When I first jumped into The First Descendant, I spent hours grinding missions for mod upgrade materials, only to waste most of them on low-tier, temporary mods I replaced 24 hours later. I had no clue which mods were worth investing in, what materials I should be saving, or how to get the biggest stat boost for the least effort. If you’re in the same boat, and want to figure out how to upgrade mods in The First Descendant without throwing resources down the drain, this guide covers every trick I’ve picked up after 80+ hours of play.
Core Prerequisites Before You Upgrade Mods in The First Descendant
You don’t want to dump resources into a mod you’ll discard a few missions later, so there are a few key checks to run before you even open the upgrade menu. First, mod rarity tier matters more than almost any other factor. Common and uncommon mods are only useful for your first 5 to 10 hours of play, so you should never spend any upgrade materials on them unless you’re completely stuck on a story mission. Rare and epic mods are solid mid-game options, but legendary mods are the only ones worth maxing out for endgame content.
Next, make sure you have a full stock of the required materials for each upgrade tier. Basic mod enhancement stones work for levels 1 to 5, epic stones for levels 6 to 10, and legendary stones for levels 11 to 15. You’ll also need a small amount of credits per upgrade, which adds up fast if you’re upgrading multiple mods at once. If you’re short on any material, hold off on upgrading until you can farm enough to get the mod to a useful level, instead of stopping halfway for no reason.
Step-by-Step Mod Upgrade Process for Maximum Efficiency
Upgrading mods is straightforward once you know the right order of operations, and following these steps will cut down on wasted materials drastically. First, open your descendant’s loadout screen, navigate to the mod tab, and select the mod you want to work on. Before you click upgrade, fuse any duplicate copies of the mod first. The mod fusion bonus gives you a permanent 10% stat boost to the mod, and that boost applies to all future upgrade levels, so it’s always worth doing this first.
Once you’ve fused any duplicates, you can start upgrading the mod level by level. You don’t have to max it out immediately, either. The partial upgrade tip I swear by is stopping at level 5 for mid-game mods, since you get 70% of the mod’s total stat boost for only 30% of the total material cost. This leaves you with leftover materials to upgrade other core mods in your loadout, instead of dumping everything into one mod and leaving the rest at level 1.
Before you hit the final confirm button for any upgrade, run through these quick checks to avoid mistakes:
- Confirm the mod fits your current and long-term build, not just a temporary filler to fill a mod slot
- Verify you have enough leftover materials for other high-priority mods in your loadout
- Check if the mod has a higher rarity duplicate you can fuse first to unlock extra stat bonuses
- Make sure you're not upgrading a mod exclusive to a descendant you rarely play
I can’t tell you how many times I skipped these checks early on, only to realize I just wasted 200 epic stones on a mod that didn’t even work with my main build. These checks only take 10 seconds, and they’ll save you hours of re-grinding materials later.
How to Farm Mod Upgrade Materials Fast
You’ll need thousands of enhancement stones to max out a full set of endgame mods, so knowing the best farming spots will cut down on your grind time by a huge margin. First, set your inventory to auto-disassemble all common and uncommon mods. The disassemble rarity filter is a hidden setting in your inventory menu, and turning it on means you’ll get a steady stream of basic enhancement stones every time you complete a mission, no extra work required. If you’re grinding materials specifically to upgrade mods in The First Descendant, avoid running regular free roam missions, since their drop rates for enhancement stones are 70% lower than void missions.
For higher tier materials, prioritize weekly void battle missions first. Weekly Void Battle Rewards give twice as many epic and legendary enhancement stones as regular story missions, and you only need to run them 3 times a week to hit the maximum reward cap. If you’re playing co-op, you can even run these missions with friends to cut clear time in half, and you still get the same full reward pool.
Event shops are another underrated source of upgrade materials. Most limited-time events offer discounted bundles of enhancement stones for event currency, and these bundles are 3 to 4 times better value than buying stones with premium currency. I always make sure to clear all event daily challenges first, so I can buy out all the upgrade material bundles before the event ends.
Optimal Mod Upgrade Prioritization for All Playstyles
The best mods to upgrade first depend entirely on how you play the game, so there’s no one-size-fits-all order. If you’re a new player still working through the story, prioritize skill damage and max health mods first. These give you the biggest boost to clear speed and survivability, so you can get through story missions faster without dying constantly. Don’t waste materials on niche utility mods like increased loot radius until you’ve got your core combat mods upgraded to at least level 5.
If you mostly play co-op missions, prioritize support mods if you’re running a support descendant, or team buff mods if you’re running DPS. Mods that increase your team’s crit damage or healing output make you way more valuable in group runs, and other players will be far more likely to invite you back for harder endgame missions. You don’t need to max these mods right away, but getting them to level 7 or 8 makes a huge difference for your whole team.
For endgame players tackling void chasms and high-difficulty raids, prioritize maxing your main DPS mod first, then crit damage, then elemental damage mods that match your descendant’s damage type. These give you the largest possible damage spike, which is necessary to beat the tight time limits on endgame content. Avoid duplicate stat wastage by not maxing two mods that give the exact same stat, unless your build specifically requires overstacking that stat for a specific niche playstyle.
Once you get the hang of how to upgrade mods in The First Descendant, you’ll notice your clear times for even the hardest missions drop drastically, and you won’t waste nearly as many materials as I did when I first started. You don’t have to follow every tip here to the letter, either—if a mod feels fun to use even if it’s not “meta,” it’s totally worth upgrading it for your personal playstyle. The whole point of modding is to make your descendant feel unique, so don’t be afraid to experiment as you go.