If you’ve spent hours grinding boss fights or looting chests in The First Descendant looking for a rare crafting material, you’re not alone. I spent three straight days running the wrong missions before I figured out how to get liquid metal in the first descendant reliably, without wasting 2+ hours per run for a single drop. Liquid metal is one of the most sought-after materials in the game, used to craft high-tier weapon mods, upgrade endgame descendant abilities, and unlock exclusive cosmetic skins for your favorite characters. Most new players struggle to find it because it doesn’t drop from regular open-world enemies, and the game gives almost zero guidance on where to look for it.
How to Get Liquid Metal in The First Descendant: Core Unlock Requirements
You can’t start farming liquid metal the second you boot up the game, and that’s a mistake a lot of new players make. First, you have to complete the "Vulture’s Nest" main story mission, which unlocks the endgame Void Intercept Battle and Resource Rush game modes. You also need to be at least player level 30, because all missions that drop liquid metal are tuned for endgame players with fully upgraded gear and descendants.
Base drop rates for liquid metal vary by difficulty, and it’s never a guaranteed drop unless you’re running weekly raids. On normal difficulty, you’re looking at a 12% drop chance per run, hard difficulty bumps that to 21%, and extreme difficulty gives you a 32% base chance per clear. Many players assume there’s a secret cheat to get liquid metal fast, but the only reliable way is to run the right missions consistently.
Top 3 Most Efficient Liquid Metal Farming Routes
I tested 7 different farming routes over a week of playing to find the ones that give the highest number of drops per hour, and these three stood out far above the rest. You can adjust them based on whether you prefer playing solo or with a team, but all of them beat random mission grinding by a wide margin.
You might be tempted to run normal difficulty runs to finish faster, but don’t waste your time. The drop rate is so low on normal that you’ll spend twice as long farming for the same number of drops as you would on hard or extreme difficulty. If you’re struggling to survive hard mode runs, try equipping a shield regen mod and team up with at least one support descendant to cut down on retry times. If you’re running the Gigas route specifically, make sure your team focuses on breaking the boss’s weak points first, as that also increases the chance of liquid metal dropping.
Hidden Tips to Boost Your Liquid Metal Drop Rate
There are a few little-known tricks that can drastically increase how many liquid metal drops you get per hour, and most players never learn about them unless they spend time digging through community forums. I’ve tested all of these myself, and they cut my total farming time for 10 liquid metal pieces in half.
Equip the Lucky Looter mod on your secondary weapon – This mod increases rare material drop rates by 18% for all party members, and it stacks if multiple people in your team have it equipped. I’ve seen teams with four Lucky Looter mods get 5 liquid metal drops in a single extreme Gigas run, which is way higher than the base rate. You don’t have to use the secondary weapon for it to work, just keep it in your loadout and the effect stays active.
Complete all bonus mission objectives – Almost every mission that drops liquid metal has bonus objectives that add an extra 5-15% drop chance, and most players skip them because they think they’re a waste of time. For example, the Gigas run’s bonus objective of destroying core generators only adds 1 minute to your run time, but it almost doubles your drop chance if you finish it. It’s always worth taking the extra time to complete these objectives, even if you’re in a hurry.
Don’t leave the mission immediately after killing the boss – There are hidden chests in every boss arena that have a small chance to drop liquid metal too. I once got two drops from chests after a run where the boss didn’t drop any, so it’s always worth taking 30 seconds to look around the arena before you extract. One little-known trick is to use the descendant Viessa when farming liquid metal, as her area-of-effect attacks let you clear mobs and complete bonus objectives faster, so you can fit more runs into an hour.
Common Liquid Metal Farming Mistakes to Avoid
I made almost all of these mistakes when I first started farming liquid metal, and they cost me hours of wasted time. Knowing what to avoid will save you a lot of frustration, especially if you’re trying to grind enough material to craft a specific endgame mod.
First, don’t waste your time looting open-world chests. I see a lot of misinformation online saying liquid metal drops from regular open-world chests, but that’s not true. It only drops from the endgame missions we listed earlier, so running around the open world looting chests is just a waste of time. Stick to the dedicated farming routes we outlined, and you’ll get drops far faster.
Second, don’t run missions solo if you can avoid it. Coordinated teams cut run times in half, and the drop rate is the same whether you run solo or with a team, so you’ll get twice as many runs per hour with a group. If you don’t have friends to play with, use the in-game matchmaking for Void Intercept Battles – most players running those missions are also farming for liquid metal, so they’ll know the route and bonus objectives. Another mistake is using liquid metal to craft low-tier mods early on. You only get a limited number of liquid metal drops per week, so save it for endgame mods that you can’t get any other way.
Third, don’t sell or discard liquid metal by accident. It doesn’t have a unique icon in your inventory, so it’s easy to mix it up with common metal scraps. I recommend moving all liquid metal to your storage chest as soon as you get it, so you don’t accidentally delete it when you’re clearing out your inventory of common materials.
At the end of the day, farming rare materials doesn’t have to be a frustrating grind if you know the right routes and tricks to cut down on wasted time. Once you figure out how to get liquid metal in the first descendant reliably, you’ll be able to craft all the endgame mods and upgrades you need to take on the hardest content the game has to offer. Try the routes we listed first, and adjust based on your playstyle – if you prefer solo play, stick to the hard mode Resource Rush runs, and if you have a regular team, the extreme Gigas runs will give you the most drops per hour. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t get a drop on your first few runs, the random drop rate will even out over time, and you’ll have a full stock of liquid metal before you know it.