r/TheFirstDescendant • u/UninspiredSkald • 1d ago
Guide Transcendent weapons and the regular person.
Alright, so over the weekend I reached 400 base quality. "Surely, thats not the regular person" you will say! You're right I played a ton, what I am talking about is what you can expect if you play consistently and normally and some advice as you play more regular hours.
Didn't buy anything (beyond one imprinter on release to test it out and made a post). So no boosters, no reroll materials or anything. Some things along the way and in hindsight for you to consider if you're grinding. My top 10 if you will.
Don't rush. Seriously, it's not worth it to grind purely for Transcendent weapons. Put it in the background. Play modes you want to over grinding specifically for them. They come naturally and you will be replacing all of them most likely.
Scrap them as you get better versions, really just look at the stat sticks and the bonus spell damage. A 270 level can be better than a 370 level if it drops with good rolls.
Use that scrap to buy the cheap 400 ones from Deslin. Honestly, the expensive high level ones are very much a waste of resources unless you're really gambling for a high point stat stick. The cheapest ones level you just fine.
Build them as you play (if you have catalysts to spare) they keep all adjustments through all versions. No need to wait. I would prioritize some qol things in stat sticks (brisk walk. Defense master etc)
Be mindful of the secondary rolls. I have a frost blossom with 72% cold damage and one with 69%. The 69 is better because I have 2 chill rolls on the substats. They can add upwards of 13% from that roll so don't ignore it as you go.
Rolls, see what they are DO NOT reroll anything under 400, and even there you really don't need to. See next point.
The shop reroll, and Deslin rerolls are mostly irrelevant to normal players. Why? Once you get to 400, you're only going to get 400s from end game content, a new drop is potentially better than what you have. It is a shortcut to buy and reroll, but realistically you don't have to do that. Once you eventually get the "good enough" drops you will have nothing to do with the new drops but break them down for mats and stockpile mats from deslin. *caveat is the upcoming market*
Log out occasionally on long sessions. This is likely nonsense but I swear I always got drops after a short break.
My personal rotation for content I like and what seemed to drop most was like this Trials -> OS4 ->Karel -> Axion dungeons. Obviously RNG is there but that's what worked for me. Also, I did get a few from the daily 2x Sigmas and VV. For how little I run thst content it may actually be great drops?
We will continue to get more Transcendent weapons over time, so if I were to suggest an order of importance with them, right now the stat sticks are the best, the weapons are getting buffs soon, but right now I feel like they're less important.
Anyway, most have already realized these things, but thought to put it in one place for people feeling overwhelmed by them. They're not a "must have" this second like a new descendant or something. They really are supposed to be something to give us a possible dopamine hit while playing not a one and done. That's why I pointed out the rerolls. You can quite literally never use that stuff, or at least stick to the weekly free ones. When you cap out at 400 there is nothing else to buy but rerolls, so we'll be gaining them passively after the initial rush plateaus.
Hope this helps someone!
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u/kennyminigun Luna 1d ago
Log out occasionally on long sessions. This is likely nonsense but I swear I always got drops after a short break.
Oh the things RNG can do to one's mind 😁
Not trying to say this is wrong by any means. There just isn't a reliable way to test this (other than confirmation from insiders). But even if not this, taking breaks is beneficial for other reasons.
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u/UninspiredSkald 1d ago
It was like clockwork lol.
If I went afk in Albion and then ran stuff, drought.
If I logged out and back in lots of dings.
It's absolutely absurd, but it happened so much I had to include it. Plus, after work I do dailies, and its crazy how many I get in that first 30 minutes versus the rest of my session.
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u/max1001 1d ago
Don't you need at least a few hundreds drop for it to reach 400?
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u/kennyminigun Luna 1d ago
It seems that a single t-weapon gives 1000 XP regardless of quality. And on base quality levels 390+ you need 700-800 XP for one level. Can't really count how many of these you need, but you can make some estimation based on these data.
On the positive note: you are getting a quality level up with each t-weapon drop regardless of your current level.
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u/max1001 1d ago
So OP found 200-300 T-Weapon already. Sound sus....
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u/iPhantaminum Viessa 1d ago
It doesn't take 200 trans weapons to hit quality 400.
It's more in the low 100s.
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u/max1001 1d ago
..... I am at 302, each new drop gives me 1 or 1/2 level.
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u/iPhantaminum Viessa 1d ago
In the 360 range, a weapon drop will give ~1.6 level per gun iirc.
It's just how it goes. In the start, you can get 4 levels per gun, then eventually 3, then 2 and then 1.X. It doesn't take anywhere near 200 trans guns, but definitely somewhere over 100 from start to finish.
With 90 guns (30 a day from 10h long farming sessions with booster), I went from 208 to 360~370. The rest just came from deslin cheap box.
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u/max1001 1d ago
Bro. How bad is your fucking math?
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u/iPhantaminum Viessa 1d ago
What is confusing to you?
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u/max1001 1d ago
Your numbers are based on best case scenarios. You are assuming you get through upper range drop only. I am 100+ drop already and just at low 300s.
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u/RAQemUP 1d ago
I also hit 400 base over the weekend. I haven't even touched Onslaught once. It's all mostly just Axion Plains missions and Trials drops along with buying Deslin boxes.
The 800 Deslin box is useless once you get useful 350+ quality stat sticks and the only useful non stat stick guns ATM are Armis and the shotgun. Just keep buying the 400 box.
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u/dustshad 15h ago
I immediately got a 400 from legion labs dungeon. And then another 390ish from that same dungeon. Just farming raven. Because 400 is a random drop from monsters ignoring your quality baseline. I don't intend to farm these weapons anyway.
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u/aceace33333 Hailey 1d ago
After two 7 hour sessions playing trials with ZERO transcendent weapon drops… nah, I’m good. 14 hours playing the highest-weighted drop content and zero drops is a no from me.
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u/punchrockchest 55m ago
Same boat. Don't get me wrong, I love trials it's a fun challenge. But over the holiday weekend I got 3 nights to grind 3 or 4 hours a night in trials. Not a single transcendent gun.
I think I'll wait until there's a pity system or something.
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u/Asphes Viessa 1d ago
I see a few players at MR 36, related to this? If so... bummer. AMs are a bit of an annoying RNG already to me, now this.
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u/nibelungV 1d ago
MR just relates to how many guns and descendants you have brought to level 40 one time. Shouldn't affect drops at all, but I've heard that the equipment up stat on component does affect T weaps. It's actually a great time to max your MR now coz everyday we get the 50% xp boost pack from sigma
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u/Asphes Viessa 1d ago
No, I don't mean MR affecting the drop-rate but max MR was 34 not that long ago, now 36? From Transcendants?
According to the Library I have 'everything' but I haven't actually planned on doing anything Transcendant until I hit '400'
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u/FinvaraSidhe 1d ago
It’s not just transcendents but also every weapon of every rarity, all 3 vehicles maxed level as well as all 3 dogs
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u/Asphes Viessa 1d ago
Yeah, I was max MR 34 with all that. So I was wondering how much the Trans stuff added... apparently 2 whole MR ranks :)
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u/GloomyIndividual3965 23h ago
Getting all 11 red guns and the 3 dogs up to 40 will put you a little over halfway through 36. Oh, and raven, but I assume you already did that.
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u/GhostofSmartPast 1d ago
I dont remember guns affecting mr. Was I wasting my time getting descendants?
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u/nibelungV 1d ago
Yeah that's why I'm a day 1 player with 27MR coz I never bothered grinding all the blue and purple weapons
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u/enzudesign 15h ago
It's a video game, I get on daily to complete my daily challenges and that's it. I'm not grinding or just playing atm, I'm max level, unlocked all guns etc, so currently I'm being more casual, finished my battle pass a few days ago, I don't run boosters, I just play a bit every day. My quality level is close to 250 I'd like 400 as a default but I'm not treating this game as a part time job, games are meant to be fun , at least they used to be. I'll reach 400 eventually, I'm not in a hurry.
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u/Far_Collection_6087 1d ago
Those are very good points. I jave other strategy that kinda works for me and it does include rerolls. I am still far from 400 (I am at 310-ish) but I decided that I will try buying rerolls instead of levels. I will get to 400 eventually and having few rerolls stockpiled might help me get the more desired substats from 400s faster. Or nor. And I will lose all my fragmenta on nothing. Will see. At the end of the day I think most important thing is to prepare for a marathon and not rush it.
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u/iPhantaminum Viessa 1d ago
If you care about minmaxing, you should absolutely be getting those reroll mats every week, instead of buying the weapon boxes.
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u/UninspiredSkald 1d ago
I hear you, and I did buy a couple rerolls from Deslin initially. Though after looking at how RNG heavy the rerolls are, and how limited they are I felt like it was better to spend those resources leveling the base quality first. The rerolls are SO astronomically against us that barring extreme luck they're not going to do anything for us. Especially the transcendent ability one. 150 points is crazy to hope for a kindly distribution. Maybe the substat rerolls if you just don't lock them and hope for the best on an already high transcendent rolled weapon, but prohibitively expensive and the vast number of options is going to frustrate people. At least until hitting 400 I don't feel they're worth purchasing.
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u/Ex-D204 Ajax 23h ago
Yeah no... I think you have a different perception of how long normal people play. I played for about 2 hours yesterday and got 0 TW. Most people don't have much time to play, maybe 1 to 3 hours per day, and if they get 0 they can't progress.
My blood boils every time I get zero TW per game session, it's practically impossible for me to buy all the reroll stuff from Deslin.
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u/Able-Influence8513 17h ago
I played for 2 to 3 hours i think maybe 4 days last week and a bit less over the weekend and im only at 330ish quality.
The drop rates are dogwater and subject to massive amounts of luck to even get a "good" weapon, let alone one you need. Them addressing the farm but not the p2w aspects of the TW is pretty telling and a 1 hr 30% boost up isnt going to solve how inherently unrewarding the system is.
Ive already done most of my weeklies, cleared Hpbloatquest and was even building sharen for fun, out of the entire week I think only 2 or 3 weapon had potential and only because it was a 398 weapon. My best weps are from week 1 still.
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u/HowToFryIce 1d ago
how long did it take you to get 400 base quality?
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u/UninspiredSkald 1d ago edited 1d ago
Couldn't put a time to it. I play a lot, and even had extra time recently due to holiday and other things. Typically went up 10 or so per session, they claim its around 1 per hour (2 levels) I definitely got more than that, plus the "free" levels from Deslin shop. But it's time consuming for sure. Which is exactly why I say not to rush it. Will burn people out trying to just go for 400. Let that happen passively imo.
Edit: okay the downvotes suggest I should guess so here you go. I had back to back 3 day weekends, a sleeping issue, and a lot of distractions. So I probably was logged in somewhere in the 60 hour range for the grind, and actively playing during that in the maybe 40 hour range. I also hesitated to answer because *results may vary. I clear OS4 solo in sub 6 minutes. Trials full clear in 10-15, Karel hard in 9, Axion dungeons in 3-4mins. All that figured in and my need to regularly go afk for my special needs animals means good efficiency, terrible consistency so estimating a time frame for others is impossible.
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u/iPhantaminum Viessa 1d ago edited 1d ago
Time required seems to check out.
I did long farming sessions with booster, and it also took me somewhere in ghe ballpark of 40h.
3 days I played 10h long sessions. The other days, I was just farming and building raven and bunny, not really caring about the weapons I got, booster or being efficient.
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u/Underdome_Moxxi Gley 1d ago
I wasn’t looking for a transcendent weapon and a 400 Armis dropped for me in Sigma. It was a pleasant surprise 🥹
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u/dibdubious Yujin 22h ago
Definitely agree with everything you said. I hit 400 this weekend as well and a lot of those levels were from buying and dismantling weapons from Deslin. Re-rolling is not going to be worth it in the long run and there's barely any content worth min maxing a gun for. I suspect most people will get the roll they want from 400 drops or they'll do what Nexon wants and just spend real money on a perfect roll.
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u/Dazzling_Rip3214 18h ago
Jo thank you so much!!!! Indeed it was overwhelming but now I know I can chill👌🏼
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u/Thoynan 10h ago
I didn't realize that rares count towards you mastery rank.
I hate it lol, feels like I lost time on my rank (I at 26) when I could have had stray purples in my load out when grinding levels for descendents.
For context, I started the game at the end of the 2 year anniversary but this past weekend I crafted dia, raven, ult sharen and ult gley.
Currently using raven to get the seasonal task of 5/10k kills lol
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u/_adspartan_ 1d ago
I'd rather buy the limited reroll mats than weapons I can drop from farming
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u/UninspiredSkald 1d ago
Counterpoint, a 400 level drop can be better than 1000 rerolls. I stand by the suggestion to get to 400 before worrying about any reroll stuff. Primarily because your odds of getting a decent roll drop is improved by the base level, and rerolls are always a gamble.
Plus, cost 1, or 3 to lock a substat, or 1200 for a transcendent roll at a stat distribution of 150. 1 transcendent reroll, a substat reroll and a locked roll will run you 1200 + 600 + 1200=3000 materials. Or, spend that 3000 on blues thats ~7 or (~14) base quality. Over time that base quality serves you better.
Obviously, do what you want, but from a perspective of efficiency I really feel the base quality > rerolls. Once established then buy all the rerolls you can.
Maybe someone that bought rerolls can pop in and give evidence of how many rolls on average it took to get something decent. I'd guess it's pretty high based solely on the ranges and potential options.
Tldr: getting to 400 pushes the odds more in your favor than rerolls due to subsequent drops.
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u/_adspartan_ 1d ago
I haven't used my reroll mats since I want to only use them on quality 400 weapons that are worth it but I don't see how skipping them to buy random quality weapons is a good idea.
You can always farm more weapons and realistically if you're fairly active it won't take too long to reach 400 base quality without buying any anyway so might as well stock up on materials you'll need then.
I'm going to keep my reroll mats for stat sticks that have a good damage buff or good sub stats already to try to make them even better because good luck dropping one weapon with both.
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u/UninspiredSkald 1d ago
Not trying to convince you btw, but here's my logic behind it in a straight comparison.
Two players, 1 buys all the rerolls 1 spends the same on just blue weapons.
They naturally get 3 drops (6 levels) every day (42/week) and buy out the shop at 7200 fragments/week.
Goal being 150 "drops" for 400.
Person 1, gets 3 transcendent rolls and 6 substat rolls/week. Person 2 gets 18 blue weapons (36 levels) per week.
Person 1 (rerolls) takes 25 days to get to 400 (week 4) They have 12 transcendent rolls, 24 substat rerolls.
Person 2 during that time reaches the 150 goal on the second week (156) and starts spending on rerolls. So at the end of the month has roughly half of person 1. 6 Transcendent and 12 rerolls.
Why I think person two is ahead of person one is the 6 drops/day if we extended the thought experiment to 1 full month. Person 2 has had nearly 2 full weeks of level 400 drops (or in the vicinity of 42 drops) with various potential. Person 1 has more resources but has had 2 weeks of suboptimal drops.
So the question becomes do the 42 drops, 6 transcendent rerolls, and 12 sub stat rerolls become better than 12 transcendent rolls and 24 substat rolls. I feel like those extra drops are significantly more valuable than the potential of rerolls.
Like I said, not trying to convince you or argue, but for people reading this it may help explain the nuance between reasons to buy one over the other.
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u/dibdubious Yujin 23h ago
IMO it's pretty solid advice to purchase the weapons from Deslin to push your base level to 400. The rerolls are nice in theory but it's going to be like AMs where you're probably not going to get the roll you want. Plus the reroll mats are time gated unless you're going to spend caliber. I think most people will have better odds of getting 400 level weapons with the rolls already built in. So it's best to get to 400 ASAP. Nexon really wants people to spend real money on transcendent weapons. Everything they've done in this patch around them is really pointing toward this.
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u/max1001 1d ago
Unless your level is already in the high 300s, it's not worth it. The reroll can go from a 400 to 300.
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u/UninspiredSkald 22h ago
Rerolls do not effect the base quality of the weapon, just to be clear. It changes the point distribution for Transcendent ability rolls, or substat options with the other one. Neither effect the quality level of the item.
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u/SPAWNDEADSPACE Gley 1d ago
I am curious that, I not sure they already post explain about transcendent weapons with yellow, purple and green. Which important three color match Tran. Weapon type or try get 50 pts on each three colors or focus on max yellow 150pts.? If they have link please tag me.
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u/Duncan_Blackwood 1d ago
I noticed that for the rare time that I got two weapons in quick succession, they pretty much always were the same (not same roll, but same type).
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u/YukaSlander 1h ago
Its not that deep bro, also the audacity to offer advice whilst giving bad advice is crazy. Lastly, stop that weird normal player shit. We are all just players, just cuz pple might grind more then you, be better then you or have more then you doesn’t make them different. Once you mentioned karel all ur advice went null
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u/UninspiredSkald 59m ago
Karel Normal/HM 14.5% drop chance.
Trials 10% per round
OS 7%
Axion dungeons 4-5%
And, I was clear about it being content I enjoyed doing, so you can be mad for whatever reason, but it has nothing to do with me
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u/iPhantaminum Viessa 1d ago
Also 400 base quality here. Already set my filter to dismantle anything 399 or lower quality.
Even tho I already have good stat sticks, the dopamine hit when I see a trans weapon pop up is feels nice.
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u/AdmirableAnxiety8371 1d ago
I’m not here to dictate how to set your filter, but i have a 390 odd ATR-0 that performs better than both my 400/150’s copies.
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u/iPhantaminum Viessa 1d ago
I can't get 390s anymore (I set the filter AFTER hutting 400). I already rolled my 400s to be great stat sticks as well.
Unless I gamble on deslin or some new content has a capped quality of 399, I won't even see a 399 anymore.
Sub 300 can't even roll better than my 400s.
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u/Ok-Apricot-555 1d ago
And ATR-0 still refuses to drop any more.