What to do when you run out of ammo in The First Descendant

Running out of ammo while fighting in The First Descendant is frequent and annoying. It doesn't seem to matter how you modify your guns, you're going to find yourself being chased by Vulgus while you try to get to the nearby teleportation point. If this is something that's happened to you, find out what to do when you run out of ammo right here!

How to avoid running out of ammo in The First Descendant

If you're running around doing a lot of battlefield missions or taking on bosses, you will experience the pain of running out of ammo and having the "Insufficient Rounds" pop-up flashing at you.

Unless you're playing a mission solo, there's little reason to waste your ammo by panicking or just shooting at your enemy without thinking strategically. Boss enemies have weakpoints that you can hit to do significantly more damage, so keep that in mind and make the most of what you've got.

Also, you might think that taking three guns with high-power rounds will help you complete the mission, but the truth is that purple rounds are rarely dropped by enemies. This means that you'll need to run to a Support Droid or hope that you can find an ammunition cache before your Descendant bites the dust.

Note if you see red items that look like ammo on the floor, those are for HP. Blue is for MP.

What is the best ammo setup?

When you're thinking about which guns to take with you on a mission, consider choosing at least one with white rounds, one with orange or green, and one with purple if you really need to include a high-powered weapon. Personally, I avoid taking guns with purple rounds with me because they run out much faster.

The best setup is one gun with white rounds, one with green rounds, and one with orange rounds. By choosing this setup, you'll be able to reload your bullets from enemy drops with ease.

How ammo works in The First Decendant

Here is a quick table showing which guns use each type of ammo:

It's important to know that the color shown on the weapons in your inventory does not represent the ammo it needs. You can see the type of ammo needed by hovering over the weapon and looking for the bullet symbols on the right of the pop-up box.

The color shown around the top of each gun's box is the rarity of the gun. Purple is rare; blue is standard.

Where to get more ammo in The First Descendant

Ammo runs out during combat, and there's nowhere to buy it so that you have a back-up stock of bullets.

Here are the few places you can find more ammo:

• Pick it up from enemy drops during missions.
• Get it from Support Droids during missions.
• Reload from Support Droids next to teleportation points.

Other features that affect your ammo usage in The First Descendant

Weapon modifications

It's important to understand that there aren't any weapon modifications that reduce the number of bullets you use or increase how many you have from one set of ammo.

However, there are modifications that increase the attack power of your gun. This should, theoretically, mean that you'll use less ammo while completing missions. Of course, if you're the kind of player who just aims and shoots without considering ammo use, it won't matter much.

Weapon Proficiency rating

Weapon Proficiency is a leveling system for all of your guns in The First Descendant. It tracks how much experience you've accumulated with each of your weapons. 

Every weapon in First Descendant has a Weapon Proficiency rating that you can increase as you play. All weapons start with a Proficiency rating of 0, and the maximum Proficiency Level caps out at level 40. You'll notice that all weapons with the same name share their Proficiency level, so you won't need to level up two separate Nightmare Hound Scout Rifles, for example.

To increase your Weapon Proficiency, you just need to have the weapon equipped to one of your three weapon slots and be using it during battles. You can level up your Weapon Proficiency alongside your Descendant Level pretty easily (check out the Kingston Albion Resource Defence mission, which is a wave-by-wave enemy encounter mission).

Your choice of Descendant

Enzo is the only Descendant that can buff your ammo usage in the game. When you play as him, you'll benefit from having more ammo for yourself and any team members who are working with you.

As you can see from the screenshot above, Enzo's Passive Skill offers between 10% and 20% extra ammo for your weapons (depending on the type of rounds that they use). You'll also gain an additional 4% for each Ally or Squad member that you're playing with.

If ammo is your biggest concern, Enzo should be the descendant that you aim to unlock.

Now that you know more about ammo in the game — because it tells you absolutely nothing about them when you're a new player — you should be able to make it to the end of a fight with ammo to spare.

Want to read more Pro Game Guides for The First Descendant? Try our guide on How to fix Caliber not showing in The First Descendant or How to unlock all trophies in The First Descendant.