What does weapon proficiency do in The First Descendant?

What is weapon proficiency?

Weapon proficiency (WP) is a level system that tracks how familiar you are with a weapon. To check this value, simply enter your Inventory and hover your pointer over a weapon to see a progress bar with the current WP level. To see this level for all your gear, head to the Weapons List tab in your inventory. You can increase this value from level 0 simply by playing the game and using the gun to take down enemies. It’s tracked separately for every kind of gun. 

So while your Thunder Cage SMG and Tamer machine gun will have different bars to fill, a new Thunder Cage weapon will have the same level as the former. You can raise this value to a max level of 40. This isn’t the same thing as levelling weapons up to enhance their base stats.

Take enemies out to earn proficiency. Image captured by VideoGamer.

Void Intercept battles give you a ton of XP. Image captured by VideoGamer.

Use boosters to earn more XP. Image captured by VideoGamer.

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How to increase weapon proficiency fast

Here’s how you can raise this level faster:

• Take on high-level enemies while holding the gun: As you unlock new regions, you’ll gain access to tougher enemies and better rewards. Instead of grinding basic missions at Kingston or Vespers, try high-density activities in the Agna Desert or the White-night Gulch. Instead, you could also try the Anticipated Ambush Mission in the Rockfall Zone of The Sterile Lands as it throws waves of increasingly harder foes at you. And while you earn some proficiency for simply keeping a weapon in your loadout, use it directly to earn the most WP XP. 
• Clear Void Intercept bosses: These foes have massive health bars and will grant you a good amount of weapon XP once you defeat them.
• Use a bonus XP token: +30% weapon proficiency XP boosters can be obtained from the battle pass or purchased for Caliber.
• Equip reactors that boost WP gain: Some reactors have modifiers that let you earn more proficiency from using weapons. Use these to improve the slow trickle of WP experience.
• Pick Descendants with AoE attacks: Abilities also give your equipped weapons some XP. So characters like Bunny can decimate mobs and rack up experience fast.

Why increase weapon proficiency?

Here are the main reasons why it’s worth investing in WP:

• Max WP guns can use Crystallization Catalysts: Raising a weapon to the max proficiency level of 40 lets you use a Crystallization Catalyst to add a module socket type to your weapon’s module slots. This doesn’t need a workbench. If you slot in a module with the same symbol as the socket type, the module cost is cut in half. This would let you use even more stat-raising mods in your loadout. Note that this resets your WP of a weapon back to level 0, acting as a prestige system. 
• Boost your Mastery Rank: Becoming familiar with more guns also raises your Mastery Rank, letting you get more inventory space and additional module slots for your characters.