Does The First Descendant have player-to-player trading?

The First Descendant is a grind-heavy looter-shooter where players will farm new gear and weapons across the story progression. Furthermore, the game also places a huge emphasis on interacting with other players. Taking both aspects into consideration, they would not be mistaken for believing that a trading system exists.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. While other looter-shooters like The First Descendant have such features, such as Warframe allowing trading of some loot or the Borderlands titles allowing trading all types of loot, no acquired items can be traded with other players here.

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Why is there no player trading in The First Descendant?

New gear can largely only be obtained by playing missions (Image via Nexon)

There has been no official word on this matter from either the developer or publisher. It is indeed a bizarre omission for a looter-shooter when getting new gear and loot is at the heart of the experience. New players expecting to get some gifts from their friends who have been playing before them have no way to do so.

With no player trading in The First Descendant, the only options for getting new loot are buying, farming, and crafting them. The vendors in the hub world of Albion do sell weapons, but they're useless given how much more powerful gear can be obtained by just farming. Speaking of which, there are tons of missions in the game, many of which give some decent weapons and gear.

Furthermore, materials obtained from foes, missions, side content dismantling gear, and more can be invested towards crafting new items. This is where the Research aspect comes in, allowing players to spend Gold - one of the few currencies in The First Descendant - to unlock new weapons or new Descendants.

Will player trading arrive in the game in the future? It is hard to say at this point. Allowing trading will let players pass down good gear - including legendary tier weapons - to their friends if they wish to do so. However, it is unclear what is in store for the game on the horizon as, for a free-to-play title, it is lacking basic features such as daily login rewards.

The game is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S platforms.