Anyone who’s spent time grinding Void Intercept Battles or hunting rare mods in The First Descendant knows the game hits different with a crew. Solo runs can feel brutal, especially when you’re facing a level 50 boss that one-shots your best tank build in seconds. That’s why learning how to invite friends on The First Descendant is one of the first skills you should master after finishing the prologue. We’ve tested every invite method across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox to cut through the confusion and give you only steps that actually work, no random workarounds that waste your time.
How to Invite Friends on The First Descendant Across All Platforms
The invite process is mostly the same no matter what platform you play on, but there are a few small differences to note for crossplay groups. First, make sure you’re in the main hub area, not in an active mission or matchmaking queue. You can’t send or accept invites once you’ve loaded into a mission, so hold off on queuing until everyone is in your party. You must enable crossplay in your game settings before you can add or invite friends on other platforms, so double check that toggle is switched on if you’re playing with people on different hardware.
From the main hub, open the social menu by pressing the designated key or controller button (it’s marked with a person icon on all platforms). Navigate to the “Add Friend” tab, and type in your friend’s Nexon ID or their in-game display name. Send the friend request, and once they accept, their name will show up in your friends list. Hover over their name, select “Invite to Party”, and they’ll get a pop-up notification to join your lobby. If you’re playing on the same platform as your friend, you can also import your platform friends list directly from the social menu to skip typing in IDs entirely.
Common Issues You Might Face When Sending Friend Invites
Even if you follow every step correctly, you might run into snags when trying to invite friends. Most of these issues are easy to fix, and we’ve sorted the most frequent ones we’ve run into during our play sessions:
Always double-check the spelling of your friend's Nexon ID, as even one wrong capital letter will make the search return no results. If you’re 100% sure the ID is correct, try restarting your game. We’ve found that a quick restart fixes around 70% of invite bugs, especially after a new game update rolls out. If the issue persists, check the official The First Descendant server status page to make sure social features aren’t down for maintenance.
Best Practices for a Smooth Multiplayer Party Experience
Once you’ve got your friends in your party, there are a few small things you can do to make your play sessions run way more smoothly. First, remember that party size is capped at 4 players, so if you have a bigger group, you’ll need to split into two separate lobbies. You can’t merge parties mid-session either, so make sure everyone you want to play with is invited before you queue for a mission. Make sure all party members have the required mission access before sending invites to avoid wasted time. For example, if you’re trying to run a late-game story mission, anyone who hasn’t completed the previous story checkpoint won’t be able to join.
If you’re bringing newer friends along for higher level missions, adjust the mission difficulty to match the lowest level player in your party. Higher difficulty settings give better rewards, but new players will get one-shot by every enemy if the difficulty is set too high, making the run frustrating for everyone. Swapping to a support character like Viessa can make low-level carry runs far faster and safer for newer friends, as her healing and crowd control abilities keep the whole team alive even when they’re undergeared. You can also drop extra materials and low-level mods for your friends to help them power up faster during runs.
Extra Perks of Playing With Friends in The First Descendant
Inviting friends to play isn’t just more fun, it also gives you access to exclusive rewards you can’t get playing solo. For starters, every co-op mission gives you a 15% bonus to gold and mod drop rates, which adds up fast when you’re grinding for rare upgrades. There are also weekly co-op exclusive challenges that give you premium Kuban currency, which you can use to buy new character skins and storage expansions without spending real money. Co-op exclusive Void Challenge missions give 30% more module enhancement materials than solo runs, making them the fastest way to power up your characters.
You can also trade common mods and crafting materials with friends in your party, which saves you hours of grinding for specific parts you need to upgrade your favorite descendant. If you have extra copies of a rare mod you don’t need, you can pass it to a friend who’s been hunting for it, and they can return the favor later. Trading is limited to items you’ve earned in the same mission run, but it’s still a huge quality of life feature that makes playing with friends far more rewarding than grinding alone.
At the end of the day, The First Descendant is built for co-op play, and figuring out how to invite friends on The First Descendant opens up so much more of what the game has to offer. You don’t have to slog through tough boss fights or tedious grind sessions alone, and you’ll earn better rewards faster when you play with a crew. If you run into issues sending invites, just refer back to the troubleshooting steps we shared, and you’ll be back to playing with your friends in no time.