The First Descendant Season 1 patch notes: New Descendant, Invasion storyline & new ultimate weapons

The First Descendant Season 1 coverNexon Games

The First Descendant Season 1 is almost here and it will bring a new Descendant and more story content to the game. Here are the full patch notes.

The first big update, Season 1 for The First Descendant is nearly here, as the free-to-play looter-shooter will receive a plethora of new content on August 29 when it reaches all platforms. Over the last few months, players have worked hard to acquire Ultimate Descendants and weaponry that will help them fight tougher enemies and capture rare loot.

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Along with the Invasion events, the update “Invasion” includes New Descendant Hailey, Ultimate Freyna, Ultimate Weapons, new Intercept Battle Death Stalker, and a season-exclusive advancement mechanism called Inversion Reinforcement.

If you’re looking for all the content that’s coming, we’ve got you covered right here with complete patch notes.

The First Descendant Season 1 full patch notes

Karel’s new weapon

Karel has prepared a new tactical weapon for revenge. This tactical weapon, forged from the Ancestors’ technology discovered by Amon, is the Vulgus legion’s new strategy against the Descendants.

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Invasion Dungeons in The First DescendantNexon Games
The new Invasion Dungeons will put your skills and wits to the test.

When the Invasion Season begins, the Invasion event will occur daily in two of the “Hard Infiltration Operation” dungeons. In the dungeon where the invasion has begun, you can start by selecting either “Infiltration Operation” or “Invasion”, and the Invasion event can be cleared twice per day for each dungeon.

Invasion Dungeons will put your skills and wits to the test. To hold back the Descendants, Karel has built a defense system with different mechanisms for each legion. These dungeons are solo challenges that feature different routes, puzzles, and strategies from the normal dungeons, where your objective is to fend off the invasion as quickly as possible.

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New Descendant, Hailey Scott

Once a guerilla unit supply soldier who gained fame as a legendary sniper, Hailey is now the newest member of the Descendant Corps. Not only can she take out enemies from a distance with her anti-materiel Sniper Cannon, she can also rapidly decrease her body temperature to spew Chill when emotions run high.

Hailey in The First DescendantNexon Games
Hailey is the newest Descendant in the game wielding a powerful sniper rifle.

While Hailey is an admirer of Viessa who can manipulate Chill at will, and is a cold-blooded sniper on the battlefield, she’s also a warm-hearted hero who loves to make snow crystals and bring smiles to children’s faces. Here are all her attacks and abilities:

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  • Cryo Round: Instantly fires a Cryo Round that automatically tracks the enemy, deals damage and inflicts ‘Cryo’ which deals Additional Damage along with Hailey’s Firearm Damage.
  • Storm Snare: Fires a Freezing Beam that unleashes a Chill Vortex around you and knocks back enemies. Inflicts ‘Cryo’ on enemies that take Damage.
  • Cold Fury: Hailey’s Movement Speed gradually decreases, but her Firearm and Skill Critical Hit Rate, and Firearm Penetration all increase significantly.
  • Zenith: Replaces Hailey’s weapon with her Unique Weapon, anti-material Sniper Cannon. Penetration of the anti-material Sniper Cannon and Firearm ATK greatly increase and deal additional Chill skill damage. Recovers MP upon successfully attacking Weak Points and decreases the Cooldown the more Bullets you have remaining when the skill ends.

Inversion Reinforcer for Season Progression

Descendants experienced a change in their Arche as they’ve come into contact with Ironhearts multiple times. Their Arche began to draw energy from a destroyed Ironheart. Embracing this energy as a source of strength, the Descendants can now gain new abilities through the Inversion Reinforcers.

  • Hunt: Improves the Descendant’s basic Stats.
  • Attribute: Improves the Descendant’s Attribute Resistance.
  • Recovery: Improves the Descendant’s Recovery.
  • Survival: Receives a defense buff that activates under certain conditions.
  • Season: Receives an effect that is useful for Invasion Dungeons.

Inversion Reinforcement is a progression system that only lasts for the season. You can learn the Inversion Reinforcement Effect using the “Ironheart Particle,” which can be earned by clearing Invasion dungeons or being active in the Hard Difficulty Fields. You can choose three of the effects that have been unlocked.

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When you unlock all four of the effects in a line, you automatically acquire that line’s Collection Effect. Collection Effects are passive effects that are always applied during the season. This means that if you unlock all Inversion Reinforcement effects, you can utilize 3 Selected Effects and 5 Collection Effects from each line in battle.

Freyna in The First Descendant Season 1Nexon
A new storyline for Freyna will be introduced and Ultimate Freyna will be available.

Freyna’s Awakening, Ultimate Freyna

Still trapped in the day of the Room 0 Incident, Freyna’s trauma has stopped her time. In Season 1, we follow the story of Freyna who continues to grieve alone. In this Descendant-exclusive story, you’ll explore the inner mind of a crestfallen hero, who is trapped in guilt and self-hatred for surviving alone after failing to save her love and comrades.

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Will she be able to overcome her trauma? You will then get to meet Ultimate Freyna, who broke through her limits. There are also exclusive Modification Modules for her.

Future Ultimate Descendants will be added with the seasonal updates and as the Descendants’ stories and The First Descendant’s lore expands. After Season 1 Ultimate Freyna, the next update to the Ultimate Descendants will launch sequentially, starting with the initial Descendants to join Corps.

New Ultimate Weapons

The First Descendant New Ultimate Weapons in Season 1Nexon Games
Upcoming Excava Ultimate Weapon in Season 1.

Excava: A powerful and versatile Ultimate Weapon, this Assault Rifle arrives with this update. Also acquirable as a free Battle Pass reward, Excava charges voltage when attacking enemies and uses the charged voltage to fire Energy Grenades.

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Frost Watcher: Acquirable through gameplay, this Scout Rifle reduces an enemy’s Chill Resistance and increases your Chill Skill Damage each time you hit the enemy at long range. It’s a perfect weapon for Viessa or Hailey who use Chill attribute skills.

The Looming Threat Over Ingris, Death Stalker Intercept Battle

The Colossi still threaten Ingris from behind the Dimensional Wall, and it’s time to meet the most powerful Colossus of Season 1, Death Stalker.

Death Stalker emerges from the darkness and unleashes attacks based on poison and fear. Stalking the Descendants in the darkness of the Void, Death Stalker is more formidable than any other Colossus you’ve intercepted. You must jump back into the Void to protect Ingris from this menace. Solve the mystery shrouded in the dark and intercept Death Stalker.

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Highest Difficulty Infiltration Operation and ETA-0

In Season 1, the highest Difficulty of the Infiltration Operations will be added. It’s a proving ground to test and polish your optimized builds. Form a team or challenge yourself to more difficult Infiltration Operations in Public Matchmaking. Prove the strength of the Descendants and acquire loot that can only be obtained in more difficult Infiltration Operations.

Along with this, a mysterious merchant, ETA-0, visits Albion. Every time he visits, he shows up with a variety of products that can be purchased with exclusive currency. With each visit he brings different products. Since he visits Albion with Blueprints for Descendants and Ultimate Weapons, and occasionally hard-to-find consumables, don’t miss out on visiting ETA-0.

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Season 1: Invasion Update Schedule

All content will be updated sequentially during the Invasion Season.

The First Descendant Invasion roadmap newNexon Games
The Season 1 roadmap will feature two updates this year.

Additional Improvements Applied to Season 1

Finally, here’s the news on the improvements that will be applied with Season 1 on August 29th.

Void Fragment and Fusion Reactor Loop Improvements

It has been improved so that playing Void Fragments once on Hard Difficulty now grants enough Void Shards to use the Fusion Reactor once. Consequently, the amount of Void Shards rewarded in Special Operations has also been increased. Additionally, Void Shards required for the Fusion Reactor have been consolidated into a single type.

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Now, the same type of Void Shards will drop from both Void Fragments and the Fusion Reactor within the same battlefield. This change enhances the convenience of farming Void Shards and optimizes the monster placement for representative Void Fragments of each attribute.

Finally, the Fusion Reactor now requires Void Shards when using the Reconstructed Device, rather than at the start of the mission. This adjustment ensures that Void Shards are not consumed if you accidentally enter the Fusion Reactor.

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Hard Infiltration Operation Improvements

As previously announced, random options will be replaced with preset selections. The presets offer three options: 0%, 125%, and 250%, and Descendants who choose the same preset can play together in Public matchmaking.

In addition, to prevent the number of types of matchmaking pool from growing indiscriminately, Descendants who select the same Infiltration Operation will now be matched together, regardless of their selected rewards. Instead, the global effects that were applied based on the selected rewards will be removed.

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Lastly, the timed Occupation Mission will be removed from Hard Infiltration Operations and replaced with the Extermination Battle, where the time can be reduced based on the Descendant’s skill.

Socket Type Saving Feature Improvements

Now, once you assign a Socket Type, the Socket Type granted to that slot is permanently saved, so you can easily change it to the previously granted Socket Type at any time. For example, if a Descendant changes an Almandine Socket to a Malachite Socket, you can easily choose between Almandine and Malachite in that Socket afterward.

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Additionally, the Socket Type applied to Loadout Setting 1 can also be used for Settings 2 and 3 as well, allowing you to grant multiple Socket Types only to the slots that require multiple Socket Types depending on your builds.

Descendant Balance Adjustments

Jayber’s Turret has been improved to apply stats such as Skill Power Modifier and additional ATK and will be able to be enhanced by Descendant Modules. Additionally, Jayber’s “Turret Sync” skill has been adjusted to apply to the Turret Jayber has summoned and if the “Turret Engineering” Modification Module is equipped, the summoned Turret has been improved to create an area.

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Blair’s “Pitmaster” skill has been improved to have a more enhanced effect based on the number of Flame Zones. The duration of the “Blaze Up” skill has been increased, and the MP cost has been reduced. When using the “Extinguish” skill, the “Flame Zone” will no longer be retrieved, instead, the “Taste of Aggression” effect will stack based on the number of “Flame Zones”.

The damage of the “Burn Taste” skill has been increased, and a skill button input feature has been added to allow canceling the skill mid-use. Additionally, the Max Stacks of the “Incendiary Bomb” Modification Module have been increased, and the performance of the “Deadly Cuisine” skill has been enhanced when the “Classic Chef” Modification Module is equipped.

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Ajax’s “Orbital Barrier” and “Hyper Cube” skills are now affected by Attribute Resistance, making them stronger. The “Body Enhancement” Modification Module increases HP, DEF, and Shield and when using these skills Void Energy will always recover to 100%, allowing the use of Enhanced Skills more often.

Additionally, the “Void Charge” Modification Module will allow the “Void Walk” skill to be stacked and the “Void Walk” and “Expulsion” skills have been modified to increase Damage based on DEF. When using an Enhanced Skill, the Cooldown will now reset.

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Various UX Improvements

First, a feature to designate random options has been added to the External Components Junk Filter and Reactor. This allows you to conveniently designate items that don’t have the needed random options as Junk. Additionally, dismantling items in combat is now available.

The shapes displayed to show your preferred item attachments can now be designated using a variety of shapes, enabling you to manage them with different shapes according to their uses.

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A Favorites feature has been added to the Research menu and the acquisition information of the applied item will now be shown on the map.

Other updates include additional improvements to the icon information display that was included in version 1.0.7, a feature to disable voice playback during Hard Missions, the addition of visual information to the Encrypted Vault, and various other improvements.

That’s all the content coming to The First Descendant Season 1 when it comes out. Until then, check out our character tier list to see which descendants should be your pick to battle the Invasion.

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