Maybe you started playing The First Descendant on your PS5 when it launched, but now you want to switch to PC for better frame rates when you’re at your desk, and mobile for quick missions on your commute. The last thing you want is to grind for all your favorite Void characters and legendary weapons all over again. That’s exactly why knowing how to cross save in the first descendant is one of the most useful pieces of info you can have as a regular player. I’ve tested this process across three different platforms over the past two months, so I can walk you through every step without the frustrating mistakes I made first try. The cross save system is far more reliable than a lot of other live service games I’ve played, but it still has a few quirks you need to be aware of before you start linking accounts.
How to Cross Save in The First Descendant: Full Step-by-Step Walkthrough
The entire cross save setup process takes less than 10 minutes if you have all your account login info handy. Everything is tied to your Nexon account, so that’s the first thing you’ll need to set up if you haven’t already. If you already linked your platform account to Nexon when you first launched the game, you’re halfway done with the process.
First, log into your Nexon account via the official account portal. You can use any device for this step, but I find it easiest to do on a laptop or phone so you don’t have to exit the game on your console. Once you’re logged in, navigate to the “Linked Accounts” tab in your account settings. You’ll see icons for every supported platform, including Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation, Xbox, iOS, and Android.
Select every platform you play The First Descendant on, and follow the prompts to log into each platform account to confirm the link. You’ll get a verification email for each new link, so make sure you have access to the email tied to each platform account. Set your primary save file before you exit the settings page. This is the most important step of the whole process, because the primary save is the one that will sync across all platforms, so pick the one with the most play time and progress.
Once you’ve linked all your accounts and set your primary save, launch the game on any linked platform. You’ll see a prompt asking if you want to use cross save data when you reach the main menu. Select that option, and your progress will load within a few seconds. If you don’t see the prompt, go to the in-game settings, select the “Account” tab, and toggle cross save on manually.
Key Rules for Cross Save That Will Save You From Losing Progress
There are a few hard rules for The First Descendant’s cross save system that Nexon doesn’t make super obvious in the official instructions. I learned most of these the hard way, so following them will save you from hours of frustration trying to recover lost progress.
You can only have one primary save at a time — you can’t merge two separate save files from different platforms. So if you have 20 hours on PC and 30 on Xbox, you have to pick one to be your primary save, you can’t combine the progress from both. That’s the most common misconception I see all the time in community groups, and a lot of players are disappointed when they find out merging isn’t an option.
Some in-game purchases don’t transfer across all regions — if you bought a cosmetic pack on a Japanese region PSN account, it won’t show up if you switch to a European Steam account, even if they’re linked to the same Nexon account. Regional licensing restrictions are the cause here, and there’s no way around it right now. If you mostly play across regions, stick to purchasing items directly through the in-game store instead of platform-specific marketplaces, since those purchases are tied to your Nexon account directly.
Cross save works across all currently supported platforms, but Nintendo Switch support is not available as of the latest update. Nexon has teased it’s coming in a future patch, but there’s no official release date yet. There are also a few non-negotiable rules you need to follow to avoid corrupting your save entirely:
- Never unlink a platform account while you have an active game session open, as this can corrupt your save file permanently
- Don't switch your primary save more than once every 24 hours, as the system has a cooldown to prevent data conflicts
- Avoid making major progress (like beating a Void raid or unlocking a new character) on two different platforms without syncing first
Cross Save vs Cross Play: What's The Difference, And Do You Need Both?
A lot of new players confuse cross save with cross play, but they’re separate features you can toggle on or off independently. You don’t have to use both if you don’t want to, and they don’t rely on each other to work properly.
Cross save only handles your progress syncing across devices. It doesn’t affect who you can play with, or how your matches are populated. Cross play, on the other hand, lets you matchmake and play with friends on different platforms. You don’t need to enable cross play to use cross save — if you only want to play with people on your same platform but still carry your progress between your console and PC, that’s totally allowed.
That’s a huge relief for a lot of players who don’t want to deal with cross platform input advantages in PvP modes. I usually keep cross play off when I’m playing competitive Battle Arena matches, but leave cross save on 100% of the time so I can jump between my laptop and console whenever I want. If you turn cross save off at any point, your progress will only be saved locally on the platform you’re playing on, so you won’t see any updates from other linked devices until you turn it back on.
So if you only ever play on one platform, you don’t need to bother setting up cross save at all. But if you even think you might switch platforms later, it’s worth linking your accounts now, so you don’t have to worry about losing months of progress down the line.
Troubleshooting Common Cross Save Issues
Even if you follow all the steps correctly, you might run into small issues now and then. I’ve had most of these happen to me, so I can tell you the easiest fixes that work 99% of the time, without having to contact support.
The most common issue is progress not syncing after you log into a new platform. This usually happens when the servers are busy during peak play times, like right after a new update drops or on weekend evenings. If this happens to you, close the game completely, restart your device, and launch it again. That’s all I had to do when I switched to mobile for a work trip last month, and all my progress loaded within 10 seconds after restarting.
Another common issue is the “save conflict” error that pops up when you’ve made progress on two different platforms without syncing. I once got this error when I played a quick mission on my phone during my lunch break, then tried to log into my PS5 right after I got home. Always select the save file with the most recent timestamp when this happens — that’s the one with your latest progress, and picking the older one will overwrite any recent changes you made. If you’re not sure which one to pick, check the play time count on each save to match it to your last session.
If you can’t link your platform account to your Nexon account, make sure that platform account isn’t already linked to a different Nexon account. Each platform account can only be linked to one Nexon account at a time, so if you made a second account by accident, you’ll need to contact Nexon support to unlink it. Also, note that if you get banned on one platform, your ban will apply across all linked platforms, since your progress is tied to your Nexon account, not your individual platform account.
At the end of the day, being able to play your favorite game wherever you want without restarting from scratch is one of the best quality of life features Nexon added to The First Descendant. Once you know how to cross save in The First Descendant and follow the simple rules to avoid data loss, you can jump between platforms as much as you want without any stress. If you run into a problem I didn’t cover here, you can always reach out to the official support team, but most small issues are fixed with the simple troubleshooting tips we went over. Just make sure to double check your primary save before you link any new accounts, and you’ll be good to go.