If you’ve spent hours grinding random missions in The First Descendant and still feel stuck on Mastery Rank progression, you’re not alone. There’s a lot of misinformation online about how to level mastery rank in The First Descendant, with most guides telling you to grind the same high-difficulty missions for hours on end for minimal gain. I spent my first two weeks playing that way, only gaining two Mastery Ranks, before I figured out there’s a far more efficient way to grind that doesn’t require giving up all your free time. This guide breaks down all the tested strategies I used to jump from MR 6 to MR 16 in 10 days of casual 2-hour play sessions, so you can unlock new characters, extra weapon slots, and endgame content way faster.
How Mastery Rank Progression Actually Works
Before you dive into grinding, it’s critical to understand what does and doesn’t count toward Mastery Rank XP, because a lot of players waste hours on activities that give zero progress. Mastery Rank is your account-wide progression level, so it’s not tied to any single character or weapon you use. That means you can swap between characters as much as you want without setting back your overall progression.
Mastery Rank XP is only earned from first-time progression of items and characters, so you only get credit for leveling a character or weapon once. Duplicate level-ups for maxed gear or characters give zero MR XP, no matter how many times you re-level them. I learned this the hard way when I re-leveled my maxed Bunny three times thinking it would push me to MR 15, only to get nothing for my 6 hours of grind.
You also get small amounts of MR XP from first-time mission clears, collectibles, and side objective completions. All of these add up over time, but they’re not as high-impact as leveling new characters and gear. If you want to level mastery rank in The First Descendant efficiently, you first need to prioritize the highest-XP activities first, then fill in gaps with smaller bonuses when you have extra time.
Key Activities to Level Mastery Rank in The First Descendant Fast
Not all activities give the same MR XP per minute, so if you’re trying to progress as fast as possible, these activities should be the only things on your daily to-do list. I’ve sorted them by XP per hour, so you can pick the best option for the amount of time you have to play that day.
One of my favorite hacks for fast character leveling is swapping to your low-level character right before you turn in a high-difficulty mission. You can leech XP for low-level characters by swapping to them only at mission turn-in, so you don’t have to struggle through difficult content with underleveled kits. I’ve leveled three characters from 1 to 40 in one day using this trick, without having to play any of them for more than 10 seconds per mission.
If you’re trying to level mastery rank in The First Descendant as fast as possible, don’t waste time running missions you’ve already cleared unless you’re using them to level new gear or characters. Re-running cleared missions only gives you gear, no MR XP, so they’re only worth it if you’re picking up new weapons you haven’t maxed yet.
Common Mistakes That Slow Down Your Mastery Rank Grind
Even if you’re doing the right activities, small mistakes can cut your XP gain in half without you noticing. These are the three most common mistakes I see new players make, all of which I made myself during my first few weeks of play.
One of the most common mistakes new players make when they try to level mastery rank in The First Descendant is reusing the same gear over and over. A lot of players find a legendary weapon they like, use it for every mission, and wonder why their MR progress is so slow. You get no XP for using a maxed weapon, so you should swap to a new unleveled weapon as soon as you hit the cap on your current one, even if it’s slightly weaker.
Another big mistake is wasting XP boosters on casual play. A lot of people pop 2x XP boosters when they’re running missions with friends for fun, but that’s throwing away a huge opportunity. Save your 2x and 3x XP boosters for dedicated MR grind sessions only – use them when you’re planning to level 2-3 new characters or a full set of 5-6 new weapons in one session, and you’ll double or triple your progress for that day.
Finally, a lot of players skip side missions to rush the main story, but that costs you a ton of free MR XP. Side mission first-clear XP makes up nearly 20% of the total MR XP available in the main story campaign, so skipping them will set you back weeks of grind later. You can run most side missions in 5-10 minutes, so they’re well worth the time investment when you’re first starting out.
How to Unlock Endgame Mastery Rank Rewards Faster
Mastery Rank isn’t just a number on your profile – it unlocks real, useful rewards that make the game way more fun to play. Higher MR gives you extra character slots, more weapon storage space, exclusive cosmetic skins, and access to MR-locked endgame content like the Void Abyss and high-difficulty Void Intercept runs. A lot of public endgame groups require MR 12 or higher to join, so hitting that milestone early will let you join more co-op runs that give even better gear and XP bonuses.
If you’re close to a MR threshold that unlocks something you want, prioritize the fastest XP sources first to hit that threshold as soon as possible. For example, if you’re 5,000 XP short of MR 12 that unlocks your fourth character slot, run through a batch of low-level common weapons you haven’t leveled yet, or knock out 10-15 collectibles in the open world, instead of running a 20-minute Void Intercept that will only give you 3,000 XP for the first clear.
Focus on MR 16 as your first big milestone – it unlocks all core gameplay restrictions, so you don’t have to worry about being locked out of group content for low MR, and you’ll have enough character and weapon slots to hold all the gear you want for different builds. Once you hit MR 16, you can slow down your grind and focus on content you actually enjoy, instead of chasing progression.
Once you know how to level mastery rank in The First Descendant strategically, you can unlock all endgame rewards in a fraction of the time most players spend. You don’t have to play 8 hours a day to hit high MR, you just have to stop wasting time on low-reward activities that don’t move the needle on your progression.
At the end of the day, Mastery Rank progression doesn’t have to be a miserable grind that takes over all your free time. The strategies I’ve laid out here let you make consistent progress even if you only have an hour or two to play each day, and they cut out all the unnecessary busywork that most guides tell you to do. If you’re just starting out, the best first step you can take to level mastery rank in The First Descendant is to pick one new character you haven’t tried yet and level them to 40 today – you’ll be shocked at how much your MR jumps after just that one small task.