If you’ve spent hours running Void Intercept Battles or grinding resource runs in The First Descendant, you know how much of a difference a fully upgraded ultimate weapon makes. Even the rarest five-star weapon will fall flat against late-game bosses if you haven’t unlocked its full stat boosts and perk slots. This guide will walk you through exactly how to level up ultimate weapons the first descendant, with no unnecessary grind and all the tricks veteran players use to max out their loadouts in half the time.
Core Steps to Level Up Ultimate Weapons in The First Descendant
Before you start dumping resources into your first ultimate weapon, there are a few non-negotiable prerequisites you need to check off first. Skip any of these, and you’ll hit a wall halfway through the upgrade process, wasting hours of farmed materials for no reason. These requirements apply to every ultimate weapon in the game, no matter which descendant you main.
You might be tempted to rush through upgrades by using XP boosters as soon as you get them, but saving those boosters for double XP events will net you 6x the usual XP per run, cutting your grind time by more than half. Most double XP events run on weekends, so stockpile your boosters during the week and use them then if you can. Always prioritize weapon XP runs on Void Chasm missions because they give 3x more XP per kill compared to open world runs, even without boosters active.
Optimizing Your Grind to Cut Upgrade Time in Half
You don’t have to grind alone to speed up your upgrade progress. Group up with 3 other players, because enemy spawns scale with party size, so you get way more XP and drops per run, and missions clear 2x faster than solo runs. You can even join random public lobbies if you don’t have friends online, most players running Void Chasm missions are focused on fast clears and won’t waste time messing around. Equip XP boost mods on your secondary weapon — these apply to all weapons you carry, including your ultimate, even if you don't use the secondary during the run.
Grinding for hours on end can get tiring, even if you’re farming for a weapon you’ve been chasing for weeks. It’s always a good idea to take 10-minute breaks every hour to avoid burnout, so you don't make careless mistakes that waste your hard-earned resources. Many players keep a low-stakes casual game open in the background for these short breaks, and a popular pick for quick, fun rounds between missions is Love Rummy, which fits perfectly into short break windows without pulling you away from your grind for too long.
If you have multiple ultimate weapons to upgrade, farm shared resources first instead of focusing on one at a time. That way you don't have to re-run the same missions twice, and you can make progress on all your upgrades at the same time. Never use premium currency to buy common upgrade resources — all of them drop for free in regular missions, and premium currency is better saved for cosmetic skins or extra storage slots.
Common Mistakes That Waste Your Upgrade Resources
New players usually make a handful of predictable mistakes when upgrading their first ultimate weapon, and most of these mistakes cost them dozens of hours of extra grind to fix. The biggest one is upgrading the first ultimate weapon they unlock, even if it doesn’t fit their playstyle or isn’t viable for endgame content. Resetting upgrades only gives you 70% of your resources back, so that’s a huge loss you don’t want to take if you can avoid it.
Don’t waste rare boss drops on early upgrade tiers — early tiers only need common ores and mod components, so save the rare drops for tiers 7 to 10, where they’re required. If you use rare boss drops on early tiers, you’ll have to re-farm the same boss 2 or 3 extra times later, which is a huge waste of time.
Another common mistake is selling extra mod components for gold. Even if you don’t need them right now, you’ll need thousands of mod components to upgrade multiple ultimate weapons later, so keep all of them in your storage unless you’re completely out of space. Gold is easy to farm from open world bounties, but mod components are far rarer to come by. Also, don’t forget to equip unlocked perks as you level up your weapon — each upgrade tier unlocks a new perk slot, and leaving those empty means you’re missing out on up to 40% extra damage potential.
Maxing Out Final Perks for Endgame Viability
When you hit level 10 on your ultimate weapon, you unlock its signature ultimate perk, which is unique to that specific weapon and descendant. This perk can completely change how you play the character, and it’s what makes a maxed ultimate weapon worth the grind. For example, if you main Ajax, his ultimate weapon’s final perk can let you stun entire groups of enemies for 3 seconds every time you fire a charged shot, which is game-changing for crowd control in group raids. Pair that with mods that reduce charged shot time, and you can keep entire enemy waves locked down while your team deals damage.
Test your final perk in low-difficulty missions first before you bring it to hard mode raids, so you know exactly how it works and how to build around it. There’s nothing worse than showing up to a raid with a new maxed weapon and realizing you don’t know how to use its signature perk properly, dragging your entire team down.
You can reroll final perks up to 3 times per week using special Void Crystals, so if you get a perk that doesn’t fit your playstyle, you don’t have to stick with it. But don’t reroll more than 3 times a week, because Void Crystals are very rare and also used for descendant ability upgrades. It’s better to wait a week for more crystals than to waste them on rerolls that might not give you a better perk anyway.
At the end of the day, upgrading your ultimate weapons doesn't have to be a frustrating, endless grind if you follow the steps and avoid common mistakes. Take your time to farm resources efficiently, take breaks when you need to, and focus on weapons that fit how you like to play. Now that you know how to level up ultimate weapons the first descendant, you can jump into your next mission with a clear plan, and you’ll be dominating endgame raids before you know it.