If you’ve spent hours grinding normal mode missions, collecting new Descendants, and upgrading your gear in The First Descendant, you’ve probably heard whispers of hard mode’s better loot and more challenging fights. A lot of players struggle to figure out exactly what they need to do to access this difficulty tier, because the game doesn’t lay out the requirements clearly up front. This guide will walk you through exactly how to unlock hard mode the first descendant, what to expect from the unlock process, and how to avoid common mistakes that waste your time.
Prerequisites You Need to Meet to Unlock Hard Mode in The First Descendant
Before you even see the option to start the hard mode unlock process, you have to check off three non-negotiable requirements. I missed one of these on my first run, and spent an hour confused why the quest wasn’t popping up, so don’t skip this step. All three are pretty straightforward, but they do require a bit of intentional grinding if you’ve been rushing through the main story.
You can track your progress for all three requirements in the “Challenges” tab of your main menu, under the “Progression” subheading. If any of the boxes are grayed out, focus on finishing that task first before you try to trigger the unlock quest.
Step-by-Step Process to Access Hard Mode Difficulty
Once you’ve checked off all three prerequisites, the unlock process is pretty simple, as long as you’re prepared for the trial mission. First, fast travel back to the Albion main hub, and head to the Operations Officer NPC near the central mission board. When you talk to them, you’ll see a new side quest called “Proving Grounds: Hard Difficulty Trial” pop up as an available option.
This trial is a 20 minute solo-only mission that pits you against a souped-up version of the first Archon boss you fought in the main campaign. Enemies hit harder, have more health, and you only get one respawn over the entire run. Do not attempt this trial solo if your gear score is under 1250 — the 1200 minimum is just the threshold to unlock the quest, but you’ll get one-shot by the boss’s heavy attacks if you don’t have a little extra gear score padding.
Once you beat the trial, you’ll get an on-screen pop-up confirming that hard mode is unlocked across all content in the game. That means you can select hard difficulty for story missions, Void Intercept battles, world boss fights, and open world side content. If you play with a squad, only the host needs to have hard mode unlocked to queue for hard missions, but you won’t be able to earn hard mode exclusive drops if you haven’t unlocked the difficulty on your own account.
Key Differences Between Normal and Hard Mode You Should Prepare For
Hard mode isn’t just a simple health and damage buff for enemies — there are a lot of small changes that make the experience feel totally different from normal mode. First, all enemies have new attack patterns you won’t see on normal, and elite enemies will regenerate their full shield bar if you don’t break it within 10 seconds of first damaging it. That means you have to prioritize burst damage for elite units, instead of chipping away at them slowly.
The loot pool is the biggest draw for most players, of course. Hard mode is the only way to get legendary Descendant exclusive mod sets and 5-star weapon blueprints that can make even the hardest endgame content feel manageable. Weekly mission rewards on hard mode also give twice as much seasonal currency and experience, so you can level up new Descendants and unlock cosmetics way faster than you can on normal mode.
I’ve also noticed that open world material spawn rates are about 30% higher in hard mode, so if you’re farming for specific upgrade materials for weapons or Descendants, it’s way more efficient to run those farming routes on hard. You will have to clear more mobs as you go, but the extra materials per run are well worth the extra few minutes of combat.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Unlocking Hard Mode
I’ve seen a lot of players waste hours trying to unlock hard mode because they make simple, avoidable mistakes, and I’ve made a few of these myself. The first big mistake is rushing through the main story without doing any side missions. Side missions give you a ton of upgrade materials and experience that you’ll need to hit the 1200 gear score requirement, and skipping them means you’ll have to grind low-level missions for hours to catch up later.
Another common mistake is bringing a support or utility focused Descendant to the unlock trial. Support builds are amazing for squad play, but the trial is balanced for solo damage output, and you won’t have enough firepower to beat the boss before the timer runs out if you’re running a healer build. Stick to your highest damage, most familiar Descendant for the unlock trial — even if you have a support you like more, you’ll have plenty of time to use them on hard mode squad missions after you unlock the difficulty.
Finally, don’t forget to stock up on healing consumables before you start the trial. Unlike most main story missions, the Proving Grounds trial has no random health pickups scattered across the map, so you have to rely entirely on your own stored healing items. I made this mistake on my first trial run, got to the final 10% of the boss’s health bar, ran out of heals, and had to restart the entire 20 minute mission from scratch. Don’t do that.
At the end of the day, learning how to unlock hard mode the first descendant is way less complicated than it seems once you know what prerequisites to hit and what to expect from the unlock trial. Take your time gearing up, don’t rush the trial, and you’ll be farming rare legendary loot in no time. If you’re really struggling with the solo trial, you can also wait for periodic in-game events that temporarily lower the trial’s difficulty, though most players with a 1250+ gear score can beat it without too much trouble.