What you need to know
- Nexon has dropped the final big update for The First Descendant before its first full season begins in August with patch 1.0.5.
- It's the game's largest update so far, with a massive changelog detailing all the new content, quality-of-life improvements, and bug fixes.
- The headline acts are Ultimate Valby and Luna joining the Descendants roster, a new Hard Void Intercept boss, Gluttony, and the new Ultimate tier weapon, Peace Maker.
- The extensive patch notes also add further proof Nexon is listening to its players, with positive changes made to the Thunder Cage to fix a bug (instead of nerfing it) and promises they're continuing to consider drop rates and making sure players don't get overly frustrated.
Happy Luna and Ultimate Valby day to all who celebrate! Today is the day Nexon pushes out its first new content update to The First Descendant since launch, and the last expected big patch before Season 1 Episode: Invasion.
The patch, falling under version 1.0.5, comes with an update to download which was just shy of 7GB on the Xbox Series X for me, so it's not as sizeable as some previous ones have been. The patch notes, however, considerably outclass any update that has come before. Nexon released a new trailer showcasing some of the new Descendants and other gameplay features, but there's enough in this update to make Alpha cry tears of joy.
Let's start with the latest Ultimate Descendant, and it's everyone's favorite semi-liquid human, Valby. Ultimate Valby will boast increased defensive stats compared to her non-Ultimate variant, and will also be able to equip two new exclusive modules. One will replace her unpredictable Bubble Bullet with a powerful Spiral Tidal Wave, while the other will make her "Plop Plop" ability do devastating damage on impact rather than focusing on lasting area-of-effect.
Otherwise, Ultimate Valby is the same as regular Valby, except she has access to exclusive cosmetics, of course. Yes, that includes the... Rather revealing outfit we've seen in teasers up until her release.
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Of course, there's also an entirely new Descendant with Luna! We had a brief interaction with this quirky hero during the campaign, and she's now available to add to your roster for a price (or for free, if you're willing to farm the materials).
She comes with a slate of audio-themed skills that all sound pretty interesting, and is designed to fill a support role for her team.
- (Passive Skill) Improvisation: Using any skill increases Inspiration Gauge, which allows Luna to use Enhanced Skills.
- (Active Skill 1) Stage Presence: Using the skill changes Luna's weapon to her Unique Weapon. Performing the notes in time to the music by using skills or hitting monsters stacks and increases her Skill Power Modifier.
- (Active Skill 2) Passionate Stage: Using the skill makes Luna play upbeat music, increasing the Skill Power Modifier of Luna and her allies. Gaining the Enhanced Effect increases the Skill Power Modifier even more and also increases the Skill Critical Hit Rate and damage of allies.
- (Active Skill 3) Relaxing Act: Using the skill makes Luna play relaxing music. Hitting the enemy with a note grants an effect that instantly recovers the MP of Luna and her allies. Gaining the Enhanced Effect increases MP Recovery, and reduces Skill Cost.
- (Active Skill 4) Delightful Stage: Using the skill makes Luna play delightful music. Hitting the enemy with a note increases Inspiration Gauge and decreases the skill cooldown of allies. Gaining the Enhanced Effect increases the Inspiration Gauge even more and immediately resets the cooldown of allies.
• Cross-save & cross-play guide
• Find & open Encrypted Vaults
• Useful interactive maps
• Getting Lv 100 gear & weapons
• Faster Battle Pass progression
In the same audio theme, Luna also has two new Transcendent modules to equip, one of which makes her faster, and one of which makes her hit hard with AoE damage.
Once you've acquired Luna, the first thing to do is get her up to level 40, and you can follow our guide on quickly leveling up new characters in The First Descendant to help you on your way.
With the arrival of two new Descendants, and a new weapon, some of the existing Amorphous Material patterns can no longer be acquired, and have been replaced with "AA" versions. They're supposed to still be available from the same locations, and any you already have can still be unlocked.
These new "AA" versions replace some of the original obtainable materials with new components for Ultimate Valby and Luna, allowing players to farm for the new Descendants entirely in game. The new Amorphous Material versions will be available at the same locations as the old versions.
We also get the Peace Maker, a powerful Unique Hand Cannon that rewards players with more powerful shots when using Dimension-type Descendant skills in succession. Players can obtain parts for researching the Peace Maker by taking on Gluttony, a new Hard Void Intercept Battle that'll test players skills to work together and avoid its icy cooling system.
New Descendants, new Colossi bosses, new weapons, and new modules are all well and good, but what really stands out about this update (and about The First Descendant in general, so far), is the further proof that Nexon is actually listening to players and genuinely trying to make the game as enjoyable as possible.
Take this note on a bug with the Thunder Cage as an example:
"During internal testing, we discovered a bug with Thunder Cage. Thunder Cage should always deal 1.33x damage according to its description, but it was dealing more than 1.33x damage when there were a lot of monsters. We fixed this bug, but we also boosted the 1.33x damage to 2x so that it doesn't become less efficient when hunting. We're well aware that the value of items you own is important to you. To ensure that fixing the bug doesn't devalue your items, we've given it more power than we originally intended. If something like this happens again in the future, we won't stop at simply fixing the bug but consider how to preserve the value of your items to provide a reasonable patch."
You can't see, but I'm clapping really hard right now. This is how you fix a bug — you resolve the issue, but also preserve the experience players expect. There's a lot more here, too, including many direct responses to some of the requests I made on how Nexon can improve The First Descendant in the future.
Players have expressed that reward drop rates can be frustrating, and I noted how that frustration only builds over time and how players need to be rewarded for committing to a grind. In patch 1.05, Nexon states:
"While all of our drop rate systems are operating fairly in The First Descendant, we do understand that some players are struggling with the vagaries of drop rate. To address this, we're planning to introduce a new system where you can more easily get the item you want after repeating the activity a certain number of times."
Players who have also grinded for materials are intimately familiar with the surplus of unwanted materials that take up inventory space, like additional components for Descendants you already own. I also remarked how The First Descendant needs a way to offload these materials while also rewarding players for their time, and Nexon says this in the 1.05 patch notes:
"We've been listening to the community, who have told us that there needs to be a way to dispose of these unwanted items. While we could consider simply converting them into some Gold or Kuiper, we want to reward you with more value for the time you have put into the game. To resolve this, the Dev Team is planning a system to dismantle leftover items to get byproducts, and a rotating shop system where you can exchange the byproducts for something of value. This will allow the items you obtained to have a greater value in the game."
There's so much good stuff here, like future plans to make it easier for players to experiment with more builds and commitments to keeping balancing changes fun and fair for players. It's all great to see, and makes me excited for the future of The First Descendant. Of course, everything in this section here is coming in future updates, but there's a lot in the 1.05 patch, too.
Here's just a few of the other positive changes Nexon has made in The First Descendant 1.05. If you want to peruse the full (very long list), you can check out the complete changelog on The First Descendant website.
- There's a ton of new cosmetics in the Shop, including new Summer-themed outfits and exclusive cosmetics for Ultimate Valby and Luna.
- The interface has been improved in a ton of ways to make various acts like accessing the Asset Info Library, navigating the map, configuring loadouts and organizing your inventory, enhancing, dismantling, or combining Modules, and many more actions smoother and less time consuming.
- Freyna, Valby, and Blair have received minor buffs to increase the radius or max radius of some of their skills, and Viessa's Ultimate "Glacial Cloud" ability is now activated instantly. Several Ultimate Weapons have received buffs, too.
- Encrypted Vaults now have a 100% chance of spawning in Agna Desert, Vespers, Echo Swamp, White-night Gulch, Hagios, and Fortress fields.
- AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3.1 is now available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, which should improve overall performance and slightly increase average resolution.
- Void Shards dropping in special operations have been increased by around 7 times, making it significantly easier to farm for Void Shards. Nexon is also looking into changing how Void Fusion Reactors are activated, considering making Void Shards only necessary if you actually use the material reactor.
- There are a ton of other quality-of-life improvements on top of a long list of bug fixes, like being able to make single-shot or burst fire weapons continue firing when you hold down the trigger and much more.
Yeah, it's a lot, and I didn't even cover it all. The servers went down from Midnight to 5:00 a.m. PT, but should be back up now. Nexon is still investigating potential issues with the update, though, including advising players that monster spawns may be lowered in the Fortress Outskirts.
How do you feel about this monstrous patch update for The First Descendant, though? I feel that it has properly cemented TFD as one of the best Xbox games for looter shooter fans and helps set the game up for a very long and healthy future, but I'm interested to hear your thoughts as well.
