Best weapons in The First Descendant

Want the best First Descendant weapons? Picking out the right guns will depend on your build, but there's five outstanding weapons that have emerged that will be high on anybody's tier list, with options like the Thunder Cage and Eternal Willpower doing massive damage in a skilled player's hands. Not only that, but these weapons then can become the foundational point for builds, choosing Reactors and the right Descendants to play off them for maximum effect.

Ultimately though, while any gun can be deadly in the right hands, it's these five S-Tier weapons that we consider to be among the best in The First Descendant. We've got them all outlined below, as well as what makes them the best weapons, and - more importantly - how you can get them for yourself, whether through playing The First Descendant or by completing certain research projects. Mostly the latter.

The First Descendant's best weapons

Below we've listed the top five best weapons in The First Descendant - all of which but one, it turns out, are Ultimate Weapons that will have to be researched, not ones that can be found in the world.

• Thunder Cage: Ultimate Electrical SMG that causes killed enemies to explode.
• Enduring Legacy: Ultimate Machine gun that deals high crit damage and has an increasingly high Status Effect trigger rate on successive hits.
• Piercing Light: Ultimate Sniper Rifle with bullet piercing and best damage-per-shot in the game.
• Perforator: Ultimate Hand Cannon with great shield and weakpoint damage.
• Eternal Willpower: Rare Assault Rifle with incredibly high stats in comparison to others

It's worth clarifying that as most of these weapons are Ultimates, obtaining them without spending large amounts of The First Descendant Caliber currency is going to take time, and the playing of odds. Obtaining an Ultimate weapon in-game requires finding rare drops from opening Amorphous Material or completing certain missions (which usually have about a 20% chance of appearing at most), then using those drops to research the individual components, then researching the weapon itself with the components you now own. 

Not only that, but players will have to ensure that they can get The First Descendant Mastery Rank up to a decent level, as some of these have a level requirement on research - 10 or even 15 total. Other components require you to unlock The First Descendant Hard Mode difficulty to access the missions that can drop them… basically, for most players these weapons are firmly in the "endgame/post-game" phase, but there are two exceptions - the Thunder Cage and the Eternal Willpower.

Thunder Cage

A high DPS SMG that creates electrical explosions in slain enemies, damaging all those around them. Obtained as part of the game's early campaign to introduce you to the idea of Ultimate Weapons, but still powerful nonetheless.

How to get the Thunder Cage: Researched at Anais with the following components:

• Thunder Cage Polymer Syncytium Blueprint: Drop from Sterile Land External Reactor (normal)
• Thunder Cage Synthetic Fiber Blueprint: Drop from Sterile Land Kuiper Mine (normal)
• Thunder Cage Nano Tube Blueprint: Drop from Sterile Land High-Powered Jammer (normal)
• Thunder Cage Blueprint: Drop from Sterile Land Logistics Facility (normal)
• 100,000 Gold
• 4 Hours

Enduring Legacy

A machine gun that has high crit stats and increasingly high chance to inflict status effects on each successive hit that strikes a target. The researching from this point on will start getting expensive, so you might want to try our favoured method for The First Descendant gold farm.

How to get the Enduring Legacy: Researched at Anais at Mastery Level 15 or higher with the following components:

• Enduring Legacy Polymer Syncytium Blueprint: Research at Anais along with a component cost, after getting the right drop from either:
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 076 and Reconstructed Device from Devourer Void Intercept (hard)
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 104 and Reconstructed Device from Obstructer Void Intercept (hard)
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 115 and Reconstructed Device from Frost Walker Void Intercept (hard)
  • Echo Swamp Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Derelict Covert
• Enduring Legacy Synthetic Fiber Blueprint: Research at Anais along with a component cost, after getting the right drop from either:
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 012 and Reconstructed Device from Stunning Beauty Void Intercept (normal)
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 067 and Reconstructed Device from Dead Bride Void Intercept (hard)
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 078 and Reconstructed Device from Devourer Void Intercept (hard)
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 126 and Reconstructed Device from Molten Fortress Void Intercept (hard)
• Enduring Legacy Nano Tube Blueprint: Research at Anais along with a component cost, after getting the right drop from either:
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 053 and Reconstructed Device from Hanged Man Void Intercept (normal)
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 087 and Reconstructed Device from Pyromaniac Void Intercept (hard)
  • Sterile Land Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Restricted Zone (hard)
  • Hagios Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Corrupted Zone (hard)
• Enduring Legacy Blueprint: Drop from the following:
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 059 and Reconstructed Device from Executioner Void Intercept (hard)
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 097 and Reconstructed Device from Swamp Walker Void Intercept (hard)
  • Fortress Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Frozen Valley (hard)
  • White-night Gulch Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Observatory (hard)
• 100,000 Gold
• 4 Hours

Piercing Light

A sniper rifle that deletes enemy enhanced effects, has the best per-shot damage in all of The First Descendant, and goes through enemies to hit those behind them.

How to get the Piercing Light: Researched at Anais at Mastery Level 10 or higher with the following components:

• Piercing Light Polymer Syncytium Blueprint: Research at Anais along with a component cost, after getting the right drop from either:
  • Sterile Land Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Restricted Zone (normal)
  • White-night Gulch Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Mountaintops (normal)
  • Fortress Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Frozen Valley (hard)
  • Hagios Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Dune Base (normal)
• Piercing Light Synthetic Fiber Blueprint: Research at Anais along with a component cost, after getting the right drop from either:
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 053 and Reconstructed Device from Hanged Man Void Intercept (normal)
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 125 and Reconstructed Device from Molten Fortress Void Intercept (hard)
  • Echo Swamp Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Derelict Covert (normal)
  • Agna Desert Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at The Storage (normal)
• Piercing Light Nano Tube Blueprint: Research at Anais along with a component cost, after getting the right drop from either:
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 058 and Reconstructed Device from Executioner Void Intercept (hard)
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 106 and Reconstructed Device from Obstructer Void Intercept (hard)
  • Kingston Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Grand Square (normal)
  • Hagios Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Dune Base (normal)
• Piercing Light Blueprint: Drop from the following:
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 019 and Reconstructed Device from Executioner Void Intercept (common)
  • Vespers Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Moonlight Lake (hard)
  • Fortress Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Frozen Valley (normal)
  • White-night Gulch Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Hatchery (hard)
• 100,000 Gold
• 4 Hours

Perforator

A hand cannon pistol that specializes in targeted shots, dealing high damage against shields, weak points and headshots.

How to get the Perforator: Researched at Anais at Mastery Level 15 or higher with the following components:

• Perforator Polymer Syncytium Blueprint: Research at Anais along with a component cost, after getting the right drop from either:
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 011 and Reconstructed Device from Stunning Beauty Void Intercept (normal)
  • Fortress Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Defense Line (normal)
  • Sterile Land Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Restricted Zone (hard)
  • White-night Gulch Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Observatory (hard)
• Perforator Synthetic Fiber Blueprint: Research at Anais along with a component cost, after getting the right drop from either:
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 018 and Reconstructed Device from Executioner Void Intercept (normal)
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 169 and Reconstructed Device from Dead Bride Void Intercept (hard)
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 124 and Reconstructed Device from Molten Fortress Void Intercept (hard)
  • Agna Desert Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at The Storage (normal)
• Perforator Nano Tube Blueprint: Research at Anais along with a component cost, after getting the right drop from either:
  • Amorphous Material Pattern 038 and Reconstructed Device from Pyromaniac Void Intercept (common)
  • Vespers Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Lost Supply Depot (hard)
  • Agna Desert Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at The Storage (hard)
  • Hagios Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Fractured Monolith (hard)
• Perforator Blueprint: Drop from the following:
  • Vespers Abyssal Void Fusion Reactor at Lost Supply Depot (normal)
  • Echo Swamp Void Fusion Reactor at Muskeg Swamp (hard)
  • Fortress Void Fusion Reactor at Defense Line (hard)
  • Sterile Land Void Fusion Reactor at Rockfall Zone (hard)
• 100,000 Gold
• 4 Hours

Eternal Willpower

The only non-ultimate weapon on this list, the Eternal Willpower is an Assault Rifle that simply has weirdly high stats in comparison to other ARs in the game, to the point where it almost feels anomalous or like some error soon to be patched out. Still, until it is patched out, it's a phenomenal - and comparatively easy - weapon to add to any Descendant's arsenal.

How to get the Eternal Willpower: This Assault Rifle has a 50% chance to be dropped from the Baggage Transport Base mission in Agna Desert's Vermillion Waste region. You can also get the same odds by completing the Red Sphere mission in Agna Desert's Miragestone region.

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