TFD - Thunder Cage Best Stats Mod Build(Updates)

The Thunder Cage is an outstanding weapon in The First Descendant, and by adjusting the stats and mods of this gun, Can greatly optimize your DPS.

Key Stats for Thunder Cage

1. Firearm Attack Percentage  
- Priority: High  
- Directly increases the damage output of your Thunder Cage, making it more effective against all types of enemies.

2. Critical Hit Damage and Rate  
- Priority: High  
- Critical hits drastically increase the damage dealt. Enhancing both the rate (chance of hitting a critical) and the damage (bonus damage on critical hits) ensures that you maximize your DPS during engagements.

3. Weak Point Damage  
- Priority: Medium to High  
- This attribute amplifies damage to enemy weak points, which is especially useful in boss fights and against tougher enemies. Prioritizing this can lead to quicker takedowns and more efficient combat.

4. Fire Rate  
- Priority: Medium to High  
- This attribute has a very obvious synergistic effect on Firearm Attack Percentage and Critical Hit Damage, and can effectively improve DPS data.

5. Elemental Damage (Chill Effect)  
- Priority: Medium  
- Adding a chill effect to your Thunder Cage slows down enemies, which can be crucial for controlling the battlefield and managing large groups of mobs. It enhances your tactical options and survivability.

6. Reload Speed  
- Priority: Medium  
- Faster reloads increase your effective DPS by minimizing downtime. This attribute becomes increasingly valuable in prolonged fights and situations where high uptime is necessary.

Integrating utility attributes like the chill effect and improved reload speed can provide significant tactical advantages.

Your attribute priorities might change based on the specific challenges you face in different game stages. For instance, while mobbing, you might prioritize area damage and effects like chill, whereas, in boss fights, weak point damage and crit attributes could take precedence.

Attributes corresponding to different mods

- Rifling Reinforcement (Firearm ATK)  
- Fire Rate Up (bullets per second)  
- Better Insight (Crit Rate)  
- Better Concentration (Crit Damage)  
- Action & Reaction (Firearm ATK)  
- Reload Insight or Reload Focus (Cycle Time + Crit)  
- Weak Point Insight or Focus Fire (Weak Point + Crit)  
- Concentration Priority (Crit Damage)  
- Insight Focus (CR+CD)  
- Elemental Enhancement (elemental damage)

About the Fire Rate module

The purple ones give a 20% fire rate increase vs the 25% from the blue at max. You just gain a small bump to either crit rate, crit damage, or weak point damage. It’s a pretty small increase and the mod costs a lot more to level up, but you can swap to the purple one. If you match the mod to the same symbol as the spot you catalyze it as it will make the cost half.

How to effectively upgrade Firearm ATK

You just need to re-roll the gun at least one time after you have infused a level 100 gun into it. Try not to use any materials on guns that are not level 100. Using the adjustment thing at the weapon station to re-roll the stat, When you infuse guns to level 100 they keep the stat ranges from the previous level until you re-roll them. So a level 1 gun infused to 100 will have level 1 stat rolls on it before re-rolling for example. Even if you have a good stat on level 82 make sure you re-roll all the stats don’t lock one until it’s level 100. Then you can play the lottery with the re-rolling system.

How to max all mods  
Just add the activator to bring the mod capacity up to 80 from 50. Then the catalysts half the of the mods if they match the assigned mod type.

Mod Synergy  
Damage Amplification  
- Rifling Reinforcement (increased damage)  
- Action and Reaction (boosted firearm attack damage)  
- Both mods significantly increase your base and firearm-specific damage, enhancing overall DPS.

Critical Enhancement  
- Better Insight (increased crit chance)  
- Better Concentration (increased crit damage)  
- These mods work together to not only make critical hits more likely but also ensure that they deal much more damage when they occur.

Utility and Control  
- Consume Magazines (faster reload time)  
- Chill Effect (slows enemies)  
- Faster reloading keeps you firing more continuously, while the chill effect slows enemies, enhancing both your offensive capabilities and defensive positioning.

Unique Ability Enhancement  
A mod that increases the electric explosion radius or frequency could be particularly effective for a weapon like the Thunder Cage.

Key Attributes to Prioritize in the Early Game

1. Firearm Attack: This attribute boosts the overall damage output of your weapon. Prioritizing firearm attacks ensures that each shot deals more damage.  
2. Firearm Critical Hit Rate: Increasing the critical hit rate enhances the likelihood of dealing with critical hits, which inflict more damage than regular hits.  
3. Firearm Critical Hit Damage: This boosts the damage dealt when a critical hit occurs, making critical hits even more potent.

Optional Fourth Attribute  
- Weak Point Damage: If you're confident in your aim, increasing weak point damage can be highly effective, especially against bosses with prominent weak points.  
- Elemental Rolls: Consider adding elemental damage (toxic, fire, chill) to exploit enemy weaknesses or complement your team's strategy.  
- Magazine Capacity: Improving magazine capacity can be beneficial for sustained fire, reducing the frequency of reloads.

Recommended Mods  
1. Action and Reaction: This mod can improve your firearm's performance, though the exact effects depend on the game mechanics.  
2. Rifling Reinforcement: This likely increases accuracy or range, making your shots more effective.  
3. Fire Rate Up: Boosts your weapon's firing speed, increasing your overall DPS.  
4. Expand Weapon Charge: This mod can help mitigate the Thunder Cage's potentially low reload stat by providing more rounds per magazine, improving the weapon's efficiency during combat.

Modding Strategy  
1. In the early game, you might be limited in how many mods you can use. Focus on high-value mods that provide significant benefits.  
2. Mods that enhance reload speed, and magazine capacity, or reduce downtime can make the weapon more user-friendly and efficient.

Key Attributes to Prioritize in the Mid-Game

1. Enhancing Critical Stats: Continue to prioritize critical hit rate and critical hit damage to maximize your damage output, especially against tougher enemies.  
2. Improving Reload Speed: As fights get more intense, having a faster reload speed becomes crucial to maintaining consistent damage output.

Recommended Mods  
1. Better Insight: This mod enhances the critical hit rate, making it easier to land critical hits consistently.  
2. Better Concentration: Increases critical hit damage, further amplifying the damage dealt by critical hits.

Additional Mod  
- Concentration Priority: Reduces reload time, crucial for maintaining DPS during extended fights. This mod synergizes well with the Thunder Cage's high rate of fire, ensuring you spend less time reloading and more time dealing damage.  
- Reload Modifier: Choose from available reload mods such as Reload Insight, Reload Focus, or Consume Magazine to enhance reload speed. These mods can help mitigate the downtime caused by reloading, especially if you haven’t maxed out other reload-enhancing features.

Modding Strategy  
1. By the mid-game, you might have increased your module capacity, allowing for more complex and synergistic mod combinations.  
2. The mid-game often requires flexibility in your build to adapt to different enemies and scenarios. Consider using mods that can be easily swapped out depending on the situation, such as elemental damage mods or magazine capacity mods.

640K DPS Mods for Thunder Cage

If you want the larger 2M+ explosions from Thunder Cage's unique perk feel free to use the last two slots for weak point damage mods vs reload perks (weak point sight + have aiming). Do note there is nothing that you can slot into "M" slots other than weak point mods.

Mod Builds for Mobbing

1. Area Damage and Rate of Fire: For mobbing, you want to prioritize attributes and mods that increase your ability to deal damage to multiple enemies quickly.  
2. Sustainability: Ensuring that you have a steady stream of ammunition and minimized reload times helps maintain continuous damage output during encounters.

Recommended Mods  
1. Sweeping Squads: when defeating an enemy, Firearm ATK+10.6% for 5s at a 100% chance (up to 3stacks). No matter what we kill, as long as we kill something, we can increase the Firearm ATK, which works well in most mobbing battles and is also good at dealing with battles like Void Intercept - Dead Bride, allowing you to maintain high damage output.  
2. Expand Weapon Charge: Increases the magazine capacity, reducing the frequency of reloads. This is useful in mobbing to maintain a sustained fire.  
3. Action and Reaction: Enhances overall firearm performance, which can be beneficial for dealing with multiple enemies.  
4. Fire Rate Up: Increases the rate of fire, allowing you to take down enemies more quickly.  
5. Rifling Reinforcement: Improves accuracy or range, ensuring that your shots are effective even in larger mobbing situations.

Optional Mods  
- Reload Mods: Depending on your playstyle and the specific enemies you're facing, you might opt for mods that improve reload speed, such as Reload Insight or Reload Focus, to keep your weapon ready to fire.  
- Elemental Damage: Mods like Chill Enhancement can add elemental damage, useful for exploiting weaknesses in certain enemy types or applying status effects that can help control the battlefield.

Mobbing Tips  
1. In mobbing scenarios, maintaining good positioning and movement is crucial. This allows you to group enemies and maximize the effectiveness of area damage and rapid-fire capabilities.  
2. Be prepared to swap out mods or adjust your strategy based on the types of mobs you're facing. For instance, if you're encountering enemies that are resistant to physical damage, consider equipping elemental damage mods.  
3. Even in mobbing, maintaining a high DPS is important to clear out enemies efficiently. Ensure that your mods and attributes are optimized for maximizing damage output.  
4. Keep an eye on your ammo consumption and be ready to switch to a secondary weapon or ability if necessary to maintain continuous pressure on the mobs.

More TFD Ultimate Weapons Unlock

Mod Builds for Bossing

1. High Damage Output: Bosses typically have large health pools, so maximizing your DPS (damage per second) is crucial.  
2. Precision and Weak Point Targeting: Many bosses have weak points that, when targeted, can significantly increase the damage dealt. Ensuring your build supports accurate targeting and exploits these weaknesses is important.  
3. Sustained Combat: Boss fights are often longer encounters, requiring sustained damage output and efficient resource management.

Recommended Mods  
1. Real Life Fighter: Accuracy -20%, Upon successfully attacking Weak Point, Firearm ATK+10% for 5s(up to 10 stacks)But loses 2 stacks per failed Weak PointAttack. This mod increases firearm attack damage when hitting weak points, stacking up to ten times. It’s highly effective in boss fights where consistently hitting weak points is possible, maximizing your damage output. It's easy to maintain this buff against bosses with larger weaknesses.  
2. Concentration Priority: Reduces reload time, crucial for maintaining DPS in long fights where reloading can interrupt your damage output.  
3. Better Insight: Enhances critical hit rate, increasing the likelihood of landing critical hits, which are crucial for maximizing damage.  
4. Better Concentration: Increases critical hit damage, making each critical hit more impactful.  
5. Rifling Reinforcement and Fire Rate Up: These mods can help ensure that your shots are accurate and frequent, boosting overall DPS.

Optional Mods  
- Reload Insight or Reload Focus: Depending on your needs, these mods can further reduce reload times or improve reload efficiency. Recycling Genius - Reload Time Modifier +30%.  
- Elemental Damage Mods: If the boss is weak to a specific element, equipping mods that add elemental damage - Chill Enhancement, can exploit that weakness and increase damage.  
- Larger Magazine: Consider mods Insight Support Ammo - Rounds per Magazine +30%, FirearmCritical Hit Rate +1.5%, that increase magazine capacity if the boss has short windows of vulnerability, allowing you to maximize damage during those periods without needing to reload.

Bossing Tips  
1. Practice and focus on hitting the boss’s weak points consistently, as this can significantly boost your damage output, especially with mods like Real Life Fighter.  
2. Use your abilities, skills, and mods wisely to maintain continuous pressure on the boss. Efficiently managing your resources, including ammo and mod cooldowns, is key to sustaining high damage output throughout the fight.  
3. Be ready to adapt your strategy and mod setup based on the specific mechanics and phases of the boss fight. Some bosses may require adjustments in tactics or equipment to deal with the unique challenges they present.  
4. Aim to reach the highest possible DPS by optimizing your build around critical hits, weak point damage, and sustained firing capabilities.  
5. Ensure that your build allows for consistent damage output, minimizing downtime caused by reloading or other interruptions.