The First Descendant’s fast-paced, co-op focused looter shooter gameplay lives or dies by how strong your loadout is. Even the most powerful character with maxed out skills will struggle to clear mid-game Void Intercept missions if they’re running an unupgraded white rarity weapon. Mastering how to upgrade your weapons in the first descendant isn’t just a nice-to-have skill—it’s non-negotiable if you want to tackle endgame raids and hit top damage parses in squad play. A lot of new players skip the nuanced steps of the upgrade system, missing out on up to 3x more damage output for no reason. This guide breaks down every part of the process, no confusing jargon included.
Step-by-Step: How to Upgrade Your Weapons in The First Descendant for New Players
You don’t get full access to the weapon upgrade system right out of the gate. First, you’ll need to complete the opening prologue mission “Ark Entry” and reach player level 3. Once you hit that milestone, head to the Armaments Specialist NPC in the Albion hub area to unlock the permanent upgrade station accessible from both the hub and your in-mission quick menu. Don’t waste time trying to upgrade gear before this point, the game will lock you out of advanced options anyway.
When you first open the upgrade menu, you’ll see three core tabs for every eligible weapon: level up, ascend rarity, and expand mod sockets. Leveling up is the most straightforward step, it raises your weapon’s base damage and costs Polish Alloy and Catalyst Shards, the two most common upgrade resources. You can level any weapon up to 10 times your current player level cap, so a level 10 player can max a weapon to level 100 for full early-game power.
Ascending rarity lets you raise a weapon’s tier from green to blue, blue to purple, and purple to gold, as long as you have the required Ascension Cores for each step. Every ascension adds one extra mod socket and a small permanent stat boost to the weapon. Mod socket expansion lets you unlock up to two additional hidden slots on gold rarity weapons, giving you even more room to stack damage or utility effects.
Top Upgrade Priorities for Every Weapon Archetype
Not all upgrades are created equal, and dumping resources into the wrong stats can leave you with a weapon that looks strong on paper but underperforms in actual missions. The right priority order depends entirely on what type of weapon you’re using and how you play. For example, a sniper rifle built for one-shotting boss weak points doesn’t need high reload speed nearly as much as an SMG built for clearing hordes of trash mobs.
Once you’ve got your weapon leveled and ascended, the next step is filling those mod slots with upgrades that match your playstyle. Testing different mod combinations can take hours, especially if you’re trying to build a loadout for both solo and co-op play. If you want to skip the trial and error and pull from pre-vetted loadouts that work for every weapon archetype, you can use Share Slots to quickly sync proven mod setups with your squad, or save multiple presets to swap between for different mission types without reconfiguring every mod each time.
If you’re not sure where to start with upgrade priorities, follow this breakdown for every main weapon type:
- For auto rifles and SMGs: Prioritize rate of fire and reload speed upgrades first, then critical hit damage, to melt crowds of trash mobs fast in open-world and story missions
- For sniper rifles and rocket launchers: Prioritize weak point damage and ammo capacity upgrades first, to one-shot elite enemies and deal massive burst damage to boss weak points in raids
- For support weapons like healing grenade launchers and shield generators: Prioritize effect radius and cooldown reduction upgrades first, to keep your entire squad alive during tough endgame content
You don’t have to stick to these rules exactly, of course. If you prefer a slower, more methodical playstyle even with an SMG, you can swap rate of fire upgrades for extra critical hit chance instead. The best upgrades are the ones that fit how you actually play, not what the meta says is strongest.
How to Farm Rare Upgrade Resources Without Mindless Grinding
Common resources like Polish Alloy are easy to come by, you’ll get hundreds just by dismantling old weapons you don’t use. Rare resources like Ascension Cores and Prime Ascension Shards are a lot harder to find, and many new players waste hours running the wrong missions trying to farm them. You don’t have to grind 10 hours a day to get enough resources to max your main weapon, though, there are far more efficient ways to farm.
Ascension Cores drop exclusively from Void Intercept missions, which refresh weekly. Run the highest difficulty version you can clear comfortably, you’ll get 3-5 cores per run instead of the 1 you get from easy mode. You can also get 10 free Ascension Cores every week from the weekly challenge pass, no extra grinding required if you complete your daily missions.
Prime Ascension Shards, the resource used to max out gold rarity weapons to their transcended tier, only drop when you dismantle duplicate gold weapons you get from endgame raids. Don’t dismantle gold weapons you haven’t tested yet, you might find a new main that fits your playstyle better than your current loadout. But if you get a duplicate of a weapon you already have maxed, dismantling it is always worth it for the shards.
Common Weapon Upgrade Mistakes That Waste Your Hard Earned Resources
It’s easy to make mistakes when you’re first learning the upgrade system, and some errors can cost you hours of farming progress to fix. The most common mistake new players make is upgrading low rarity weapons before they hit level 10. White and green rarity weapons are designed to be discarded quickly, and you only get 30% of your invested resources back when you dismantle them. I’ve seen so many new players waste 100+ Polish Alloy on a green assault rifle in their first hour of play, only to throw it away 10 minutes later when they get a blue drop.
Another big mistake is ascending a weapon before you max out its level. You get a much smaller stat boost from ascension if your weapon isn’t at its current max level, and you can’t go back to fix it later. Always level a weapon to its cap first, then ascend it, to get the maximum possible stat gain for your resources.
Finally, don’t waste mod slots on effects that don’t benefit your playstyle. If you almost exclusively play solo, slotting a mod that gives your squad 10% extra damage is a total waste of a slot that could be used for a 15% critical hit damage boost that benefits you directly. Take 30 seconds to read every mod’s description before you slot it, you’d be surprised how many players skip this step and wonder why their weapon feels weak.
Even small upgrades to your main weapon can make a massive difference in how easy The First Descendant feels to play, so don’t put off learning the system. Mastering how to upgrade your weapons in the first descendant will let you clear missions faster, carry your squad through tough raids, and even unlock harder difficulty levels that give far better loot rewards. Start small, max your first blue rarity weapon first to get a feel for the system, and don’t be afraid to test weird mod combinations that fit your playstyle—you might stumble on a build that’s even stronger than the meta.