What you need to know
- The First Descendant is a brand new, MMORPG looter shooter game that is taking the video game community by storm.
- However, on the second day of its official release, The First Descendant's servers experienced significant issues.
- Many players reported being unable to connect to the game at all, with others reporting sporadic disconnects even in the middle of missions.
- After multiple outages and two rounds of server maintenance, it looks like The First Descendant is finally back (and players are being compensated for the inconvenience).
Update, July 3, 2024 — Updated now that the second round of server maintenance for The First Descendant has concluded.
The First Descendant has been barely playable for its second day, but the server issues are (hopefully) now fully resolved. Nexon has completed its second round of server maintenance on the game and The First Descendant is back online. I can confirm that you can login without any lag or delay.
As compensation for the hours of downtime today, Nexon is gifting all players who log on over the next five days a 3-day, 30% profit boost for Gold, Kuiper Shards, Descendant XP, and Weapon XP. Players can redeem their compensation rewards from the mailbox at HQ, and the boosts will be activated immediately upon redemption.
Hopefully the third day will be much easier for The First Descendant, who needs a strong win to secure a healthy future. If you want to get all the details about the whole situation, read our Original article and updates Continue straight down.
Server maintenance has been completed, and gameplay is now available. We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the extended maintenance and have prepared to provide compensation. For more information: https://t.co/BIpy88Rx2j ■ Maintenance completed07/03 (Wed) 20:25 PDT…July 4, 2024
Update, July 3, 2024 — Updated due to The First Descendant server issues resurfacing.
If you're reading this, you're probably like me — still experiencing server issues with The First Descendant. Nexon warned that there would be some temporary server instability when the game came back online, but players (including me) are experiencing more than just simple instability. The previous server connection issue that prevented players from getting past the main menu is making its ugly appearance again.
Hopefully this is actually just a temporary side effect of all the work Nexon did on The First Descendant servers today, and that our hours of (involuntary) patience will result in healthier, more stable servers going forward. For now, however, it looks like day two of The First Descendant is going to be filled with server outages and problems, with players once again being prevented from even setting foot in Ingris.
Update, July 3, 2024 — Updated now that The First Descendant's servers are back online.
The Descendants have been waiting a long time to resume the war against Vulgus, and it seems the gates are starting to open once again. The First Descendant team at Nexon has confirmed that the servers are coming back online and players will be able to try to connect again, but there is a caveat.
According to Nexon, the issue with Microsoft's Azure network is still not 100% resolved, so some players may still experience server instability while playing The First Descendant. Hopefully these problems are uncommon and will be fixed quickly. Either way, it looks like we're finally on the other side of The First Descendant's first dip into server hell.
(Update) 07/03(Wed) Reported game connection issues# PDT 2024.07.03(Wed) 12:05 – Server is now open. MS Network is not fully recovered, you may experience server instabilityJuly 3, 2024
Update, July 3, 2024 — Updated with a new notice from Nexon's First Descendant team.
A few hours later, we finally got our first proper update from Nexon's The First Descendant team. According to the update (which you can see below), the server outages affecting the game were “primarily” caused by an error in Microsoft's network. The use of the word “primarily” suggests that there may be other problems that need to be resolved.
As for the rest of the update, it could be argued that The First Descendant uses Microsoft Azure for its server infrastructure (along with hundreds of other games, companies, and products). Apparently, an external problem on that end is contributing to The First Descendant server outages. The Nexon team is waiting for Microsoft to resolve that issue.
It's unclear if this is related to the Xbox network server outage that occurred yesterday, a direct link to which is provided below.
(Update) 07/03(Wed) Report on game connection issues# PDT 2024.07.03(Wed) 00:00 – We have found that the connection issue is mainly caused by a MS network error and we are waiting for MS to fix it. We will report once it is fixed.July 3, 2024
Update, July 3, 2024 — Updated with the latest development that The First Descendant is being moved into “maintenance mode.”
So that you don't feel like I left you out, here's a brief update on the First Descendant server outage. For some time now, the game has been in official maintenance mode initiated by the Nexon team, so you won't even be able to access the main menu.
This offline maintenance mode is a deliberate move by Nexon, and it will likely continue until all backend server issues are resolved, after which the game will be online again.
Update, July 3, 2024 — Updated with response from The First Descendant team.
Now it's time for a quick update! Less than five minutes after this post was published, Nexon's First Descendants team posted an update on Twitter (or X, whatever) acknowledging ongoing server issues, so we're officially under no illusions of an outage. It looks like the team is investigating the cause and working on a fix – hopefully we won't have to wait long until the servers are back online.
We've detected that game connections are temporarily unavailable. ■ Description – Game connection error We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this error. We're working urgently to identify the cause and resolve it. Once it's resolved, we'll issue a prompt notice. pic.twitter.com/Qk98RZUhFBJuly 3, 2024
For a moment it seemed like The First Descendant would narrowly avoid the almost inevitable launch day issues of many major multiplayer game releases, but the impact was simply delayed. We're heading into the second day of this co-op looter shooter's existence, and the servers have suddenly taken a turn for the worse, leaving many Descendants completely unable to log into Ingrid.
To be precise, players starting the game for the first time are experiencing a never-ending, repeated error code when attempting to connect to the game servers and are unable to proceed beyond the main menu. Players who were in the game – even in the middle of missions – experienced sudden disconnects, leaving them in similar locations to players who were logging in for the first time today. It's unclear if all players are affected, but the outage is evident on social media (and it has affected the Windows Central team as well).
Right now, we're waiting for either the server issues to resolve themselves or for Nexon's First Descendants team to acknowledge the issues and start looking for solutions. So far, neither of these has happened, and we have no solution to avoid server outages.
However, we'll keep you posted on the situation, as we're also definitely interested in rejoining the fight. You can check out some of The First Descendant's other known issues and launch bugs for other problems players are facing, but none of the issues are as serious as a full-blown server outage.
To be honest, I fully expected the server issues to come to a head sooner, so as long as The First Descendant's team works diligently and transparently to restore the game, The First Descendant's chances of becoming one of the best Xbox games won't diminish. However, it is disappointing, given that the Xbox network experienced an outage just yesterday.
When The First Descendant comes back online, be sure to check out our guide to setting up cross-play and cross-saves in The First Descendant so you can play with your friends. If you're looking into this for the first time, you might be better off with our The First Descendant character tier list or our general purpose The First Descendant FAQ.
The servers might be down right now, but The First Descendant is available now on Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One, Windows PC via Steam, or PlayStation 5 or 4, and you can download it here Free at Microsoft Store (Xbox),