Leveling up your chosen Descendant in The First Descendant is the best way to upgrade your character’s stats. The leveling system in this game is pretty simple, at least for leveling your Descendant and not your Master Rank or Weapon Level. If you want to level up your successor quickly, I have some tips for you!
The best ways to level up your descendant in The First Descendant
Since you can level your Descendant up to level 40, it’s best to find a good middle ground between leveling quickly and leveling in a way that’s still fun. With these five basic leveling strategies, you’ll be able to enjoy your game while maxing out your Descendant’s level:
5. Defeat bosses
Bosses have yellow titles when you complete battlefield missions, as opposed to the red titles of regular Vulgus enemies. When you complete dungeon missions (for more information on these missions, scroll down to number two on this list), they have red titles but much more health and can heal themselves two or three times. They are much harder to kill, and it is best to team up with other players during missions to take them down faster.
Since they are bigger, badder enemies, you will get more EXP for killing them than Vulgus. It’s not the best technique to use, though, because the time it takes to kill some of them is ridiculous.
4. Defeat the Vulgus
The Vulgus is one of the main enemies you will see in The First Descendant. They spawn in the wild and during each mission. You’ll get EXP for each one you take out (read: kill). You don’t need to worry about playing missions in public, there are many Vulgus that will appear during each mission for all players working with you.
That being said, I do recommend figuring out which of your guns you are most comfortable with and practicing with some new ones that you may find your favorites. You will shoot better with some guns over others, especially if you are not usually a shooter.
3. Complete missions across the map
There are various missions you can complete around the map, including ones you can play multiple times. Missions do not automatically activate unless you drop into the mission area and someone else is already running that mission. In that situation, you will become part of the mission and play through it with the other people in the area.
Before you start your own missions, you can check how much EXP you will get from them under the “main reward” section. As you can see from the screenshot above, the mission Kingston Communications Repeater gives you 1,070 EXP for each run. This mission is one you can repeat, and it happens in close proximity, so it’s good for making quick EXP. Other people are often in the area, so it’s rare to be alone on missions like this – those are the ones that are close to transport points or in main areas.
2. Complete dungeon missions
The First Descendant has a number of missions that work in a dungeon style. These missions can be started alone or you can join them publicly and wait for a group. From what I’ve seen, you’ll end up with three or four players together on the same mission.
You can tell you’re about to start one of these larger missions because interacting with the mission’s starting point will send you to a new screen asking if you want to complete it privately or publicly. The example I have for you here is the Slumber Valley mission that offers 1,200 EXP after completion. These bigger missions also give you a bigger and better range of rewards!
1. Repeat the Kingston Resource Defense mission
The Kingston Resource Defense mission is a wave-by-wave enemy encounter mission. You can find it by going to the Special Operations Terminal in Albion, finding the Kingston area on the map, and selecting the Kingston Albion Resource Defense mission
The waves of enemies get stronger as the mission goes on, but each wave you defeat gives you EXP and some other rewards. Since it is set to give you EXP after you complete each part of the mission, it is the best way to farm EXP in the game and level up your Descendant faster.
I highly recommend this strategy to level up quickly in The First Descendant. My team of four only made the first seven waves and I still leveled up from level 11 to level 16.
How to level up your Mastery in The First Descendant
Your Master Rank is completely separate from your Origin Level. They are both independent leveling systems with their own advantages. While your Origin Level affects your stats – like your HP and attack – your Mastery upgrades your storage and module capacity.
You will organically raise your Master Rank as you play, but you have to go and use the Arche Factor Manipulator Prime Hands back at the hub in Albion to actually rank up. If you don’t go and use the Hands to rank up, you won’t be able to get additional points to the next rank.
Go into the room where the Hands are, interact with the terminal, and click to rank up. You’ll get a rather strange scene where your Descendant stands between the giant hands to gain more power. Once that’s done, you’ll be the next Master Rank, and you can start building up Master Rank EXP again.
Master Rank EXP can only be gained either by completing missions for the first time or by leveling up without any of your Descendant’s mod slots filled.
Want to read more Pro Game Guides for The First Descendant? Try our guide on How to fix Caliber not showing in The First Descendant or How to unlock all trophies in The First Descendant.
