If you’ve spent hours wandering Sterlite City looking for new endgame activities, you’ve probably heard other players rave about the Grand Square zone. Figuring out how to unlock Grand Square in The First Descendant can feel confusing at first, since the game doesn’t give you explicit prompts for the pre-requisites if you haven’t been following specific quest lines. I spent three days fumbling through unrelated side quests before I figured out the exact sequence to get access, so I put together this guide to save you all the wasted time. The Grand Square isn’t just another open world area either—it’s home to some of the best boss fights, rare crafting materials, and co-op missions in the entire game, so it’s well worth the effort to unlock it early.
Pre-Requisites to Complete Before You Unlock Grand Square in The First Descendant
Before the access quest even shows up in your mission log, you have to hit a few specific milestones that the game never explicitly lists out. Missing even one of these will leave you waiting around for a quest pop-up that never arrives, so double check you’ve ticked all these boxes before you start trying to access the zone. I missed the supply post requirement on my first run, and spent two days grinding levels wondering why the quest wasn’t showing up.
If you’re struggling to hit account level 35 quickly, run lower tier void intercept missions with a full squad of 4 players. Each run takes around 8 minutes, and you get around 1,200 account XP per run, plus bonus XP if you complete the optional mission objectives. You can also equip XP boost mods on your character to speed up the process even more, these mods drop regularly from supply chests around the map so you don’t have to buy them with premium currency. The supply post missions don’t have to be completed in one sitting either, you can spread them out across multiple play sessions and they’ll still count towards the requirement.
Step-by-Step Walkthrough of the Grand Square Access Quest
Once you meet all the pre-requisites, you’ll get a pop-up notification from NPC Kaya in the Central Hub the next time you spawn there. She’ll give you the quest “Opening the Grand Gate”, which only takes around 45 minutes to complete if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t get the pop-up right away, fast travel to the Northern Outpost and back to the Central Hub, that usually triggers the quest to show up.
First, you’ll need to collect 5 core energy fragments from the ice giant mini-bosses that spawn around the Northern Outpost border. These fragments only drop when you defeat the mini-bosses during night in-game time, so don’t waste time farming them during the day. The fragments have a 60% drop rate per kill, so you might have to take down 8 or 9 mini-bosses total to get all 5. They respawn every 10 minutes in fixed spots, so you can loop around the border of the outpost to farm them efficiently.
Next, take the fragments to the gate control terminal located 2km east of the Northern Outpost fast travel point. You’ll have to defend the terminal for 3 minutes while it scans the fragments, so bring a character with good crowd control skills like Viessa or Freyna to make the wave defense way easier. The enemy waves get more intense in the last 30 seconds, so save your ultimate ability for that final stretch if you’re playing solo. If you’re struggling, you can invite up to 2 other players to help, the boss health scales with the number of players so it doesn’t get exponentially harder with a team.
Once the scan finishes, you’ll have to defeat the gate guard boss, the Iron Sentinel. Its weak point is the glowing blue core on its chest, aim for that with critical hit builds to take it down 3x faster. Avoid its laser sweep attack, it can take out 80% of your health in one hit even if you’re using a tank build. Once you finish this fight, you’ll get a confirmation pop-up that you’ve successfully unlocked Grand Square in The First Descendant, and the gate will open permanently for your account.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Trying to Unlock Grand Square
Most players run into at least one roadblock when trying to access this zone, and a lot of those issues are completely avoidable if you know what to watch out for. I made almost all of these mistakes my first time trying to unlock the zone, so I know how frustrating they can be.
The biggest mistake players make is assuming individual character level counts for the level requirement. I’ve seen players with a level 40 Viessa wondering why the quest isn’t showing up, only to realize their account level is only 29 because they never played any other characters. It’s easy to grind account level fast, so don’t let this hold you back.
You won’t get the access quest pop-up even if you’re level 40 if you haven’t cleared those 3 supply post missions. A lot of players ignore these side missions because they think they’re boring, but they’re non-negotiable for unlocking the zone. You don’t have to complete them on high difficulty, 1-star runs count just as much as 3-star runs, so you can blow through them quickly even with a low-level build.
Another common mistake is spending all your credits on character upgrades before starting the quest. The 20,000 credit fee is non-negotiable, so if you don’t have enough saved up, you’ll have to pause the quest to farm credits first. The fastest way to farm credits quickly is to sell any duplicate mods you don’t need, and run daily supply run missions, which give 3,000 credits each in 5 minutes. Don’t waste your premium currency on credit packs, you can earn enough for the fee in less than half an hour of casual farming.
What to Do First After You Unlock Grand Square
Once the gate opens, you’ll probably be tempted to run straight into the middle of the zone to fight the first big boss you see, but there are a few things you should do first to make your time in the zone way more efficient. These small steps will save you hours of extra travel time and help you get the most out of the zone’s rewards.
First, unlock the fast travel point right inside the gate first, that way you don’t have to run all the way from the Northern Outpost every time you want to visit. The fast travel point is guarded by a small group of basic enemies, so you can take them out in 30 seconds even with a weak build. Once it’s unlocked, you can fast travel directly to Grand Square from any other fast travel point on the map for free.
Next, pick up the 4 daily quests from the Grand Square NPC named Jax, who’s standing right next to the fast travel point. These quests give you rare mod drops and 5,000 credits each, so they’re one of the best daily farm spots in the entire game. You can complete all 4 quests in around 20 minutes, and the rewards are way better than the daily quests in other zones. Make sure to check the hidden chest locations around the Grand Square perimeter first, these respawn every 24 hours and can drop legendary weapon parts. I’ve gotten two tier 5 weapon blueprints from these chests just in the last month, so they’re well worth the 10 minutes it takes to search for them.
If you’re into co-op, you can also join the Grand Square raid lobby, which is the only place to get the materials needed to craft the highest tier Descendant skins and ultimate mods. Don’t jump straight into the highest difficulty raids first though, start with the 1-star difficulty to get used to the boss mechanics before you try harder content. The Grand Square also has a PvP arena if you’re into that, but it’s locked behind a short side quest you can pick up from Jax after you complete your first set of daily quests.
Unlocking the Grand Square opens up a huge chunk of endgame content that makes playing The First Descendant way more rewarding, especially if you’ve already burned through all the main story quests. You don’t have to rush through the pre-requisites, but following this guide will help you skip all the frustrating guesswork that most players run into when they first try to unlock Grand Square in The First Descendant. Once you get access, take your time exploring every corner of the zone, there are tons of hidden secrets and rare drops that most players never find even after 100 hours of playtime. If you run into any snags during the access quest, drop a comment below and I’ll help you troubleshoot.