One thing you’ll notice with action RPGs, and many other genres for that matter, is that there is a rather unwelcome similarity to looter shooters. You’ll notice that a lot of games borrow a weapon tier system and have you spend an ungodly amount of time in various menus swapping out gear, which can break immersion and slow the pace right down. However, if that’s what you want going in, and you’re craving a looter shooter, well, that’s different.
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The First Descendant, a new Nexonfree-to-play game, is a prime example of a game that knows what it is and executesthe tried and tested looter shooter formatexpertly. There is still a lot of cool stuff, unique quirks, and intriguing details to learn and master here. So, if you fancy giving this one a go but want to hit the ground running, then you’ll appreciate this list of things we wish we knew when beginningThe First Descendant.
10Choose Your Starter Carefully
From the moment you beginThe First Descendant, you’ll have an important choice to make. Which starting Descendant do you want to play as in the beginning hours? You will gain access to more characters, including the ones you don’t choose as time goes on, but from the start,you’ll want a class that fits your playstyle.
You’ll have the option of a Grenadier in the form of Lepic, a cyro-elemental character in the form of Viessa, and a tank in the form of Ajax. Strictly speaking, there are no bad choices here, and it’s more about what you value most here. So, if you want to focus on DPS, Lepic is your guy, and if you want to play more defensively and chip away at enemies through your shield, Ajax is your guy.
My suggestion would be to choose either Ajax or Lepic, as Viessa isn’t quite as good by comparison, but if her skillset sounds right up your alley, then take a chance on them.
9Get Familiar With Your Descendant Abilities
After you choose your starting character, you’ll be put through your paces and given a crash course in everything this game has to offer. You’ll learn to shoot, manage your inventory, grapple around the place, and much more. But one thing that you’ll only really learn properly through practice is how to use your abilities to good effect.
You’ll have four unique skills that tend to synergize with other character variants. Your guns are great, but these abilities are the secret weapons that will turn the tide in your favor time and time again. So my advice would be totest each of your abilities and figure out how to use them effectively, which characters you blend best with, and if you find that you aren’t that keen on using them, then that’s a pretty good indicator that the character might not be for you.
8Switch Your Gear Often
This tip applies to just about every looter shooter, but it’s still worth underlining to ensure you don’t persist with your starting gear. You’ll pick up a tonne of gear as you complete missions, and kill enemies in Kingston and beyond. From guns and Reactors to Modules and research materials, you’ll be inundated with stuff, and in the beginning, practically every mission will give you an item more powerful than your current one.
So, in the beginning hours of this game,get comfortable with the menus and switch your gear often, and if you do, your DPS will soar.
If you do change your weapons, you’ll also need tochange your moduleseach time unless the weapon type is the same as before, so remember to do that.
7Get Bunny ASAP
As you grind through the main mission progression, you’ll eventually get to your first Colossi fight, and when you win, you’ll have the option to choose a reward that will effectively allow you to complete the research for Bunny, a new Descendant you can play as early on. Let me tell you in no uncertain terms if you’re on the fence:You need to get Bunny as soon as possible, as she is one of the best characters in the game, and will carry you through most of the early to mid-game content.
Bunny is an incredible utility characterthanks to her fast sprinting ability, which will allow you to navigate the world with ease. But they are just as handy in battle with an excellent pulsing electric AOE attack that makes them great for close-quarters combat against groups of enemies.
Plus, they have a great Electric Beam attack that can be a lifesaver when ammo is scarce. The only downside is that they are a little more fragile than characters like Ajax, for example, but the trade-off is more than worth it. So, I’ll repeat it once more. Unlock Bunny now!
6The ‘Access Info Menu’ Is A Godsend For Researching
As you work through the opening hours ofThe First Descendantand the game starts letting you off the leash, you’ll find that to get the best gear in the game, you need to seek out certain materials, which requires knowing where the respective drops come from. This can be tricky if you don’t know where to look, butif you check out the ‘Access Info’ menu, you’ll find a database showing you all the gear in the game, and what you’ll need to get it.
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So, if you want to unlock the early game ultimate weapon, Thunder Cage, for example, you can use this menu to find the four components needed, and if you’re missing the Thunder Cage Synthetic Fiber, you can then use this menu to learn that you need to complete the Sterile Land Repository, Kuiper Mine mission to get this item. In short, any time you don’t know where to get an item you need, this is the way to find out.
5ABJ: Always Be Junking
In a game likeThe First Descendant, clutter is the enemy. The game allows you to passively collect all the drops from mission to mission, which is a blessing and a curse. It’s great as you don’t need to agonize over whether to take every new item you uncover in each mission. But the downside is that you have no filter on what you collect. So the solution is to spend some time every few missions getting rid of the duds.
You have three options. You can use the Storage Machine near all spawn points to store your rarest and most beloved weapons. You can sell weapons you no longer need at Albion via a merchant called Deslin. Or you can manually check and dismantle items in the menus.
Selling is simply not worth doing as gold is so easy to acquire, soyou’ll want to dismantle everything you don’t need, and if you do this regularly, you’ll never be in a position where there’s a drop on the floor you miss because your inventory is full.
4Run Three Different Ammo Types
The First Descendanteases you into things, but eventually, the game will take the training wheels off and throw some really tough enemies at you, and these enemies are big bullet sponges. This can lead to a situation where you’ll run out of ammo and have to switch to a different weapon in your rotation to keep chipping away at their health bar. But if you set up wrong, you may put yourself in a sticky situation.
It’s very tempting to pick the three weapons that have the highest DPS in your possession. But, if these weapons have the same ammo type, it means that when one runs out of bullets, they all run out of bullets. Which will lead to some frantic menuing or scavenging in the middle of a firefight for ammo drops with bullets flying overhead. So do yourself a favor,select three unique ammo types, and keep your options open.
3Stick To The Main Mission Progression
After you get through the mandatory stuff that opens up various systems and upgrades to the player, you will get to a stage where you have multiple sections of the map open to you, and you’ll have the option to go and complete research, chase unique items, and seek out Encrypted Vaults. This can be quite rewarding, but it will slow down your overall progression in the long run.
So what I would suggest to new players is tostick to the main mission progression, as this will give you access to new Descendants, new Ultimate Weapons, and so much more. And believe me,when this mainline progression starts to slow down, you’ll be thankful that you still have all the fun side content to loop back to.
If the main missions start to feel tedious, then take a break for sure, but for fast progression, the main missions are the way to go.
2Don’t Drop Your Favorites, Upgrade Them
As you find bigger and better guns from mission to mission, you may feel pressured into giving up a weapon that you really love the look and feel of for one that has better damage output. It’s one way to go, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you like a particular weapon and want to take it with you for the long run,you can use the Weapon Transmission menu accessed via a workbench to level up your gear.
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You’ll need some transmission materials to do this—namely, superalloys and liquid metal, which can be acquired by dismantling weapons. You just need to take the time to research this process first, and that will require some time and some gold, but once you do this, you’ll be able to keep your favorites and never settle for something that doesn’t fit your playstyle.
1Play Public To Avoid The Grind
Then, lastly, you may be a proud player who wants to go it alone and be a one-man army working through missions. In the lesser missions, you may have to do that, as participation from outside sources will depend on who is working on the same mission at that particular time. But when taking on Operations or Intercept Missions,you’ll have the option of playing Private or Public, and unless you have a squad with you for a private session, you should always choose Public.
Choosing this essentially means that you will always have a team of four players that will join you for these raid missions, which will help cut down tough enemies faster, manage huge swarms of enemies with ease, and you may even get lucky and be put in the same group with an overpowered player that trivializes the mission, taking the stress out of the mission for you entirely.
If you want bragging rights, then solo is an option, but if you just want to progress fast and get all the goodies that come with that, then public is your best bet.
The First Descendant
Nexon’s The First Descendant is a free-to-play looter shooter that also incorporates action RPG elements. Focusing on cooperative play, the game allows up to four players to work together.
