How to increase Mastery Rank in The First Descendant

The First Descendant has a 'Mastery Rank' that increases as you make progress in the game. This is essentially an overall index of your completion of the game's content by clearing map objectives and masterying the game's various weapon classes and Descendants. Ranking up Mastery is simple - all you have to do is hit certain XP thresholds and then go to Prime Hands in Albion.

There are a total of 30 Mastery Ranks that broadly describe your account-wide progress, but the early Ranks also unlock some critical game mechanics you can't go far without. In this guide, we will go over how it works, and what you get from each Mastery Rank in The First Descendant.

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How to rank up Mastery in The First Descendant

Location of Prime Hands in The First Descendant (Image via Nexon)

Mastery is a separate experience pool that increases when you rank up Descendants, weapon proficiency, and clear a mission for the first time. Your total 'Mastery Rank' in The First Descendant can be viewed anytime in the inventory screen under your Descendant's level.

Once you increase the Mastery experience up to a certain threshold, the game will let you know that a Mastery Rank is available.

You can increase your Mastery Rank by going to Prime Hands in Albion. It will be marked with a glowing golden waypoint when a Mastery Rank-up is available, so it's easy to find when you need it.

Unlike Warframe, you do not need to attend a Mastery Rank test to rank this up. Any extra Mastery over the required amount automatically contributes towards progress for the next Rank.

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What does ranking up Mastery give you in The First Descendant?

There are several benefits to increasing Mastery Rank. Each new one makes your potential power ceiling higher by increasing the maximum possible rank of all modules, extra Storage capacity, mod capacity, and equipment inventory. Additionally, certain Mastery Ranks unlock core game mechanics:

• Mastery Rank 3 unlocks the ability to upgrade Reactors of all rarity, which can be performed at any workbench.
• Mastery Rank 5 unlocks weapon transmission, i.e., upgrading the level of a selected weapon to another dummy weapon's level, using 5x Phase Exchangers. This can be done at any workbench.
• Mastery Rank 5 also unlocks the ability to combine modules, which works similarly to mod fusion from Warframe.
• Mastery Rank 7 unlocks unique abilities on legendary weapons and the access to interact with them via any workbench in the field or in Albion.

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The First Descendant Mastery leveling guide: What is the best place to gain XP quickly?

You can access these from Albion or directly from the overworld (Image via Nexon)

Obtaining any form of experience contributes more Mastery, as long as both your selected equipment and weapon are not at their maximum proficiency. In other words, easy Mastery gain simply comes down to efficiently ranking up your Descendants and gear.

The best way to do this is through grinding endless mode missions - such as Resource Defense. These can be accessed through the Operations terminal or on the field, but they will force you in another instance of the matchmaking pool.

Resource Defense missions have been a go-to levelling spot since The First Descendant's open beta days, and these are still the best on launch. Clear speed is important, so select the highest-level option your squad can comfortably clear.

If you are ranking up your weapons, use a fast mob-clearing Descendant like Bunny. If you are ranking up a low-level Descendant, you have to either rely on your squadmates, or an Ultimate weapon with crowd-clearing capacities.

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About the game

The First Descendant is the latest MMO-lite title from Korean developer Nexon, known for their other live service games like MapleStory or, more recently, Blue Archive. While its main draw is its high graphical fidelity thanks to Unreal Engine 5, the core structure and progression system in the game is taken from other established MMO looter-shooter titles. Particularly, its leveling system takes a lot of inspiration from Warframe.