The First Descendant

The First Descendant is a free-to-play third-person looter-shooter developed and published by NexonPublisherNexonNexon is a major South Korean publisher, developer of The First Descendant through its Nexon Games studio. The First Descendant runs a dual anti-cheat on PC: Easy Anti-Cheat alongside Nexon's own kernel-level anti-cheat. Nexon publicly names banned cheaters as part of its enforcement.1 game in this family →, through its Nexon Games studio, released July 2, 2024 on PC and consoles. Built on Unreal Engine 5EngineUnreal Engine (Epic Games)Epic Games' Unreal Engine is the most widely used engine in big-budget PC games. Versions 4 and 5 power a substantial share of the modern competitive shooter market, including Valorant (UE4), Fortnite (UE5), PUBG (UE4), The Finals (UE5), and Delta Force (UE5).20 games in this family →, it pairs cooperative and solo grinding with a roster of unlockable characters called Descendants. Its launch was one of the largest on Steam in 2024, peaking around 229,000 concurrent players.

Installing The First Descendant on PC means two kernel-level anti-cheats, Easy Anti-Cheat and Nexon's own, loading while you play. The main process is M1-Win64-Shipping.exe. The recurring friction is the Easy Anti-Cheat not installed error and the dual-anti-cheat load, which a repair of EACAnti-cheatEasy Anti-Cheat (EAC)Easy Anti-Cheat is one of the most widely deployed kernel anti-cheats in PC gaming. Founded by Finnish company Kamu in 2006, acquired by Epic Games in 2018, and bundled with Epic Online Services. The kernel driver loads while a protected game is running. User-mode daemons EasyAntiCheat.exe and EasyAntiCheat_EOS.exe are catalogued in the Field Guide's processes section.18 games in this family → from the game folder usually resolves rather than disabling it. As a free-to-play game it is easy to install on a whim, and both kernel anti-cheats come with it.

The First Descendant runs two anti-cheats at once on PC. One is Easy Anti-Cheat, the widely used kernel-mode product catalogued elsewhere in this guide. The other is Nexon's own kernel-level anti-cheat, variously called Nexon Game Security or BlackCipher. The developer has described shipping both a Nexon proprietary solution and Easy Anti-Cheat. Both sit at the kernel, the deepest layer of Windows, while the game runs. The main process is M1-Win64-Shipping.exe, the Unreal Engine shipping binary, launched alongside an Easy Anti-Cheat launcher. This guide names Easy Anti-Cheat as the catalogued companion and notes the Nexon component, whose exact kernel driver filename is not cleanly documented in public.

Nexon is a major South Korean publisher, and its enforcement on The First Descendant has been public and pointed. In the launch month it ran ban waves, reporting over 1,700 accounts banned between July 12 and 18, 2024, across unauthorized-program use, payment exploitation, and abnormal play, and it published lists of banned cheaters by name. The game also drew sustained monetization criticism, landing Mixed on Steam over the cost of unlocking characters, an underwhelming battle pass, and grind-or-pay progression, with reviewers comparing it unfavorably to Warframe and Destiny 2. Community threads have also questioned how much the kernel-level Nexon component logs and whether it stays resident after the game closes; those are open questions, not established findings. Sources include Dexerto, GamesRadar, and TheGamer.