The First Descendant is a new looter shooter with a variety of activities and quests to complete, as well as a large selection of heroes. At the beginning of the game, you only have one starting hero available, and to get the rest, you will either need to spend real money or spend time and effort on “research” using valuable materials obtained from bosses. Each character in The First Descendant has a unique set of abilities, so unlocking them is an important aspect of progressing in the game. In this guide, we will dwell on the characters of the shooter in detail and tell you about the most powerful of them.
The heroes here have a variety of attacks and active or passive skills, highlighting their own gameplay style or role. Below, we will tell you how to unlock new characters in The First Descendant and share the features of the game for each of them. This will help you choose the main character for the shooter.
Best starting character in the game
At the start of the game, you can choose one of three heroes: Viessa, Lepic or Ajax. When choosing, it is best to focus on your own preferences, but if you are looking for the most effective, here is a list of the best starting heroes:
- Lepic – S-Tier: An offensive character who uses regular grenades and gravity traps as pull mechanisms, as well as a powerful “Overkill” weapon that deals fire damage. He also has a lethal damage resistance, allowing him to both deal and withstand damage.
- Viessa – A-Tier: Elemental support who slows and weakens enemies with ice abilities including shooting ice shards, blizzard, and ice trail.
- Ajax – Tier A: A tank with the ability to place shields and knock back or stun enemies. He also uses Void Energy to enhance his abilities.
All three characters are good and the choice depends on your preferences: Lepic is a basic soldier with good damage options, Viessa is more focused on crowd control with ice status effects, and Ajax is your tank.
Below you’ll find a more detailed description of each of the starting heroes in The First Descendant.
Lepik
Lepic relies on straightforward damage-per-second (DPS) skills, making him a good choice to start in The First Descendant. His grenade can easily clear out small groups of enemies, and his passive temporarily protects him from damage and restores a significant amount of health when taking fatal damage – which can significantly increase your chances of surviving the first few missions in solo mode. Note the ten-minute cooldown.
Viessa
Viessa uses Ice status effects that require a more careful approach than throwing a grenade or putting up a shield, but can be very effective if used correctly. Her Ice Chain abilities require her to be close to the front of the battle – most of her abilities will involve getting close to enemies, but unlike Lepic and Ajax, she does not have strong defensive abilities. She can, however, affect more enemies than either of them with her abilities, and using them generates orbital Ice Spheres that deal additional damage.
Ajax
Ajax is a great choice for those looking to play a tank. He has a stronger shield and more health than Lepic, but he has no lethal damage protection. Instead, Ajax builds up Void Energy while using his abilities, which increases their power. However, his first active, the Orbital Barrier shield, can be a bit tricky to use, as it is stationary and requires placement in the right place to be useful. It also has a long cooldown, so Ajax players early in the game won’t be able to trigger his first active as often.
How to Unlock New Characters in The First Descendant
There are two ways to get new characters in the game: buy for donation or unlock through the research mechanics. Each character has its own level, which affects their skills, while the mastery rating is tied to your account and affects the slots in the inventory and upgrade modules.
Purchasing a character will cost between 300 and 900 First Scion Caliber, while Ultimate characters will cost 3000. There are a number of options for purchasing Caliber currency, but if you want to buy a character from scratch, the closest amounts that will allow you to unlock a character are $9.99 for 520 Caliber and $69.99 for 3920 Caliber. If you don’t want to spend money, you can create a character using Anais, who can be found in Albion:
To unlock heroes without donation, you will need special components that are received as a reward for completing missions. This opportunity will open for you as soon as you can freely explore the open world, with the side mission “Get materials for the bunny suit” from various tasks. It will all end with a mission to kill the boss Colossus Grave Walker, as a reward for which you will receive a number of amorphous materials of the first descendant, one of which will become the final “key” to unlock the Rabbit:
You will need 400,000 gold, which you will earn through gameplay, to pay for the research, as well as the components to unlock the character. After that, you will be able to obtain research materials for other characters by killing subsequent colossus bosses, which are unlocked as you level up. Each of them has a chance to drop various components needed for the character.
The Best Characters in The First Descendant
Considering the current balance of The First Descendant gameplay, the characteristics of the heroes and their abilities, the list of the strongest characters looks like this:
S-level
- Bunny – Generates electricity when moving, and this effect is increased by using the mobility skill Lightspeed. The electricity is then used to power up other skills, including the auto-targeting Shock Bomb, Auto-Aim Shock Pulse, and Laser Beam. Bunny also deals area damage when landing after a double jump. While it may seem complicated, Bunny’s auto-targeting skill and ambient pulse effect do not require amazing aim – just good positioning. If you can handle her high movement speed, she is one of the best DPS characters in The First Descendant.
- Jayber is a healer who can heal allies while dealing decent damage himself. He can also restore allies’ MP with his upgraded health turrets, allowing them to use their skills more often. Since none of the characters in The First Descendant can do anything like this at the moment, Jayber is the number one support in your team.
A-level
- Lepik’s abilities are simple and straightforward. You can pull enemies towards you with a Thrust Grenade, then damage them with a regular grenade and a weapon-enhanced Overkill. If you use his Overclock ability, Lepik deals additional burn damage with both his grenade and Overkill. While this makes him a great choice for newbies and solo players, the only strong team ability he has is the Thrust Grenade, which prevents him from being one of the best DPS characters in co-op. Additionally, his lethal damage protection isn’t all that valuable in the late game, when you’re (hopefully) too experienced to need it often.
- Frayn – All attacks apply poison to enemies, making her a strong damage dealer. She is arguably a bit better than her DoT character Blair, as she does not need to remove poison pools to activate her defensive ability, and her passive does not scale with the number of poison pools on the battlefield. Her Venom Baptism ability is especially good because it spreads poison directly (through her bullets), allowing for maximum mobility.
- Valby – Uses her Liquefied movement ability and puddles to quickly spread water across the battlefield, inflicting the Laundry status on enemies. She is arguably one of the most “fun” characters out there. Her inability to use other abilities while liquefied can be a bit tedious, but her active ability Laundry Bomb more than makes up for it by dealing continuous damage while completely immobilizing the target. As a bonus, Valby dives into large puddles when she creates them, which not only knocks enemies back and deals damage, but is also a great way to dodge damage.
- Viessa is a useful addition to a team thanks to her ability to slow enemies and, thanks to Brui’s ability, reduce their defense. True, she is more of a hybrid support and DPS, but since The First Descendant already has a lot of DPS characters, Viessa is more useful when using her Freeze ability.
- Ajax – The hero has a small shield and a massive round shield at his disposal, which increase his defense and HP. These shields, combined with his knockback and stun abilities, make him an incredibly valuable tank, although this probably means that he is most useful in a team rather than alone.
B-level
- Glee has a unique dual set-up: a more powerful “Rampage” stance and skills that trade her HP for better damage. The problem? It’s very difficult to balance high damage with staying alive. Glee also requires constant movement: while you want her to keep some distance from enemies, she needs to pick up health orbs dropped by defeated enemies. If you’re on the front lines but can’t consistently defeat enemies, your Glee is going to have a hard time.
- Blair – Her entire kit is made up of fire attacks. The idea is to cast Scorch and then fire while the enemy is weakened. This can certainly result in devastating damage, but keep in mind that Blair’s abilities don’t have the best range, so you’ll have to stay close to your enemies. Combine this with relatively slow damage build-up, low HP, and weak defense, and you have a pretty vulnerable character that deals damage over time.
C-level
- Sharen – Her passive gives her increased damage to targets that aren’t targeted at her. She relies on her Camouflage ability to stay hidden, then uses her short- and mid-range electric attacks to deal a ton of damage instantly. Since you want her to draw as little fire as possible, she’s not the best choice for solo players. And since it takes a lot of time and effort for her to deal maximum damage (hide, approach the enemy, strike, then retreat again), she’s not great in a team either.
- Kyle – While Kyle can move while holding a small shield, he cannot use any attacks while holding it, making it pretty useless in solo mode. He also doesn’t have a large shield for his allies to hide behind, and he doesn’t have a stun ability. If you’re looking for the best tank character in The First Descendant, pick Ajax.