Nexon is preparing to go to war against The First Descendant players who “AFK farm” in the looter shooter, likening it to “inappropriate behavior” and preparing measures to combat those abusing the title’s matchmaking system for their gain.
The Nexon team put out a PSA on X (formerly Twitter) on July 16, listing off the three main “guidelines” of matchmaking in The First Descendant: No unauthorized programs, no AFK during co-op, and no non-play farming. There was nothing mentioned about a specific admin crackdown on anyone caught breaking these guidelines after the PSA was shared, but the team did mention the devs are already “working on measures” to deal with bad actors taking advantage of hard-working Descendants during missions.
Players have already had their say on the issue, which has slowly but surely begun plaguing the title—and the wider genre—since release. However, unlike its genre peer Destiny 2, current systems in place to remove inactive players are too lenient. In the Bungie title, you’re kicked back to orbit after about three minutes with no chance of receiving any rewards. Further time spent away even totally logs you out of Destiny 2. AFK Descendants have way too much leeway in how long it takes the game to kick them back to Albion or the login screen, and a simple move command or button click resets this timer.
It’s particularly a problem in The First Descendant co-op missions or endgame activities that have death tokens—a finite revive count. AFK players will join and be constantly killed by enemies or a boss, and if they aren’t revived, death tokens are consumed. But, to get a downed AFK Descendant back up, active players need to put themselves in the line of fire—just for the AFK player to be immediately downed again.
Anything from a shorter inactivity timer to a vote-kick feature has been suggested by the community, but The First Descendant devs are yet to state a particular method they’ll be employing. Given Nexon has been quick to remedy a range of issues post-launch, we can expect a solution to AFK farming soon enough.
Today’s message from the team serves as a warning; AFK farmers, you’re next on the list.
