Every player who enjoys third-person shooter games has geared up for The First Descendant. This latest RPG looter shooter, powered by Unreal Engine 5, hit the markets on July 2, 2024, for all, whereas for players who pre-ordered the game, it was made available on June 30, 2024, via early access. If you visit the Steam store page of the game, you’ll find out that the reviews are mixed. Now, that does explain the situation fairly. Obviously, the game has been riddled with certain issues that trouble the players quite a lot. For example, some players explained that as soon as the game logo loads, it crashes. Soon after, they get a black screen, and they cannot really play the game like this. So, if you’re facing these crashing and black screen issues in The First Descendant on PC, keep reading this guide till the end to find out the possible workarounds.
Running games like The First Descendant is often a problem if your system doesn’t have adequate hardware. However, this isn’t always a hardware issue. There are reports from players with high-end PCs as well, facing crashes and black screen issues in the game. With multiple players being troubled by this issue, the need for potential fixes is quite high. So, without further ado, let’s find out how to fix the crashing and black screen issues in The First Descendant.
The First Descendant Crashing after Loading Logos & Showing Black Screen: How to Fix?
Steam user Xan84 shared on the Steam Discussion forum about the problem. They shared that whenever they try to launch the game, it reaches the logo screen and then crashes. And judging by the comments from other players on the thread, it is clear that this isn’t a rare problem; in fact, it’s a very frequent one. So, try these workarounds:
Verify Game Files
So, the first thing that you have to try is to ensure that you have all the relevant game files and they are not corrupted. For this,
- Go to your Steam library and locate The First Descendant.
- Right-click on the game and go to Properties.
- Now, go to Installed Files.
- Select the “Verify integrity of game files” option.
- Let the process complete and then run the game. See if the issue persists.
Update GPU Drivers
- Press the Windows + X keys together to open the Quick Link Menu.
- Go to Device Manager and open Display Adapters.
- Find your dedicated GPU and then right-click on it. Select the “Update Drivers” option.
- Now, opt for the “Search automatically for drivers” option.
- Once the drivers are updated, launch the game. You can also do the same via the GPU support application or by downloading the drivers directly from the official GPU manufacturer’s website.
Change Shader Quality to High or Medium
Steam user DRockSmackMaster shared that changing the game’s shader quality fixed the crashes for them. You will find this option in the Graphics settings of the game. Change Shader Quality to either Medium (preferable) or High (possible) and then run the game. See if it works.
Force Rebuild Shaders
You can try and force rebuild your game shaders to fix the crashing and stuttering issue. For this, visit either of these two directories: %localappdata%\Nvidia or the %localappdata%\AMD folders. Now, from here, delete the DXCache and DxcCache folders. This will, in fact, delete the cached shader of all the games. You’ll need to restart the game to force-rebuild the shaders.
Delete settings file
Deleting the settings/configuration files of the game might also work towards fixing this issue. So, head over to this path: C:\Users\{Username Folder}\AppData\Local\M1\Saved\Config\Windows, and delete the contents of the Windows folder. After this, launch the game.
Underclock Your CPU
You can underclock your CPU from your BIOS. To access it, first, power off your PC. Then, turn it back on, and right before it boots up, press the relevant key (depending on the model you are using) to open your system’s BIOS menu. Now, search for the Performance and Economy cores and set them to an option equivalent to “Sync All Cores“. Here, set the frequency of the Performance cores to 53 GHz or less. Apply and save the changes. Then, boot up your device and run The First Descendant. See if the game keeps crashing.
Contact Support
If nothing has worked until now, don’t worry. We still have one last fix for you. Go to the customer support page of the game, and report the issue. Hopefully, the developers will be able to tell you why your game keeps crashing and they might even help you fix the problem.
Well, these are all the possible workarounds for the crashing and black screen issues in The First Descendant on PC. Hopefully, this guide was able to help you fix the problem. If you found this guide informative and want to read more such gaming content and guides, keep visiting DigiStatement!
