If you’ve just hopped into Nexon’s sci-fi looter shooter The First Descendant, you’ve probably noticed progression doesn’t work the same as most other live service games. You might have hit a wall where your character stops gaining XP even after running three or four back-to-back missions, and wondered how does leveling work in The First Descendant past that initial soft cap. I’ve spent over 120 hours grinding every playable character and endgame activity, so I’m breaking down every part of the system, from base level gains to permanent account-wide boosts you won’t want to miss.
Core Basics: How Does Leveling Work in The First Descendant?
The first thing to understand is that there are two separate progression systems tied to every character: base level and descendant rank. Base level runs from 1 to 40, and you gain experience for it from mission completions, enemy kills, and main/side quest rewards. Each level up gives small, immediate stat boosts to your HP, attack power, and defense, plus unlocks new skill slots as you hit key milestones like level 10 and level 25.
You don’t lose any progress when you rank up a character, all your existing stat boosts and unlocked skills stay intact even as you move past the level 40 cap. Rank progression runs from 1 to 10, and unlike base level, it requires specific materials rather than XP to advance. Each rank up gives bigger stat boosts, unique passive bonuses for that character, and in some cases, account-wide perks that apply to every descendant you own.
Base XP is shared across all characters in your active party, so if you run a mission with a friend, their kills and objective completions will contribute to your level gains too. That makes co-op one of the fastest ways to level up new characters, even if you’re running missions that are a bit higher difficulty than you could clear on your own.
Top XP Sources to Level Your Descendants Fast
Not all activities give the same XP per minute, so picking the right content for your current level will cut your grind time in half. Early on, main story missions give the most consistent XP gains, and you don’t need to waste time on side missions until you’ve finished the first two acts of the campaign. Once you hit level 20, you’ll unlock more efficient farming activities that let you power through to the level 40 cap in just a few hours.
- Story Mission Replays (Levels 1-20): Replay the final Act 1 story mission for consistent, low-effort XP that works even for undergeared characters. You can run it in under 4 minutes per clear, and it gives enough XP to jump 2-3 levels at a time early on. It also drops basic upgrade materials you can use for your first weapon mods, so it pulls double duty for early progression.
- Void Intercepts (Levels 20-40): These short, wave-based missions reward 2x XP for completing bonus objectives, and you can stack XP boosters from login events or the in-game shop to cut your grind time in half. Most Void Intercept runs take 5 to 7 minutes, even on normal difficulty, and they drop mid-tier materials you’ll need for early rank ups later.
- Endgame Raids (Post-40 Rank Ups): While raids don’t give base XP, they drop the rare descendant shards and core materials you need to rank up your characters past the level 40 cap, making them non-negotiable for long-term progression. If you’re farming for rank up materials, run raids on hard difficulty to double your chances of getting rare character-specific shards.
Don’t make the mistake I did early on, grinding open world kills for XP. Open world enemies give less than 10% of the XP you get from mission completions, so you’re just wasting your time if you’re not running structured activities. Always equip an XP booster before running farming runs, even if it’s a free 1-hour booster from a login event, the gains are well worth the 2 seconds it takes to activate it.
Rank Up Progression: What Happens After You Hit Level 40?
Level 40 is just the start of your character’s progression, not the end. Each rank up from 1 to 10 unlocks new passive bonuses, extra skill slots, and even permanent account-wide stat boosts that apply to every other descendant you own. For example, hitting rank 3 unlocks the second ultimate skill slot for that character, which completely changes how most characters play. My main is Viessa, and when I hit rank 3 I could equip her ice wall ultimate alongside her freezing storm ultimate, which let me carry entire Void Intercept runs on my own.
The catch is that each rank requires specific materials that are tied to that character, so you can’t just farm generic materials to rank up every descendant. You’ll need to run specific Void Battles for each character to get their unique shards, plus generic core materials that are limited to weekly drops from endgame activities. You can also get random character shards from event rewards and the in-game battle pass, so make sure to claim all your free rewards every week.
Prioritize ranking up your main character to rank 5 first, that unlocks a 10% account-wide XP boost that makes leveling all your other characters much faster. It also unlocks a permanent 5% attack boost for all your descendants, which makes early endgame content much easier to clear. Once your main is at rank 5, you can start spreading materials to other characters you want to play.
Common Leveling Mistakes to Avoid
New players make a lot of avoidable mistakes that slow down their progression by days or even weeks. The biggest one is wasting rare core materials on ranking up every character equally early on. You only get around 12 rare core materials per week from weekly challenges, so spreading them across 3 or 4 characters will mean none of them hit key rank milestones for weeks. Stick to one main character until you hit rank 5, then start working on alts.
Another common mistake is ignoring bonus mission objectives that give extra XP. Most missions have 2 bonus objectives, like completing the mission in under 10 minutes or not using any revive items, and those give 30% extra XP each. Skipping them means you’re leaving almost 60% of potential XP on the table every run, which adds up quickly when you’re grinding for hours. Take 30 extra seconds to complete those objectives, it’s well worth the time.
Don’t waste your XP boosters on low-XP activities either. I made this mistake once, used a premium 3-hour XP booster to grind open world side quests, and I barely gained 2 levels when I could have gone from 20 to 40 in that same time running Void Intercepts. Save your boosters for dedicated farming sessions where you can run back-to-back high-XP missions without taking breaks.
At the end of the day, progression in this game is designed to reward focused grinding rather than random open world exploration, so once you understand how does leveling work in The First Descendant, you can cut out all the unnecessary busywork and build the roster of powerful descendants you want. Take it slow early on, focus on one character first, and don’t be afraid to ask your clan mates for help running higher difficulty missions to get rare materials faster. You’ll be clearing endgame raids and taking on the hardest world bosses before you know it.