The First Descendant: Modding Explained (2024)

The First Descendant has a myriad of progression systems that greatly enhance your character's power. From item leveling to randomized item affixes, creating the perfect build in this game will require a serious amount of dedication and a little bit of luck.

Arguably the most pivotal upgrade system is the module system. These small mod cards can be installed into your Descendants and weapons to vastly increase their effectiveness, modifying virtually every stat imaginable. Understanding how this system works is key to surviving the endgame, so let's go over how modules work and how to best use them throughout your journey.

What Are Modules?

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Modules are socketable upgrades that can be installed in Descendants and weapons. Each module enhances some aspect of your Descendant or character. More common mods adjust stats directly (shields, damage, ability range, etc.), while rarer modules tend to add unique properties or rework how your skills work altogether. They are a fundamental part of buildcraft and are required to beat The Last Descendant's hardest endgame activities.

As with weapons, modules drop in abundance from virtually every activity. Common mods tend to drop from slain enemies, while rarer mods are tied to activity rewards. Modules come in five types:

Rarity	Effect	Drop Source
Normal	Improves one stat substantially.	Slain monsters and world activities
Rare	Adjusts two stats, sometimes with a downside.	Slain monsters and world activities
Ultimate	Adds powerful effects that occur under certain conditions, usually with a cooldown.	World activities
Descendant Only
Sub	Alters your Descendant's melee attack or grappling hook. Only one may be installed at a time. These add capacity. They don't drain capacity.	Slain monsters
Transcendent	Alters how a Descendant's ability works. Only one may be installed at a time.	Void missions

How To Install Modules

You can install modules on your Descendant by selecting the "Descendant Modules" button in the inventory menu. For weapons, select the mod icon beside your equipped weapons in the same menu.

This will bring up the modding screen, revealing a grid of sockets and a selection of mods below.

Installing a module is simple enough. Simply drag a module onto an empty socket to install it, then save your loadout. Notice that installing this mod increased your mod capacity stat at the top right of your screen. Mod capacity dictates how many mods you can install on your gear. More powerful modules tend to cost more capacity.

Your single biggest limiter when upgrading your character is your mod capacity. You can increase your mod capacity by leveling your Mastery Rank, installing an Energy Activator onto your item, and installing a Sub module (Descendants only). Energy Activators are incredibly tough to make, and leveling your Mastery Rank can take ages, which is why you'll want to look at your fourth way of reducing mod capacity drain: sockets.

Mod Socket Types

Descendants and certain weapons will have strange symbols etched onto some of their mod slots. If you look at the top of your modules, you'll notice that some of them share the same icon type. Socketing a mod into a socket with the same symbol will cut that module's cost in half, rounded up. For example, if a mod costs 12 energy on its own, installing it into the same socket type will drop its cost down to 6. If done to a Sub module, it gains +5 capacity instead.

It's possible to add more of these socket types onto your gear. You can do so with Crystalline Catalysts, an item that functions identically to Warframe's Forma currency. Once an item reaches its maximum proficiency level, you can install a Crystalline Catalyst to add a symbol of your choice to any socket you please. Doing so will consume the catalyst and reset the item back to Level 1, but you'll now have a socket that drains less energy.

How To Upgrade Modules

Excluding Transcendent modules, you can upgrade any module at Silion in Albion. He's located in the western section of town, found right above Anais. Speak to him and select the "Enhance Module" option to bring up the upgrade menu.

From here, you can select which modules you wish to upgrade. These upgrades are permanent and cannot be undone; pick carefully. Upgrading a module costs Kuiper Crystals and Gold. You can find Kuiper Crystals as activity rewards and by dismantling spare modules, which can be done at Silion by selecting the "Dismantle Modules" option.

Each upgrade increases the mod's capacity drain by one. Most modules may be upgraded up to 7-10 times, denoted by the pips on the left of the module's icon.

Module Transmutation

If you have a ton of spare modules and don't need Kuiper Crystals, you might want to consider transmuting those mods. At Silion in Albion, you may sacrifice three modules to receive a new, random module. Each transmutation attempt costs multiple modules and a small sum of Gold. To be clear, the result of your transmutation is random. From what we can tell, there aren't any crafting combinations.

With that said, you can somewhat bias the result of the transmutation attempt by using modules of the same rarity. Transmuting mods of the same rarity makes it more likely that you'll receive a module of the same rarity. It's a poor strategy for target-farming a specific mod, but if your arsenal of modules is lacking, module transmutation isn't a bad system to engage with. Just don't transmute absolutely everything—you'll still need Kuiper Crystals to upgrade future modules.

Modding Tips

• Upgrade your Sub Modules ASAP. These modules increase your mod capacity.
  • You can install them in the orange socket of all Descendants. They can't be used on weapons.
• Upgrade your base damage mods first. Anything that gives +ATK is a multiplier to your base damage.
  • Pair this with elemental damage mods to greatly increase your damage.
• Module values are multiplicative with base stats.
  • For example, a 100% critical chance module increases a weapon with a 10% critical chance to 20%, not 110%.
• You can press 'Tab' or 'Menu' while modding weapons to pull up an advanced stats screen. This shows every stat value for your Descendant and weapon.
• Generally, the best weapon mods to equip are ATK ⇾ Fire Rate ⇾ Elemental Damage ⇾ Weak Point Damage in that order.