How to beat the Dead Bride in The First Descendant

The Dead Bride in The First Descendant is the first Void Intercept boss fight where players are going to have to really make use of the elemental attacks, and builds that emphasise really exploiting the Bride's weaknesses like you've not had to do before. That means picking the right weapons, modules and more besides, and that's before your Descendant has gone into the arena - whereupon you have to take all that preparation and apply it in person.

My hot tip for the best strategy for the Dead Bride in The First Descendant is what I call the Ice Sniper - using range, agility and Fire attacks to do heavy damage to the Bride from a healthy distance. I'll lay out everything you need to know about that below, including weaknesses, tips and more besides.

How to beat the Dead Bride boss fight in The First Descendant

I'll go into more detail below, but for now here's a summary of the basic tips on how to beat the Dead Bride in The First Descendant.

• The Dead Bride is weak to Fire damage and Burst attacks, so equip weapons and modules to empower those.
• The Dead Bride also deals nearly exclusively in Chill Damage, so equip Descendant Modules that resist it.
• Fire Skill Descendants like Lepic are a good pick, as well as fast, agile ones like Bunny.
• Keep a healthy distance from Dead Bride, don't fight up-close.
• Dead Bride's weak points can be identified with the scanner. 
• Thin out and destroy its minions regularly, as they drop resources you can use.

Of course, this is only a rough summary of a complex encounter that most players will need at least a few attempts for - let's get into the particulars.

Dead Bride weaknesses

As mentioned above, elemental awareness is a big factor here. Players would be well advised to bring in long-range Fire-based weapons, or Electrical weapons if they can't find any good flaming guns. Some weapons will naturally spawn with Fire Attack built in, or you can add fire damage to them with Modules - though the former is generally better as a rule. Burst-type weapons will also do more damage to Dead Bridge's weak points, though this is far less impactful than Fire damage, and less of a priority.

Players should also ensure that Chill resistance is as high as it can be. This is generally done through Descendant Modules like Maximize Chill Resist and Cold Antibody, and while not every attack Dead Bride has deals Chill damage, at least half of them - and the most deadly - do.

Finally, look out for Dead Bride's weak points, which can be seen in the pre-mission briefing, revealed with the scanner, and are as follows:

• Destructible Parts: Ears, Heart, Knees
• Removable Parts: Shoulders and chestplate
• Destructible Parts when Frenzied: "Amplifiers" (the blue glass tubes that appear on gun arm)

Dead Bride Strategy and tips

When you start the fight against the Dead Bride, you want to keep in mind that all the red zones will damage you, making the arena something of a game of ‘the floor is lava’. You need to use your grappling hook to cross safely.

Once the Dead Bride spawns, the general rule is to keep your distance and use long-ranged weapons to target weak points. The Dead Bride's attacks are easier to avoid at a distance, and using cover can help protect you from some of its assaults - though that cover does get destroyed temporarily after doing so, keeping you on your toes.

The Dead Bride also summons small minions called Kingfishers, which do reasonable damage, though are slow and easily avoided. However, you should focus on taking them out regularly, as they drop ammo, health, MP, all the things you need to keep you fueled throughout the fight, and prevent you from being overwhelmed.

Eventually the Dead Bride will Frenzy, summoning a massive dome of ice damage. You immediately need to get out of it - sprint and grapple hook out of the dome, or you'll take constant damage. The Dead Bride is also immune to damage during this time, except for the Amplifiers on its guns, mentioned above.

Keep playing cautiously and defensively, at a distance, scooping up the drops from the Kingfishers and supporting any other players with you, and eventually you should secure victory, though it will likely take several attempts. 

After this, you'll need to deal with something even tougher - The First Descendant Devourer boss fight. Fortunately, our guide will help you there!

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