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- To earn Gold fast, play Special Operations, the main campaign, short missions, and Hard Defense missions.
Gold is one of the many resources you can find in The First Descendant. While you don’t have to spend real money on it, you’ll take a while to rack up enough to unlock new Descendants and weapons. If you want to keep your gold reserves growing at a steady rate, you’ll have to pick the right missions to spend your time on. After comparing gold drop rates across a variety of missions, we’ve compiled a handy list of the best gold sources in the game.
How to farm Gold fast
Here are our recommended methods to earn Gold quickly in the game:
- Play Special Operations
- Clear campaign missions
- Repeat short missions in a region
- Finish Defense missions in Hard mode
Some of these might not be available right from the start so you’ll have to play through the campaign to get here. You’ll also want to farm Kuiper Shards to keep your modules upgraded. These raise key stats like Firearm attack and your character’s Health. While you’ll gain experience naturally through any of these methods, check out our level up guide to get strong enough to finish off Void Intercept bosses fast like the Executioner. Now let’s get to how each of these gold farming methods work in-game.
Play Special Operations
Gold can be accumulated by taking down hordes of enemies across game modes and missions. Special Operations provide you exactly that, with waves of increasingly powerful AI opponents. Access these from the golden globe near Albion’s starting area or the World Map. Our top pick is the Block Kuiper Mining Special Operation in the Sterile Land. In addition to the Gold you earn from beating foes, the mission rewards you with Gold for clearing a set number of waves. In this example, clearing four waves nets you a neat 100K Gold. This reward increases as you clear more waves. Clearing wave eight has a 50% chance of dropping 150K Gold. But don’t hesitate to quit when the enemies get too overwhelming as you get to keep the partial rewards you earn.
Clear campaign missions
While the forgettable main story isn’t an ideal way to earn Gold, it opens up new regions and points you towards new Void Intercept battles at Seneca’s post in Albion. You also get to rank up your Mastery Rank this way. Regions offer new threats and higher-level enemies, letting you earn more Gold and gear faster. The storyline also has a decent mix of short and long quests, keeping things from going stale. Some missions you’ll encounter can be done in a couple of minutes so focus on those later if you’re low on Gold. If you think you have a decent Gold reserve, wait till you start weighing the pros and cons of Ultimate vs normal Descendants. The former have ridiculous Gold costs of almost a million per part.
Repeat short missions in a region
We strongly recommend clearing the Anticipated Ambush Point mission repeatedly in the Sterile Land region. You can clear it in under a minute if you pick Bunny and focus on AoE damage. Doing this over and over again will let you earn the mission’s Gold reward and pick up gear from fallen combatants. While there’s a timer that prevents you from doing this repeatedly, YouTuber Osterberg501 discovered that fast travel between zones reset this. While it isn’t a glitch, rely on instance hopping to zip between missions near-instantly.
Even if you want to sell the items you find for Gold, we suggest dismantling them instead for crafting resources as you can get Gold via other means. And remember to pair your Gold grind with hunts for rare resources that unlock new Descendants like Valby and ultimate weapons. The items necessary for this and their locations will be listed in your Access Info tab, accessed from the map.
Finish Defense missions in Hard mode
Once you unlock Hard mode by finishing the main storyline (Heart of the Fortress quest), you’ll get access to exclusive rewards and higher drop rates for items like Shape Stabilizers. Regions will also get unique modifiers that influence enemies. The best part is that your Gold rates are enhanced as well, making regular farming options even more tempting. Defense missions like the Albion Resource Defense mission in Kingston or the one at Echo Swamp are good places to earn a consistent amount of Gold. Hard mode makes this an even better use of your time.
About the Author
The First Descendant
- Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- Genre(s): Action, Adventure, RPG
