One of the best parts of looter shooters is customizing your characters and weapons to stand out from other players, and The First Descendant has no shortage of flashy, unique cosmetics to choose from. If you've spent any time grinding missions in the game, you've probably seen other players running around with rare skins you've never spotted in the premium cash shop. That's why so many new players ask can you earn skins in The First Descendant without dropping cash on premium currency. I've put over 120 hours into the game since launch, unlocked dozens of free skins for my favorite characters and weapons, and I've even had random players message me mid-mission to ask where I got my rarer cosmetics. I'm breaking down every legitimate way to get free skins here, no hacks or exploits required.
Can You Earn Skins in The First Descendant Through Regular Mission Rewards?
The short answer is yes, and a lot of players don't even realize these drops exist until they've been playing for weeks. Standard story and side missions have a chance to drop skin rewards for both characters and weapons, no extra hoops to jump through. Story mode missions, especially the final mission of each act, often give exclusive character skins you can't get anywhere else. For example, beating the final act of the base story gives you the Proto-Armor skin for Viessa, one of the most popular starter characters for new players.
Repeatable side missions also have consistent skin drop rates, per the latest publicly available loot data. Supply run missions in the Void area have a 12% chance to drop rare weapon skins for assault rifles and sniper rifles every time you complete them. Higher difficulty levels don't increase the drop rate for these common mission skins, so you can farm them on normal if you want quick, low-effort runs. You don't have to do anything special to earn these, just finish the mission and check your post-match loot chest before you queue for the next one.
Free Season Pass Tiers Offer Exclusive, Limited-Time Skins
The First Descendant's seasonal pass has two separate reward tracks: a paid premium track for players who want extra rewards, and a completely free track available to every player, no purchase required. This is one of the most consistent answers to how can you earn skins in The First Descendant without extra effort, since you'll earn season pass XP just by playing the game normally. The free track usually has 2 to 3 character skins and 4 to 6 weapon skins per season, plus a bunch of other useful rewards like premium currency and upgrade materials.
A lot of players sleep on these free pass skins because they assume the entire pass is locked behind a paywall, but some of the most popular skins in the game came from past free pass tracks. For example, the neon-glow Street Runner skin for Bunny was a free tier 45 reward in season 2, and players still ask about it constantly now that the season is over. The only catch is that these skins are only available for the duration of the season, so if you see one you like, prioritize earning enough XP to unlock it before the season ends. You can earn extra season XP fast by completing daily and weekly challenges, most of which tie into content you're probably already grinding anyway.
Special Event Challenges Give Rare, Themed Cosmetics
The First Descendant runs themed events every 4 to 6 weeks, and almost all of them have skin rewards for completing specific challenge lists. These events are usually tied to holidays, game updates, or new character launches, and the skins are always themed to match the event's vibe. For example, the recent Halloween event had a spooky ghost-themed skin for Lepic, plus a pumpkin-decal shotgun skin, for players who completed 12 event challenges over 3 weeks. If you're wondering can you earn skins in The First Descendant that no one else will have later, event challenges are your best bet.
Event challenges usually fall into a few simple categories that are easy to fit into your regular play schedule:
- Defeat a set number of event-specific boss enemies on any difficulty level
- Collect event-exclusive tokens from missions to trade for skins in the event shop
- Complete 8 or more daily event challenges over the course of the event period
- Team up with 3 other players to clear the event's special limited-time dungeon
Event skins are almost never re-released after the event ends, so they're some of the rarest cosmetics you can earn in the game. A lot of players skip event challenges because they think they're too time-consuming, but most of them can be completed while you're already grinding for other rewards like upgrade materials or new characters. If you log in even once a week during an event, you can usually finish all the required challenges to get the top skin reward without too much extra grinding.
Guild Missions and PvP Rank Rewards Give Competitive Skins
If you like playing with other people, guild missions and PvP ranked mode both have exclusive skin rewards you can't get anywhere else. Guilds get weekly group missions that require 5 or more members to complete together, and the guild reward chests have a chance to drop exclusive guild-only character and weapon skins. The higher your guild's overall rank on the weekly leaderboard, the better the rewards, and top 100 guilds get a guaranteed rare skin for every member at the end of the week. You don't have to be in a hardcore guild to get these rewards either: my casual guild of 12 real-life friends usually hits the top 500 rank every week, and we get skin drops every other month on average.
Ranked PvP mode also has seasonal rank rewards, and if you hit Gold rank or higher, you get an exclusive ranked skin for one of the game's characters, plus a matching weapon skin. Ranked PvP skins are marked with your rank tier, so other players can immediately see that you earned it by climbing the leaderboards. The only downside is that if you don't enjoy PvP, these skins won't be worth the grind for you, and you're better off sticking to PvE content for your free skins. You don't have to be a pro player to hit Gold rank, either: I hit Gold in my first season of PvP just by playing a couple of matches a night after work, so it's accessible for most casual players.
If you were asking can you earn skins in The First Descendant without spending real money, the short answer is a resounding yes. Between mission drops, free season pass rewards, event challenges, and group content rewards, there are dozens of ways to customize your characters and weapons completely for free. You don't have to drop cash on the premium shop to get cool, rare cosmetics, you just have to know what content to prioritize when you log in. Focus on the content you enjoy most first, and you'll build a great collection of skins without turning your play sessions into a boring grind. I've only spent $10 on the game in 120 hours of play, and I have over 40 earned skins for my roster, so it's absolutely possible to build a great collection without spending a dime. The best part? Most of these earned skins are far rarer than the ones you can buy in the cash shop, so you'll stand out way more than players who just paid for their cosmetics.