I’ve put over 400 hours into The First Descendant since launch, and I’ll be the first to admit I wasted the first month of play grinding the wrong missions. I sat stuck between Mastery Rank 12 and 14 for weeks, convinced I just needed to run more random void missions to make progress. That all changed when I tested a handful of small adjustments to my play routine, and I jumped 9 ranks in 10 days without doubling my play time. If you’re tired of slow progress and want to unlock all the high-tier content locked behind higher ranks, this guide breaks down exactly how to mastery rank in the first descendant without burning out on repetitive grind.
How to Mastery Rank in The First Descendant: Start With Core Progression Milestones
Most new players make the mistake of jumping into whatever mission looks fun the second they log on, but that’s the fastest way to slow your mastery rank progress. Mastery XP is earned from a small set of specific actions, not just any in-game activity, so prioritizing the right tasks first every time you play will make a massive difference. The first thing you should do when you log on is knock out your 3 daily mastery challenges, each of which gives between 1000 and 1500 XP for simple tasks like getting 20 kills with a sniper rifle or completing 2 cooperative missions. So you can finish all three in less than 20 minutes if you plan your first run of the day around their requirements.
After you finish daily challenges, move straight to your weekly mastery challenges. These have slightly more complex requirements, like clearing a hard difficulty void intercept without any player downs, but the payout is far higher. You’ll get 7500 XP for completing all 6 weekly challenges, which is enough to push most players through half a rank all on its own. For players who only have a few hours a week to play, focusing solely on daily and weekly challenges will get you more progress than running random missions for twice that amount of time.
Beyond challenges, the other core progression milestone to prioritize is unlocking and leveling new characters and weapons. You might love your main Descendant and go-to rifle, but every time you level a new character or weapon you haven’t leveled before, you get passive mastery XP added to your total. To make this as efficient as possible, keep a rotating set of low-level weapons on your loadout even when you’re running high-difficulty content, so they level up passively while you play. The most consistent sources of fast mastery XP boil down to three core options, which I’ve tested extensively over months of play:
That list is ordered by how much time each takes to generate XP, so if you have limited play time, stick to the top two options first.
Optimize Your Loadout and Team Composition to Cut Clear Times
Even if you’re running the right missions, a bad loadout or unbalanced team can double the time it takes you to finish each run, which cuts your hourly XP gain in half. You don’t need the rarest highest-tier gear to make this work, but a few small adjustments will make a huge difference. First, prioritize AOE (area of effect) weapons for all your grind runs. Most mastery missions throw dozens of small enemies at you plus a few larger boss units, so a weapon that can clear groups of small enemies in one hit will speed up every run by 30% minimum. I swear by the Glacier rocket launcher for this, but any high-damage explosive weapon or shotgun with wide spread will work just as well.
Next, if you’re running cooperative content (which you should be), matchmake with 2 other players for a 30% extra mission XP bonus that stacks with all other buffs. A lot of players prefer to run solo to avoid dealing with random teammates, but the XP bonus plus the faster clear time from having extra damage output makes grouping worth it almost every time. If you don’t want to play with randoms, you can find regular teammates through official community groups, and you’ll all get the bonus while playing with people you trust.
You should also run a support or damage-focused Descendant for grind runs, depending on your team makeup. Characters like Viessa who can slow large groups of enemies or Ajax who can buff the entire team’s damage output will make every mission go far faster than running a tank build that only works for solo play. Make sure you have at least one support character leveled and ready to go for group grind runs to cut down on team wipes and mission restarts that waste time. I used to run only my main tank build for every mission, and I’d often take 20+ minutes to finish a Void Intercept run solo. Once I switched to a Viessa build and started grouping with two damage players, we cut that run time down to 8 minutes flat, tripling my hourly XP gain overnight.
Avoid Common Mastery Rank Grind Mistakes That Waste Hours of Play Time
I’ve made every single one of these mistakes myself, so I know exactly how much time they can waste if you don’t catch them early. The most common mistake players make is grinding the same low-difficulty mission over and over again because it’s easy to clear. But low-difficulty missions give less than half the XP of hard difficulty runs, even if you can finish them twice as fast. Don’t waste time on missions that reward less than 800 mastery XP per 10-minute run unless you’re completing a specific challenge that requires them.
Another common mistake is wasting upgrade resources on duplicates of the same weapon type. A lot of players will level up three different assault rifles because they like how each one feels, but you only get mastery XP the first time you level a specific weapon. Once you’ve maxed one assault rifle, leveling another one of the same rarity and type won’t give you any extra mastery XP, so you’re just wasting credits and upgrade materials that could be used to level a weapon type you haven’t touched yet.
You should also avoid skipping daily and weekly challenges to grind missions. Even if you only have 15 minutes to play one day, taking the time to knock out your three daily challenges will give you more XP than running a full Void Intercept run. I used to skip dailies all the time to grind the mission I found most fun, and I lost out on thousands of easy XP every week because of it. One more mistake to watch for is selling low-level weapons before you level them. You’ll get tons of common and uncommon weapon drops as you play, and it’s tempting to sell them immediately for extra credits. But if you keep them, add them to your loadout for a few runs to level them up, and then sell them, you’ll get hundreds of extra mastery XP for almost no extra work.
Leverage Limited-Time Event Bonuses to Supercharge Your Gains
The First Descendant runs limited-time events every 4 to 6 weeks, and almost all of them include boosted mastery XP buffs that can make your grind 2x to 4x faster if you take advantage of them. Most events run for two weeks, so you can plan your heavier grind sessions around those windows to get the most out of your time. First, always check the event page the second a new event goes live to see what buffs are active. Many events give a base 1.5x mastery XP buff for all missions, and some even give 2x for specific mission types like Void Intercept or Resource Defense.
Stack your daily 1-hour XP booster with event buffs for up to 4x total mastery XP per run if you want to make the fastest possible progress. You get one free daily XP booster every day just for logging in, so save those for event days instead of using them on regular days when you don’t get extra buffs. Events also usually have special event challenges that give extra mastery XP as a reward, on top of the regular daily and weekly challenges. You can knock these out at the same time as your regular challenges, so you don’t have to run extra missions to get that bonus XP.
For example, the recent Winter Frost event had a challenge to get 100 kills with ice weapons, which I completed while running my daily Void Intercept runs, and I got an extra 3000 mastery XP for it without doing any extra work. If you’re close to hitting a new mastery rank right before an event starts, it’s worth holding off on your heavy grind until the event goes live. You’ll get way more progress for the same amount of play time, and you can unlock event-exclusive rewards at the same time as you rank up.
At the end of the day, ranking up fast doesn’t require playing 10 hours a day or spending real money on extra boosters. It just requires being intentional about what missions you run, what gear you level, and when you choose to grind. The tips I’ve laid out here are the exact same ones I used to jump from Mastery Rank 14 to 23 in 10 days, and they work for both casual players who only have a few hours a week and more dedicated players who want to hit max rank as fast as possible. If you start implementing these small changes the next time you log on, you’ll be shocked at how much faster you progress, and you’ll unlock all the high-tier weapons, Descendants, and endgame content locked behind higher ranks in no time. Now that you know how to mastery rank in the first descendant, you can stop wasting time on low-yield missions and start making real progress every time you play.