If you’ve spent even a few hours running missions in The First Descendant, you’ve probably noticed other players rocking wild, one-of-a-kind color schemes on their characters and weapons that you can’t find in the base skin shop. You don’t need premium currency or a rare battle pass drop to pull off these looks, either. Learning how to change colors in the first descendant is far simpler than most new players realize, and it lets you stand out from the crowd during co-op runs without spending a dime. I’ve spent dozens of hours messing with the customization menus to build skins for my main, Bunny, and I’ve picked up a ton of tricks to make the process faster and avoid common mistakes that can waste your hard-earned resources.
What You Need Before You Start Changing Colors in The First Descendant
You don’t need to hit a high level or complete any special side missions to unlock the color editing tools, which is a nice change from other live-service games that lock basic customization behind grind walls. The feature unlocks as soon as you finish the opening tutorial and reach Albion, the main player hub, so even brand new players can tweak their looks right away. There are only two core resources you’ll need to actually make changes to your gear’s colors.
Color pigments are the main resource used to adjust shades, and you can earn them from almost every activity in the game. They drop from regular story missions, weekly challenge clears, login rewards, event shops, and even from dismantling duplicate skins you don’t plan to use. Pigments come in common, rare, and legendary tiers, with higher tiers offering special effects like metallic sheens or glow-in-the-dark properties.
The only other thing to note is that every customizable item (characters, weapons, backpacks, auxiliary gear) has separate color slots, so changes you make to one item won’t carry over to others unless you intentionally save and apply a custom palette. I made the mistake of wasting a legendary neon pink pigment on a common level 5 assault rifle during my first week of play, so save your rare pigments for endgame gear and your main characters that you’ll use long term.
Step-by-Step Process to Change Colors for Characters and Gear
Once you have a few pigments saved up, the actual editing process takes less than two minutes per item once you get the hang of it. This whole process is the easiest way to make the most of how to change colors in The First Descendant without spending extra cash on overpriced premium skins. You can either use the full customization desk in Albion for full editing access, or use the quick customization menu from your character screen when you’re not in an active mission.
First, select the item you want to edit from the customization menu: you can choose individual characters, primary weapons, secondary weapons, backpacks, and even small auxiliary gear like grappling hooks. Next, navigate to the “Color Adjustment” tab that sits right next to the skin selection tab. Most new players miss this tab entirely, since it’s small and tucked away next to the more prominent paid skin options.
Every item has 3 to 5 separate customizable parts: characters usually have separate slots for armor plating, fabric accents, hair, and eye color, while weapons have slots for the body, grip, barrel, and attachments. Pick the part you want to edit, then select a pigment from your inventory to apply it. You can preview every change before you confirm it, so you can test as many shades as you want without wasting resources. If you want to tweak the shade further, use the brightness and saturation sliders under the pigment selection to get the exact look you want. When you’re happy with the result, hit save to apply the change permanently.
If you create a color scheme you love, save it as a custom palette to apply the same set of colors to other items in one click, instead of adjusting each part manually every time. That trick saved me hours of time when I was creating a matching set for my main character and all her weapons.
Advanced Tips for Unique, Eye-Catching Color Schemes
Once you master the basic tools of how to change colors in The First Descendant, you can start playing around with these advanced tweaks to make your designs stand out even more from the default skins you see on every other player. I’ve tested hundreds of combinations for co-op events and community showcases, and these are the tricks that consistently get me compliments and questions from other players in lobbies.
- Use the 60-30-10 color rule for balanced, professional-looking schemes: 60% of your design is a main neutral or bold base color, 30% is a secondary complementary color, and 10% is a bright accent color for small details like trim or weapon lights. This keeps your design from looking cluttered or overwhelming, even if you’re using bright, bold shades.
- Match your color scheme to your character’s abilities for a cohesive, intentional look: if you main a frost-based character like Viessa, use cool blues, whites, and silvers to match her ice skills, or if you play a fire-focused Descendant like Ajax, lean into reds, oranges, and deep blacks to fit his explosive kit. It’s a small touch that makes your whole build feel much more thought out.
- Test your scheme in different lighting before you save it: the customization desk has very bright, even studio lighting that can make colors look far different than they do in dark underground mission maps or bright open desert areas. Use the lighting preview toggle in the top right of the editing menu to cycle through different in-game lighting settings, so you know your scheme will look good no matter what mission you’re running.
Most players also miss the small texture toggle next to the color sliders, which lets you switch between matte, glossy, and metallic finishes for every color you apply. You can make bright neon colors look more muted and tactical with a matte finish, or make neutral black armor look sleek and high-end with a glossy finish. Event-exclusive pigments often have special unique effects like color shifting properties or animated glow, so it’s worth grinding limited-time events to get your hands on these rare options. I have a color shifting purple pigment from a summer event last year that I use on my main character’s helmet, and it changes from purple to blue to green depending on the lighting, so I get questions about it every single time I join a public lobby.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Editing Colors
Even though the color editing tool is pretty straightforward, there are a few common mistakes that new players make all the time that waste resources or lead to frustrating results. I’ve made almost all of these mistakes myself, so you don’t have to learn the hard way.
First, don’t waste rare or limited-edition pigments on gear you’re going to replace in a few levels. It’s tempting to make your low-level starter gear look cool, but you’ll outgrow those weapons and armor pieces within a few hours of play, so stick to common pigments for temporary gear and save your rare drops for endgame builds you’ll use for months.
Second, don’t get frustrated if you can’t edit a specific part of a skin. Some premium paid skins and rare event reward skins have locked color parts to preserve their unique design, which is not a bug. If you want full control over every part of your character or weapon’s look, use base game default skins that don’t have any locked color slots.
Third, don’t forget about faction event requirements. Some limited-time faction missions require you to wear the faction’s official color scheme to join, so if you’re running a super bright, wild custom scheme, you might get locked out of these missions until you swap to a faction-appropriate palette. I learned this the hard way when I tried to join a Vanguard faction mission with my bright pink and green Bunny skin, and I had to quickly swap to the official blue and gray Vanguard scheme to get in.
The good news is that you can revert any color change for free at any time, with no cost to pigments or currency, so don’t be afraid to experiment with weird color combinations and new ideas. You can always switch back if you don’t like the final result.
At the end of the day, customizing your colors is one of the best parts of playing The First Descendant, and it lets you make your builds feel truly personal, even if you’re using the same weapons and characters as hundreds of other players. You don’t need to spend real money or grind for dozens of hours to get great looking skins, either: once you know how to change colors in the first descendant, you can create unique designs with the resources you earn from regular missions. Don’t be afraid to mess around with different combinations, test out weird color pairs, and make a design that feels like you. Next time you join a co-op mission, you’ll be the one other players are asking about your custom skin.