If you’ve spent hours running missions in The First Descendant and hit a wall with your Mastery Rank progression, you’re not alone. Most players hit a slump around rank 20 when low-effort missions stop giving meaningful XP, and it’s easy to waste days on runs that barely move the bar. Figuring out how to rank up mastery rank in the first descendant doesn’t have to mean 12-hour grind sessions, though. I’ve tested dozens of methods across 3 different accounts to narrow down the most efficient, low-fuss strategies that work for casual and hardcore players alike.
Prioritize High-Yield Missions to Rank Up Mastery Rank in The First Descendant Fast
A lot of players default to replaying story missions for progression, but those only give one-time XP, so they’re useless for consistent farming. Void Intercept runs on Hard difficulty are the best bang for your buck right now, giving 2 to 3 times more Mastery XP per minute than standard open-world bounties. Each wave completion gives flat XP, plus bonus XP for completing side objectives like protecting the core without taking damage, and you can run a full 10-wave run in under 20 minutes.
I’ve tested this across both solo and group runs, and even a solo Void Intercept Hard run gives 12,000 to 15,000 Mastery XP per clear, compared to just 4,000 to 6,000 XP for a 15-minute open-world bounty run. If you have a full squad of 4 players, you can cut clear time down to 12 minutes per run, pushing your XP per minute even higher. That means you can get a full rank up every 2 to 3 runs if you’re below rank 30, which is way faster than any other method currently available. This is the most consistent method we’ve found for how to rank up mastery rank in The First Descendant without burning out.
Don’t bother with Extreme difficulty unless you have a full coordinated team, because the 20% extra XP isn’t worth the 2x longer clear time and frequent wipes if your group is undergeared. Always pick up weekly and daily Mastery XP bonuses from the hub vendor before you start farming, they stack with mission multipliers and can double your gains for your first 5 runs of the day.
Level Multiple Descendants and Weapons to Unlock Hidden Mastery XP
A lot of new players stick to one main Descendant and one weapon build for all content, but that’s one of the biggest mistakes you can make for Mastery Rank progression. Every time you level a new Descendant from 1 to 40, you get a one-time chunk of Mastery XP equal to 3 full Void Intercept runs. The same goes for every new weapon, subclass module, and reactive skill you level to max.
You don’t even have to use the gear in combat to get the XP — you can pop unused Descendants and weapons in your training slots to passively level them while you run missions with your main build. That cuts out the need to force yourself to play characters you don’t like just for progression. I used to stick to just my main Viessa build for all content, and I was stuck at rank 22 for almost 2 weeks before I realized how much passive XP I was missing out on by not leveling other characters. Once I started putting unused Descendants like Ajax and Glen in my training slots, I got an extra 10,000 XP every 2 to 3 runs without any extra effort.
You can have up to 3 training slots unlocked by the time you hit rank 15, so there’s no reason not to fill all of them as soon as possible. If you have extra credits, you can buy low-rarity weapons from the hub shop, level them to 40 in your training slots, then discard them for a quick, low-effort XP boost. It’s not as fast as mission runs, but it’s a great way to use up leftover resources you don’t need for your main build.
Complete Mastery Rank Challenges First Before Farming Raw XP
A lot of players skip over the Mastery Rank challenge tab entirely, but each challenge you complete gives a guaranteed XP bump that’s often bigger than 2 full mission runs. These challenges refresh every week, and they cover everything from killing a certain number of enemies with a specific weapon type to completing a set number of co-op missions with random players. Prioritize challenges that line up with your existing farming runs so you don’t have to go out of your way to complete them. For example, if you’re already running Void Intercept missions, pick the challenge that requires you to clear 5 Hard difficulty Void runs first, so you get both mission XP and challenge XP at the same time.
These are the highest-priority weekly challenges for Mastery XP, based on how little effort they take to complete:
If you knock out all 4 of these challenges first, you’ll be halfway to your next rank before you even start dedicated farming for how to rank up mastery rank in The First Descendant. I usually spend my first 30 minutes of playtime every week knocking out these challenges, then spend the rest of my time running Void Intercept runs, and that’s more than enough to gain 2 to 3 ranks a week with casual play. It’s worth noting that some challenges have hidden rewards, like extra XP multipliers that apply to all your runs for 24 hours after completion, so you should always knock out at least 3 challenges first before you start raw XP farming. If you don’t complete all challenges before the weekly reset, they don’t roll over, so you’re leaving free XP on the table if you ignore them.
Avoid These Common Mistakes That Slow Down Mastery Rank Progression
Even if you’re running the right missions and completing challenges, small mistakes can cut your XP gains in half without you noticing. The most common mistake I see is players leaving missions early before all objectives are complete. You only get 70% of the total Mastery XP if you leave before the end-of-mission screen pops up, even if you completed most of the objectives. Never abandon a mission unless your entire squad wipes and can’t respawn, because the lost XP isn’t worth the time you save by leaving early.
Another common mistake is forgetting to equip XP boost modules on your main Descendant. These modules are easy to get from low-level bounty runs, and they give a 10% to 15% Mastery XP boost for all mission gains, stacking with all other multipliers. They don’t take up a combat module slot, so there’s no downside to equipping one at all times. I’ve had friends add one of these modules and immediately see their rank progression speed up by 20% without changing any other part of their routine.
Also, don’t waste your time grinding open-world collectibles for Mastery XP. While each collectible gives a small amount of XP, the time you spend searching for them is way better spent running Void Intercept missions, which give far more XP per minute. The only time you should hunt collectibles is if you’re already doing an open-world bounty for a challenge, and the collectible is right next to your objective. Going out of your way to find them will just slow down your overall progression.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to rank up mastery rank in the first descendant is all about working smarter, not harder. You don’t have to sink 40 hours a week into the game to hit the max rank, just stick to the high-yield missions, complete your weekly challenges first, level unused gear passively, and avoid the small mistakes that cut into your gains. I went from rank 22 to rank 40 in just 10 days of casual 2-hour play sessions using these exact strategies, so they work for players who don’t have tons of free time to grind. As you rank up, you’ll unlock exclusive Descendants, weapon skins, and higher difficulty mission access that makes the progression more than worth the effort.