If you’ve been grinding The First Descendant for endgame crafting, you’ve probably hit a wall trying to figure out how to get pure energy residue in the first descendant. This rare, glowing material is required for some of the strongest weapon upgrades, module enhancements, and descendant ascension perks, and bad drop rates or wrong mission picks can leave you farming for hours with nothing to show for it. I’ve spent over 40 hours testing every possible drop source to cut down your grind time, and this guide breaks down exactly where to go, what to do, and which mistakes to avoid to stock up fast.
What Missions Drop Pure Energy Residue in The First Descendant?
Pure Energy Residue only drops from high-level Void activity content, so you won’t find it in early story missions, open world roaming, or low-rank side quests. You need to be at least player rank 25 to unlock the missions that have a realistic drop rate for this material, so if you’re still leveling up, focus on hitting that rank first before you start farming. Based on my testing, these are the only three missions worth running for residue:
Don’t waste your time running lower rank Void missions, even if they’re faster to clear. Rank 5 and below missions have a less than 2% drop rate for pure energy residue, so you’ll spend three times longer grinding for the same amount you’d get from one rank 7 run. You also need to make sure you’re playing on at least normal difficulty; easy mode removes all rare material drops entirely, including this one.
Optimizing Your Loadout for Faster Pure Energy Residue Farming
Even if you pick the right missions, a bad loadout can double your clear time and cut your drop rates significantly. First, pick a descendant with high area-of-effect damage, like Viessa or Ajax, to wipe waves of minions fast and cut down the time it takes to reach the final boss. Single-target damage descendants work too, but you’ll spend far more time clearing trash mobs that don’t drop any useful materials.
Equip the Material Drop Rate Increase module on your primary weapon, it boosts rare material drop chances by 15% per level, so a max level module gives you a 45% extra chance to get extra residue per run. You can get these modules from the weekly shop or as drops from rank 6+ Void missions, so it’s worth picking one up before you start grinding in earnest. Team up with 3 other players if you can, because enemy health scales slower than the combined damage of a full squad, so runs are 2x faster on average.
If you’re waiting for your squad to assemble or taking a 10 minute break between runs to avoid burnout, casual low-stakes games are a great way to pass the time without pulling your focus too far from your farming goals. Lots of players I run with take quick breaks to play Yono Slots between runs, since it’s easy to pick up and put down right as your squad is ready to queue for the next mission. That way you don’t waste time scrolling through menus or getting distracted by other longer games that will make your team wait for you.
Another small tip: turn off unnecessary notifications on your platform when you’re farming. Even a 30 second distraction can make you miss a bonus objective that would have given you extra residue, so it’s worth the minor inconvenience to mute non-game alerts while you’re grinding.
Common Mistakes That Waste Your Time Farming Pure Energy Residue
Most players spend 2x longer farming than they need to because they’re making simple, avoidable mistakes. The biggest one is ignoring bonus objectives. 90% of extra pure energy residue drops come from completing hidden bonus objectives in Void missions, not just defeating the final boss. Bonus objectives include things like not letting any friendly NPCs die, collecting all 3 data shards scattered across the map, or defeating the boss in under 10 minutes. A lot of players skip these to finish runs faster, but you’re actually losing out on more residue long term.
Second mistake is selling or dismantling residue by accident. A lot of new players mix it up with common energy residue, which is a low-tier crafting material, so always lock your pure energy residue in your inventory as soon as you get it to avoid accidentally getting rid of it. I’ve had two friends who accidentally dismantled 12+ residue because they didn’t sort their inventory properly, and that’s a mistake you don’t want to make after hours of grinding.
Third mistake is farming solo when you don’t have a maxed out endgame build. Solo runs take twice as long as squad runs, even with the best build, so you’re better off joining public lobbies if you don’t have friends to play with. Public lobbies for rank 7 Void Intercept are almost always full within 2 minutes, so you don’t have to wait long to get into a run. Just make sure you bring a functional build, no one likes a teammate who only does 5% of the total damage.
Alternative Ways to Earn Pure Energy Residue Without Farming Missions
If you don’t feel like running Void missions all day, there are a few other reliable sources to get residue without grinding the same map over and over. First, the weekly event shop: every week, you can buy up to 5 pure energy residue with event tokens you earn from completing daily and weekly challenges. That’s a guaranteed 5 per week without any extra farming, so make sure you claim those before the shop resets each Tuesday.
Second, descendant ascension rewards: when you ascend certain descendants to level 30 and complete their ascension quest, you get 2 pure energy residue as a one time reward. That’s a great way to stock up if you haven’t finished leveling all your descendants yet, and you get to try out new characters at the same time. Third, community events: The First Descendant runs limited time community events every month that often give out pure energy residue as a reward for hitting community-wide milestones. Check the in-game event tab at least once a week so you don’t miss out on these free rewards.
You can also get small amounts of residue from the free tiers of the battle pass, so even if you don’t buy the premium pass, it’s worth leveling up the free tiers to claim those rewards. These alternative sources won’t give you enough residue for all your crafting needs, but they can cut down the total number of Void runs you need to do every week significantly.
At the end of the day, the fastest way to stock up on this rare material is to stick to the high rank Void missions we outlined, optimize your loadout for drop rates and clear speed, and avoid the common mistakes that slow most players down. With the tips in this guide, you can cut your total grind time for how to get pure energy residue in the first descendant by more than half, so you can spend less time farming and more time upgrading your favorite descendants and weapons to take on the hardest endgame content. If you have any other tips that worked for you, drop them in the comments below to help other players out.