The First Descendant Season 4 Episode 1, titled The Great Clash, will arrive on August 20. During the August 18 developer livestream, Nexon revealed a new Descendant named Raven, the Mega Dungeon Karel’s Mothership, the roguelite Trials activity, 11 Transcendent Weapons, a Boost Path for Ultimate Bunny, and a long list of balance, progression, and cosmetic changes.
The developer also published a Steam announcement covering the broadcast. Nexon noted that some of the revealed content may change before it reaches the game.
The complete developer livestream recap is available below.
Season 4 Episode 1 roadmap
The August 20 update will introduce Raven, Karel’s Mothership, Trials, 11 Transcendent Weapons, and the Boost Path. The next two roadmap dates will bring more systems and content:
- September 17: Ultimate Hailey, Cradle of Evolution, Lounge storage trading, and Transcendent Weapon trading will be added.
- October 15: More Transcendent Weapons, a farming assistance system for those weapons, Freyna skill improvements, and a second Trials map expansion will follow.
The roadmap gives a firm schedule to the Season 4 plans discussed in our earlier Season 4 preview.
The Great Clash and Karel’s Mothership
Episode 1’s story centers on the final confrontation with Karel, the leader of Qliphoth’s dark legion. The campaign will include scenes set during the Battle of Albion and inside a destroyed laboratory. Completing its story missions will reward Raven Amorphous Materials along with rare basic materials.
Karel’s Mothership will be available to players who have cleared the main story through Season 3 Episode 4. The multiplayer Mega Dungeon can be entered from the map between Albion and the Axion Plains, where players will face Karel three times. Each battle changes the surrounding space and attack patterns, with mechanics built around destroying structures, floating elevators, and Propagate Resonators.
Normal and Hard difficulties will be available when the dungeon launches. Conquest difficulty will open on September 3 through a separate event. Players can earn Merit Tokens from the Descendant Mission Board’s weekly content, and Transcendent Weapons will also be available as rewards.
Conquest event runs from September 3 through October 15
Conquest is designed to test combat reactions and survival rather than simply giving enemies more health. The event will run in two phases:
- Phase 1, September 3 until the maintenance before September 17: Four-player private-matching parties will compete in the Elite Squad Ranking Run. A party cannot use the same Descendant more than once. The 10 fastest squads will receive the Radiant Dawn Hero Medal, Namecard, UI Theme, and Lounge Decoration.
- Phase 2, September 17 through the October 15 maintenance: The Leaderboard Ranking Run will allow both solo and party participation. Players who reach the top 30 will earn the Dawn Hero Medal of the Shining Squad, the Dawn Hero Medal, and other rewards. Conquest difficulty will close when Phase 2 ends.
Everyone who clears Conquest at least once during the event will receive the Dawn’s Hero Namecard, UI Theme, and the Malicious Dominator Transcendent Weapon skin, regardless of ranking.
A separate 4v4 Creator Challenge will also be held. Eight creators will be divided into two teams for a Conquest attempt, with team voting beginning on the official website on August 20. Nexon will share the full rules and reward details in a later notice.
Raven arrives with shotgun skills and movement abilities
Raven is a Non-Attribute Fusion Descendant who previously led a guild in Albion’s back alleys. Her kit is built around a shotgun, rapid movement, and firearm-based skills. She can be farmed through the Legion Laboratory or Sigma Sector – Isolated Desert.
- Queen of Darkness: Raven’s passive improves shotgun attack power and fire rate while adding skill-based damage.
- Shadow Shot: After five shotgun shots, Raven can fire an attack that deals extra damage to enemies affected by Trace.
- Raven Feather: She sends out a raven that creates a Blade Feather and inflicts Bleed damage. Raven can also use the Blade Feather’s location for quick movement.
- Shadow Step: Raven dashes through enemies to apply Trace, then gains Veil of Night, a Multi-Hit buff, and damage nullification for seven hits.
- Vendetta: This shotgun attack deals more damage at close range and uses a dedicated resource for extra damage during rapid follow-up shots.
Two skill modules offer different ways to build Raven. Nightfall turns her into a skill-focused Descendant, increasing damage based on harmful effects and changing Raven Feather into Raven’s Claw. It creates a Nest that works with the Midnight Hunt skill.
Law of the Back Alley removes Raven’s shotgun restriction and lets her use all firearms. Its damage scales with the Dignity, Overwhelm, and Bind Edicts applied to enemies. The module also changes Shadow Rake to pull enemies toward Raven, gives Shadow Step a brief unlimited-ammo effect, and lets Night’s Edict apply all three Edicts at once.
Raven will also receive the premium Ruler of the Night skin, three head skins, and two makeup options.
Trials add randomized routes and repeatable rewards
Trials will bring roguelite elements to The First Descendant. Each run contains seven zones, and random teleports can change the route. Clearing zones raises the difficulty, while Variable Codes let players choose modifiers. Across four total runs, players can make up to 20 Variable Code selections.
Runs may also include a Cracked Fissure event. Players can choose whether to continue through it for another farming opportunity. Trials will open when players enter Hard difficulty, although public matchmaking requires a certain level of Arche Activity.
Trials can reward Transcendent Weapons, Merit Tokens, growth materials, Archive Shards, and other items. Merit Tokens can be earned through unlimited Trials runs or once per week from Karel’s Mothership, then spent at the Merit Exchange managed by NPC Reina. The exchange will offer Transcendent Trait Elements and other items. Trait Elements also come from dismantling Transcendent Weapons and can be used to purchase weapon re-adjustment materials.
Trials will also introduce Rotational Build matchmaking. Players can borrow a Descendant with equipment already configured, apart from Ancestor Modules. This gives players who are still working on their builds, or who have just reached Hard difficulty, a way to enter Trials immediately. Rotational Build players will use a separate matchmaking pool and will not gain EXP or Proficiency, but they can focus their first clear on Transcendent Weapons and Merit Tokens while still receiving materials such as Archive Shards, Reactors, and External Component growth items.
Two or three Rotational Builds will be available each week, with the builds changing weekly. Their settings can be viewed as references for future character growth.
Transcendent Weapons change the progression loop
Season 4 Episode 1 will add 11 Transcendent Weapons. Each weapon has a fixed attribute, and players can equip up to three at once. They can begin dropping in Normal difficulty, allowing players to keep using their fully configured Ultimate Weapons while building a Transcendent Weapon setup. When an existing Ultimate Weapon receives a Transcendent version, its current Ultimate Weapon skin can be applied directly to the new version.
Weapon quality has a maximum value of 400, and higher quality raises the performance ceiling of a Transcendent Ability. Base Quality represents the guaranteed minimum quality when farming a weapon and rises with repeated farming. For example, once Base Quality reaches 400, a weapon at the content’s upper limit is guaranteed to drop within that range.
The announced quality ranges include 176-325 in Sigma Sector and 376-400 in Onslaught Mode Difficulty 4. Void Vessel Hard, Axion Infiltration, and higher content can award quality 400, although that result will remain extremely rare in most activities.
Transcendent Abilities contain three Factors. At quality 400, 150 points are distributed between those Factors to specialize the weapon for area or single-target combat. Sub-Abilities include one or two fixed effects plus two randomly generated effects that improve the weapon’s base stats.
Transcendent Weapons can drop from almost every activity. The Premium Battle Pass and drop boost items can raise their drop probability. Unwanted weapons can be dismantled for Transcendent Trait Elements, with higher-quality weapons producing more material and Premium users receiving a bonus. Those Elements can be spent in Deslin’s shop on weapon boxes, which also help raise Base Quality, or exchanged for three Transcendent Wave Modulators per week and five Sub-Wave Modulators per week.
At the Weapon Workbench, Transcendent Wave Modulators can redistribute the 150 Ability points, with the new result shown beside the previous version before confirmation. Sub-Wave Modulators reroll the two random Sub-Abilities, and one existing Sub-Ability can be locked before changing the other.
Battle Pass, modules, and balance changes
The Battle Pass-exclusive Ultimate Weapon reward will be removed. Premium benefits will instead include the Transcendent Weapon drop-rate bonus, which begins at 5% at level 1 and reaches 20% at level 80, plus a dismantling-material bonus. The Premium Battle Pass will remain priced at 500 Caliber.
Customization rewards will include common skins, the Vortex skin, the Orca skin, and Hover Bike accessories, with Vortex serving as the level 100 reward. Raven and Ajax will receive the Battle Pass Nightfall skin. Season 1 head skins, social motions, and accessory boxes will also return through the Bonus Shop for players who missed that season.
Two Trigger Modules are coming as well. Perfect Positioning is built for movement-skill Descendants such as Raven and Sharen. Redeployment skills build Maneuver stacks, and a further Redeployment activation at full stacks grants skill power, ammo non-consumption, and a temporary maximum-shield increase.
Aesthetics of Violation works with Neutralize-skill Descendants. Chaining Clash and Neutralize skills applies Brand of the Weak to the target, while granting skill power and resetting the longest cooldown through Amusement of the Strong. Kyle, Keelan, Ajax, Valby, Sharen, and Esiemo can use the module.
Keelan and Kyle will receive numerical balance changes. Kyle’s maximum-shield damage scaling will be strengthened to support Onslaught content, with a smoother skill chain and a small reduction to his synchronization value. Keelan’s operating difficulty will be lowered and his minimum damage will increase. Synchronization values for several Descendants will also change, with Dia and Ajax among those receiving buffs.
Fellow level progression will increase to 40. Higher levels will improve HP, ammo, and MP recovery, while Infiltration Dungeons will begin providing Fellow growth materials.
Quality-of-life updates and August events
Weapons equipped in a slot will now receive 100% Proficiency even when they are not in hand. Debuff stacks and durations will be tracked separately for each player, including parties with duplicate Descendants. Rare basic material acquisition rates will increase to make Ultimate Weapon farming less demanding.
Other changes include improved bullet direction based on where the muzzle was facing at the moment of firing, more intuitive combinations of Normal difficulty champion effects, and increased EXP from Hard difficulty field missions. Nexon said more details will appear in the update notes.
The August 20 cosmetic release will include six Light and Dark skins: Dark versions for Valby, Serena, and Ines, plus Light versions for Hailey, Dia, and Blair. Two themed back attachments, a spawn effect, Serena Black Punk makeup, Ines Crack of Dawn makeup, and a new Bunny makeup will also arrive. Viessa will receive the premium Agent Snow Empress skin. The Field Survival Trainee skin will follow on September 3, and more Transcendent Weapon-exclusive skins are planned.
The August event schedule includes the Frontline Medical Support attendance event, the Karel’s Mothership Creator Challenge vote, The Great Battle Deployment Mission, the New Content Challenge Mission, Back to Albion for returning players, Accelerate Research Week, and Descendant’s Weekend. The Great Battle Deployment Mission will focus on growing Raven, Kyle, and Keelan, while the New Content Challenge Mission will send players into Karel’s Mothership and Trials.
On September 3, the Assemble Event and Ancestor Module events will begin. The latter group includes a Weekend Re-adjustment Discount, Ancestor Module Dismantle Week, and Today’s Re-adjustment Benefit.
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The First Descendant
Developed by Nexon Games
Launched in July 2024, The First Descendant is a next-generation third-person co-op action RPG looter shooter featuring high-quality graphics developed using Unreal Engine 5. In the game, players become a Descendant whose mission is to combat against alien invaders – The Vulgus who crossed dimensions over 100 years ago and brought with them the devastating Colossi and destruction– for the survival of humanity and to protect Albion and the continent of Ingris. Players will encounter spectacular stories as they grow stronger through various missions and raids to finally discover the Descendants' secret. Cooperation is crucial as players team up with one another in strategic multiplayer boss fights where teamwork and tactics are key. New equipment, materials, and items obtained through a myriad of missions and boss fights will contribute to players’ character development.
- Genre Shooter, Role-playing (RPG), Adventure
- Platforms Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox One
- Perspective Third person
- Modes Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative
- Release July 2, 2024
- Publisher Nexon Korea
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Age Rating
