How to Level Up Fast in The First Descendant (XP and Mastery Rank)
The fastest ways to level Descendants, weapons, and Mastery Rank in 2026 — the farms that actually pay, the XP boosters that matter, and the order to do them in.
Leveling in The First Descendant is a race between three different tracks: your Descendant’s level, your weapon’s level, and your account-wide Mastery Rank. They all take XP, and the fastest players are the ones who feed all three at once instead of one at a time.
This guide covers the farms that pay, the order to run them, and the boosters worth using.
The three tracks
Descendant level. Each character levels independently to the current cap. Leveling unlocks skill power and the mod capacity you need for endgame.
Weapon Proficiency. Every weapon levels separately. A max-level Descendant with a level 1 weapon is half a build.
Mastery Rank. Your account-wide progression. It levels by playing, and each rank grants permanent bonuses and mod capacity. You cannot farm it directly — it comes from normal play, so the trick is not wasting the XP you earn along the way.
The order that matters
The mistake new players make is leveling one character completely before touching the next. The efficient order:
- One main Descendant to cap. Your first character carries you through the story and into endgame. Pick one and take it to the current level cap.
- That Descendant’s weapon to cap. The weapon is half your damage. Never run a level-30 Descendant with a level-10 weapon.
- A second Descendant to cap. Your first gives you the resources; the second widens what content you can run.
- Everything else after. Once you have two solid characters, leveling the rest is a matter of time, not strategy.
The farms that pay
The story missions. The best XP in the early game, and they unlock the world. Do them first — every “fast XP farm” video assumes you have finished the story.
The highest repeatable mission at your level. Once the story is done, the repeatable missions at your level cap are the XP-per-minute baseline. Run the one that is fastest to complete, not the one that pays the most per run.
Weekly operations. The weekly content pays the most XP and the best materials in the game. Do every weekly, every week — they are the single largest progression source.
Onslaught and the Mega Dungeon. The endgame modes pay massive XP, and they are the only way to feed a max-level character. Once you can run them, they are your main XP source.
Escort and defense missions. The multi-stage missions pay well and give the materials you need for research. They are the efficient middle-ground farm.
The XP boosters
The 45% Arche Tuning booster. The community’s favorite — it boosts the XP from Arche Tuning, one of the highest-XP activities in the game. If you are grinding tuning levels, use it.
Event boosters. The game runs XP events constantly, and the login calendars hand out boosters regularly. Save the best ones for weekly reset day, when you are running the most content.
The rotational boost system. The recent update added a rotational boost structure to certain content — the boost applies to whatever is currently featured. Check what is boosted before you farm, and farm that.
The traps
Chasing the “broken XP farm.” The farms that pay absurd XP are almost always an exploit that gets patched. The reliable farms above pay 80% as much and never disappear.
Leveling a weapon you will replace. Level the weapon your build actually uses. A max-level transitional weapon is wasted XP.
Spreading materials thin. Every character and weapon needs unique research materials. Focus on one at a time — the research queue is where hoarders fall behind.
Ignoring Mastery Rank. It comes from normal play, but the permanent bonuses are real. The players with high Mastery Rank have simply played efficiently for longer.
The realistic timeline
First 10 hours: The story, one Descendant to cap, one weapon to cap.
Hours 10-30: Endgame access. Weekly operations, Onslaught entry, a second character leveled.
Hours 30+: The real chase — Transcendent Weapons, Ancestor Modules, and optimizing the builds you already have.
The players who reach endgame fastest are not the ones who grinded the hardest in week one. They are the ones who did their story, did their weeklies, and never spent a single material on a system they did not understand yet.
The one thing to remember
One main to cap, its weapon to cap, then the second character. Do weeklies, use boosters on reset day, and let Mastery Rank come from normal play. The First Descendant rewards focus — the players who level everything a little are always behind the players who level one thing completely.