If you’ve ever walked into a high-difficulty Void Chasm mission only to realize your go-to assault rifle barely scratches even the basic enemy mobs, you’re not alone. Many new players skip over the game’s deep upgrade system entirely because it looks overwhelming at first glance, but learning how to upgrade weapons in The First Descendant is the single fastest way to boost your combat performance without spending hours farming for rare loot drops. I’ve cleared every endgame mission in the game with a fully upgraded common-tier rifle, so I’m breaking down exactly what works, what doesn’t, and what you should prioritize to get the most bang for your resources.
Pre-Requisites to Unlock All Weapon Upgrade Tools
You won’t have access to every upgrade feature right when you start the game, and that’s intentional. The system unlocks gradually as you progress through the main story, so you don’t get flooded with options before you understand the basics of combat. You’ll unlock the first tier of upgrades after completing the “Ark’s Call” story mission, which is roughly 2 hours into the game for most players. Full access to all upgrade slots, reroll features, and transcendence options unlocks once you hit player level 20 and beat the first Void Intercept boss, so don’t stress if you don’t see all the options I mention below early on.
You’ll also want to stock up on basic upgrade materials as you play, instead of selling them for extra credits. Common weapon XP crystals, low-tier modules, and duplicate white or green rarity weapons all come in handy once you start upgrading your main loadout, and you’ll save a lot of time by holding onto them from the start.
How to Upgrade Weapons in The First Descendant: Core Step-by-Step Process
Once you have all features unlocked, the upgrade process is straightforward once you know where to look. You can access the upgrade menu from the central hub’s weapon workbench, or directly from your inventory if you’re out in the field. Follow these exact steps to upgrade any weapon in under a minute:
- Select the weapon you want to upgrade from your inventory, then click the “Modify” button in the bottom right corner of the screen.
- First, pour weapon XP materials into the level bar to raise the weapon’s base level, which directly increases its base damage, magazine size, and reload speed.
- Next, attach compatible modules to the open module slots to add bonus perks like elemental damage, critical hit chance, or ammo efficiency. You can unlock more slots as you level the weapon up.
- If you’re working with a rare or higher tier weapon, you can reroll its inherent random perk at the workbench using perk reroll tokens, until you get one that matches your playstyle.
- Once the weapon hits max level, you can transcend it using duplicate copies of the same weapon, which raises its level cap and adds a permanent 10% damage boost per transcendence tier.
If you’re still figuring out how to upgrade weapons in The First Descendant as a new player, start with just leveling your main weapon first before you mess with modules or rerolls. Don’t waste your rare upgrade materials on common or uncommon tier weapons, by the way. These have low max level caps, so you’ll outgrow them within a few hours of play. Save your legendary upgrade modules and transcendence materials for rare tier or higher weapons that fit your preferred build. I made the mistake of dumping 20 rare XP modules into a common shotgun early on, and I regretted it as soon as I found a rare shotgun with way better base stats 30 minutes later.
Best Upgrade Priorities for Every Weapon Type
Not all upgrades are created equal, and what works for an assault rifle won’t work for a sniper rifle or a rocket launcher. You’ll get way more value out of your upgrades if you tailor them to the weapon’s intended use case, instead of just slapping on whatever high-level modules you have lying around. For example, critical hit damage and headshot multiplier modules are useless on a rocket launcher, since you almost never get headshots with explosive weapons. Instead, you should prioritize blast radius and splash damage boosts for explosive weapons to clear groups of mobs faster.
For automatic weapons like assault rifles and SMGs, your first priority should be raising reload speed and ammo capacity, followed by elemental damage that matches the weaknesses of the content you’re running. If you’re farming a boss weak to fire, for example, a fire damage module will give you a 30% extra damage boost against that specific target, which is way more impactful than a generic 10% damage boost. For precision weapons like snipers and marksman rifles, focus entirely on critical hit chance, critical hit damage, and headshot multiplier perks to one-shot elite enemies from across the map.
If you’re playing in multiplayer co-op, you can also specialize your weapon upgrades to support your team. A support player with a shotgun, for example, can run stun chance modules to lock down elite enemies while damage-focused teammates burn through boss health bars. This is a super underrated strategy for high-difficulty endgame content, where crowd control is just as important as raw damage output.
Common Weapon Upgrade Mistakes to Steer Clear Of
After helping dozens of new players fix their underperforming builds, I’ve seen the same small mistakes crop up over and over again that waste tons of rare resources for almost no gain. The most common mistake is upgrading every weapon you pick up, even if you only plan to use it for a few missions. You only need to upgrade 2 or 3 weapons at a time: one for mob clear, one for single target boss damage, and one backup for when you run out of ammo on your main weapons.
Another big mistake is ignoring module synergy. If you have three modules that all boost fire damage, they stack multiplicatively, not additively, so you’ll get way more damage than if you mix fire, ice, and electric damage modules on the same weapon. You also don’t need to reroll weapon perks until you’ve hit max player level, since you’ll find better weapons constantly as you level up. Perk reroll tokens are extremely rare in the early to mid game, so save them for your endgame legendary weapons that you plan to use for hundreds of missions.
Finally, don’t sleep on weapon skins that come with small upgrade bonuses. Most players think skins are just cosmetic, but some premium and event skins add a tiny 2% to 5% permanent damage boost to the weapon they’re attached to. It’s a small bonus, but it adds up when you’re pushing through the hardest endgame content where every bit of extra damage counts.
At the end of the day, you don’t need the rarest drops in the game to dominate content if you know how to upgrade weapons in The First Descendant correctly. Even a mid-tier rare weapon with well-optimized upgrades will outperform a poorly upgraded legendary weapon 9 times out of 10. Take the time to test different module combinations for your favorite weapons, and don’t be afraid to scrap old upgraded weapons for materials once you find a better fit for your playstyle. You’ll be clearing Void Intercept bosses in half the time before you know it.