If you’ve just stumbled on Nexon’s free-to-play looter shooter The First Descendant, the first question you probably have before downloading is is the first descendant p2w. It’s a fair question, too: many free-to-play live service games lock critical power or endgame content behind paywalls, forcing players to spend money to keep up with the community. I’ve put over 120 hours into the game on a fully free account, and I’ve unlocked every playable character released so far without spending a cent. This guide breaks down exactly what you get for real money purchases, what you can get for free, and whether spending gives you any unfair advantage over free players.
Is The First Descendant P2W? Breaking Down Core Monetization Systems
To answer this question fairly, we first have to define what pay-to-win actually means for most players. Pay-to-win refers to purchases that give you exclusive, unobtainable-for-free power that lets you beat other players or clear content you could not access without spending. The First Descendant’s store has four main purchase categories, and none of them fall into that strict pay-to-win bucket. all core playable characters can be unlocked through free in-game grind, even those marked as “premium” in the store.
The first purchase type is premium currency, called Caliber. You can buy Caliber with real money, but you also earn it for free through daily login rewards, seasonal event challenges, and the free track of the battle pass. Caliber can be spent on cosmetic items, convenience boosts, or premium character unlocks, but it can never be spent directly on higher stat weapons, upgraded character skills, or exclusive endgame gear. The second purchase type is the paid battle pass, which gives you extra cosmetic items, small convenience boosts, and extra Caliber as you level it up. All gameplay-relevant rewards on the battle pass are also available on the free track, so you don’t miss out on power by skipping the paid pass.
The third category is direct premium character purchases, and the fourth is convenience items like extra inventory slots, crafting speed boosts, and additional loadout slots. None of these give you a permanent power advantage that free players can’t get, though they do save you time if you don’t want to grind for unlocks. You won’t be locked out of any content for skipping any of these purchases, no matter how high level you get.
Purchases That Give Actual Gameplay Advantages (If Any)
There are a small handful of purchases that give minor, non-gamebreaking advantages, but none of them qualify as pay-to-win. The biggest one is extra inventory space, which lets you carry more weapons and materials without having to sell or dismantle items as often. You start with more than enough inventory space to play through the full main story, and you earn extra slots for free as you level up your account, so you won’t hit a wall early on. If you play a lot, you might want to buy extra slots after 50 or 60 hours, but it’s not a requirement to progress.
Crafting speed boosts are another minor convenience purchase. High rarity weapons and characters can take anywhere from 2 to 24 hours to craft once you have all the required materials, and you can spend a small amount of Caliber to skip the wait time. But you can only craft one item at a time anyway, so most players just queue up a craft before they log off for the day, and it’s ready when they come back. there is no way to purchase higher rarity weapons or upgraded character stats directly with real money, so even if you spend hundreds of dollars, you can’t skip the grind for endgame gear entirely.
All other purchases are 100% cosmetic and have zero impact on gameplay, including:
- Character skins, alternative color palettes, and limited edition costume sets
- Weapon skins, weapon charm attachments, and crosshair customizations
- Lobby emotes, player profile banners, and victory animation packs
How to Progress Endgame Content Without Spending Any Money
I’ve cleared every endgame raid and void mission in the game on my free account, and I’ve never felt like I was at a disadvantage compared to players who spend money. The key to fast free progression is focusing on weekly and daily challenge missions first, since they give you the highest amount of experience, shards, and rare materials. Co-op void missions are especially valuable, since they have a higher drop rate for high rarity weapon blueprints and descendant unlock shards. If you join a public group, you can clear these missions in half the time it takes to run them solo, and you get the same rewards no matter what your role in the group is.
Premium characters can be unlocked for free by collecting their specific shards from weekly boss fights. It takes about 4 to 6 weeks of consistent weekly runs to unlock a premium character, which is the same amount of time it takes most players to grind for a new endgame weapon. You don’t need premium characters to clear any content, either: every endgame raid has been cleared with base free characters by multiple community groups. Endgame raid clears have zero requirement for paid purchases of any kind, and the highest damage per second builds in the game right now use free, easily obtainable characters and weapons.
You also earn enough free Caliber every month to unlock one convenience purchase if you want it, like extra inventory space or a cosmetic skin. I’ve saved up enough free Caliber over 3 months to unlock two premium characters without spending any money, so you don’t have to grind extra hard to get access to premium content if you’re patient. The only real limit for free players is time, not access to content or power.
Common Misconceptions About The First Descendant's Monetization
The biggest myth I see online is that premium characters are stronger than free ones, but that’s just not true. Every character in the game is a sidegrade, not a direct upgrade. Premium characters have unique skills that fit specific team roles, but free characters have just as high damage output and survivability if built correctly. For example, the free base character Viessa is still one of the highest DPS characters in the game for endgame ice builds, even after multiple premium characters with ice skills have been released.
Another common myth is that you can’t get premium currency for free, which is also false. You get 100 to 300 Caliber every week just for completing daily login rewards and weekly challenges, and the free track of the battle pass gives you an extra 1000 Caliber over the course of the season. You can earn enough premium currency every 2 months to unlock a paid character without spending money, so you never have to open your wallet to get access to new playable content.
Many players also confuse pay-for-convenience with pay-to-win, and that’s where most of the “p2w” claims come from. If you want to unlock everything as fast as possible, you can spend money to skip grind, but you never have to. The game doesn’t push microtransactions on you every time you log in, either: the store is tucked away in a separate menu, and you won’t get pop-ups asking you to spend money while you’re playing missions.
If you’ve been holding off on trying the game because you’re worried about pay-to-win walls, you can relax. At the end of the day, concerns that is the first descendant p2w are largely overblown by people who confuse pay-for-convenience mechanics with actual pay-to-win design. The First Descendant is one of the most fair free-to-play looter shooters on the market right now, and you can enjoy every single piece of content without spending a single cent if you don’t want to. If you do decide to spend money, it will only be for cosmetic items or to save a little time on grind, not to get an unfair advantage over other players.