If you’ve stumbled across clips of flashy ability combos, giant mech boss fights, and vibrant character designs from Nexon’s free-to-play looter shooter, you’ve probably wondered how does the first descendant work before you commit to downloading its 60+ GB file. I’ve put roughly 80 hours into the game across both solo and co-op play, so I’ve seen first-hand how its systems work together for new and returning players. It’s a lot deeper than your average third-person shooter, with layered progression systems and co-op focused design that rewards both casual play and dedicated grinding. This guide breaks down every core part of the game without the unnecessary jargon you’ll find in most official patch notes.
Core Gameplay Loops: How Does The First Descendant Work At Its Base?
At its core, The First Descendant is a loot-driven third-person shooter where you control a genetically enhanced soldier (called a Descendant) to complete missions, fight alien invaders, and collect better gear. Unlike linear story-focused shooters, the game is built around a repeating loop that gets more challenging the further you progress. You’ll spend most of your time picking missions from the world map, completing objectives to earn rewards, then using those rewards to make your character stronger so you can take on harder missions.
Missions come in a wide range of types, from short 10-minute resource collection runs to 45-minute endgame raids with multi-phase boss fights. Story missions unlock as you level up, and they give you context for the alien invasion you’re fighting off, but they’re not required to access most of the game’s content. Your primary goal early on is not to beat every boss on the first try, but to collect gear that fits your playstyle and unlock new descendants.
You don’t have to spend any real money to progress, either. Every character, weapon, and cosmetic in the game can be earned with in-game currency or mission drops. The only paid content is optional cosmetics and convenience items like extra storage space for loot, so you won’t hit a paywall no matter how far you get.
Descendant Classes and Unique Ability Systems
Every playable character in the game is a unique Descendant with their own set of abilities, strengths, and weaknesses, and there are no generic class templates you can apply to multiple characters. You start with three free Descendants when you first launch the game: a tank named Ajax, an ice-based crowd control character named Viessa, and a fast-paced melee damage dealer named Gley. You can unlock more than 15 other Descendants by collecting crafting materials from missions, no purchase required.
Each Descendant has four core abilities: a passive buff that’s always active, two standard active abilities with short cooldowns, and one powerful ultimate ability that you charge up by dealing damage to enemies. Every descendant has a unique "Legacy Skill" that can't be replicated by any other character, so picking one that matches your preferred playstyle is far more important than chasing meta picks early on. For example, if you love hanging back and supporting your team, you’ll have way more fun playing support character Bunny than forcing yourself to play a high-skill damage dealer just because streamers say it’s the strongest option.
You can also upgrade each Descendant’s skill tree to tweak their abilities to fit your playstyle. If you’re playing Viessa, you can choose to upgrade your ultimate to deal more damage, or make your freeze effects last longer to support your team in co-op missions. Skill respecs cost a tiny amount of in-game currency, so you don’t have to worry about locking yourself into a bad build when you’re first starting out.
Loot, Gear, and Progression Paths
Loot is the backbone of The First Descendant’s progression system, and every piece of gear you collect has random stat rolls that change how it performs. Loot comes in six tiers, from common grey items to ultra-rare ultimate tier drops that only come from the hardest endgame content. You can equip three weapons, a set of armor, and several accessory items to boost your stats, and you can upgrade any piece of gear to increase its power if you find a roll you really like.
New players often get overwhelmed by the number of stats on each piece of gear, but you only need to focus on a handful of key stats when you’re first starting out:
- Ability Power: Boosts the damage and effectiveness of all your descendant's active and ultimate abilities, perfect for ability-focused builds.
- Weapon Damage: Increases base damage for all equipped firearms, ideal for players who prefer gunplay over ability spamming.
- Critical Hit Chance/Damage: Stack these two stats together for massive burst damage against both regular enemies and boss weak points.
- Cooldown Reduction: Lets you use your abilities more often, a must-have for support and crowd control focused descendants.
You can also earn permanent account-wide progression buffs called “Research Bonuses” by unlocking new Descendants and maxing out their levels. These buffs apply to every character you play, so even if you spend 10 hours grinding to unlock a new Descendant you end up not liking, you still get a permanent reward for your time. That makes grinding for new characters feel way less frustrating than it does in other looter shooters where wasted time has no payoff.
Multiplayer and Co-Op Functionality
The First Descendant was designed first and foremost as a co-op game, though almost all early and mid-game content can be played solo if you prefer playing alone. Missions scale their difficulty based on the number of players in your lobby, so you won’t have a harder time playing solo than you would playing with a group of random players. You don't have to play with randoms if you don't want to, as the game supports private lobbies for you and your friends, with no restrictions on mission difficulty for pre-made groups.
Endgame content like Void Intercept boss fights and weekly raids are designed for four-player teams, and they require basic coordination to beat. For example, some bosses have shield generators that need to be destroyed by players on different sides of the arena at the same time, so you’ll need to communicate with your team to take them down fast. Loot drops are personal for every player, so you never have to fight over rare drops with other people in your lobby. Everyone gets their own set of rewards at the end of each mission, so there’s no such thing as ninja looting.
The game also supports full crossplay across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, so you can play with your friends no matter what platform they own. Cross-progression is supported too, so you can pick up where you left off if you switch consoles or PC platforms down the line.
Now that you have a clear idea of how does the first descendant work, you can jump into your first mission without feeling overwhelmed by its many systems. The game has a pretty steep learning curve for new looter shooter players, but it’s very forgiving of mistakes early on, so you don’t have to stress about getting everything right on your first try. Don't be afraid to experiment with different descendants and builds early on, that's half the fun of the game. If you get stuck on a tough boss fight or can’t figure out how to unlock a specific character, you can always ask for help in the in-game global chat, most long-time players are happy to give tips to new folks.