Co-op looter shooter The First Descendant gets 3 days of increased XP and gold gains to appease fans after launch issues lead to 'Mixed' start on Steam

Nexon apologizes for The First Descendant's launch issues by offering increased XP, gold, and other bonuses to players for a limited time due to various technical problems and negative early user reviews.

Nexon is apologizing for the launch issues of its new co-op looter shooter, The First Descendant, by offering players bonuses like increased XP and gold gains for a limited time.

The First Descendant looked like a hit on Steam yesterday, July 2, when it dethroned FromSoftware's Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree from Steam's top-seller spot. However, only 43% of user reviews at the time recommended the game, with issues like microtransaction practices and technical problems souring players on the overall experience.

Shortly after launch, developer Nexon outlined all known issues on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S platforms in the tweet below. The First Descendant is facing many problems right now, including frame rate drops, Easy Anti-Cheat not functioning correctly, consumable items not working properly, and in-game challenges not tracking as they should.

Here are some known issues that were found after the official launch on July 2nd. We'll continuously update this notice with any additional issues and bugs that are found during July, so please keep track of the updates during your game play. ✅https://t.co/NYTk0l6s10 pic.twitter.com/YTWyWRnrItJuly 2, 2024

As an apology for said issues, Nexon announced compensation for The First Descendant players in the tweet below. For three days, players can now earn increased gold, XP, and Kyper Shards, as well as boosted XP for weapon masteries. Finally, there'll also be two matte red paints for players to collect. Once the boosts are collected from your in-game mailbox, they'll immediately activate.

📢 We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused during the opening day. As a token of our apology, we have prepared compensation for you. We will continue to strive to provide a more stable service.For Details: https://t.co/YdQBIS8x8J■ Compensation Details- Gold Gain… pic.twitter.com/osbMF4lK3wJuly 3, 2024

At the time of writing, The First Descendant now has 12,466 user reviews on Steam, and 46% of said reviews are positive about the new shooter. A lot of issues, from the latest reviews, seem to be concerning shaders, where the shooter immediately crashes when trying to compile shaders for players. 

This whole situation brings to mind Kuro Games' Wuthering Waves, which launched earlier this year in May with a torrent of technical issues and other problems. Wuthering Waves' developer rolled out similar compensation for players, repeatedly in fact, as launch issues weren't immediately quashed and left a sour taste in players' mouths for weeks on end.

Take a look at our new games 2024 guide if The First Descendant isn't quite holding your attention right now.