The First Descendant: How to Increase Your DPS

Discover tips and tricks to increase your damage per second (DPS) in the First Descendant by selecting the best mods, weapons, and traits for your build.

How to Increase Your DPS in the First Descendant

The best way to increase your DPS in the First Descendant is by using the weapon and Descendant mod combination that increases Firearm ATk and SKill Power, respectively. Additionally, you’ll want to increase your Fire Rate, Critical Damage, and Critical Hit chance with weapons via mods. Readjustments can enhance weapons, select the proper traits like Firearm ATK, and expand the module capacity. Descendants can also increase module capacity and module effectiveness. Here’s a list of 10 ways you can increase your DPS in the First Descendant:

1. Base Stats – select weapons with high base stats like Firearm ATK, critical hit damage, and critical hit rate.
2. Weapon Mods – use Rifling Reinforcement and Fire Rate UP as your main source of DPS increase.
3. Weapon Trait – readjust weapons at the workbench and look for ultimate quality Firearm ATK.
4. Expand Weapon Capacity – use Energy Activator on your best Descendant and Weapon to expand capacity.
5. Add Socket – reset level with Catalyst to add an icon to your mod bar.
6. Elemental Damage – equip an elemental mod against enemies’ weaknesses like chill, toxic, and electric.
7. Adjust Traits – save mats and re-roll on all four traits to gain ultimate quality and optional traits.
8. Descendant Mods – use Emergency Measures and Technician as your primary mods for increased damage.
9. Max Levels – reach the max level of 40 with Descendants and weapon proficiency.
10. Weapon Combination – carrying different weapon types and ranges with ammunition to handle any situation.

How to Increase DPS with Weapons

Rifling Reinforcement, Fire Rate UP, and Action and Reaction mods are the best way to increase your DPS with weapons in the First Descendant.  The calculation for weapon damage is based on your base weapon damage (Firearm ATK), fire rate, elemental damage (chill, toxic, etc.), critical hit chance, and critical hit damage.  You can double or triple your Damage Per Second (DPS) with only three mods. 

Additionally, you’ll want to increase critical hit chance and damage with Better Concentration and Better Insight.  Weak Point Insight is a powerful mod mainly used for boss fights. It isn’t shown directly on your tooltip but adds weak point damage when landing those attacks.  The final piece to the weapon DPS puzzle is adding an elemental damage component like Chill, Toxic, Electric, or Fire Enhancement mod.  These mods are contextual and should be changed depending on your boss or enemy encounters. 

For Elemental weapon mods, each bullet that lands will deal damage based on your overall Firearm ATK.  Therefore, your primary objective is to increase base Firearm ATK as much as possible to add passive damage with elemental mods. Below is a list of the best mods to increase your DPS in the First Descendant:

• Rifling Reinforcement – Firearm ATK +12%.
• Fire Rate UP – Fire Rate +6%.
• Action and Reaction – Firearm ATK +15%, Recoil +5%.
• Better Concentration – Firearm Critical Hit Damage 8%.
• Better Insight – Firearm Critical Hit Chance 8%.
• Weak Point Insight – Weak Point Damage +8%, Firearm Critical Hit Rate +1.5%
• Chill Enhancement (Toxic, Electric, Fire) – Adds Chill ATK equal to 8% of Firearm ATK.

Exponential Mod Growth

Mods in the First Descendant are increased exponentially rather than reach diminishing returns. This means the lower-level mod upgrades will have weaker increases than higher-level upgrades.  Therefore, when you upgrade the Shield mod from level 1 to 2, you only gain a 6.4% increase.  However, level 5 to 6 upgrades result in a 15.1% increase.  Therefore, using your mod capacity for 3-5 mods is more important than slotting the maximum number to increase overall power.

Adding Catalyst & Energy Activators

Module Capacity becomes an important factor in increasing DPS using the Crystallization Catalyst.  These Catalyst allow you to reset your weapon or Descendant and add a mod socket on your module bar.  The Mod Socket (Malachite, Cerulean, Almandine, etc.) lowers the mod cost by half.  Therefore, a maxed-out Action and Reaction mod, adding a 61% increase to Firearm ATK, costs 8 module energy rather than 16!  This is how you add a massive amount of module capacity and further push your DPS limits by reducing the cost of each mod.

The second way to add maximum capacity is through Energy Activators. You gain two by completing the main campaign, and using this on your primary Descendant and weapon is recommended.  Most players select Bunny and the Thunder Cage because she’s so useful for leveling and clearing content.  The Energy Activators grant you 30 extra mod capacity, and with max weapon proficiency, you have 80 mod capacity possible. 

End Game Weapon DPS Grind

The best way to increase your Weapon DPS is by leveling your weapon proficiency to 40 and resetting your level with Crystallization Catalyst.  Adding a socket for any missing mods on your weapon to reduce your capacity. The priority order for adding Catalyst Sockets is as follows:

• Malachite (Rifling Reinforcement)
• Xantic (Fire Rate UP)
• Malachite (Action and Reaction)
• Almandine (Better Concentration)
• Cerulean (Chill Enhancement)
• Almandine (Better Insight)
• Malachite (Weak Point Insight)

This is a general suggestion and will change from weapon to weapon.  However, the above gives you an idea of what to aim for and why.  The next way to increase your First Descendant DPS is through weapon traits, and let’s explain that.

Unique Weapon Characteristics (Traits)

Look at readjusting your weapons to add Firearm ATK, elemental damage, critical hit chance, and critical hit damage.  Specifically, the Firearm ATK trait and ultimate (gold) quality are your primary goals for most weapons.  This increases the base damage by a percentage, thus adding to your overall damage before other calculations like mods are added.

Use the Workbench station and select the weapon readjustment option. Rare Firearms use Adjustment Control Axis while Ultimate weapons use Fine Adjustment Control Axis.  Therefore, its much easier to optimize a rare weapon vs. a ultimate weapon due to materials needed.  

Weak point damage, status effect chance, and bonus damage vs. Colossus are also powerful traits depending on the weapons.

Base Stats

Each weapon has a set of base stats that determine how you can properly mod and increase the weapon’s damage in the First Descendant.  If we compare the Caligo’s Horn Assault Rifle with the Immediate Execution Hand Cannon using the F1 command on PC, the difference is shocking. The base critical hit rate (chance) of Caligo’s is 9%, while Immediate Execution is 23%. Both weapons do not have mods. Therefore, you would not build into critical hit damage or chance with Cailgo’s because the base stats are so low.

• Some other important weapon specs to consider when trying to increase your DPS in the First Descendant:
• Firearm ATK: Base damage is the most important.
• Fire Rate: calculated with Firearm ATK.
• Attribute Status Effect Trigger Rate: important when using elemental mods (chill, toxic, etc).
• Weak Point Damage: headshots and boss multiplier.
• Effective Range Drop Off: the distance at which you start receiving a damage penalty.
• Movement Speed: bonus for the weight of the weapon.

Not all weapons are created equal in the First Descendant due to their base stats. This is helpful when determining if a weapon is good or not.  Moreover, burst-type weapons, such as sniper rifles, hand cannons, etc., will focus more on single-shot damage vs. sustained rate of fire increases.  So, don’t expect every weapon to follow the same pattern.  Moreover, you can use Launchers with high-status effects and multiple elemental mods to exponentially increase their damage and AOE.

How to Increase DPS with Descendants

Emergency Measures, Front Lines, and Technician mods are the best way to increase your Descendants DPS.  Emergency Measures and Front Lines add skill, critical hit rate, and damage, and they can stack together radically, increasing your burst damage.  Technician is a standard mod that increases the skill power modifier, strengthening all your skills.  Lastly, you can add Skill Insight and Skill Concentration to push your critical even higher or forgo them to increase survivability with DEF and HP mods.  Below is a list of the best mods to increase your DPS in the First Descendant:

• Emergency Measures – Skill Critical Hit Rate +16%, Skill Critical Hit Damage +7%.
• Front Lines – Skill Critical Hit Damage +16%, Skill Critical Hit Rate +7%.
• Technician – Skill Power Modifier +13%.
• Skill Insight – Skill Critical Hit Rate +14%.
• Skill Concentration – Skill Critical Hit Damage +14%
• Tech Master (Descendant Attribute) – skill power +12%, Tech Skill Power Modifier +6%.
• Spear and Shield – DEF +22%, Skill Power +8.1%.
• Time Distribution – Skill Cooldown -4%, Max HP +13%.
• Battle of Stamina – Max HP +12%, Skill Duration +8.8%.

The strength of Spear and Shield, Time Distribution, and Battle of Stamina is they increase skill effectiveness alongside max HP and DEF. Thus, you gain survivability and Descendant Strength all in one.

End Game Descendant DPS Grind

You can increase your Descendant DPS further by leveling your character to 40 and resetting your level with Crystallization Catalyst.  Adding a socket for any missing mods on your weapon to reduce your capacity. The priority order for adding Catalyst Sockets is as follows:

1. Almandine (Emergency Measures)
2. Malachite (Technician)
3. Almandine (Tech Master or Element)
4. Rutile (Spear and Shield)
5. Cerulean (Battle of Stamina)
6. Almandine (Front Lines)
7. Rutile (Increase DEF)
8. Cerulean (Increase HP)

This is a general suggestion and will change from Descendant to Descendant based on your attributes (Fire, Non-attribute, Chill, Toxic, etc.).  However, the above gives you an idea of what to aim for and why. 

End Gameplay Loop

The general end-game play loop revolves around beating bosses in Void Intercept battles and becoming more powerful through mod capacity.  Once you have a go-to Descendant and weapon combination, your goal is to expand the weapons and Descendant module capacity via Catalyst. Then, you want to grind and power level them to max level, reset, and repeat.  This will increase your DPS and Survivability simulations while increasing mods power.  Below is a general progression outline for the First Descendant:

• Select Descendant – all three starting classes are good.
• Beat Campaign – this involves Void Intercept boss fights to progress to new zones.
• Expand Mod Capacity – Pick your favorite Descendant and Gun and use Energy Activators to expand mod capacity.
• Reach Max Level – reach max level and proficiency with selected character and weapons.
• Reset Level – use a Catalyst to reset your level of your guns and Descendants and lower your module capacity.
• Bosses – continue to progress through Void Intercept Battles on Hard Mode and collect External Component Set bonuses.
• Min-Max – optimize your weapons further with the best traits and Transcendent modes for Descendants.
• Maximize – Add all Module sockets, and increase your best in slot mods for weapons and Descendants.
• Beat Bosses – beat all the bosses in the game and repeat the process on new characters.

Tips and Tricks on How to Increase DPS in the First Descendant

Below is a list of general tips and tricks to increase your DPS in the First Descendant:

1. Weapon Mods – Use the three most impactful Rifling Reinforcement, Fire Rate UP and Action and Reaction.
2. Descendant Mods – Slot the three strongest Emergency Measures, Front Lines, and Technician.
3. Party Size – Fight Void Intercept Battles as duo for optimal damage and stats, with four players being mathematically the hardest.
4. Elemental Damage – Add elemental damage to your weapon traits or mods section with high Firearm ATK for increased DPS.
5. Targeted Elements – check both the map and the Void Intercept battles splash screen for weakness and resistances and adjust your Descendants loadout pre-battle.
6. Tooltips UI – turn show status effects to all in the options, gameplay, Damage Display Option.
7. Base Stats – crit, damage
8. Drop Off Range – visually become of aware of when your weapon starts to drop off in damage and stay in range or swap weapons.
9. Weapon Traits – reroll traits to Firearm ATK and elemental damage for optimal build.
10. Grinding XP – use the Echo Swamp Albion resource Defense special operation to power level Descendants and Weapon Proficiency.

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