The First Descendant's next big update with new weapons, Luna, and Ultimate Valby now has a release date

What you need to know

• Alongside the release of hotfix 1.0.3, Nexon has confirmed the date for the next content drop coming to The First Descendant.
• On August 1, the final pre-season content will arrive, with Luna and Ultimate Valby being added to the Descendant roster, alongside new Ultimate Weapons, and more.
• The latest hotfix adds an AFK option to the player report tool as Nexon tries to learn more about the issue with AFK farming.

Nexon has today deployed hotfix 1.0.3 to The First Descendant with an extensive list of patch notes , but more exciting is news of when we're getting new content.

The current roadmap promised "early August" for the final drop of the current "pre-season" before Season 1 Episode: Invasion lands later in the month. We now have confirmation that early August is actually August 1. You can't get any earlier than that.

"Last but not least, we are planning to skip the patch next week for the upcoming 5th week update on August 1st. Please look forward to the new Descendant Luna and Ultimate Valby, new intercept battles, new ultimate weapons, modules, external components, and skins on August 1st."

In this content drop, we'll be getting two new Descendants to unlock; Luna and Ultimate Valby. As with the existing characters, I expect you'll be able to unlock them for free by grinding out the parts to research them, or if you're impatient, buy them from the in-game shop for real money.

Besides this we're also promised new Ultimate Weapons, modules, components and cosmetics. We're also eagerly awaiting the next Void Intercept battle, with a new boss that so far we only know is called Gluttony. There's no word if this will be a normal difficulty boss or a hard mode one, but we don't have much longer to wait.

The hotfix applies a host of patches to the game, but one of the more interesting ones that players will want to know about surrounds AFK farmers. This refers to players who load into a mission and do absolutely nothing, allowing the rest of the team to clear it right up until the final boss, all the while gaining character and weapon progression XP. I've only encountered one of these myself, but it's clear it's a problem, and the first step to remedying it has been made.

Nexon wants to gather as much data as it can before making any changes, such as allowing players to vote to kick, after all, that could also be abused. But from this latest patch there is now an option to report a player as AFK. So make sure to use it.

The full patch notes are extensive, so give them a read at your leisure. Or just ignore it and jump back in now the servers are up again. It's up to you.