When you start playing The First Descendant, you are immediately bombarded with hundreds of fancy words and information that might be confusing. If you don’t stop to take a minute to read more about them, you’ll struggle to understand the other things like resources, ammo types, modules, components, etc. Here are the best starter tips in The First Descendant that can help you keep up with all this information.
Best Beginner Tips in The First Descendant
Always Equip Weapons With Different Ammo Types
When you start fighting enemies and finishing missions, you’ll get random drops that look like a cube with an icon on top. They can either be weapons, modules, or external components. Once you acquire an arsenal of weapons, you’ll wonder what you should use. You might prefer one weapon type over another, but you never want to equip weapons that share an ammo type. Each weapon has an icon on the upper right, and they use different rounds.
Generally, you want one weapon of the following ammo types:
- General rounds
- Impact or special rounds
- High-Power rounds
Weapons that use High-power rounds don’t hold much ammo compared to the others. However, they do the most damage.
You want to mix all the ammo types because you will run out of ammo if two of your three weapons share the same type.
Pay Close Attention to the Drops
Drops in the game are color-coded, and knowing each one will help you play better. Each ammo type has different colors: white, green, orange, and purple. There are certain scenarios where you won’t get the type of ammo you need, so you can adjust the weapon you use to the ones that are dropping more frequently.
Apart from ammo, there are also HP and MP cubes. HP cubes are red, while the MP cubes are blue. If your MP is full, you can spam more abilities if you know there are a bunch of blue cubes on the floor.
However, a “bigger” cube can also drop, which are items like weapons or components. The color of this bigger cube depends on the drop’s rarity; the only confusing thing here is that the blue (rare) drop is similar to the MP cubes that drop. You can only distinguish them by checking if it has an icon floating on top (which means it is an item).
Equip the Highest DPS Weapons
Don’t be picky when it comes to weapons. If you prefer a machine gun or a shotgun with less DPS, they will deter your progress because they are significantly weaker. Always use the strongest weapon regardless of weapon type. However, you still do want to follow the ammo type rule. This tip applies only when you are leveling up since you’ll constantly find stronger weapons as you progress.
Focus on Equipping Defensive Modules
As you get more weapons, you’ll also get more modules you can equip on your Descendant. These power up your character by giving you some extra stats. However, since your power depends on your weapons and reactor, you should focus on getting defensive stats on your modules. Some offensive ones aren’t as significant as improving your HP, Def, Shields, and Recovery stats. Keep the good modules and upgrade them once you reach Mastery Rank 9.
Don’t Forget to Upgrade Your Mastery Ranks
Mastery levels help you get more inventory and storage slots, so it is important to level up your mastery. However, you must still talk to an NPC to activate your mastery level. It is annoying, but you have to do it every time you level up.
Always Go for the Highest DPS Reactor
With the same reasoning as the weapons DPS tip, you should always go for the highest skill power when equipping Reactors. These Reactors give a significant boost to your skills, especially Descendants with multiple offensive skills.
Choose Rewards that Might Help You Get Descendants
Amorphous Material Patterns are just a fancy word for loot box, but this one is free and farmable. You can see the material components when you hover over the pattern. You should look at the materials and blueprint to know which materials you can get. The name of the Descendant is usually part of the material’s name, so if you want to unlock Enzo, you have to look for material components with Enzo’s X Blueprint as its name.
Fast Travel Whenever Possible
When you go through your main missions, you should always check if there is a fast travel point available. Farther missions automatically unlock a nearby Outpost or Temporary Safe Zone for players to fast travel to. This can save you a lot of time, especially if you have boost activated and want to efficiently use them by going blazing fast on the main story missions.
For more tips and tricks, check out How to Emote in The First Descendant.
