What you need to know
- The First Descendant is a brand new MMORPG looter shooter that is making waves in the video game community.
- However, on the second day of its official release, The First Descendant’s servers experienced many issues.
- Many players reported being unable to connect to the game at all, while others reported being disconnected intermittently, even in the middle of a mission.
- 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 — Now updated, the second round of server maintenance for The First Descendant is over.
The First Descendant was barely playable for the entire second day, but the server issues have (hopefully) been resolved. Nexon has completed the second round of server maintenance on the game and The First Descendant is back online. I can confirm that you can log in without any delays or latency.
To compensate for the hours of downtime today, Nexon is giving all players who log in over the next five days a collection of 3-day, 30% gain boosts to Gold, Kuiper Shard, Descendant XP, and Weapon XP. Players can redeem their compensation rewards via the mailbox on HQ, and the boosts will be activated immediately upon redemption.
Hopefully, day three will go a lot smoother for The First Descendant, who needs a strong win to secure a healthy future. If you want all the details on the whole situation as it unfolded, our original article and updates Continue directly below.
Server maintenance has been completed and gameplay is now available. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the extended maintenance and have prepared compensation. For more information: https://t.co/BIpy88Rx2j■ Maintenance Completed07/03 (Wed) 20:25 PDT…July 4, 2024
Update, July 3, 2024 — Updated as there are issues with the First Descendant server again.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably like me — still experiencing server issues with The First Descendant. Nexon warned that there would be server instability for a while when the game came back online, but players (myself included) are experiencing more than just instability. The previous server connectivity issue that left players unable to even get past the main menu has reared its ugly head again.
Hopefully this really is a temporary side effect of all the work Nexon likely had to do on The First Descendant’s servers today, and our hours of (involuntary) patience will result in healthier, more stable servers in the future. For now, it looks like day two of The First Descendant is going to be dominated by server outages and issues, with players once again being prevented from even setting foot in Ingris.
Update, July 3, 2024 — Now that The First Descendant servers are back online, the update is available.
Descendants have been waiting a long time to resume the war against the Vulgus, and it looks like the gates are opening again. The First Descendant team at Nexon has confirmed that the servers are coming back online and players can try to connect again, but there is a caveat.
According to Nexon, the issue with Microsoft’s Azure network still hasn’t been 100% resolved, so some players may still experience server instability when playing The First Descendant. Hopefully, these issues are rare and will be resolved soon. Either way, it looks like we’re finally on the other side of The First Descendant’s initial descent into server hell.
(Update) 07/03(Wed) Game connection issues message# PDT 2024.07.03(Wed) 12:05 – Server is now open. MS Network is not fully recovered, you may experience unstable server statusJuly 3, 2024
Update, July 3, 2024 — Updated with a new message from the First Descendant team at Nexon.
Hours later, and we finally have our first real update from The First Descendant team over at Nexon. According to the update (which you can see below), the server outages still affecting the game were “primarily due” to an error with Microsoft’s network. The use of the word “primarily” suggests that there may be other issues that need to be addressed as well.
As for the rest of the update, it makes sense that The First Descendant is using Microsoft Azure for its server infrastructure (alongside hundreds of other games, companies, and products). Apparently, an external issue on that side is contributing to The First Descendant’s server outage. The Nexon team is apparently waiting for that issue to be resolved by Microsoft.
It’s unclear if this has anything to do with the Xbox Network server outage that occurred yesterday, linked directly below.
(Update) 07/03(Wed) Game connection issues notification# PDT 2024.07.03(Wed) 00:00 – We have discovered that the connection issue is mainly due to MS network error and we are waiting for MS to fix it. We will post a notification once it is fixed.July 3, 2024
Update, July 3, 2024 — Updated with the latest development, namely that The First Descendant is going into a “maintenance mode”.
Lest you think I’ve left you hanging, here’s a quick update on The First Descendant’s server outage. The game has been in an official maintenance mode initiated by the Nexon team for a while now, so you can’t even get to the main menu.
This offline maintenance mode is a deliberate choice by Nexon and will likely remain until all backend server issues are resolved, at which point the game will come back online.
Update, July 3, 2024 — Updated with response from the First Descendant team.
Time for a quick update! Less than five minutes after this post went live, Nexon’s First Descendant team posted an update on Twitter (or X, whatever) acknowledging the ongoing server issues, so we’re not officially hallucinating about the outage. It does appear that the team is investigating the cause and working on a fix – hopefully we won’t have to wait long for the servers to come back online.
We’ve noticed that game connections are temporarily unavailable. ■ Details- Game Connection ErrorWe apologize for any inconvenience caused by this error. We’re working quickly to identify the cause and resolve it. We’ll let you know once it’s resolved. pic.twitter.com/Qk98RZUhFBJuly 3, 2024
For a moment, it seemed like The First Descendant would narrowly avoid the almost inevitable launch-day woes that plague many major multiplayer game releases, but the effect was only delayed. We’re now into the co-op looter shooter’s second day of existence and its servers have suddenly gone bad, leaving many Descendants unable to access Ingris at all.
To be specific, players who are new to the game are experiencing an endless, looping error code when they first try to connect to the game servers, and are unable to get past the main menu. Players who were in the game – even in the middle of a mission – are experiencing sudden disconnections, ending up in the same places as players who logged in for the first time today. It’s unclear if all players are affected, but the outage is clearly visible on social media (and it has also affected the Windows Central team).
At this point, we are either waiting for the server issues to resolve themselves or for the First Descendant team at Nexon to acknowledge the issues and work around them. So far, that has not happened and we are not aware of any workarounds to the server outage.
We’ll keep you updated on the situation, as we’re certainly interested in getting back up and running. You can check out some of The First Descendant’s other known issues and launch bugs for more problems players are encountering, but none are as bad as a complete server outage.
To be honest, I was expecting server issues to crop up sooner rather than later, so as long as The First Descendant team works diligently and transparently to fix the game, it shouldn’t hurt The First Descendant’s chances of being one of the best games on Xbox. It is frustrating, though, considering the Xbox Network went down yesterday.
When The First Descendant comes back online, be sure to check out our guide on how to set up cross-play and cross-save in The First Descendant so you can play with your friends. If this is your first time, you may be better off checking out our The First Descendant character tier list or even our general The First Descendant FAQ.
The servers may 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 free in Microsoft Store (Xbox).