Hotfix 1.4.0b went live on 21 August at 18:50 PDT, and buried in a routine bug-fix list is one of the largest reward changes Season 4 has seen: Trials EXP rewards were multiplied by roughly four and a half.

Descendant EXP and Weapon Proficiency went from 96,000 to 425,000 per round. Clear through Round 4 and mission completion pays 1,700,000, up from 384,000.

That reframes what Trials is for. But there's a condition attached that makes the buff invisible to a large group of players — and it's the group that needs EXP most.

The exact numbers

Per round, and on mission completion when cleared through Round 4:

• Descendant EXP & Weapon Proficiency — 96,000 → 425,000 per round; 384,000 → 1,700,000 on completion
• Ironheart Particle — 150 → 630 per round; 600 → 2,520 on completion
• Unique Arche Factor EXP — 650 → 1,417 in Rounds 1–2 and 1,418 in Rounds 3–4; 2,600 → 5,670 on completion

The multiplier isn't uniform, and that matters. EXP rose about 4.4×, Ironheart Particle about 4.2× — but Unique Arche Factor EXP only rose about 2.2×.

So Trials didn't get better at everything equally. It became overwhelmingly an EXP and Weapon Proficiency engine, and only moderately better as an Arche Factor source. If you're farming Arche Factor specifically, the buff changes your maths far less than the headline suggests.

Trials is now the best EXP in the game, by a wide margin

Season 4 already improved field mission payouts substantially — Hard difficulty field missions now pay between 20,000 and 150,000 EXP, up from a flat 2,000.

A full four-round Trials clear pays 1,700,000. That's more than eleven times the best possible Hard field mission, from a single completed run.

Each round pays out immediately, so partial runs aren't wasted, and rewards improve from Round 3 onward. Trials is also the only unlimited source of Merit Token — Karel's Mothership caps its payout at once per week.

If you're levelling a new Descendant or grinding Weapon Proficiency across a loadout, Trials is now the answer to both, and it isn't close.

The catch: Rotational Builds earn nothing

Here's the part that decides whether any of the above applies to you.

Rotational Build lends you a fully configured Descendant when you enter Trials — Modules, Weapons, Reactors, External Components, Fellows and the Arche Tuning Board, all provided. It exists so players who haven't met entry requirements can play Trials immediately.

It activates automatically if your current Descendant sits below the required Arche Activity, and places you in a separate matchmaking pool.

And while using it, you gain no EXP and no Weapon Proficiency at all.

That inverts who benefits from this buff. A player with a maxed Descendant, who needed the EXP least, now earns 1,700,000 per clear. A player still building toward the Arche Activity threshold — who is levelling, who needs exactly this — is auto-placed into a mode that pays zero of it.

The Transcendent Weapon Quality range also drops to 51–350 in early rounds on a Rotational Build, versus 271–400 normally.

What to do about it

Check whether you're on a Rotational Build before you farm. It activates automatically, so it's possible to run Trials repeatedly without realising you're earning no EXP from any of it. If you entered without meeting the Arche Activity requirement, you're on one.

If you are, your priority isn't farming Trials — it's clearing the Arche Activity threshold. Every Trials run you do before that point costs you 425,000 EXP per round you'd otherwise be banking. Get above the requirement first, then farm.

Rotational Builds still have real uses. You keep normal farming of Transcendent Weapons, Archive Shards, and Reactor and External Component materials. If you're farming those specifically, the mode is fine. It's only the EXP and Proficiency track that pays nothing.

Save your Trials runs for after the threshold. The buff isn't going anywhere, and the difference between farming it now and farming it in a week is over a million EXP per clear.

How to actually farm it

Rounds pay independently, so stopping early costs you nothing but the rounds you didn't do.

The maths supports this. The completion figure of 1,700,000 is exactly 425,000 × 4, and the old completion figure of 384,000 was exactly 96,000 × 4. That reads as a cumulative total rather than a separate completion bonus — meaning there's no penalty for exiting after Round 2 or Round 3, and no hidden jackpot for pushing to Round 4.

The practical consequence: run whatever number of rounds your clear speed supports comfortably. If Round 4 takes you three times as long as Round 1 because the difficulty scaling outpaces your build, the EXP per minute favours shorter, repeated runs. If you clear all four at a steady pace, do that.

Verify this on your own reward screen before committing to a pattern, since a completion bonus that isn't itemised in the patch table would change the answer. Compare your total after a Round 3 exit against your total after a full clear.

Round 3 onward is where the other rewards improve. Rounds 1 and 2 pay Transcendent Weapon loot at 10% in the 271–400 Quality range, 10 Merit Tokens and 10 Superconductive Cooling Units. If you're farming weapons or Merit Tokens rather than pure EXP, the later rounds are worth reaching even if EXP per minute favours resetting.

Decide what you're actually farming before you queue. Trials now serves three purposes that pull in different directions:

• Pure EXP or Weapon Proficiency — shorter runs, repeated, whatever round count you clear fastest
• Merit Tokens — Trials is the only unlimited source, so volume of runs matters more than depth
• Transcendent Weapons and Arche Factor — deeper runs, since Quality and payouts improve past Round 2

All equipped weapons now gain identical Weapon Proficiency even when holstered. That's a Season 4 change worth exploiting here: bring the weapons you want levelled, not just the one you're shooting with. A Trials clear at 425,000 per round levels your whole loadout simultaneously.

One thing worth verifying yourself

Descendant's Weekend runs every weekend from 21 August through 16 September, granting an additional 20% Descendant EXP, Weapon Mastery EXP and Arche Tuning EXP.

But the listed locations are Karel's Mothership, Infiltration Operations and Sigma Sector — Trials isn't named. Whether the weekend bonus stacks on top of the new Trials payouts is not something the announcements make clear.

That's a large difference if it does stack — 20% of 1,700,000 is 340,000 per clear. Worth checking your actual reward screen on a weekend run rather than assuming either way.

Where this sits in Season 4 Episode 1

The buff landed one day after Season 4 Episode 1 launched on 20 August, which added Raven, the Karel's Mothership Mega Dungeon, and Trials itself. A reward correction arriving this fast usually means the original numbers undershot what the content demanded — Trials at 96,000 per round wasn't competitive with existing farms.

Several events are running alongside it and use the same time:

• New Content Challenge Mission and Great Clash Deployment Mission — through 16 September
• Accelerate Research Week — through 16 September, with a stronger effect on weekends
• Frontline Medical Support — through 23 September
• Back to Albion — for returning players, through 11 November

Accelerate Research Week is the one to pair with a Trials grind, since research runs on real time rather than play time — start research before you farm, not after.

Levelling is the slow half, and Trials just changed the maths

A 4.4× EXP buff rewards accounts that can already enter Trials at full value. Accounts still below the Arche Activity threshold get the least from the largest reward change of the season.

Browse verified The First Descendant accounts if you'd rather clear the threshold outright and farm Trials at full rate, keep runs and weekly caps consistent with The First Descendant hourly services, or grab Caliber through The First Descendant top up at verified merchant rates.

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