If you’ve spent hours grinding The First Descendant trying to craft a new endgame weapon or upgrade your main descendant’s core modules, you’ve probably hit a wall when you realize you’re missing Hardener. This rare crafting material doesn’t pop up in low-level runs, and a lot of new players waste dozens of runs farming the wrong areas entirely. I’ve spent over 40 hours testing different drop locations and routes to figure out the most efficient way to farm this resource, and I’m breaking down everything you need to know about how to get Hardener in The First Descendant without wasting your time.
How to Get Hardener in The First Descendant: Core Drop Locations
Hardener only drops from mid to high-tier content, so you won’t find it in the first 10 hours of story play or low-difficulty open-world zones. The two most consistent sources are high-level mechanical enemies and specific marked supply crates, plus a guaranteed drop from cleared endgame instanced runs. You need to be at least player level 25 to access all the drop locations, so don’t waste time trying to farm it before you hit that threshold.
Void Intercept Battle: Chasm Ruins difficulty 3 and above is the most reliable source, with a 100% chance to drop at least one Hardener per full clear, plus extra drops from mid-bosses along the way. The open-world Industrial Zone is the second best spot, with Heavy Mech patrollers and yellow-marked supply crates both having a decent chance to drop the material. Industrial Zone Supply Crates marked with yellow hazard labels have a 15% drop chance per crate, which adds up fast if you clear all of them on a loop.
Best Optimized Farming Route for Steady Hardener Drops
The most efficient route I’ve tested gives you an average of 10 to 12 Hardener per hour, which is 3x faster than random grinding across the map. It combines open-world farming with short instanced runs to minimize downtime and maximize drops. This is the exact route I used to farm 50 Hardener in 5 hours to craft my first endgame Void shotgun build. Follow these steps in order for the best results:
You can loop this route as many times as you want, since the open-world mechs and crates respawn every time you finish an instanced Void run, so you never have to wait around for respawn timers. Always run this route with a full 4-player squad because you get a 20% increased drop rate for rare materials in party play, and you’ll clear the Void run far faster than playing solo. Equip the Loot Luck mod on your secondary weapon to boost drop rates by an extra 10% without sacrificing combat performance, since you won’t be using your secondary weapon for most mech or boss fights anyway.
Common Mistakes That Slow Down Your Hardener Farming
Most new players waste hours farming Hardener because they follow outdated advice or make simple avoidable mistakes. I made almost all of these mistakes myself when I first started grinding for the material, so I know exactly how much time they can waste. Fixing just one of these mistakes can cut your total farming time in half.
The biggest mistake is running low-difficulty Void Intercept runs thinking you’ll get drops faster. Difficulty 1 runs have a less than 2% drop chance for Hardener, so you’re far better off spending 10 minutes gearing up to run difficulty 3 instead of grinding 10 low-difficulty runs. Another common mistake is ignoring the open-world supply crates, since a lot of players assume only bosses drop Hardener. Those crates add up to 2 to 3 extra Hardener per hour if you clear them consistently. Never leave a Void Intercept run before defeating the final boss if you’re farming for Hardener, since the guaranteed drop only triggers on full clear. I used to leave runs early if I didn’t get a drop from the mid-boss, and I lost out on dozens of guaranteed Hardener before I learned this rule.
Smart Ways to Use Your Farmed Hardener for Maximum Benefit
Once you start farming Hardener consistently, it’s easy to waste it on low-priority crafts that don’t give you much value. You need roughly 25 Hardener to fully build out one endgame descendant loadout, so you want to make sure you’re using it on upgrades that give you the biggest bang for your buck. I’ve wasted almost 30 Hardener on useless weapons I never use, so I’ve got a clear priority list that works for almost every playstyle.
Prioritize using Hardener for module upgrades first before crafting new weapons, since upgraded modules give a bigger stat boost across all your loadouts, not just one single weapon. The best module to upgrade first is your Core Power module, which increases all your damage, defense, and ability stats by 30% when maxed out. After you’ve maxed out your main descendant’s modules, you can use extra Hardener to craft endgame Void weapons like the Shatterer shotgun, which is one of the strongest PvE weapons in the game right now. If you play a lot of multiplayer, you can also use Hardener to craft support consumables that give your entire squad a damage boost during raid runs.
At the end of the day, farming Hardener doesn’t have to be a frustrating chore if you stick to the optimized routes and avoid common mistakes most new players make. Once you get the hang of the loop we outlined, you’ll be able to stock up on enough of the material to craft every endgame weapon and upgrade all your favorite descendant’s modules without grinding for days. If you’ve been struggling to figure out how to get Hardener in The First Descendant, give these tips a try on your next play session, and you’ll be shocked at how much faster you fill up your inventory.