The First Descendant’s troubled launch continues, with players reporting significant framerate drops on both PC and console.
Nexon’s free-to-download looter shooter launched with a big bang this week on Steam to high concurrent player counts, but user reviews have been “mixed” in response to what some are calling “microtransaction hell,” as well as various performance issues and rewards issues. Check out IGN’s The First Descendant review in progress to see what we think of the game so far.
The main performance issue revolves around framerate drops across all platforms, which for an action game can cause gameplay issues. Nexon has acknowledged this and proposed a workaround.
The developer links these frame rate issues to those who pre-downloaded The First Descendant, and suggested that if you encounter the issue, you uninstall and reinstall the game “as a temporary workaround.” In the meantime, Nexon said it is investigating further.
Players are reporting mixed results when using this workaround. Some say it improves framerate on PC, but on console they still seem to be having issues.
That’s not the only issue plaguing The First Descendant right now. Nexon has offered compensation to players for launch issues that have resulted in promised rewards not arriving. Some players are also saying they haven’t received the premium currency they paid real money for.
According to Nexon, here’s a list of all the current issues with The First Descendant that the developer is working to fix:
[July 3rd (Wed) ]
■ (Additional) issue with partial distribution of beta test rewards
– It has been discovered that some rewards for participating in the 2022 Steam Beta Test and the 2023 Cross-Play Open Beta Test have not been awarded.
– We are currently verifying the information about the undelivered rewards and will redistribute them as soon as possible.
[July 2nd(Tue) ]
■ (Extra) Issues with framedrop on pre-download
– We’ve received reports of Descendants who pre-downloaded the game experiencing frame drops.
– We are currently investigating this issue. If you encounter this issue, please uninstall and reinstall the game as a temporary solution in the meantime.
■ (Additional) Issue where players are moved immediately after starting a mission in Special Operations
– Found an issue where players would be moved directly to Albion after starting the mission when entering special ops. Partial fixes have been implemented and a full fix is currently in development.
■ (Additional) Issue where players are occasionally placed on servers without other players during field transfers
– When transferring fields solo, players are sometimes placed on a server where there are no other players.
– Void Intercept battles, Infiltration operations, and Special Operations match-ups work fine. Also transferring fields as a group works fine. All group members are placed on the same server as normal.
■ Workarounds for client termination issues with certain antivirus programs
– We have requested exceptions for The First Descendant on antivirus programs, but some were not implemented. Below are workarounds for this issue.
(1) Temporary solution ‘Bitdefender’ [FAQ]
– Go to System Security > Advanced Threat Detection (ATD) > Manage Exclusions, select the file or folder for The First Descendant and save it.
(2) Temporary solution ‘McAfee Agent’ [FAQ]
– Go to McAfee Security > Navigation > Quarantined & Trusted Items, select TheFirstDescendant.exe from the list of quarantined programs and restore it.
■ Solutions for ‘Easy Anti-Cheat’ not working properly
– If Easy Anti-Cheat does not work properly, please refer to the FAQ for solutions. If the problem persists, please contact customer service with relevant screenshots.
– Access to Customer Service: Official Website > Customer Service > FAQ > Contact Us
■ Delay in purchasing items via shopping carts on PlayStation Store.
– When you purchase multiple items through your shopping cart on PlayStation Store, there may be a delay in the items being delivered to your inventory.
■ Case for ‘Lethal Infection’ module. After we upgraded the ‘Lethal Infection’ module to level 5, we found that ‘Skill Power Modifier’ was not fully functional.
– An issue has been fixed where the ‘Skill Power Modifier’ does not increase properly after upgrading the ‘Lethal Infection’ module from level 4 to level 5.
■ Unused items that appear in Access Info
– Some consumables that have not been used will appear in the information list.
■ Sharen’s ‘Active Camouflage’ skill issue
– When using Sharen’s skill ‘Active Camouflage’, the named monsters will no longer be targeted. Their condition will be switched to non-combat mode, causing their HP to quickly recover.
■ The Ultimate Weapon kill will not count towards missions requiring ‘Kill with Specific Weapon’.
– Monsters killed using an ultimate weapon’s unique ability will not be correctly counted towards missions (e.g. Battle Pass Challenges, Awards) that require kills with a specific weapon.
■ Issue with display of weapon module improvement
– On the Weapon Module Enhancing screen, the module capacity reduction effect is not displayed correctly due to the socket type assignment. Although the display of each individual module capacity reduction effect is not displayed correctly, the accumulated amount of module capacity is displayed correctly.
■ Incorrect item drops in certain regions during Infiltration operations
– During infiltration operations, destructible objects in regions other than Kingston and the fortress area will drop regular items from the Kingston region.
■ Incorrect display of the name and description of the NPC Hagios Region Dominique
– The name and description of the Dominique NPC in the Hagios region are displayed incorrectly.
■ Monster Errors in White-night Gulch
– During the infiltration operation ‘Bio-Lab’ in White-night Gulch, monsters sometimes become stuck in the terrain.
– In the Hatchery in the White-night Gulch region, monsters sometimes do not appear when continuing with void shard activities
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.