How to fix preparing shaders error in The First Descendant

Update your graphic card drivers

There’s a good chance that an outdated driver is behind this particular error. Nvidia’s 556.12 update is a must-have if you’re going to play The First Descendant. It includes improvements specifically for this game. Nvidia GPU owners can update their drivers by going to the GeForce Experience application, picking the Drivers tab, and then the ‘Check for updates’ option. AMD and Intel graphics card users can do this via AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition and Intel Arc Control. 

Lower Intel core performance and update your BIOS

While some players reported that this helped them during the game’s beta, it’s worth trying in the full release as well. This tends to happen in Unreal Engine games when the CPU draws too much power from the motherboard. To fix this on Intel systems, use the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility and lower the ‘Performance Core Ratio’ option. If it doesn’t change anything, revert the changes. Naturally, AMD Ryzen CPU users can’t use this solution to resolve the compiling shaders error. Another option you can consider is updating your motherboard BIOS as firmware updates might help with power consumption.

Check for updates and verify the integrity of game files

The 1.02 hotfix released recently so remember to update to the latest version. While some players have experienced longer load times after doing so, online games expect their players to stay updated or risk losing access to the game. If you’re still facing crashing issues, you can verify the integrity of game files on Steam:

• Right-click The First Descendant and select ‘Properties’.
• Head over to the ‘Installed Files’ tab and select the ‘Verify integrity of game files’.
• This will re-download any missing game files. If this doesn’t work, consider reinstalling the game.

Keep an eye out for official communication

While this isn’t a direct solution, Nexon alerts players to common issues on their The First Descendant X (formerly Twitter) account. They’re usually prompt in fixing these so you can expect frequent errors to be resolved in a couple of hours. When the game launched, the servers were hit pretty hard and players received compensation for outages in the form of bonus XP and resource tokens.

Limit your FPS and turn off Ray Tracing in-game

In the Settings menu in-game, head to the Graphics tab and select the Maximum Frame Rate option. Set it to 60 at first. Once the game loads up, you can revert it back to your monitor’s refresh rate. Some players on the Steam community forums note that this resolved the preparing shaders issue for them. Consider switching off Ray Tracing as well as it can be demanding, even on modern hardware.