The Steps

1. Launch a Desert run in the Ride > Career-Plus Session tab
   (this mode requires the player to have 100,000 total REP, come back later if you don’t have them yet)
2. Get down to Last Stand by killing yourself 4 times (press LT+RT+L+R to do so) and never complete bonus objectives or medic camps.
   Last Stand status gives you a huge REP boost (about two times the amount of REP you would normally get) so it is essential in order to achieve 50,000 REP in 5 minutes.
3. Do tricks and spins on as many dunes as possible.
   Be wary of the small dunes though, you probably won’t be able to land a right stick trick on them. As such, low steepness tracks (including the first basic track of the session) are particularly dangerous : don’t risk ruining you run on them.
4. Select the steepest tracks in order to get the tallest dunes : the higher you jump and the faster you go, the more points you get.
   Don’t ride all the time at full speed though, or you’ll bail. Sometimes slowing down is your best option (check the “I keep crashing on landings” section for more information).
5. Watch your REP skyrockets.

By doing so, you should be able to get 50,000 REP in about 5 minutes in-game time (proof below).

/!\ WARNING : This is NOT a beginner’s strategy. You’ll have to practice quite a bit in order to get this kind of score consistently. I died many times before being comfortable with this method, don’t feel bad if you’re struggling with it at first.

It is great fun though. I used to hate Desert, but it has become my favorite environment (unpopular opinion) thanks to this strat.

Watch a whole run here

Check the video if you want to see what a farming session following this guide should look like.

I’ve played up to 100,000 REP in this run in order to show you it is also doable in a fairly short amount of time, however I would not recommend it (more informations about that below).
You’ll notice that night-time in the Desert is almost as bright as day-time.

” Why should I aim for 50,000 REP in a run? “

50,00. REP in a run isn’t an amount I’ve set arbitrarily. It actually is tied to the way the game chooses the item you’ll unlock. Let’s see how it works.

There are four categories of cosmestic items : common, uncommon, rare and extraordinary.

You’ll get a common item if you end a run with an amount of REP ranging from 1,000 to 5,000. At 1,000 REP, you’ll have a 20% chance of getting one. At 2,000 REP, you’ll have a 40% chance. It goes up to 5,000 REP, giving you a 100% chance of getting a common item.
It works the same way for uncommon, rare and extraordinary items (see the following table).

Categories	20% chance	40% chance	60% chance	80% chance	100% chance
Common	1,000 REP	2,000 REP	3,000 REP	4,000 REP	5,000 REP
Uncommon	2,000 REP	4,000 REP	6,000 REP	8,000 REP	10,000 REP
Rare	10,000 REP	20,000 REP	30,000 REP	40,000 REP	50,000 REP
Extraordinary	50,000 REP	100,000 REP	150,000 REP	200,000 REP	250,000 REP

e.g. : a 100 000 REP run will give a 40% chance of getting an extraordinary item. If you don’t get one, you’ll have a 100% chance of getting a rare item.

The game then chooses an item from the corresponding pool of items. descenders.gamepedia.com – https://descenders.gamepedia.com/Items lists almost every item in the game, check it out in order to spot the items you want to unlock and their corresponding categories.

In my opinion, 50,000 is the most efficient amount of REP you have to get in order to farm the rarest items of the game.
You’ll end up with a rare item for sure (a lot of them look great) or an extraordinary one if you’re lucky. You may push up to 100,000 REP in a single Desert run, but it will be two times longer (and thus riskier) for a mere 40% chance of getting an extraordinary item. I don’t think it’s worth it.

About the Whoopee Cushion :

The Whoopee Cushion is an extraordinary item tied to the Pull My Finger achievement. If achievement hunting is your thing and you want a 100% Completion Rate on this game, you absolutely have to unlock the Whoopee Cushion. It may take a couple of hours if you are really lucky (I was), but it may also take up to dozens of hours if you’re not because of how the game chooses the items you unlock.

Indeed, if you end a run with 50,000 REP, you’ll only have a 20% chance of getting an extraordinary item. If you are eligible for one (1 chance out of 5), the game will then choose which item you’ll get from the pool of extraordinary items. There are about 60 of them, so you have 1 chance out of 60 of getting the Whoopee Cushion as your first extraordinary item. The more extraordinary items you have, the higher your chance of getting the Whoopee Cushion though. Good luck, you’ll need it.

” I keep crashing on landings “

In order to avoid crashing on landings and thus ending your run prematurely, I have a couple of tips to offer you.

1. Counter-pumping

   Hold the right stick up (↑) as you’re about to land, it will significantly soften the impact. Doing so, you might land jumps you wouldn’t survive otherwise.

   The game does a pretty bad job at teaching you this, as this information is hidden in the Extras > Advanced Tips > Counter-Pumping tab despite its usefulness.
   It’s something you really want to get used to do consistently, because it will increase your survivability and help you in almost all of your runs. If you wonder how I manage to survive big jumps in the video, that’s mostly thanks to counter-pumping.

   I’ve heard people say that if you counter-pump at a precise timing before landing, it would be even more efficient. It might be true, but I’ve never bothered with it during my play-time and I’m doing just fine, so feel free to consider it or not.

2. Matching the shape of the dunes

   In the steepest tracks, you’re probably going to ride at high speeds. The faster you go, the higher you jump and thus the harsher you land. In order to survive, you have to land on the descending side of the dune. Landing on the ascending side of the dune at high speeds will feel like crashing into a wall : it’ll hurt.

   

   'Nanimia desert dune' by Monica Guy available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/53881187@N02/4983987437/in/photostream/ under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic. Full terms at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ I added the red text and arrows.

   If you’re going fast but not fast enough to get to the descending side of a dune, then SLOW DOWN. In order to get consistent in these farming sessions, you’ll have to learn “the flow” of the Desert. With practice, you’ll know when to brake and when to accelerate. You’ll know when you’re going fast enough to get over a gap, or too slow to actually make it.

   In order to slow down efficiently, BRAKE & SLIDE at the same time. You will lose a lot of speed in a short amount of time and gain quite a lot of REP thanks to the sliding.

   Watch the following .gif in order to visualize what I’m talking about.
   Notice how I accelerated for the Superman gap (I saw the upcoming dune and felt like I could make my way to its descending side) and how I braked before the No-Hander jump as I knew I couldn’t make the gap.

” Which crew members should I pick? “

If you’re doing good, you should quickly get a lot of crew members to help you. Some of them will make your run safer while others will help you get more points, so here is a tier-list for a farming session in the Desert.

I’m getting most of my informations from descenders.gamepedia.com – https://descenders.gamepedia.com/How_to_play_guide_for_Descenders#Tips_and_tricks, so make sure to check it out if you want to learn more about crew members.

S-Tier crew members : the ones you absolutely want

Landing Impact will allow you to survive harsher landings and therefore increase significantly your survivability. It is one of the best crew members available in normal runs, and it gets even better here as you’ll be playing on Last Stand status in order to maximize your score.

You definitely want to pick this one to make your run safer. If you don’t have the chance to grab it early on, remember to play a bit more carefully in order to avoid bailing.

Extra Steepness, as its name suggests, will make your tracks even steeper. While it has downsides in a normal run (check Gardalice’s chart), you absolutely want to get it on a Desert farming session as it’ll greatly help you get higher scores.

More steepness means taller dunes, so try to get those High Speed and Big Drop points, but don’t get cocky.

A-Tier crew members : the useful ones

Fewer obstacles decreases the number of obstacles you’ll find off the track, making your run safer.

In order to match perfectly the shape of a dune, you may have to go off-road. Fewer obstacles off the track means you’ll have a lower chance of running into a palm tree doing so. Obstacles are not numerous in the Desert, and you usually see them from far away, but sometimes a couple of palm trees may sneak behind a dune. This crew member helps you mitigate this issue.

In Air Correction helps you correct your jump angle, allowing you to make cleaner landings on the sides of the dunes.

You run will be a bit safer thanks to it, and it’s always useful as you’ll be playing on Last Stand status.

Pump Strenght improves pumping and counter-pumping a bit. Counter-pumping in a run is essential as it helps you survive big jumps. An improved counter-pumping will make your run even safer.

Furthermore, this crew member also improves pumping. Hold the right stick down (↓) in order to pump, allowing you to get speed boosts on ramps. Higher speed means bigger score, which is always appreciated.

Spin Speed and Tweak Speed, as their name suggest, will allow you to respectively spin and tweak your bike faster.

720’s and double backflips will be easier to perform and will grant you many points, but don’t get cocky as a single bail will end your run.

The kinda useful crew members

Less Curves and Smoother Curves will straighten your tracks. While quite useful in normal runs for increased survivability and easier high speed tracks, these crew members aren’t crucial in Desert farming session since going off-road isn’t an issue.

However you’ll be able to see the gaps and the descending sides of dunes more easily in a straight track, so get them if you can. Don’t make it a priority though.

If you’re feeling confident

Off-Road Friction will make you ride faster than usual when going off the track.

It will help you get more points as going faster means higher jumps, however the sides of the dunes that are off the track tend to be much steeper and thus riskier.

Fakie Balance makes riding backwards easier thanks to a better balancing. Riding backwards gives HUGE amounts of points (if you’re wondering how to get 400,000+ REP in a single normal run, Fakie is part of the answer), it is however pretty risky.
I hadn’t learned how to do it at the time I recorded the video, however a couple of hours of practice allowed me to get used to it. I won’t expand on Fakie here as it is not the point of this guide.

I would only recommend Fakie Balance for low steepness tracks (the dunes there are often too small to safely do tricks) if you are confident with backward riding. It will give you a lot of REP on tracks that would otherwise be a waste of time.

” Why don’t you always do tricks? “

If you have watched the video thoroughly, you may have noticed that I only perform right stick tricks once per track. In the current version of Descenders, the game won’t display multiple times the same trick during a combo.

See the screenshot below for an example. I had already done a No-Hander before, therefore the game only displayed “Air” despite my character actually performing the trick.

I didn’t want to take unnecessary risks, so I only performed the tricks once per track as I thought I wouldn’t get REP for the next ones.

Hope you enjoy the post for Descenders How to Farm Rare Cosmetics Items Tips + Basic Information Guide, If you think we should update the post or something is wrong please let us know via comment and we will fix it how fast as possible! Thank you and have a great day!