If you’ve spent even a few hours exploring open-world zones or running Void missions in The First Descendant, you’ve almost certainly come across glowing, locked crates that you can’t pry open right away. A lot of new players reach out to ask what are encrypted storage boxes the first descendant, and whether they’re worth the extra effort to collect and unlock. The short answer is yes – these containers hold some of the rarest crafting materials, exclusive mods, and weapon blueprints in the entire game, and learning how to work with them can cut your endgame grind time by half.
What Exactly Are Encrypted Storage Boxes in The First Descendant?
At their core, encrypted storage boxes are special, locked loot containers scattered across every playable area of the game. Unlike regular chests that you can open immediately with no extra steps, these boxes require a matching decryption key to access their contents, and you have to add them to your inventory first before you can unlock them back at your base camp. They come in three distinct tiers, each with different possible loot pools and key requirements:
- Common Encrypted Storage Boxes: Hold basic mod shards, low-tier crafting materials, and 100-500 Kunai, the game’s standard universal currency
- Rare Encrypted Storage Boxes: Drop mid-tier weapon upgrade materials, rare class-specific mod shards, and occasional decryption key fragments for higher tier boxes
- Legendary Encrypted Storage Boxes: Offer exclusive weapon blueprints, top-tier permanent stat boost items, and legendary mods you can’t get from any other regular loot source in the game
You don’t lose any collected boxes if you die during a mission or leave a zone early – they’re added to your permanent inventory as soon as you interact with them, so you don’t have to worry about losing progress if you get ambushed by a boss right after picking one up. Higher tier boxes are much rarer, of course, but even common boxes are worth grabbing if you have space in your inventory.
How to Get Decryption Keys for Encrypted Storage Boxes
Decryption keys don’t drop from regular enemy kills, so you can’t farm them by grinding standard mob spawns. Instead, you earn them from completing specific repeatable activities, and each tier of key only works for the matching tier of box. Common decryption keys are the easiest to earn, dropping from all daily repeatable missions and low-difficulty Void runs. Rare keys come from weekly challenge missions and mid-tier Void Intercept battles, while legendary keys are only rewarded for completing high-difficulty boss raids and seasonal event objectives.
Never waste a higher tier decryption key on a lower tier box – the loot pool is locked to the box’s tier, not the key, so you’ll end up wasting a rare legendary key on common loot if you mismatch them. I made this exact mistake during my first month playing, using a legendary key I earned from my first clear of the Void Worm raid on a rare box I found randomly, and only got a common fire damage mod I already had three copies of. It was a brutal waste of a reward that takes most players 10+ hours of grind to earn, so double check you’re using the right key before you decrypt.
You can also combine 10 key fragments of a specific tier to make a full key, so don’t discard those small fragments you get from side mission rewards. They add up much faster than you think, especially if you run a lot of co-op missions with friends.
Best Locations to Farm Encrypted Storage Boxes Efficiently
You don’t have to wander aimlessly across the map to find these boxes, as there are fixed spawn points and guaranteed drop activities you can target to cut down on your farm time. The Northern Vespers Wasteland has six fixed rare encrypted storage box spawn points that reset every two hours, so you can loop that short route in between missions to stack up on rare boxes without extra effort. If you’re looking for legendary boxes, every Void Intercept Battle run on difficulty 3 or higher guarantees at least one legendary box if you complete all three bonus objectives for the mission.
Side missions that task you with clearing enemy outposts also have a 70% chance to spawn at least one common or rare box per run, so you can combine your daily mission grind with box farming to kill two birds with one stone. Always complete bonus mission objectives when you’re farming for boxes – they double the chance of a higher tier box spawning, and you get extra key fragments as an added reward for finishing them.
If you play in co-op, all players in your squad get a copy of any box that one player picks up, so farming with three other friends cuts your total grind time by 75% on average. You don’t have to fight over who gets to collect the box, so it’s one of the most efficient ways to stack up a lot of boxes fast.
Common Mistakes to Avoid With Encrypted Storage Boxes
Even experienced players make avoidable mistakes with these boxes that cost them hours of extra grind, so keeping these small rules in mind will help you get the most value out of every container you collect. First, don’t hoard too many boxes without decrypting them – your inventory only holds 20 encrypted storage boxes total, so if you hit the cap, you won’t be able to pick up any more until you decrypt some or discard lower tier ones you don’t need.
Always decrypt five boxes of the same tier at once if you can – the game gives you a 20% bonus loot reward for bulk decrypting, so you’ll get extra materials and mod shards you wouldn’t get if you open them one by one. A lot of players don’t know about this bonus, so they end up missing out on hundreds of extra crafting materials every week.
Don’t ignore common boxes just because you’re at endgame, either. Even if you don’t need basic mod shards anymore, the loot from common boxes can be dismantled for mod dust, which is one of the scarcest resources for endgame mod upgrades. You can dismantle unwanted loot from decrypted boxes directly from the decryption menu, so you don’t have to waste extra inventory space holding items you don’t want.
Check your storage box inventory before you start a farming run to make sure you have enough space, so you don’t end up leaving a rare or legendary box behind because you’re already at the cap. It’s a tiny step that only takes two seconds, but it will save you from the frustration of walking past a legendary box you can’t pick up.
At the end of the day, understanding what are encrypted storage boxes the first descendant is one of the easiest ways to speed up your character progression without putting in extra hours of repetitive grind. You don’t have to rearrange your entire play schedule to farm them, but picking them up when you see them, saving your high-tier keys for legendary boxes, and avoiding the common mistakes we covered will give you a huge leg up over players who ignore these containers entirely. If you have a favorite farming route or trick for getting more keys, feel free to share it in the comments to help other players out.