How to level up weapons in The First Descendant

(Image credit: Nexon)

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How to level up weapons
Where to get Phase Exchangers

If you don't know how to level up weapons in The First Descendant, then fortunately the process isn't difficult, just perhaps a bit overthought compared to many games, requiring the character Anais, items called Phase Exchangers, and more besides. Because of this complexity and the confusion that many have around levelling up weapons and guns in The First Descendant, I've outlined the process below for you, so you don't have to throw your favourite weapons away when they're underleveled.

How to level up a weapon in The First Descendant

The First Descendant repair station workbench — (Image credit: Nexon)

Leveling up weapons in The First Descendant can be done at the repair station workbench you can see above. However, you'll also need to find Anais, the magister in charge of research to make a crucial item. You can find them both in Albion, marked on the map here:

You can also find workbenches at outposts when you teleport into other areas.

When you access a workbench you'll see the option for 'Weapon Level Transmission', which is how you level up your guns. To do that you'll need three things:

A gun you want to level up
A higher level gun you don't mind losing
Phase Exchangers

Essentially, the process of levelling up a gun feeds it a higher level weapon which boosts its stats. To do that you first select the target weapon you want to level up, which will then show you the higher level guns you can sacrifice to do it.

You can select all the options on the left and see the effects they will have on the right, to pick the best. However, chances are the level banding of loot drops will mean you'll only actually see one or two effects:

If you like the numbers, hit the weapon level transmision button and you'll make the change permanent - losing the higher level gun but transferring its stats into the chosen weapon:

Where to get Phase Exchangers in The First Descendant

The First Descendant Phase Exchangers — (Image credit: Nexon)

The First Descendant guides

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The First Descendant best characters
The First Descendant Void Fragments

While you'll have no trouble getting enough guns, you might be unsure where to find Phase Exchangers in The First Descendant which effectively function as currency to pay for the process.

For that, you'll need to visit Anais in Albion and 'research' (craft) them. The main thing you need for that is Superalloy, which you get for scrapping guns. There's an efficiency here: to to get the Phase Exchangers you need to level up high level guns you scrap low level ones to get the materials you need.

A single Phase Exchanger costs 50 Superalloy and 2500 gold, and takes two and a half minutes to make (or you can pay 1 First Descendant Caliber to instantly do it). There are also options to craft them in batches of four and 16, which obviously costs more and takes longer. There are also basic Phase Exchangers which upgrade common and rare weapons, while Precision Phase Exchangers upgrade Ultimate Weapons.