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The First Descendanthas released its first season, bringing a new game mode, Descendant, and seasonal progression system. This progression system mimics borrowed power elements seen in most live-service titles, giving players a way to spec for situational damage buffs and utility effects.
This is all done through the Inversion Reinforcement Device, a sort of account-bound artifact that amplifies your Descendant’s abilities. Earn Ironheart Particles by completing seasonal content, and you’ll be able to unlock a suite of new passive effects and exclusive perks. Let’s go over how this game’s version of a seasonal artifact works, how to unlock it, and briefly explain how each perk works.
How To Unlock The Inversion Reinforcement Device
The Inversion Reinforcement Device (IRD for short) is unlocked through theSeasonal Questline, which starts with “Mysterious Phenomena” in Albion. You’ll need to complete the main campaign and unlock Hard mode before you can start this quest.Some sections of this quest are also quite difficult, so ensure you have a max level Descendant and weapon.
Researching the IRD is done through the “Altered Design” quest in Albion. Upon conversing with HQ, talk to Anais about forging the Inversion Reinforcement Device. This will unlock the IRD for the entire season, allowing you to level the device to unlock seasonal perks.The IRD resets at the end of the season, so make the most out of it.
How Inversion Reinforcement Works
Simply put,the Inversion Reinforcement Device is a grid of passive effects that last for the entire season.These passives are displayed in a grid broken up into rows and columns. The IRD’s passives are tiered by columns. For example, column two is locked until you spend a point in the first column. It’s virtually identical toDestiny 2’sseasonal artifact.
You may only havethree perksenabled at a time. Activate perks cannot be in the same row.
Each row of the IRD represents a certain perk type:
Unlocking Perks
Unlocking a perk is fairly easy.As you earn Ironheart Particles from seasonal content, you’ll earn perk points for the Inversion Device.These points are used to unlock new perk options. Bear in mind thatyou must enable that perk to receive any benefits; they don’t do anything by default. You can only have three perks enabled at a time, and each passive must sit in a different row—you can’t have three Hunt perks active, for example.
Like Destiny 2, you can also respec your IRD at any time.You can deselect perks from the Inversion Reinforcement menu, allowing you to respec your IRD.Doing so doesn’t cost anything, so feel free to make changes as you see fit.
Each row is divided into five columns, four of which are toggleable perks.Once you unlock every perk in a row, you will unlock a passive that isalwaysactive.For example, unlocking all passives in the Hunt row will give you the Enhanced Pain Suppression passive, reducing all damage you receive while any Hunt perk is enabled. Fifth-column passives arealwaysactive; they don’t need to be toggled and don’t contribute towards the three-perk limit.
Requires a fully unlocked row
Each stack grants +3.7% HP and -0.9% DEF.
Each stack grants +3.3% Shield and -0.9% DEF.
Each stack grants +3% MP and -1% Skill Range.
Each stack grants +3.2% DEF and -0.9% HP.
Enhanced Pain Suppression (Passive)
While any Hunt perk is active, you gain 4.1% damage resistance.
The Hunt row modifies your Descendant’s stats whenever you kill an enemy. Each perk has apositive modifier and a negative modifier, both of which scale as you kill enemies. Each perk can stack up to five times and lasts for 30 seconds.
Generally, we recommend you grabNeural Focus Augmentation.It gives you a solid 15% MP bonus with a minuscule hit to your skill range. The MP bonus is comparable to a fully-maxed MP mod on your Descendant. In comparison, Biodensity is less effective than an unranked HP mod, and Inversion Particle is actually an EHPdecreasefor most Descendants. We cover EHP in more detail inour DEF guide.
With that said, the passive bonus from this row is great.Enhanced Pain Suppression gives you a free 4% DR buff for having any Hunt perk active.Throw on Neural Focus for some free MP, and you’ll have a constant DR buff in most content.
Attribute Perks
High-Density Flame Particle Membrane
Weapon reloads grant Flame Particle Membrane for 5s. Stacks x5 times.
Each stack grants +2.6% Fire Resistance and +1.1% Skill Cost.
High-Density Chill Particle Membrane
Weapon hits grant Chill Particle Membrane for 5s. Stacks x5 times.
Each stack grants +2.6% Chill Resistance and +1.1% Skill Cost.
High-Density Toxic Particle Membrane
While aiming, gain Toxic Particle Membrane for 5s. Stacks x5 times.
Each stack grants +2.6% Toxic Resistance and -1.5% ATK rating with all weapons.
High-Density Electric Particle Membrane
On weak point hit, gain Electric Particle Membrane for 5s. Stacks x5 times.
Each stack grants +2.6% Electric Resistance and -3.2% skill critical hit chance.
While any Attribute perk is active, all attribute resistances are increased by 10.7%.
None of these perks are good. Period. Elemental resistances shouldn’t be ignored if you’re fighting Colossi, but these only give percentage buffs. This means thatif you don’t have any elemental resistances, theseperks are effectively useless.Feel free to use one if you’re struggling to kill a certain Colossus boss, but you can otherwise ignore this entire row. Better options are available.
Recovery Perks
Inverted Defibrillation
While under 10% HP, receiving a non-lethal hit will convert all MP into HP.
Selective Neurostimulation
Every 60 seconds, you have a chance to recover MP.
The proc chance and MP restored change every minute. MP restored scales off max HP.
Recovery Maneuver
While using the Grappling Hook, recover 2.5% of your shield every 0.1s, up to 25%.
While grappling, gain 13% damage resistance. Incurs a 20s cooldown.
Arche Assimilation
Standing near an ally for 5 seconds restores 10% of their max HP.
Incurs a 10-second cooldown.
Hyperdimensional Vision
Firearm critical hits have an 18% chance of cleansing a random debuff. Gain debuff immunity for 3s when this triggers.
Incurs a 5-minute cooldown.
Recovery perks give you a way to restore resources during combat. The best of the bunch isSelective Neurostimulation, which gives you a chance to restore a large chunk of MP every 60 seconds. The chance varies depending on the buff you receive. If you need more survivability,Recovery Maneuver’sgrappling DR is quite useful in Void Intercept fights.
If you play as Yujin, consider using Arche Assimilation for even more healing options.
The passive effect from Recovery is also quite powerful, giving you a debuff cleanse every five minutes upon landing a critical hit. While the cooldown is extreme, it’s a free debuff cleanse for virtually every build.
Survival Perks
Gain Void Adrenaline for 3s when a Colossus lowers your HP to 20%.
Void Adrenaline grants +20% movement speed at the cost of -32% ATK rating.
Attacking a Legion of Immortality grants 15% damage resistance for 5 seconds.
Incurs a 25-second cooldown.
Attacking an Order of Truth grants 15% damage resistance for 5 seconds.
Attacking a Legion of Darkness grants 15% damage resistance for 5 seconds.
During Intercept battles, gain 1.8% damage resistance every 150 seconds.
Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts for the entire fight.
Survival perks focus on damage resistance against certain enemy types. The Vulgus is broken up into three sub-factions: the Order of Truth, Legion of Darkness, and Legion of Immortality. Attacking a certain subgroup will grant 15% DR for a few seconds, which can be useful while performing your daily Invasion missions withsquishier characters like Bunny.Inverted Defibrillationis an alright pick if you use a skill DPS character like Viessa, but it’s otherwise a perk you’re better off skipping.
While the passive perk grants free DR, it takes a while to ramp up. You’re looking at a 5.2% DR buff for the last two minutes of a Colossus fight. You can stack this with Hunt’s DR passive to gain 9.3% DR, a noticeable boost to your survivability.
Order of Truth only.
Forced Device Connection
Arche Tiles in Invasion missions grant +4.6% DEF per second, up to x5 stacks.
Legion of Darkness only.
Electric Displacement Field
Excava grenades in Invasion missions grant +35% ATK rating for 2s once charged.
Incurs a 20-second cooldown.
Arche Pacemaker
While under 300 movement speed, gain -20% skill cost but -5% skill range and fire rate.
Unconsciousness
When all skills are on cooldown, your next skill gains 8% cooldown reduction.
Incurs a 210-second cooldown.
Perks in the season row are meant to make Invasion missions easier to complete. You can’t go wrong withIdentity Energy Source. This effectively doubles the damage you deal to lesions covering symbol towers and exit points, significantly speeding up the mission. If you aren’t farming Invasion missions this season, runArche Pacemaker.Casters like Viessa can make great use of the free 20% skill cost reduction.
Unconsciousnessis a decent passive for most builds. Whenever your abilities are all on cooldown, the next ability you cast will gain an extra 8% CDR. This doesnotbypass the 90% CDR cap. You ideally want to use a Descendant with moderate CDR investment to make the most out of this passive.
