t have to rely too heavily on health drops or risk dying from Death Stalker’s Marks of Doom or its deadly Toxic rings. The sense of security that comes from his Skill 4 should help your allies find better positions against Death Stalker’s Flying Skulls and other attacks.
Another Descendant that is worth noting is Enzo, as his abilities, if enhanced with the Supply Firearm Enhancer Transcendent Module, can bring a major boost to everyone’s firepower. Moreover, as Death Stalker is susceptible and weak against Shield-focused builds, Enzo is the perfect Support Descendant to counter its deadly Toxic attacks, with the help of his Skill 3, Enhance Combat Suit, which regenerates your Shield constantly, giving your team a fighting chance against this Colossus.
Yujin can easily revive any downed teammates faster, thus enhancing everyone’s survivability.
Best Build for Death Stalker
Fighting a Colossus like Death Stalker in The First Descendant can be extremely tough and long since you need to have precise movements and some modicum on what to do and dodge when fighting this Colossus. With that in mind, we have curated some tips on the best Modules and weapons that you can use against Death Stalker to ensure your survivability and victory.
Descendant Modules
Modules in The First Descendant have two categories, one for the Descendants and the other for the weapons, depending on their Round Type. To prepare against Death Stalker, here are some pointers that you should always keep in mind regarding Descendant Modules:
- Always have both Increased HP and Increased DEF Modules. These are the quintessential Modules that should never leave your Descendant builds, no matter who you are using, both against the Death Stalker or other Colossus. This is because their percentage increase to your stats is so massive and convenient that it outweighs practically most of the other Modules you currently have.
- Try to stock up on some Toxic Attribute Resistance. Death Stalker’s Toxic attacks pose a consistent threat throughout the encounter, making Perfect Antivenom a vital item to equip. This Module negates the damage-over-time effects of its poisonous abilities, drastically improving your survivability.
- Equip an Overwhelming Shield Module if you want to make a Shield-focused build. This grants you the chance to immediately bypass one of Death Stalker’s core mechanics, thus slightly reducing this Colossus’ difficulty, though it’s still not a walk in the park.
For more specifics on how to build your Descendant before tackling the Death Stalker, we have curated some options using Ultimate Freyna and Enzo through the images below, which both use the Overwhelming Shield Module as the builds’ centerpiece.
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- Ultimate Freyna’s Modules.
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- Enzo’s Modules.
Best Weapon Against Death Stalker
Enduring Legacy is still the optimal weapon choice for taking on Death Stalker. To maximize this Ultimate Weapon’s effectiveness, focus on equipping them with the following Modules:
- Weak Point Sight: This Module allows you to break Death Stalker’s weak points more easily, thus reducing its combat capacity and prolonging the time you can damage it comfortably without having to worry that its Frenzy Meter will rise.
- Fire Rate UP: Increasing your weapon’s firing rate allows you to deliver more attacks more quickly, thus maximizing your damage output.
- Rifling Reinforcement: Boosting your overall attack power is essential for ensuring each shot packs a punch, further reducing the time needed to bring down the boss.
If you still don’t have Enduring Legacy, then bringing Thunder Cage or Python as backup options is very much feasible against Death Stalker, since they are also reliable at dishing out damage consistently thanks to their insane Fire Rate and Weak Point Damage capabilities. The image below is an option for Enduring Legacy’s Modules, though you can always tweak out some Modules to better suit your needs.
Enduring Legacy’s Modules.
Death Stalker Strategy
Lastly, for this Death Stalker guide, we will explain what to do when you fight it in the Void Intercept Boss Battle. The fight with Death Stalker requires precise execution and teamwork. One key strategy is avoiding the deadly bone rings it releases at random intervals. These rings deal high damage and have a similar range to Pyromaniac’s fire rings, but you can evade them by double jumping or using your Grappling Hook. Positioning is equally important—lure Death Stalker to lower ramps or stay beneath elevated terrain to completely dodge its ring attacks.
Another hazard to watch for is the slow-moving, ghastly green skulls Death Stalker periodically summons. These Flying Skulls home in on players, delivering devastating damage upon impact. Fortunately, they are fragile and can be destroyed with focused fire, preventing unnecessary harm to your squad, though when things become hectic, you might get caught by many skulls at once, potentially downing you momentarily.
Death Stalker can inflict green “Marks of Doom”, which reduces players’ maximum HP. Accumulating more than four stacks guarantees your demise, making it essential to cleanse these Marks. During the fight, Death Stalker spawns clocks that can remove the Marks. Stay near these clocks to clear your debuffs and restore your HP threshold. However, you should also remain vigilant against other Death Stalker’s attacks when trying to cleanse yourself.
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- Death Stalker’s Deadly Rings.
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- Safety Clocks.
When the Death Stalker enters Frenzied State, it spawns three puppets across the battlefield. The team’s priority is finding the correct puppet, identified by a skull totem covering its eyes. Locate this puppet quickly, as failing to destroy it before the center bar fills will trigger a party wipe. Once the puppet is found, gather your squad around it to disable the Death Stalker’s Frenzied State.
While searching for the correct puppet during the Frenzied phase, players will encounter decoy puppets resembling the Death Stalker’s unmasked face. These “smiling puppets” are traps that deal massive damage if approached. Stay vigilant and communicate effectively with your squad to avoid them while prioritizing the correct puppet. Keep in mind that usually some fake smiling puppets initially contain the true Skull Mask to fool the players, so you need to investigate and see their behaviors for several seconds before deciding whether the puppet you’re looking at is the correct one or not.
Upon successfully finding and disabling the correct puppet, the Death Stalker’s Frenzied State will end, giving your team a significant advantage. With coordination, preparation, and the right strategy, defeating Death Stalker becomes a challenging yet manageable task.
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- Mask of Obscured Truth.
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- The Puppet with Fake Mask.
