Performance in video games is something that tends to get people talking, especially for PC gamers. Fine-tuning settings to your liking in as many ways as possible can be something people obsess about, and The First Descendant players might have good reason to. It might not be all about finding the right balance of visual fidelity and smooth gameplay anymore, as users have found that your in-game framerate directly affects your damage output.
Finding the right The First Descendant graphics settings for you can take some time, as the game offers PC users an array of options to tinker with. But for those seeking the highest DPS (damage per second) possible, maybe just stick everything on low.
Damage per second is influenced by your framerate in The First Descendant
As one user puts it: “Better grind for better hardware irl to get over the framerate paywall”. Well, we wouldn’t quite go to that extreme (unless you are actually in desperate need of an upgrade), but it does sort of present a dilemma for hardcore The First Descendant players. In a YouTube video by Ryechews Games, tests show that higher FPS leads to increased fire rate, improving damage tick time – resulting in overall higher DPS.
Top 5 Cyber Monday deals
This year's Cyber Monday has officially kickstarted, offering up huge discounts on some of the market's leading tech products. Below, we'll list the best Cyber Monday deals we can find.
- Samsung Odyssey G9 OLED Curved gaming monitor - WAS $1,599.99 NOW $949.99 Save - $350
- LG C3 Series 65-Inch Class OLED - WAS $1,499.99 NOW $1,196.99 Save - $70
- AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 6-Core - WAS $299.99 NOW $186.97 Save - $330
- Beats Stuydio Buds - WAS $178 NOW $99 Save - $300
- Bose QuietComfort Bluetooth 5.1 Headphones - WAS $349 NOW $199 Save - $150
Prices and savings subject to change. Click through to get the current deal prices.
With this in mind, it is advised that you lower your settings a little in order to achieve a smoother framerate, and in turn more damage output. Or you can just snap up the best GPU for The First Desendant if you have the cash to throw away for some extra DPS. Turning off V-Sync is also advised, so you can prioritize high FPS over sticking to your monitor’s refresh rate.
This all came about due to testing of different weapons seemingly showing inconsistent fire rates, different from what is listed on the gun’s stats. As per the testing, a difference between 40 frames per second and 120 frames per second equated to a 25% difference in damage, which is fairly significant over the course of a long battle.
As some players have pointed out though, it’s a trade-off. Although you are doing more damage, you are likely taking more damage too. That’s because this framerate issue, in theory, should go both ways – incoming damage will also be tied to framerate. So, unless you want to set up a toggle bind to lower your FPS when reloading and squeeze out every advantage you can get (like some kind of speedrunner), there is a downside to think about.
On the plus side, the game is PvE only, so no competitive advantage in PvP can be gained here – that would be annoying.
