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The First Descendant players are eating well after the latest update. Among the many improvements that patch 1.1.6 brought, the newly improved Resource Defense missions are a major winner. With the new system, you can grind out weapon levels much faster than before, thanks to shortened waves and increased density of common and commander monsters. Players are ecstatic about the change, though some worry that won’t bring lost numbers.
New defense missions are a win, but can they win back those who left?
During the Reddit discussion about the newly improved defense missions, most players raised some positive points. For instance, Ukis4boys commented that they were able to level up their weapon to 34 in 8 minutes, which is an impressive feat in itself. Some have pointed out that these missions need more challenges or new modifiers to shake things up, though overall nearly everyone loves the changes. Bigodon99 shared their success with the revamped mission: “Bring a Freyna with Contagion build, activate a weapon XP boost and see the sweetness happening. Today I levelled up my weapons 3 times – she absolutely destroyed and melted everything. With this, you can carry [an] all under-levelled party. She will not do things alone outside Kingston Defense, but with her, life is 99% easier on all other missions.”
However, the main discussion soon diverted to the question posed by Eden-star: “We keep saying these updates are a W but the player count keeps going down. There needs to be difficulty. Freyna and Bunny should not be shutting down the entire map so that not only are non-Freyna and Bunny [players getting] a chance to do anything, but MOBS are not even doing anything.”
We can infer that the two main points revolve around player numbers going down and that being caused by a lack of difficulty. Many Redditors hurried to disagree in some way, or rather to offer their perspectives. Nermon666 offers a pretty healthy explanation: “Player count is going to go down because the correct thing to do is to stop playing when you’ve done everything. Honestly, by now you shouldn’t have done everything – it means you are playing an unhealthy amount to have everything done by now.”
The whole subthread is an interesting read, delving deep into different players’ outlooks on what the game should be like to attract more players. Our favourite comment is a short and simple one from DooceBigalo: “Stop looking at player counts.” While player retention is important, The First Descendant still has a very active player base. Like most MMO-like games with cyclical content, there will be peaks and drops in engagement.
For more on The First Descendant, check out this crazy Esiemo build to try out and one-shot bosses.
