5 things to do after you unlock Hard Mode in The First Descendant

Modified Aug 14, 2024 23:17 IST

The First Descendant Hard Mode tips — The Hard part is over (Image via Nexon)

Beating the main campaign in The First Descendant unlocks Hard Mode, a difficulty option that scales all the monsters to lvl 100. In return for this increased difficulty, you get a proportionately higher amount of resources and other rewards. However, unlocking Hard Mode also puts you at a crossroads where the game's quest structure leaves your next options open-ended.

This may be confusing to some players who speedran through the whole campaign with Bunny. If you're clueless about what there is to do, or which of those options you should embark on first, you've come to the right place. In this article, we will disclose the top five things you should do right after unlocking Hard Mode in The First Descendant

5 post-Hard Mode goals you should hit in The First Descendant

Here are five The First Descendant tips that will come in handy after you unlock Hard Mode:

1) Farm Ultimate Reactors and Ext Components

The First Descendant gets harder before it gets easier (Image via Nexon)

The First Descendant's Hard Mode opens up the path to easily farming Ultimate Reactors and other Components. Go to the overworld map (G) and press "F" to open the rewards menu, which will list the Reactor combination dropping on individual open-world areas.

Even better, you can actually get very specific components to match your character and loadout requirements. You can sort Reactors by skill attribute (e.g. Toxic, Electricity), and skill type (e.g. Dimension, Tech) to get just the right one for your build. The actual areas they drop in are shuffled during a weekly reset, so remember to check again in case you want to farm some more for a god-roll.

Also Read: The First Descendant Season roadmap: All upcoming classes, release dates, features, and more

2) Farm (a lot of) Kuiper Shards and Gold

Any Descendant or weapon needs a proper module setup to unlock its true potential. For this, you'll need Crystallization Catalysts to fit everything into the same metal gear, but you'll also need to upgrade all those modules. If you've beaten this much content, you'll already know how big of a resource sink that is.

The good news is farming Kuiper Shards in The First Descendant gets much more fruitful post-Hard Mode due to the resource drop scaling. In addition, you'll also run into a Gold scarcity if you batch-produce weapon Readjustment material. No worries, as the best Gold farms also unlock after Hard Mode.

3) Do all the missions in Hard Mode

The First Descendant's mission structure is so repetitive that it represents the worst of Korean live-service games in this aspect. Get ready for a pain train, as you'll have to do it all over again. Beating missions in Hard Mode for the first time gives you a spoonful of Mastery XP, but this is not the only reason to do it.

Hard Mode is where all the lvl 100 weapons drop, and where you can really test out all the purples to find for yourself which weapons you should mod.

4) Clear out the Hard Mode Intercept bosses

The devs should nerf this boss (Image via Nexon)

The ultimate endgame for The First Descendant is the Hard Mode Void Intercept battles. These are the bona fide DPS checks of the campaign in the Normal Mode, and the new Hard Mode bosses act as the same parameter for the end-game.

These fights are where the game truly shines, so this is not a race you'll want to miss. Once you get a good bossing build going, they can also be the fastest way to open Amorphous Material Patterns for specific components, as well as the only drop source of some red mods.

5) Don't sleep on Normal Mode content

Certain Descendant components directly drop from Normal Mode (Image via Nexon)

The finish line is a loop back to where you started. The First Descendant is all about crafting and flexing new equipment, and this doesn't change after Hard Mode. However, a lot of AMPs and component drops remain locked behind Normal Mode variants of missions and Infiltrations.

These are the occasions to kick back and use your less savory B-tier Descendants, or worse, as the trip back home is a cakewalk.

Check out our other guides on The First Descendant:

Edited by Ritoban "Veloxi" Paul