If you’ve been grinding The First Descendant for a few weeks, you’ve probably noticed your Mastery Rank ticking up after every mission, but you might not know exactly how to leverage it to make your runs way smoother. A lot of new players write off the system as a useless progress tracker, but it’s one of the most powerful tools for cutting down grind time and making all your characters stronger. This guide breaks down how to use mastery rank in the first descendant to get the most out of every unlock, avoid wasting resources, and crush endgame content like Void Chasers and Intercept missions.
What Mastery Rank Actually Does in The First Descendant
Mastery Rank is an account-wide progression system, not tied to any single character you play. You earn Mastery XP from every activity you complete, from story missions to endgame raids, and every time you rank up you get a set of rewards plus points to spend on permanent account upgrades. Mastery Rank progress is shared across every character on your account, so you don’t have to re-grind it when you unlock a new descendant to test out.
Every rank unlocks a mix of fixed rewards and flexible points you can allocate to fit your playstyle. The core benefits you can expect as you rank up include:
- Permanent stat boosts for all your playable characters, including increased max health, shield capacity, and skill cooldown reduction
- Unlocks for higher-tier equipment crafting recipes, including rare modules and exclusive weapon skins only available at higher ranks
- Access to exclusive endgame mission difficulties that drop higher rarity loot and rare descendant shards
- Increased storage space for modules, weapons, and crafting materials, so you don’t have to constantly delete items to make room
You can check your current Mastery Rank and progress toward the next level at any time from the main menu, under the Account tab. You’ll also get a pop-up notification every time you rank up, with a quick preview of your new rewards.
How to Allocate Mastery Rank Points for Your Playstyle
The biggest mistake new players make is spending all their Mastery Rank points on the first available combat upgrades, without thinking about their long-term play habits. There’s no one “best” point allocation that works for every player, so you should prioritize bonuses that align with how you actually enjoy playing the game. If you main support descendants like Viessa and spend most of your time running missions with friends, prioritize skill cooldown reduction and party-wide buff bonuses over raw weapon damage. If you prefer running solo missions to farm materials, go for health and shield boosts first to make tough boss fights less frustrating.
A lot of players also overlook utility bonuses that save hours of grind down the line. For example, if you often swap between multiple descendants to tackle different mission types, the increased module storage bonus lets you keep pre-built loadouts for every character without having to uninstall and re-install modules every time you swap. If you want to plan out your point allocation before committing to any upgrades, you can use community-made build planners, or reference optimization resources like Ind Slots to see how top players are allocating their points for different playstyles.
You can reset your Mastery Rank point allocation for a small fee of in-game credits, so don’t panic if you make a bad choice early on. The fee is low enough that you can experiment with different builds every few weeks without breaking the bank, especially once you start running endgame missions that drop huge amounts of credits.
How to Use Mastery Rank in The First Descendant to Speed Up Progression
Most players only pay attention to the point upgrades they get from ranking up, but the fixed unlocks that come with each rank are just as valuable for speeding up your overall progression. For example, when you hit Mastery Rank 12, you unlock the ability to skip lower-tier story missions on new character playthroughs, so you can jump straight to the endgame grind with a new descendant in half the time. When you hit Rank 18, you unlock the ability to craft legendary modules directly from the crafting station, instead of having to farm them exclusively from rare boss drops.
Always check the Mastery Rank reward tab after ranking up, because many players miss exclusive rewards like free descendant shards and premium currency that are automatically added to your inventory but not announced with a pop-up. These rewards are often enough to unlock a new descendant or upgrade a favorite weapon to max tier without any extra grind.
Higher Mastery Ranks also let you join higher difficulty missions that give far more XP and better loot, which creates a positive feedback loop. The faster you rank up, the more high-reward missions you can access, which in turn makes you rank up even faster. You don’t have to wait until you hit max gear score to run these higher difficulty missions either; the permanent stat boosts from your Mastery Rank will make up for slightly lower gear score in most cases.
Common Mastery Rank Mistakes to Avoid
Even experienced players make simple mistakes with their Mastery Rank that slow down their progress for weeks. The most common mistake is wasting points on character-specific bonuses instead of account-wide ones. Character-specific bonuses only apply to the descendant you select when you purchase the upgrade, while account-wide bonuses apply to every character you own, even ones you unlock months down the line. Prioritize account-wide bonuses over character-specific ones whenever you’re choosing between two upgrades, because they offer far more long-term value.
Another common mistake is ignoring daily and weekly challenges that reward bonus Mastery XP. A lot of players only grind endgame raids for XP, but completing all your weekly challenges can give you enough Mastery XP to rank up two or three times in a single week, with far less time invested. These challenges are usually simple, like running three missions with a specific weapon type or reviving five teammates in co-op missions, so you can complete them while you grind for loot anyway.
Never skip mastery rank tutorial prompts when you hit a new rank for the first time, because they often include hidden tips for new unlocks that you won’t find anywhere else in the game. For example, the tutorial for Mastery Rank 20 explains that you can trade extra Mastery points for premium currency once you hit max rank, a feature most players don’t discover until months after they hit the cap.
At the end of the day, learning how to use mastery rank in the first descendant is all about aligning your upgrades with your preferred playstyle, rather than copying whatever meta build is popular online. You don’t have to rush to max rank as fast as possible; take your time to experiment with different point allocations, and don’t be afraid to reset if something isn’t working for you. Even small upgrades to your core stats can make a huge difference in how easy missions feel, especially when you’re tackling endgame content with a team. The system is designed to reward you for playing the way you want, so don’t overcomplicate it.