The First Descendant has a number of vertical progression systems which takes a while to get used to. The gameplay front of things may seem deceptively simple by comparison; you mostly just need to keep switching weapons out for higher-level ones and use your abilities wisely. However, there are some mechanical tricks the game won't announce to you out of the gate.
In this article, we will go over some of these lesser-known mechanical tips and tricks for The First Descendant. They will help you out a lot during the first ten hours of gameplay when you're still learning the ropes, but most of these remain useful all the way through.
5 lesser-known The First Descendant tips and tricks
1) You can skip reload animation by rolling
Warframe players will likely already have figured out this trick, but you can skip the reload animation by rolling at the right time in The First Descendant. When your reload bar is just past the halfway point, rolling (Ctrl on the keyboard) will skip the rest of the animation, and yet give you a full-clip reload.
For most weapon types in The First Descendant, reload times are low enough that it does not matter too much. However, when you're going all-in on an Elite enemy or a boss target, this trick can increase your sustained weapon DPS by a surprising amount.
2) You can grapple-hook enemies and melee them before you land
The First Descendant does not have very many means of mobility outside of Descendant skills, but you do have the grappling hook. Some of you will already know that you can grapple-hook onto some enemies to close the gap, but did you know you can also press melee to attack when it ends?
While it looks cool, it deals the same amount of damage as a regular Sub-attack (the term for melee in this game). However, you can knock down some larger targets such as shielded Vulgas with this.
While we're on the topic, you can also do a ground slam by pressing the Sub-attack button while jumping. This has a much faster animation than the default Sub-attack in practice.
Also Read: 5 things you should know before you start The First Descendant
3) Void Intercept bosses have less damage when you do it solo
Void Intercept Battles are the de-facto DPS check of The First Descendant when you encounter each boss for the first time. However, running them solo gives you several advantages. For one, there will be no extra matchmaking time. More importantly, since you are going under the recommended squad size, the game is benevolent enough to nerf certain boss attacks for the entirety of the fight.
If you don't have sufficient weapons or nuke DPS, this is probably a bad idea. However, if you want to farm lower-level bosses for junk loot and open Amorphous Materials, it can make the process much faster and easier.
4) Void Fragment missions can be turned into an endless mode
While the actual endless missions of The First Descendant are Special Operations, you have another option to farm XP. Void Fragment missions appear in all areas of the game, and they grant you Void Shards upon destruction.
That said, once you end these missions, the Void Fragments auto-repair themselves, and the mission becomes available immediately after. This makes them one of the most beneficial pseudo-endless grinds in the game, as not only do they give you easy XP and loot farm, but they also grant Void Shards you can use for Void Reactors.
Also Read: The First Descendant XP farm
5) The Junk Filter is the Loot Filter of this game
The First Descendant has a bag limit of 84 (i.e. limit of total weapons, reactors, and external components you can carry) by default. It won't take you long to hit that limit, and you'll figure out you need to dismantle weapons and other equipment to make space for better ones.
That said, sometimes you can lose otherwise good fodder you could have used for the Weapon Readjustment mechanic. For this, the "Filter all as Junk" actually acts as a loot filter. You can set up filters for certain weapon rarity thresholds, and when you "Assign all as Junk," weapons meeting those properties won't be included.
Check out our other guides on The First Descendant:
- The First Descendant tier list: Best characters to play
- How to get Kuiper shards in The First Descendant
- The First Descendant Gley build, how to get, skill modules, and more
- The First Descendant Thunder Cage build: Best Modules, unique trait, and more