If The First Descendant Wants You To Stay, They Need To Nail Endgame. Here's Their Plan So Far

Looter-shooters and other live service games need to develop compelling reasons for you to want to log in long after you've completed whatever "main story" is laid out before you. What keeps you coming back to games like Destiny 2 or Warframe? The First Descendant wants to tap into that cycle and is showing off a bit of their plan for an "endless endgame" in a new video. What do you do when the story is complete? Let's dive in.

First up is unlocking new Descendants and Ultimate Weapons. All Descendants can be unlocked through gameplay. Farm up materials and research the Descendant you want, and soon you'll be zipping into battle with a whole new kit. The same can be done for Ultimate Weapons. These weapons aren't just stronger, but they also may have special abilities, and some may get even better if paired with a particular Descendant. It looks a LOT like unlocking frames and weapons in Warframe. New descendants and weapons will be continually added to the game.

Next in line we have added difficulty tiers. This should seem pretty basic. Certain story missions can be repeated on higher difficulty (once you've unlocked the difficulty) for better rewards. However, there is a small twist that I really like on this front. The rewards aren't static. This means you can hunt and peck around for a mission that has rewards or materials that you're looking for rather than having to farm the same boss or mission hundreds of times simply because that boss has the materials you need today.

Infiltration missions allow you to use The First Descendant's matchmaking and even add modifiers to the mission to really ramp up the difficulty. These will be the modes to play for those seeking to test their limits. A "Special Operations" mode mixes up the objective-based story missions and instead brings on waves of mobs or objectives that you need to complete to move on to the next wave. Think Horde Mode, Node Defense, and Target Chase (kill a constantly fleeing target) and you've got the picture of the available options.

Finally, we get to see Void Intercept Battles. These are some of the hardest group content in The First Descendant and they look awesome. Think FFXIV's Trials and you have a good idea. A big boss, multiple mechanics requiring teamwork, and the best rewards for unlocking Descendants and Ultimate Weapons will all be found here.

I am very eager to give The First Descendant a whirl. It launches on PC and consoles with cross play and cross progression on July 2nd.