The First Descendant features a large roster of unique characters and classes, much like its inspirations, including Warframe. One of your main goals will be to unlock all The First Descendant characters so you can farm loot in style.
To help you get to grips with all the characters and classes in The First Descendant, you’ll need to understand their roles, abilities, and playstyles. Each one is different and there’s more to come, so there’s a lot to go through.
All The First Descendant Characters
There are 14 characters in The First Descendant. These are:
- Ajax
- Blair
- Bunny
- Enzo (Unreleased)
- Esiemo (Unreleased)
- Freyna
- Gley
- Jayber
- Kyle
- Lepic
- Sharen
- Valby
- Viessa
- Yujin (Unreleased)
Ajax
- Event Horizon Passive: The ability to store Void Energy during battle.
- Orbit Barrier: Creates a shield in front of Ajax. Durability increases proportionally to Ajax’s HP and DEF. If enhanced, reflects damage proportional to DEF to enemies hitting the barrier.
- Void Walk: Leaps into the air and lands on the ground to strike nearby enemies, stunning them. If enhanced, Max Shield increases for a certain period of time.
- Expulsion: Strikes nearby enemies, knocking them back. If enhanced, knockback range and Max Shield are increased.
- Hypercube: Creates a dome-shaped shield. Durability increases proportionally to Ajax’s HP and DEF. If enhanced, reflects damage proportional to DEF to enemies hitting the barrier.
Ajax is a tank-class character that uses the power of the Void to distort reality. Leading the team with various barriers and crowd-controlling skills, Ajax is great at creating space to protect your allies.
Blair
- Pitmaster Passive: Critical Hit Damage increases when attacking enemies in Burn state. Critical Hit Chance increases depending on the number of Stoves on the battlefield.
- Blaze Up: Spurts flame to deal damage to nearby enemies and creates a Stove. Stoves inflict constant damage and spread a Burn effect to nearby enemies.
- Extinguish: Retrieves Stoves on the battlefield and restores Mana. Retrieving Stoves increases DEF for a short period.
- Burn Taste: Spurts flames forward. Enemies near the flames’ arrival point are inflicted with constant damage and Burn effect.
- Deadly Cuisine: Throws a large fireball forward that splits into small fireballs causing extra explosions. Explosion damage inflicts a Burn effect and creates a Stove on the ground.
If you’re looking for a sauve fireslinger, then the damage-over-time DPS character Blair is the one for you. The goal is to set the battlefield ablaze to create even more damage and chaos, which also gives Blair added survivability.
Bunny
- Rabbit Foot Passive: Charges electricity by moving around. Landing on the ground after a double jump inflicts damage to nearby enemies.
- Thrill Bomb: Summons an Electro Orb to attack nearby enemies and inflict them with an Electrocute effect.
- Light Speeding: Increases sprint speed and the amount of Electricity obtained.
- Lightning Emission: Moving around deals damage to nearby enemies and inflicts them with an Electrocute effect.
- Maximum Power: Shoots out electricity forward to inflict damage. Damage increases in proportion to skill duration.
Bunny is a nuker, meaning she’s all about dashing in and dealing as much damage as possible before moving on. Able to increase her sprint speed and deal lightning damage while moving, Bunny has a very unique playstyle to the rest of the roster.
Freyna
- Unauthorized Bullet: Damage increases when attacking enemies poisoned by Freyna’s skill.
- Toxic Trauma: Throws poison to attack target enemy with damage and inflict Room 0 Trauma onto nearby enemies.
- Defense Mechanism: Significantly increases DEF. There is a chance of inflicting Room 0 Trauma on enemies upon attack.
- Decomposed Poison: Throws poison to create a Poison Swamp. Enemies entering the Poison Swamp are inflicted with constant damage and Poisoned Footprints state. When enemies in Poisoned Footprints state walk around, they create footprints that poison other enemies.
- Venomous Baptism: Switches gun to Dead Room. Enemies hit by Dead Room are inflicted with Room 0 Trauma.
Freyna is a damage-over-time DPS character that focuses on spreading poison damage to wipe out crowds. Importantly, poisoned enemies take increased damage, meaning Freyna can also work well against bosses. With Decomposed Poison being an AoE on the ground, it can be a little awkward to use at times.
Gley
- Thirst Passive: Defeated enemies drop Life Sphere. Obtaining Life Sphere restores HP and adds a stack of Power of Life.
- Frenzied: Consumes HP to enter Berserk mode. In Berserk mode, long-distance weapon’s ATK and Penetration increase.
- Life Siphon: Deals damage to nearby enemies and restores HP. In Berserk mode, damage increases; in Normal mode, damage inflicted by enemies decreases for a certain period of time.
- Increased Sensory: Creates an area with a special effect. In Berserk mode, bullets are not consumed within the area; in Normal mode, HP is restored within the area.
- Massacre: Switches gun to Nosferatu. In Berserk mode, skill damage increases; in Normal mode, attacked enemies are stunned.
Gley is a unique utility damage dealer based around two different modes - Normal and Berserk. While both have various bonus effects depending on what action you’re performing, generally speaking, Normal focuses on survivability while Berserk focuses on damage. You’ll need to carefully balance how much time you spend in each mode to deal maximum damage without dying.
Kyle
- Experienced Technician Passive: Obtains Magnetic Force with his Skills. When his Shield is broken, he recovers Shield and Magnetic Force.
- Repulsion Dash: Charges towards the enemy, dealing damage.
- Magnetic Bulwark: Creates a frontal Barrier to protect against enemy attacks.
- Magnetism Spurt: When damaged, Magnetic Force is reduced instead of HP or Shields. After a certain period of time, Magnetic Force detonates to deal damage around him.
- Superconductivity Thrusters: Allows him to fly. When landing, deals damage in an area around his landing zone.
Kyle is a tanker, mixing tanking capabilities with an aggressive, brawling playstyle. He creates shields to absorb damage before charging in and releasing the stored-up damage. If you’re looking for non-stop assault, Kyle is the way to go.
Lepic
- Close Call Passive: There is a chance of surviving fatal damage during battle.
- Grenade: Throws a grenade forward at the enemy. Extra Burns when Overclock is active.
- Overclock: Increases all Skill ATK and adds a Burn effect to Grenade and Overkill for a set duration.
- Traction Grenade: Throws a Traction Grenade forward to pull the enemies within range.
- Overkill: Fires a powerful shell at the enemy. The shell is maintained at the landing point for a set period of time, inflicting constant damage. Extra Burns when Overclock is active.
Lepic is an AoE damage dealer, which them great for eliminating groups of enemies. What’s more, Lepic is also very easy to get to grips with. Activate Traction Grenade to group enemies before activating Overclock and either lobbing a Grenade or firing off Overkill.
Sharen
- Assassinator Passive: Damage increases when attacking an enemy that is not attacking Sharen. Killing enemies with a skill in the Ambush state resets the cooldown for Active Camouflage.
- Cutoff Beam: Attacks enemy with an electric blade to deal damage and inflict them with an Electrocute effect.
- Active Camouflage: Hides from enemies. When attacking or using skills, the Active Camouflage state ends immediately, regardless of the time remaining. When the Active Camouflage state ends, Sharen enters Ambush mode, increasing the damage of the next attack.
- Impact Rounds: Launches built-in explosives forward from the arm to stun enemies.
- Flash Shortsword: Targets enemies within aiming range, and throws multiple knives to attack them. Knives explode to inflict enemies with damage and Electrocute effect.
Sharen is a stealthy close-range damage dealer that’s perfect for players who enjoy a rogue playstyle. However, they can be difficult to get the hang of.
In short, use Active Camouflage and attack an enemy with Cutoff Beam for bonus damage. Killing them will reset Active Camouflage and give you another damage bonus to spend on Impact Rounds or Flash Swordsword.
Valby
- Water Intake Passive: When using skills while standing on water, she consumes less Mana.
- Bubble Bullet: Bounces a Bubble Bullet forward to create a small puddle where the Bubble Bullet impacts and where she stands. Enemies in the puddle take continuous damage and are inflicted with Laundry.
- Plop Plop: Creates a large puddle where Valby is standing, then dives in. Valby then pops out at a selected location within the puddle. Enemies in the puddle take continuous damage and are inflicted with Laundry.
- Laundry: Valby becomes Liquefied. While Liquefied, she cannot take her feet off of the ground or use skills, but she can move through enemies and her Movement Speed and DEF increase. When moving while Liquefied, she creates a path of water that deals continuous damage to enemies and inflicts Laundry.
- Laundry Bomb: Changes the equipped weapon to the Laundry Bomb Launcher. When the Launcher is fired, a Laundry Bomb is created, pulling in enemies inflicted with Laundry and dealing continuous damage.
Valby harnesses the power of water to deal great AoE damage. While she has access to both a teleport dash and a speed boost, Valby is rather stationary, wanting to play around the water puddles she creates to deal damage.
Viessa
- Ice Sphere Passive: Condenses moisture in the atmosphere around the nucleus circling around the body, lowering the temperature.
- Frost Shards: Fires an exploding Ice Beam, inflicting damage in the area around enemies and inflicting Ice Shackle. Increases the Ice Shackle effect on enemies by two stages when hit and increases by one stage if hit by the exploding area.
- Frost Road: Increases Running Speed and Shield, and creates Ice Sheets on the ground where Viessa stands. When enemies come into contact with these Ice Sheets, they are inflicted with Ice Shackle stage two.
- Ice Wave: Releases an arc of cold air in front, inflicting damage and Ice Shackle stage two.
- Cold Snap: Creates a snowstorm that explodes over time, inflicting damage and Ice Shackle on enemies caught within. Increases Ice Shackle by three stages when hit and increases by four stages if hit by the exploding area.
Viessa is debuffer, freezing enemies to immobilize them and control the battlefield so allies can go all-out. The goal is to inflict Ice Shackle on all enemies in the area to freeze enemies that don’t outright die from the ability damage. She won’t be the best damage dealer on the team, but her utility goes a long way in helping your allies get the most out of their kits.
All The First Descendant Ultimate Characters
Ultimate characters are upgraded versions of their base counterparts. Their abilities are largely unchanged, just with greater damage and improved cooldown times. As the name suggests, these are the big-ticket characters that you will want to unlock as soon as you can. Importantly though, not every character has an Ultimate variant.
The currently available Ultimate characters in The First Descendant are:
- Ultimate Ajax (Unreleased)
- Ultimate Bunny (Unreleased)
- Ultimate Gley (Unreleased)
- Ultimate Lepic
- Ultimate Viessa
How to Unlock Characters in The First Descendant
To unlock characters in The First Descendant, you need the Code, Spiral Catalyst, Enhanced Cells, and Stabilizer parts for the given character. Once you have all these pieces, you must speak to Magister Anais in the Albion to unlock the character.
Like Warframe, you have to collect various parts to unlock each character. These four parts are locked behind missions, pushing you to use the characters you already have to grind and find the parts to build out your roster.
Again, like Warframe, this is a very time-consuming process. Not only do you have to get the character parts in the first place, but researching the character to unlock them also takes time.
Which Starting Character to Choose in The First Descendant
While most characters have to be researched to be unlocked, you will have a choice between three different characters when you start The First Descendant: Lepic, Ajax, and Viessa. Once you finish the tutorial, you will also be able to unlock Bunny.
The best starting character that you should choose is Lepic. Lepic is a superb yet simple damage dealer that will be perfect for getting to grips with The First Descendant. Being more tanky, Ajax is also a good pick. It’s best to stay away from Viessa for now as she has the most complex kit of these starting characters and generally works better in a group.
Now you know all about The First Descendant characters and classes, pick your favorite and start grinding through missions to get your hands on the parts required to unlock them.