How to unlock The First Descendant Hard Mode

Hard Mode in The First Descendant is a world difficulty that increases both the challenge and rewards for playing the game. However, it's not an option from the start, with hard difficulty instead having to be something that players unlock through fulfilling certain conditions in The Descendant - but what are they? And what's even the benefits of hard mode, beyond extra challenge?

How to unlock Hard Mode in The First Descendant

Hard Mode in The First Descendant only unlocks when you've completed all zone missions and the main quest on normal difficulty first (normal being the default and only option available prior to that point).

After fulfilling this criteria, you can switch to Hard Mode by going to the World Map and pressing Start to open the difficulty options. Then, after picking Hard Mode, Fast Travel to a new outpost to switch to that challenge rating.

What are the differences in Hard mode?

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Hard Mode in The First Descendant obviously increases the difficulty and power of enemies you go up against, but also tends to give them modifiers that impact gameplay, dictated by region, pushing players to consider these - enemies may have a high resistance to venom, for example.

However, there are greater rewards in Hard Mode: higher quantities of resources dropped, making it ideal if you're doing The First Descendant Kuiper Shard farm, as well as introducing new, unique rewards for encounters like the Void Intercept Battles that can't be obtained on Normal difficulty.

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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.