If you’ve spent hours grinding missions in The First Descendant only to walk away with weak, low-tier weapons that can’t take down mid-game bosses, you’re not alone. A lot of new players waste dozens of runs chasing the wrong drops or ignoring easy crafting systems that hand out powerful gear for minimal effort. Figuring out how to get better weapons in The First Descendant doesn’t have to be a guessing game, though—we’ve tested every method across 100+ hours of play to pull together the most reliable ways to gear up fast, no paid DLC or premium currency required.
How to Get Better Weapons in The First Descendant Via Targeted Mission Farming
If you’re just starting out and wondering how to get better weapons in The First Descendant without spending real money, targeted farming is the most consistent method you can use right away. Not all missions give the same loot rewards, and jumping into random queue runs will leave you wasting time on rewards that don’t fit your gear needs. Interception missions have the highest base drop rate for weapon rewards across all difficulty levels, so they’re a great starting point for any farm run.
You’ll also want to prioritize void intercept battles once you unlock them, as these are the only standard missions that can drop unique legendary weapons with exclusive perk rolls. Before you queue for any mission, take 10 seconds to check the reward list on the mission select screen, so you don’t waste time running a mission that only drops armor or crafting materials when you’re looking for weapons. Higher difficulty levels also drastically improve drop quality, even if they take a little longer to complete.
Don’t skip optional objectives, even if they feel like a hassle. Most players don’t realize that completing all side objectives in a mission doubles your chance of getting a bonus weapon chest at the end. That’s a huge missed opportunity if you’re rushing through runs just to finish fast.
Craft Higher-Tier Weapons Using Hidden Resource Shortcuts
Crafting is one of the most underrated answers to how to get better weapons in The First Descendant, because it removes all the randomness of drop rates. You don’t have to rely on lucky drops to get a top-tier weapon if you’re willing to put a little work into gathering blueprints and resources. Resource conversion stations in every hub let you turn excess common resources into rare ones for a small credit fee, which cuts down farm time by 70% for most craftable weapons.
You can unlock weapon blueprints from faction reputation vendors, no random drops needed. If you run repeat missions for a specific faction, you can rank up your reputation in a few hours and unlock blueprints for epic and even legendary weapons that are guaranteed to have good base stat rolls. Moddable craftable weapons are often better than random drops, because you can customize their stats to fit your playstyle instead of being stuck with whatever the game gives you.
I once spent two weeks trying to get a legendary shotgun from a void raid, then realized I could craft a better one with resources I already had sitting in my inventory after 20 minutes of rep grinding. Don’t make that same mistake. Check the crafting menu and faction vendors every time you level up, so you don’t miss out on gear you can make immediately.
Optimize Your Loot Luck to Cut Down Grind Time Significantly
Loot luck is a stat a lot of players don’t pay attention to, but it makes a massive difference in drop quality. Loot luck boosters from the free battle pass and faction vendors stack with each other, so if you use two 20% luck boosters at the same time, you get a 40% higher chance of rare and above weapon drops. Save these boosters for when you’re running dedicated farm sessions for specific high-tier weapons, don’t waste them on casual story runs.
Certain descendant abilities passively boost loot luck for your entire team, so if you’re running farm runs with a squad, bring a character like Viessa who has a party-wide luck buff. You can also get permanent loot luck upgrades from the account-wide progression tree, so even if you switch characters, you keep that bonus. Don’t waste your battle pass points on cosmetic items first if you’re still gearing up—put those points into permanent luck upgrades first, and you’ll get better gear faster for every character you play.
Note that loot luck doesn’t affect crafted weapons, so it’s only worth using boosters when you’re running mission farms for random drops. If you’re just running missions to gather resources for crafting, you don’t need to waste your boosters on those runs.
Leverage Multiplayer Squads for Faster, Higher-Quality Weapon Drops
Running missions solo is fine for story content, but you’re missing out on a lot of better weapon drops if you never team up. First, squad missions have a higher base drop rate for rare weapons than solo runs, even if you’re playing the same difficulty level. That’s because the game adjusts rewards to account for more players, so everyone in the squad gets a better shot at good drops.
Shared mission rewards mean that if one person in your squad completes an optional objective, everyone gets the bonus chest reward, so you can split up to finish objectives twice as fast as you could alone. If you join a squad that’s farming a specific weapon you want, you can ask them to pass you duplicates they don’t need—most players are happy to hand over extra legendary weapons they already have, instead of letting them go to waste. Just make sure you pull your weight in the mission, don’t leech off other players’ work.
It’s also a good idea to join community groups for the game to find regular farming squads, so you don’t have to wait for random queue times every time you want to run a raid. You’ll often find groups that have specific farm schedules for rare weapons, so you can plan your play sessions around the drops you need most.
You don’t have to spend hundreds of hours grinding random missions to get powerful gear that lets you take on the hardest content the game has to offer. By combining targeted farming, smart crafting, loot luck optimization, and occasional squad play, you can cut your gearing time in half and get weapons that fit your exact playstyle. At the end of the day, figuring out how to get better weapons in The First Descendant is all about working smarter, not harder, and focusing on the methods that give you the most reliable rewards for your time. Try out the tips we shared on your next play session, and you’ll be walking away with high-tier drops before you know it.