The First Descendant’s biggest update ever brings a ton of new content and enough improvements to make Alpha cry tears of joy

Ultimate Valby and Luna have joined the Descendant roster, Gluttony has entered the battlefield, and Nexon has implemented a TON of great changes.

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What you need to know

Happy Luna and Ultimate Valby day to all who celebrate! Today is the day Nexon pushes out its first new content update toThe First Descendantsince launch, and the last expected big patch beforeSeason 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.

July 31, 2024 —Updated with a ton of additional information, images and trailers, and links.

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.

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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.

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Once you’ve acquired Luna, the first thing to do is get her up to level 40, and you can follow our guide onquickly leveling up new characters in The First Descendantto 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 (andabout 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 alotmore  here, too, including many direct responses tosome 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.”

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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 infutureupdates, 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 onThe First Descendant website.

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 thebest Xbox gamesfor 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.

The First Descendant —Free to play at Steam (PC)|Microsoft Store (Xbox)

Explore a sci-fi world pitting the remnants of humanity against the terrifying might of the Vulgus and the mysterious Colossi. Refine your abilities with over a dozen powerful, diverse characters in this free-to-play, MMORPG looter shooter.

Richard Devine is a Managing Editor at Windows Central with over a decade of experience. A former Project Manager and long-term tech addict, he joined Mobile Nations in 2011 and has been found on Android Central and iMore as well as Windows Central. Currently, you’ll find him steering the site’s coverage of all manner of PC hardware and reviews. Find him on Mastodon atmstdn.social/@richdevine