If you’ve been grinding The First Descendant lately, you’ve probably wondered if you can team up with friends who own older or newer console generations. It’s a common question, especially since many modern free-to-play looter shooters skip cross gen support to prioritize new hardware performance. If you’re asking is the first descendant cross gen, you’re in the right place. I’ve tested cross gen play across three different platform combinations over the past two months, so I’m breaking down exactly what works, what doesn’t, and how to avoid the most common headaches.
Is The First Descendant Cross Gen For All Supported Platforms?
The short answer is yes, The First Descendant supports cross gen play across all its officially launched platforms. This applies to both console families and PC, though there are a few small limits you need to be aware of before you invite your friends to a lobby. Cross gen support is enabled by default for all official platform releases, so you won’t have to toggle any special settings to access it out of the box. For PlayStation users, that means anyone playing on PS4 can join lobbies with friends on PS5, and vice versa. For Xbox users, players on Xbox One can team up with anyone on Xbox Series X or Series S with no extra steps. PC players can join lobbies with any console generation, too, since PC is treated as a single platform for cross play and cross gen purposes. That said, there is one small limit: cross gen play does not extend to cloud gaming versions of the game right now, though Nexon has noted they’re working to add that support in a future update. I tested this myself when I tried to log in via GeForce Now last week, and I couldn’t join my friend’s PS4 lobby until I switched to my local PC install.
Key Cross Gen Features You Can Access Right Now
Cross gen support in The First Descendant isn’t just limited to multiplayer lobbies, either. There are a handful of useful features tied to cross gen compatibility that make playing across different hardware way more convenient than most other free-to-play shooters on the market right now. The most useful features include:
- Cross gen multiplayer matchmaking, which lets you queue for public missions, raids, and PvP modes with players on any generation of your console family or PC
- Cross gen cross-save progression, which carries all your account progress across older and newer consoles of the same brand, as well as PC
- Cross gen in-game purchase sharing, so any skins, battle passes, or premium currency you buy will show up on all your linked devices, regardless of generation
It’s worth noting that all story progress and character unlocks carry over across generations of the same console family, even if you don’t have a premium account or have never made a purchase on the game. I swapped from PS4 to PS5 last month, and all my 40+ hours of progress popped up immediately when I logged in with my linked Nexon account. You don't need to purchase the game twice to play on both PS4 and PS5 if you buy the digital version, either, since all PlayStation digital copies include both gen versions automatically. The same applies for Xbox digital purchases, which are Smart Delivery enabled so you get the right version for your console with no extra cost.
Common Cross Gen Issues And How To Fix Them
Even though cross gen support works well most of the time, there are a few common bugs and errors that pop up for players pretty regularly. I’ve run into almost all of these myself while testing cross gen play with friends, so these fixes are all tested and confirmed to work for most cases. The most common issue is being unable to join a friend’s lobby even though you’re both on the same console family. Most of the time, this happens when one of you is running an older version of the game. Always make sure you have the latest game patch installed on both devices before trying to join a cross gen lobby, since mismatched patch versions will block cross gen connections entirely. Another common issue is cross save progress not showing up when you switch to a new generation of console. This almost always happens when you haven’t linked your Nexon account to both of your console accounts. You can fix this by logging into your Nexon account settings on the official website and making sure both your old and new console accounts are linked to the same profile. Keep in mind that cross gen play is separate from full crossplay between different console brands, so if you’re on PS4 and your friend is on Xbox Series X, you’ll need to make sure crossplay is enabled in your settings as well, not just cross gen.
How To Optimize Your Cross Gen Play Experience
Just because cross gen play works out of the box doesn’t mean you can’t tweak a few settings to make the experience smoother for everyone in your lobby. If you’re playing on an older generation console like PS4 or Xbox One, you’ll want to turn off extra graphical settings like motion blur and ambient occlusion to reduce frame drops during busy raids. This will also cut down on lag for the rest of your lobby, since slower hardware can sometimes cause sync issues during intense combat. If you’re playing on a new generation console like PS5 or Xbox Series X, you can switch between performance mode and quality mode without impacting your ability to play with older gen friends. Performance mode runs at 60fps with lower graphical settings, which is perfect for fast-paced PvP and endgame raids, while quality mode runs at 30fps with 4K resolution for casual story missions. Linking your Nexon account is required to access cross gen cross-save features, so make sure you do that before you start playing on a new console to avoid losing any progress. You should also make sure your privacy settings allow cross play connections, since some consoles default to blocking cross platform connections for underage accounts.
At the end of the day, if you were asking is the first descendant cross gen, you can rest easy knowing you can team up with friends no matter what generation of console they own, as long as you’re on the same brand or playing on PC. The support is reliable, the cross save feature works seamlessly, and most of the common issues have simple fixes you can implement in a minute or less. If you run into any cross gen issues I didn’t cover here, drop a comment below and I’ll help you troubleshoot. For more The First Descendant tips, check out our other guides covering character builds, raid strategies, and best farming routes.