If you’ve ever jumped into a Void Intercept run only to find your favorite SMG tickles even basic mobs, you know how frustrating underleveled weapons are in The First Descendant. I’ve wasted dozens of hours grinding the wrong missions, feeding useless junk to my guns, and missing obvious shortcuts before I figured out the most efficient systems. This guide breaks down exactly how to level up a gun in the first descendant without burning out on repeat runs, so you can melt bosses and dominate co-op runs with your preferred loadout faster. You won’t find any generic, untested advice here — every tip comes from 70+ hours of play across the full release and pre-season patches.
How to Level Up a Gun in The First Descendant: Core Mechanics First
Before you jump into farming, you need to understand how the game calculates weapon XP, because a lot of new players get this wrong. Unlike character XP, which is awarded for completing missions, weapon XP is tied directly to the damage you deal with that specific gun. Only equipped guns earn XP while you play, so you can’t level up a gun you left in your storage, even if you complete a 30-minute endgame run. Secondary equipped guns get 30% of the XP your primary earns, so you can level two weapons at once if you don’t want to swap mid-run.
I used to spend entire runs chasing final blows with the gun I was leveling, until I realized that you don’t get extra XP for getting kills with the gun, only for total damage dealt. That means landing one full mag of shots to a boss’s weak spot will give you more XP than 20 kills on basic small mobs. You also don’t lose XP if someone else in your squad gets the final kill, so you don’t have to race your teammates for kills to level up your gear. The only exception is if you deal less than 5% of total damage to an enemy, in which case you get no XP for that target, so you do need to contribute meaningful damage to earn progress.
Best Mission Types for Fast Weapon XP Farming
Not all missions are created equal when it comes to weapon XP per minute. I’ve tested every mission type across all difficulties to find the ones that give you the most progress for the least time invested, and you can skip most story and side missions entirely if your only goal is leveling up guns. Void Intercept runs on Normal difficulty are the sweet spot for most players, even if you have the gear to run higher difficulties. Runs only take 10 to 15 minutes, have constant mob spawns, and feature large boss targets that let you rack up thousands of damage points in seconds. I’ve consistently gotten 25% more XP per hour running Normal Void Intercept than I did running Hard mode, because Hard runs often have longer wait times for squads and higher wipe risk that wastes your time.
If you have a consistent full squad, you can switch to other mission types for even faster gains depending on the type of gun you’re leveling. Here are the top three mission types for weapon XP farming:
You’ll want to avoid open world free roam farming entirely, even though it feels like you’re fighting nonstop. The game gives a big XP bonus for completed missions, so even if you spend 15 minutes killing mobs in the open world, you’ll end up with less than half the XP you’d get from a completed Void Intercept run of the same length.
Resource Optimization: Don’t Waste Materials on Low Rarity Guns
Leveling up guns uses more than just XP earned from combat — you also need to spend weapon XP materials and enhancement cores to raise their level cap every 10 levels. A lot of new players make the mistake of leveling every decent gun they get, only to run out of materials when they finally get a legendary drop they want to use long-term. You should only level up guns of Unique rarity or higher, because Common and Uncommon guns cap out at level 30, and you can replace them with better drops within a few hours of play. Dismantling a leveled gun only gives you 70% of the materials you invested back, so you lose a ton of progress if you level up a low rarity gun then ditch it a day later.
Save weapon XP boosters you get from the battle pass or event rewards for when you’re planning a 1 to 2 hour farming session, don’t waste them on short 10 minute runs. The 50% XP boost stacks with squad bonuses and character XP mods, so you can get up to double the normal XP per run if you plan right. Another pro tip: if you get a duplicate of a gun you already own, you can feed it to the existing one for 150% extra XP, way more than feeding random junk guns. I keep all duplicate Unique and Legendary guns in my storage specifically for this purpose, and it cuts my leveling time by almost 30% for guns I already have duplicates of.
Pro Tricks to Cut Your Grind Time in Half
Once you’ve got the basics down, there are a handful of small tricks most players never notice that can speed up your leveling even more. Equipping an XP boosting mod on your character (like the “Combat Efficiency” mod you get from completing the first Void Battle pass tier) applies to all equipped weapons, so that’s a free 10% XP boost with no downside. You can stack up to three of these mods if you have the mod slots available, for a total of 30% extra weapon XP across all your runs. If you don’t have these mods yet, you can buy common versions from the in-game shop for cheap gold, so it’s worth picking them up early.
If you’re playing co-op, talk to your squad before the run starts. Let them know you’re leveling a low damage gun, and ask if they can run crowd control builds so you can focus on dealing damage to bosses and large mob groups. I’ve had runs where my squad used freeze and stun abilities to hold mobs in place while I unloaded with a low level sniper, and I got almost double the XP I normally would from solo runs. If you’re playing solo, use a character with damage buff abilities, like Viessa’s ice damage boost or Ajax’s fire rate buff, to make your low level gun deal enough damage to get meaningful XP per hit.
You should also toggle off auto-dismantle for Common and Uncommon guns, so you can collect them to use as fodder for your main guns. Don’t hoard more than 50 of these at a time though, because inventory space is limited, and you can sell excess ones for extra gold if you don’t need them for enhancement. The only exception is if you’re saving up to level a new legendary drop, in which case you can hoard up to 100 junk guns to feed to it right when you get it, so you can get it to level 40 in one go without any extra farming.
At the end of the day, you don’t have to spend 10 hours grinding the same mission to get your favorite weapon to max level. By targeting the right missions, optimizing your resource use, and taking advantage of small buffs and shortcuts, you can make the process way less tedious. Now that you know how to level up a gun in the first descendant, jump into your next run with a plan, and you’ll be melting endgame bosses before you know it. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different mission types too, you might find a run you enjoy that gives you just as much XP as the meta farming spots.