If you’re about to dive into Nexon’s flashy free-to-play looter shooter The First Descendant, one of the first questions you probably have is how many hours is The First Descendant, so you can plan your gaming schedule around work, school, or other games you’re playing. I’ve put over 120 hours into the game across two accounts, one solo and one I play with a group of college friends, so I’ve got first-hand data for every playstyle, whether you’re here just for the sci-fi story or want to unlock every character and max out every weapon in the game. Playtime varies a lot depending on what you want to do, and we’ll break it all down below, plus share the tricks I’ve picked up to avoid wasting hours on unnecessary grind.
How Many Hours Is The First Descendant For Main Story Only?
If you just want to blast through the main campaign, skip all side quests, and don’t stop to grind for better gear unless a boss stops you, you’re looking at an average of 18 to 22 hours of playtime. I did a story-only run last month to test this, playing on normal difficulty, and I finished in 19 hours flat, only stopping to upgrade my starting descendant Ajax just enough to beat the bigger story boss fights. Some of the early Void Battle story checkpoints can be tough if you don’t touch gear upgrades at all, so if you’re new to looter shooters, you might add 2 to 3 extra hours to that total. You won’t unlock every character or high-tier gear if you only play the main story, so keep that in mind if you want to mess around with different playstyles after the credits roll.
Playtime For Completing Main Story + Casual Side Content
Most players don’t just rush straight through the story, right? You’ll probably stop to do a few side missions, unlock a new descendant that looks fun, run a couple of weekly quests to get better gear, and wander around the open zones to collect resources every now and then. For this casual playstyle, you’re looking at 45 to 60 hours of total playtime before you’ve cleared all the content you care about. If you play with friends, this playtime can drop by 10 to 15 hours because group runs clear missions way faster than solo, especially the higher difficulty boss fights that take forever to beat alone. This is the most common playstyle for casual players who log in 2 to 3 hours a day, so it takes most people about 3 weeks to wrap up this level of content before they move on to other games or dive into the endgame grind.
100% Completion Playtime For The First Descendant
If you’re a completionist who wants to unlock every piece of content the game has to offer, you’re going to be sinking a lot more time into The First Descendant. Full 100% completion, including all endgame content, achievements, and collectibles, takes most players 120 hours or more, depending on how lucky you are with loot drops. What counts as 100% completion, exactly? It covers all of the following:
- Unlock all 16 playable descendants, including limited-time event exclusive characters
- Max out every weapon rarity tier, and get all rare weapon mods to level 10
- Clear all Void Battles and raid content on Extreme difficulty, no carries allowed
- Collect all hidden lore entries and unlock all profile badges and cosmetic skins
- Complete all daily, weekly, and seasonal achievements available at launch
A lot of this content is extremely grind-heavy, especially if you’re playing solo. Drop rates for rare character unlock items can be as low as 3% for some endgame bosses, so you might have to run the same mission 20+ times to get the exact material you need. Keep in mind that Nexon adds new seasonal content every 2 to 3 months, so 100% completion playtime will keep going up as new characters, missions, and achievements are added to the game.
Tips To Cut Down Unnecessary Grind Time
You don’t have to spend hundreds of hours grinding if you don’t want to. There are tons of easy ways to speed up your progress without spending a cent of real money, since the game has no pay-to-win mechanics at all. First, always play with a full 4-person squad if you can. Group missions give 15% bonus loot and clear 30 to 40% faster than solo runs, especially for boss fights that have huge health pools. Second, prioritize character unlock missions first before you grind for gear, because some descendants have passive buffs that increase resource drop rates or make mission objectives complete faster. Wait until you get a legendary or unique weapon that fits your playstyle before you invest resources to max it out – I wasted so many upgrade materials on blue and purple weapons early on that I replaced after a couple of hours. Third, check the in-game event calendar first before you start farming for rare materials. Events often give double or triple drop rates for the exact items you need, so you can farm what you want in half the time if you wait for these windows. You don’t have to grind every piece of content to have fun – if you only care about PvP or raid content, you can skip most of the side quests that don’t give you relevant rewards for that content. I used to force myself to do every side quest on my first playthrough, and I cut 20 hours of my total playtime on my second run by only doing the content I actually enjoyed.
At the end of the day, how many hours is The First Descendant depends entirely on what you want to get out of it. Casual players who just want to experience the fun sci-fi story can wrap it up in under 25 hours, while completionists can sink hundreds of hours into all the endgame and side content without running out of things to do. The best part is that you can adjust your playstyle to fit your schedule – you don’t have to commit to hundreds of hours of grind if you don’t want to, and the core gameplay is satisfying enough that even short 30 minute play sessions feel rewarding. If you’re just starting out, stick to the story first, and see what parts of the game you enjoy most before you commit to longer grind sessions for rare gear or characters.