Key Takeaways
- Alter Ego is a decent early game SMG in The First Descendant – easy to farm and slightly better than standard.
- Blue Blood Bloomer boasts high rate of fire but struggles with low mag size – requires skill to use effectively.
- Thunder Cage is the best overall SMG, boasting high damage and critical stats – a significant upgrade over others.
The First Descendant is one of a new breed of looter shooters. Combining tactical gunplay with roleplaying elements, all wrapped up in a live service package that helps to keep the game fresh. Players are tasked with defending humanity against a race of aliens named the Vulgus, and work alone or in groups to complete objectives.
Submachine guns in The First Descendant all use General Rounds. They are mostly high rate of fire, low damage weapons, sitting somewhere between handguns and assault rifles in damage. SMGs come in three tiers; standard, rare, and ultimate in this third-person shooter. Players will have to decide which one suits their combat techniques the best.
6 Alter Ego
Decent Early Game SMG
- Tier: Rare
- DPS: 168
- Rounds: 35
- Fire rate: 799
- Critical rate: 8%
- Critical damage modifier: 1.5
- Reload speed: 1.74 seconds
Alter Ego is better than the standard submachine gun in The First Descendant, but only marginally so. The best thing about this weapon is that it is pretty easy to farm. It has a 50% drop rate from the Weapons Engineering Facility in the Classified Area of Sterile Land.
Players that are set on working with an SMG build and are taking skills towards this goal have to think long and hard about Alter Ego, whether it is worth farming or not. It might be a good idea to skip this SMG and try for one of the better ones on this list.
5 Blue Blood Bloomer
High Rate Of Fire
- Tier: Rare
- DPS: 170
- Rounds: 27
- Fire rate: 999
- Critical rate: 12%
- Critical damage modifier: 1.5
- Reload speed: 1.32 seconds
Players can head to the Vermilion Waste area of Agna Desert and complete the Vermilion Waste: Vulgus Strategic Outpost to farm the Blue Blood Bloomer SMG in The First Descendant. It has a 50% drop rate.
Blue Blood Bloomer has the highest rate of fire of all the submachine guns in the game, which on paper, makes it a hall sweeper, suitable for spray and style gunplay. Unfortunately, the fairly low magazine size and slow reload time mitigate the great rate of fire. Overall, in the right hands, this can be a great SMG, but it will take skill to use it properly.
4 Devil’s Call
Nicely Balanced SMG
- Tier: Rare
- DPS: 178
- Rounds: 26
- Fire rate: 779
- Critical rate: 7%
- Critical damage modifier: 1.5
- Reload speed: 1.32 seconds
Devil’s Call is an average submachine gun in every respect. However, this doesn’t mean it is a bad weapon. It is basically a jack of all trades. For players who want a versatile SMG that will work well with pretty much any build, Devil’s Call could be a good choice.
This SMG has a 50% drop chance from completing the Kingston Communications Repeater. This can be found by heading to The Destruction area of Kingston. It won’t be easy to farm in the early game, but should be pretty simple to acquire around the mid-game.
3 Firefly
Great Critical Chance
- Tier: Rare
- DPS: 176
- Rounds: 35
- Fire rate: 857
- Critical rate: 20%
- Critical damage modifier: 1.2
- Reload speed: 1.35 seconds
Looting the Firefly SMG involves completing the Miragestone: Vulgus Strategic Outpost. Players can find this mission by heading to the Miragestone area of the Agna Desert. Firefly has a 50% drop chance from this mission.
With its great rate of fire and exceptional critical rate, this is an SMG that can lay down a lot of damage in a short amount of time in The First Descendant. It also has a decently-sized magazine, which is something that other fast fire rate SMGs often lack. Overall, for players that don’t have the time or inclination to unlock one of the Ultimate tier SMGs, Firefly would be the optimal choice.
2 Python
Typical Spray And Pray SMG
- Tier: Ultimate
- DPS: 170
- Rounds: 30
- Fire rate: 923
- Critical rate: 5%
- Critical damage modifier: 1.3
- Reload speed: 1.5 seconds
The Python SMG is everything a pray and spray submachine gun needs to be. It has a fantastic rate of fire, a decent magazine size, but a low critical chance and critical damage multiplier. The only slightly negative thing about the Python is the slow reload speed.
As with all Ultimate tier weapons in The First Descendant, the Python SMG cannot be looted. Instead, the player needs to acquire the blueprint, and then collect all the research materials to start the research project. This is likely to take some effort.
1 Thunder Cage
The Best Submachine Gun
- Tier: Ultimate
- DPS: 184
- Rounds: 26
- Fire rate: 666
- Critical rate: 20%
- Critical damage modifier: 2
- Reload speed: 1.4 seconds
This Ultimate weapon is a great upgrade over the rare ones already mentioned. With its high damage, and fantastic critical chance, combined with a high critical damage modifier (for an SMG), the Thunder Cage is an excellent weapon. In many ways, it is the polar opposite of the previously covered Ultimate tier SMG. Thunder Cage is all about placing shots accurately.
Players who are skilled at placing their shots won’t find a better SMG in The First Descendant. However, it must be said that depending on the player’s preferred style of combat, the Python SMG might be a better choice, and it will be down to the player to decide which suits them best.
