Season 3 of 'The First Descendant' is Coming. Here's How to Prepare
The First Descendant, the looter shooter from NEXON Games, is about to drop its biggest update to date and you only have a short time to prepare.
The First Descendant's Season 3 update is named "Breakthrough" and will be releasing on Aug. 7. It introduces several new things, along with bug fixes and content improvements.
The new update features a massive new location on the world map called "Axion Plains," a hover bike, an eight-player Colossus Field Raid, a new Descendant named Nell and the NieR: Automata crossover, which includes some new skins.
If you've been away from the game for awhile and are looking to get back in for the new season, there are some things you should do to prepare for "Axion Plains," which is supposed to be more difficult than other areas.
How to Prepare
Power up your mods
Powering up your Descendant and firearm modules are one of the most important steps to maximizing your stats.
If you haven't done so already, you'll want to apply an Energy Activator to your Descendant and most-used firearms to increase the overall module capacity for them by 30.
Then, use Crystallization Catalysts on each module slot to match the socket type of the mod to cut the capacity cost in half, which in turn allows you to fully enhance each equipped module.
Each time you use a Crystallization Catalyst, you have to re-level your Descendant to 40, and the same goes for your weapon proficiency.
Utilizing both XP and weapon proficiency boosts and farming the Special Operation "Albion Resource Defense" mission on easy greatly speed up this process. Rinse and repeat until you've maxed out your mods.
You can check out this helpful guide from NEXON for more information about powering up your modules.
Arche Tuning
Arche Tuning was introduced in Season 2 and offers players a skill tree to increase several different attributes, including skill power, max HP, firearm attack and much more. Arche Tuning is unlocked by completing the "Into the Storm" main quest.
Arche Tuning points can be obtained by completing Sigma Sector Dropoff Operations from the world map, which give Unique Arche Factor XP and help you increase your Arche level, which goes to a max of 40. Every level-up grants you one Arche Tuning point to use on your skill tree.
Both Sigma Sector missions offer a daily additional reward of 4,000 Arche XP once per day, and each additional clear gives 1,500. To help speed up the process, you might want to farm "The Isolated Desert" mission, as that's typically the faster of the two to complete.
Game Rant has a good guide to help you better understand Arche Tuning.
Augmentation Cores
Also introduced in Season 2, Augmentation Cores are yet another way for you to increase your power. The feature is unlocked after hitting Mastery Level 18, which can be done by leveling up different Descendants (first time only) and weapon proficiency, and completing missions.
The Augmentation Cores are applied to your weapons and offer increases in several stats, including firepower, attributes (chill attack, fire attack, etc.), weak point and critical hit damage, and much more.
AlcastHQ offers a pretty solid guide to get you started.
Other Tips
Don't forget, you're able to enhance your reactor, external components and unique weapon abilities. You may also want to farm Crystallization Catalysts if you're interested in the new Descendant, Nell.