Best Malevolent Build for Season 3 – The First Descendant

Welcome to The First Descendant Malevolent Build (Hand Cannon). This Malevolent Build is updated for Season 3 Episode 2. The Malevolent hand cannon fires special projectiles called Bladed Cog that bounce between enemies and deal massive damage.

Table of Contents:

• Malevolent Summary
• Malevolent Build – AOE Damage
  • Modules
  • Weapon Readjustment
  • Weapon Cores
• Lore Info

You can also check out all our Weapon Builds and Character Builds Database if you are looking for more optimized builds. We also have a The First Descendant Character Tier List and a META Weapon Tier List if you wonder what to prioritize first.

TFD Wiki: We have expanded Alcasthq with tfd.alcasthq.com, a Wiki & Database for anything related to The First Descendant. Use the Character Editor or the Weapon Editor to theorycraft and create builds yourself. Browse Descendants, Weapons, Leaderboard Loadouts or use the Compare Tool. There are plenty of other features you can check out, too!

Malevolent Summary

The Malevolent is an Ultimate Hand Cannon. A special projectile launcher used by Vulgus Commanders that has been modified for human use. It was designed to inflict horrific injuries on as many targets as possible.

• Name: Malevolent
• Type: Hand Cannon
• Bullets: Impact Rounds
• Tier: Ultimate
• Unique Ability: Malicious Pain

Unique Ability “Malicious Pain”

On hitting an enemy, creates a Bladed Cog. Bladed Cog bounces between multiple enemies to deal damage. On hitting Weak Points, creates additional Bladed Cogs.

Base Weapon Stat Info

Here is the full weapon stat breakdown of the Malevolent Hand Cannon in The First Descendant.

Malevolent Build for The First Descendant

This is an AOE DPS setup.

Next, let us take a look at an optimized Malevolent Build for The First Descendant. The Malevolent is best built with a high fire rate, chill elemental damage and rounds per magazine (Unless you are Serena, then you won’t need extra rounds in your magazine because she can instantly reload).

Here is all the info you need to create a powerful Malevolent Build:

• Modules
• Weapon Readjustment
• Weapon Cores

Note: High-Level Weapon Cores boost your weapons’ damage numbers into insanity. Make sure to get weapon cores as soon as possible!

Malevolent Modules

Modules are an important part of every weapon build in The First Descendant. For the Malevolent hand cannon we want to focus on getting a high fire rate, elemental damage and a well sized magazine. I also prefer to use the increased maximum impact rounds module because I dislike running out of ammo.

• Serena Players: If you are Serena, you don’t need any of the Magazine size or Rounds increase modules, because she can instantly reload by dashing. Replace these with Multi-Hit modules.
• Flex Spots: I will indicate modules that you can replace with (Flex).

Malevolent Module Configuration Table

Module Slot	Module Name	Socket Type
1	Rifling Reinforcement	Malachite
2	Chill Enhancement	Cerulean
3	Snowflake Conductor	Cerulean
4	Chill Priority	Cerulean
5	Charge Amplification	Malachite
6	Fire Rate UP	Xantic
7	Chill Circulation	Cerulean
8	Action and Reaction	Malachite
9	Expand Weapon Charge (Flex)	Cerulean
10	Expand Impact Magazine (Flex)	Xantic

Weapon Readjustment

You can use the Weapon Readjustment at the Weapon Workbench in Albion. Here are the best Weapon Readjustments for the Malevolent:

• Firearm ATK
• Elemental Damage (Preferably Chill)
• Multi-Hit Damage
• Multi-Hit Chance

Try to upgrade the Weapon Readjustments to at least purple quality.

Weapon Cores

Weapon Cores juice up your damage quite tremendously. However, especially the later-level Weapon Cores are difficult to get. So start with whatever weapon cores you have available. Weapon Cores drop in the Void Erosion Purge endgame activity.

Higher level Weapon Cores drop in the higher level Void Erosion Purge levels in The First Descendant. However, you can gradually work towards the highest level. I recommend trying to get to level six as soon as possible, since it won’t require clearing many stages and will already increase the power of your weapon tremendously.

Best Weapon Cores for the Malevolent:

• Chill ATK (Free Augmentation)
• Firearm ATK (Firepower Augmentation)
• Chill ATK (Attribute Augmentation)
• Fire Rate (Tactical Augmentation)
• Fire Rate (Tactical Augmentation)

Fire Rate weapon cores are important on the Malevolent hand cannon. Additionally, you can swap out Chill ATK for any other attribute depending on enemy weaknesses!

Malevolent Hand Cannon Lore

This hand cannon is a special projectile launcher, used by Vulgus commanders, that has been modified for human use.

It was designed to inflict horrific injuries on as many targets as possible for the malicious purposes of the Vulgus commanders.

It was a vicious tactic aimed at demoralizing human troops and undermining their combat capabilities by increasing the burden of caring for the wounded… But now that this weapon has been seized and reverse engineered, humanity no longer needs to be exposed to the one-sided suffering.

The Descendants can now return that pain with this terrible firearm.

“Only the dead can see the end of hatred.” – An unidentified injured soldier.

Related Guides for The First Descendant

You can also check out our Ultimate Weapons Database for The First Descendant or the Builds Database for The First Descendant.