There are various changes to the way the game works, too. For example, Nexon has blocked equipping and removing modules, changing presets, and changing loadouts to prevent module swapping from becoming a strategy in Intercept Battles and Infiltration Operations.

Alongside the release of the 1.0.5 patch, The First Descendant director Minseok Joo outlined the development team’s plans for issues that are much-discussed within the game’s community. Minseok Joo confirmed plans to introduce a “guaranteed drop” system where players will be guaranteed to get the item they want after repeating an activity a certain number of times, in response to complaints about “the vagaries of drop rate.”

“The First Descendant has various missions and Amorphous Materials with chance-dependent rewards,” Minseok Joo said. “We’re considering how we can effectively implement the ‘guaranteed drop’ in such diverse reward systems, and we’re working to create a farming structure that players will be happy with. We hope to make improvements before long to provide a more rational and satisfying farming experience.”

Elsewhere, Nexon is planning a system to dismantle leftover items to get byproducts, and a rotating shop system where you can exchange the byproducts for something of value. “This will allow the items you obtained to have a greater value in the game,” Minseok Joo said.

Minseok Joo also discussed balancing, admitting “we can’t promise that all Descendants and weapons will be equally balanced at all times.” However, Nexon intends to keep changing the “effective” builds. “To that end, we promise to make constant adjustments and offer different ways to play with new content.”

These improvements will be made to the game during Seasons 1 and 2.

Nexon’s free-to-play co-op focused looter shooter has enjoyed enormous popularity with over 10 million players in just 10 days. But it has been heavily criticized for its ultra aggressive monetization, which includes the cost of Ultimate versions of its playable characters. IGN has reported on one player who spent an eye-watering 200 hours to unlock every Ultimate Descendant currently available in the game without paying money.

The First Descendant update 1.0.5 patch notes:

New Descendant: Ultimate Valby
– Added “Ultimate Valby.”

Ultimate Valby Modification Modules
– Spiral Tidal Wave: The bouncy Bubble Bullet has been replaced by a projectile that flies in a straight line. Spiral Tidal Wave is stackable and can be fired three times in a row, and attracts impurities during the Gluttony Intercept Battle.
– Hydro Pressure Bomb: Instead of “Plop Plop,” she leaps forward and deals damage to enemies around the landing area. The more enemies in the Laundry state, the more powerful the damage.

Added Ultimate Valby Amorphous Materials
– Amorphous Material Patterns 011, 044, 115, 030, 055, 113, 023, 052, 073, 087, 110, and 125 can no longer be acquired. You can continue to use the Amorphous Materials you already have as before.
– Added the “AA variants” of Amorphous Materials 011, 044, 115, 030, 055, 113, 023, 052, 073, 087, 110, and 125. You can acquire the Enhanced Cell Blueprint, Stabilizer Blueprint, Spiral Catalyst Blueprint, and Code of Ultimate Valby from them. Ultimate Valby’s blueprint and Code Materials will replace one of the items available from the original Amorphous.
– The Amorphous Materials of the “AA variant” can be acquired and used in the same place as the original.

First Update Alert! Meet the new Descendants, Luna’ and Ultimate Valby, and challenge the new boss, Gluttony. Don’t miss out on the action-packed looter shooter fun! pic.twitter.com/rTZyEFj63w

— The First Descendant (@FirstDescendant) July 31, 2024

New Descendant: Luna
– Added new Descendant, Luna.

Luna Skills
– (Passive Skill) Improvisation: Using any skill increases Inspiration Gauge, which allows Luna to use Enhanced Skills.
– (Active Skill 1) Stage Presence: Using the skill changes Luna’s weapon to her Unique Weapon. Performing the notes in time to the music by using skills or hitting monsters stacks and increases her Skill Power Modifier.
– (Active Skill 2) Passionate Stage: Using the skill makes Luna play upbeat music, increasing the Skill Power Modifier of Luna and her allies. Gaining the Enhanced Effect increases the Skill Power Modifier even more and also increases the Skill Critical Hit Rate and damage of allies.
– (Active Skill 3) Relaxing Act: Using the skill makes Luna play relaxing music. Hitting the enemy with a note grants an effect that instantly recovers the MP of Luna and her allies. Gaining the Enhanced Effect increases MP Recovery, and reduces Skill Cost.
– (Active Skill 4) Delightful Stage: Using the skill makes Luna play delightful music. Hitting the enemy with a note increases Inspiration Gauge and decreases the skill cooldown of allies. Gaining the Enhanced Effect increases the Inspiration Gauge even more and immediately resets the cooldown of allies.

Luna Modification Modules
– Nimble Footsteps: This Modification Module enhances Luna’s Movement Speed and amplifies the effect range of her performance, making it easier to support her allies.
– Noise Surge: Transforms all of Luna’s skills to combat skills. Performing the notes in rhythm unleashes a powerful AoE attack. When the Inspiration Gauge is full, summons a moving stage where she dances to recover MP and Shield.

Added Luna Amorphous Materials
– Amorphous Material Patterns 017, 038, 081, 020, 098, 068, 015, 049, 071, 027, 090, and 094 can no longer be acquired. You can continue to use the Amorphous Materials you already have as before.
– Added the “AA variants” of Amorphous Materials 017, 038, 081, 020, 098, 068, 015, 049, 071, 027, 090, and 094. You can acquire the Enhanced Cell Blueprint, Stabilizer Blueprint, Spiral Catalyst Blueprint, and Code of Luna from them. Luna’s blueprint and Code Materials will replace one of the items available from the original Amorphous.
– The Amorphous Materials of the “AA variant” can be acquired and used in the same place as the original.

Added New Hard Void Intercept Battle: Gluttony
– Added new Hard Difficulty Void Intercept Battle, Gluttony.
– Intercept Gluttony to collect the Hungry Sonic External Components Set and the blueprint of the Ultimate Weapon Peace Maker.

Gluttony External Components Set
– Hungry Sonic Set: 2-piece set effect grants Toxin Resistance. 4-piece set grants an effect that recovers MP on hitting the target with a skill’s Unique Weapon as well as an effect that increases Skill Duration and MP Heal Modifier proportionally to Max MP.

New Ultimate Equipment: Peace Maker
– Added new Ultimate Weapon Peace Maker. Using a Dimension skill grants the “Single Reload for Peace” effect.
At maximum stacks, the “Single Reload for Peace” effect enables you to fire the loaded ammo in a single quick burst when taking an aimed shot.

New Module
– Arche Concretion: Decreases Movement Speed, Firearm ATK, and all Attribute ATK except the Non-Attribute ATK every time a skill is used, but each stack of Arche Concretion increases DEF and MP.

Added New Products
– Added “New Descendant: Exclusive Luna Bundle” which includes Luna and the “Pool Party” skin.
– Added Luna to the list of standard Descendants in the shop.
– Added “Premium Ultimate Valby Bundle” which includes Ultimate Valby and the “Vermillion Wave skin,” and “Ultimate Valby Bundle.”
– Added “Valby’s Summer Theme,” “Viessa’s Summer Theme,” and “Male Summer Theme Set.”
– Added “Luna’s Albion Academy Cadet,” “Luna’s Classic Maid Uniform,” “Luna’s Panda,” and “Luna’s Dinosaur” limited skins.
– Added “Luna’s Augmented Reality of Madness” premium skin package.
– Added Luna’s exclusive “White Mouse” premium head skin.
– Added Luna’s exclusive Hair & Makeup 1 & 2.
– Added Luna’s “The Ultimate High Feeling” and “Volume Up” standard skins.
– Added Luna’s makeup “Sly.”
– Added “Adjustment Control Axis X30” and “Fine Adjustment Control Axis 20” support items.

■ Hotfix 1.0.5
Content Improvements
(1) UI/UX
– To prevent module swapping from becoming a strategy in Intercept Battles and Infiltration Operations, equipping and removing modules, changing presets, and changing loadouts are now prohibited.
– Added a feature to collect all Lost and Found items at once in the Mailbox.
– After checking the map with acquired information in the Library, closing the map now leaves the Library open.
– Added Camera Shake ON/OFF feature in Game Options.
– (PS, Xbox) Added the ability to select preset search keywords to make it easier to search modules and research.
– Added commas after every three digits in the game menu and HUD to make it easier to read numerical units.
– You can now check key stat information in the weapon, reactor, and external component inventories.
– You can now register equipped items as Attached Items.
– Saving a preset now automatically registers equipped items as Attached Items.
– You can now turn the red dot crosshair display on or off cities in Game Options.
– Added an image to some items in Graphics Options to show what they do.
– Increased the speed of scrolling when scrolling the map with the gamepad’s R-stick.
– Changed the color of icons for Hard difficulty Void Intercept Battles on the World Map to make it easier to distinguish them from Normal difficulty battles.
– The map no longer displays the marker when a quest NPC being tracked disappears.
– The Modification Modules for the same Descendant are now displayed together in a row in the Library.
– When the first clear reward and repeat clear reward are the same, the Acquisition Info in the Library no longer shows them both.
– When selecting all duplicate modules in Dismantle Modules, you can now use a filter to register only the selected modules for dismantling.
– Simplified the module combining animation.
– Starting a research in the Materials tab of the Research menu now returns you to the Materials tab.
– Added the “Leave Party” button to the Social menu to make the function easier to find.
– Added a search function to the Consumables menu.
– Even when acquiring skins for Descendants not currently in use the red dot still appears.
– Added the red dot when acquiring paint.
– The red dot now appears in the Weapons List side tab too when acquiring a weapon skin.

(2) Descendants, Modules
– Increased the Poison contagion range of Freyna’s Room 0 Trauma from a 4 m radius to a 7 m radius.
– Increased the maximum scaling range of Valby’s skills from 200% to 250%.
– Increased the maximum scaling range of Blair’s skills from 200% to 250%.
– Changed the blizzard generated by Viessa’s “Glacial Cloud” module to be triggered instantly without delay.
– Changed Valby’s “Albion Academy Cadet” head skin to be dyeable.
– Changed “Incoming Final Damage” to “Incoming Damage Modifier” in the description of the “Safe Recovery” module.

(3) Equipment
– Added a feature in Game Options that enables some single-shot and burst weapons to fire automatically when the fire button is pressed and held down.
– Increased Enduring Legacy’s Critical Hit Damage from 1.7x to 2.3x.
– Increased Secret Garden’s Critical Hit Rate from 35% to 50% and Critical Hit Damage from 1.85x to 2.25x.
– Increased Nazeistra’s Devotion’s Critical Hit Rate from 36% to 45% and Critical Hit Damage from 2x to 2.25x.
– Decreased the trigger rate of Bombardment of Greg’s Reversed Fate, but now it also triggers when the weapon is fired at unshielded enemies.
– Equipment can now be dismantled at once with no quantity limit.

(4) Field
– Increased the amount of Void Shards that can be acquired from Special Operations by about 7 times.

# Director’s Comment
Hotfix 1.0.4 added Void Shards as rewards to Special Operations, but unfortunately, there were just too few. The original intent was to keep Void Fragments as the primary farming source for Void Shards, and get additional Void Shards from Special Operations.

But the community has told us that many of you don’t like this loop, so we’ve increased the amount of Void Shards that can be earned in Special Operations. We’re also working on some steps for future improvements.

Many players are currently farming materials without spending the Fragments at the Fusion Reactor, so we’re considering removing the Fragments from the Fusion Reactor startup altogether. This would make the Fragments necessary only when the Reconstructing Device is used at the Fusion Reactor.

We’re taking a close look at how the reward loop we planned works in practice. We’ll try to finalize a reward loop that players will be satisfied with in the near future.
– Reduced the distance you’re knocked down when hit by a trap.
– Lowered the ratio at which the named monster’s immunity sphere HP scales with the number of players in Infiltration Operations, and reduced the duration of immunity.
– The Agna Desert, Vespers, Echo Swamp, White-night Gulch, Hagios, and Fortress fields now have a 100% chance to spawn Encrypted Vaults at spawn.
– Increased the hit box size in “data collection” missions to make it easier to collect data.
– Outside environmental sounds are now less audible in the indoor areas in Kingston.
– Adjusted the distance that monsters spawn in the Laboratory to be closer as 15m.

(5) Miscellaneous
– Balanced sound levels for shield destruction notification, material research result window, etc.

Optimization Improvements
– (PC, PS5, XSX, XSS) Applied AMD FSR 3.1.
– (PS4, XB1) Optimized memory usage.
– (PS4, XB1) Optimized resolution to increase the maximum resolution by at least 5%.
Bug Fixes
(1) UI/UX
– Fixed an issue where enemies defeated by the unique effects of Ultimate Weapons were not counted in Battle Pass Challenge and Awards.
– Fixed an issue where the capacity cost reduced by matching socket types was not displayed on the Weapon Module Enhancement screen.
– Fixed an issue where closing the Capacity Exceeded warning message while enhancing a module made the game inoperable.
– Fixed an issue where restarting an Intercept Battle, Infiltration Operation, or Special Operation after completing it would not matchmake you with allies who applied to restart with you.
– Revised the description on the Info screen that incorrectly stated that the damage taken decreases the higher the “Incoming Damage Modifier,” so that now it states the damage taken decreases the lower the modifier.
– Fixed an issue where completing a mission with a weapon that has been socketed at least once would appear to give Mastery Rank EXP, when in fact it does not.
– Fixed an issue where the names of the core materials and blueprints of Ultimate Weapons were swapped.
– Fixed an issue where the quantity of attached paint was not displayed in the Mailbox.
– Fixed an issue where the DBNO UI animation would persist when a DBNO ally left and another ally joined.
– Fixed an issue where changing loadouts while in combat is not possible but the UI would switch to the selected loadout.

(2) Descendants
– Fixed an issue where Lepic could trigger the “Overkill” skill at 0 MP while equipping the “Increased Efficiency” module.
– Fixed an issue where Yujin could not target an ally when using “Solidarity Healing” if part of their body was covered by an object.
– Fixed an issue where DBNO allies rescued by Yujin could not use any skills for a short period of time after the rescue.
– Fixed an issue where switching weapons after using Viessa’s “Frost Road” skill caused the skill’s visual effect to remain.
– Fixed an issue where the Knockdown range of Valby’s “Plop Plop” skill was larger than the actual Skill Range.
– Fixed an issue where Enzo’s “Shoot Support” was not applied to allies.
– Fixed an issue where using Ultimate Gley’s “Massacre” or “Life Siphon” skill did not increase her Skill damage when she is above 50% HP.
– Fixed an issue where Gley’s “Life Siphon” skill and her Modification Modules “Massive Sanguification” and “Explosive Life” could be used on objects in Intercept Battles.
– Fixed an issue where Kyle’s “Repulsion Dash” could be used on objects in Intercept Battles.
– Fixed an issue where the skill animation of Kyle’s “Repulsion Dash” skill would intermittently be cancelled.
– Fixed an issue where the power of Ultimate Bunny’s “Lightning Emission” was determined by the amount of Electricity she had at the time of use, unlike Bunny. The power of Bunny’s “Lightning Emission” depends on the amount of Electricity she currently has.
– Fixed an issue where Bunny’s “Maximum Power” skill’s sound pitch went up infinitely and sounded like a noise.
– Fixed an issue where Esiemo would become uncontrollable while using the “Arche Explosion” skill.
– Fixed an issue where after Ultimate Viessa used “Frost Road” with the “Absolute-Zero” module or Valby used “Laundry Bomb,” Ajax placing a barrier on top of it inflicted reflective damage on Ultimate Viessa or Valby.

(3) Equipment
– Fixed an issue where moving on a field with three or four pieces of an external component set prevented the 2-piece set effect from being applied.
– Fixed an issue where the damage of hitting the Ultimate Weapon King’s Guard Lance after it was deployed was recorded in the statistics.
– Fixed an issue where the Ultimate Weapon Executor’s Hip Fire Accuracy was lower than what it should be.
– Fixed an issue where the Ultimate Weapon Thunder Cage’s unique effect would deal more than 1.33x damage when monsters were clustered. Instead, Electric Shockwave now deals 2x damage regardless of the number of enemies.

# Director’s Comment
During internal testing, we discovered a bug with Thunder Cage. Thunder Cage should always deal 1.33x damage according to its description, but it was dealing more than 1.33x damage when there were a lot of monsters. We fixed this bug, but we also boosted the 1.33x damage to 2x so that it doesn’t become less efficient when hunting.

We’re well aware that the value of items you own is important to you. To ensure that fixing the bug doesn’t devalue your items, we’ve given it more power than we originally intended. If something like this happens again in the future, we won’t stop at simply fixing the bug but consider how to preserve the value of your items to provide a reasonable patch.
– Fixed an issue where you could hear one or two extra shots when firing single shots with a repeating firearm.

(4) Modules
– Fixed an issue where the Firearm Critical Hit Rate increase effect was missing in the description of Valby’s “Supply Moisture” module.
– Fixed an issue where Valby’s “Tidal Wave” module would not properly stack Finishing Attack when piercing an enemy.
– Fixed an issue where equipping Ajax’s “Body Enhancement” module would have different final result values depending on when it was saved.
– Fixed an issue where if the “Matrix Recomputation module” was equipped by Ajax the Shield would recover every time after a very short while and the Shield started at 50% after equipment.
– Fixed an issue where the “Pitmaster” passive would remain indefinitely when Blair removed the “Classic Chef” module while Flame Zone was in effect.
– Fixed an issue where the knockback effect would not trigger when Blair used “Deadly Cuisine” while equipped with the “Backdraft” module.
– Fixed an issue where the name of the “Sharp Precision Shot” module’s buff was incorrectly shown as “Lethal Finish.”
– Fixed an issue where Bunny’s Evolving Skin quest requirements were not counted when Bunny equipped a Modification Module.
– Fixed an issue where Bunny unequipping the “Electric Condense” module left a status effect display that did not have any effect.
– Fixed an issue where Gley’s “Predator Instinct” module skill displayed the Frenzied state icon and name twice when used.
– Fixed an issue where Ultimate Gley’s “Demonic Modification” module sometimes did not deal damage when used.

(5) Field
– Fixed an issue where defeating named monsters at the same time as Void Fusion Reactor mission was being deleted allowed the player to use Reconstructing Devices without consuming Void Shards.
– Fixed an issue where the zone map of “Hagios: The Old Mystery” showed different paths from actual paths.
– Fixed an issue where the traps would remain on restart after dying in the No Resurrection Zone in Hagos: The Haven.
– Fixed an issue where movement markers would appear while progressing through the Void Fusion Reactor.
– Fixed an issue where roaming monsters would not spawn on the White-night Gulch: Hatchery battlefield.
– Changed the Amorphous Material Patterns and Shape Stabilizers acquired from Hard Infiltration Operations in the White-night Gulch and Hagios.

(6) Miscellaneous
– Fixed an intermittent terrain rendering bug.
– [XB1, XB1S] Fixed an issue where textures would intermittently display black lines when rendering terrain.
– Fixed an issue where the Sub Quest “Obtain Freyna’s Research Materials 1” would complete after clearing “Rockfall: Vulgus Strategic Outpost” even if the “Amorphous Material Pattern: Freyna” was not obtained.
– Fixed an issue where the Sub Quest “Prepare to Obtain Additional Materials for Freyna Research” could not be completed with Ultimate Bunny.
– Fixed an issue where the camera would intermittently freeze when removing parts during Intercept Battles.
– Fixed an issue where the Elite Vulgus Special Effect “Chasing Orb” would not deal damage.

# Director’s Additional Comment
Greetings, this is The First Descendant Director Minseok Joo. Today, I’m going to outline the Dev Team’s plans for issues that are discussed frequently by the community.

The team is currently working on Season 1 and Season 2 updates, while also responding to improvement issues discovered during the live service. Today, I’m going to talk more about how we plan to improve the current state of The First Descendant rather than about the Season 1 and 2 updates.

Drop Rate Improvement Plans
While all of our drop rate systems are operating fairly in The First Descendant, we do understand that some players are struggling with the vagaries of drop rate. To address this, we’re planning to introduce a “guaranteed drop” system where you’re guaranteed to get the item you want after repeating the activity a certain number of times.

The First Descendant has various missions and Amorphous Materials with chance-dependent rewards. We’re considering how we can effectively implement the “guaranteed drop” in such diverse reward systems, and we’re working to create a farming structure that players will be happy with. We hope to make improvements before long to provide a more rational and satisfying farming experience.

Disposing of Leftover Items
Next is an update on items that are piling up in your Consumables. There is currently no way to dispose blueprints for Descendants and weapons that you’ve already completed, so there are cases where players are getting multiple copies of blueprints they already own during the farming process.

We’ve been listening to the community, who have told us that there needs to be a way to dispose of these unwanted items. While we could consider simply converting them into some Gold or Kuiper, we want to reward you with more value for the time you have put into the game.

To resolve this, the Dev Team is planning a system to dismantle leftover items to get byproducts, and a rotating shop system where you can exchange the byproducts for something of value. This will allow the items you obtained to have a greater value in the game.

Supporting Build Diversity
It’s a lot of fun for us to see the variety of builds being posted in the community lately. We love seeing you try so many different builds and are amazed by the unexpected ways you’ve evolved them.

We hope for more builds to exist in The First Descendant, and we want an environment where players are free to experiment with different builds. However, we’ve found that it is difficult to take advantage of loadouts after assigning socket types, which goes against our goal of experimenting with different builds freely.

As a result, the Dev Team is planning to provide an environment where completely different builds can be created by assigning each loadout with different socket types. We hope this will help you experiment with different builds without feeling overwhelmed.

Balancing
Finally, some news about balancing. We are seeing a dominance of the skill damage-focused builds of some Descendants. Descendants and weapons that are well-suited for these builds are quite popular now.

We want the meta builds to change from season to season. We want the Descendants and weapons that are effective in new content to be different from those in previous seasons. Also, we’re looking to increase the proportion of firearm-based combat in the endgame.

We can’t promise that all Descendants and weapons will be equally balanced at all times, but our goal is to keep changing the effective builds. To that end, we promise to make constant adjustments and offer different ways to play with new content.

We aim to implement the improvements I talked about today during Seasons 1 and 2.

Your feedback means a lot to the Dev Team. We’ll do our best to provide a better experience as we build the game together, and we’ll continue to listen to you as we strive to make The First Descendant even better.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.