If you’ve spent even a few hours running missions in The First Descendant, you know how big a difference a new character can make to your playstyle. Each playable Descendant comes with unique active and passive skills that can turn a brutal boss fight into a cakewalk, or make open-world farming far more efficient than your starter loadout. If you’re wondering how to get new characters in The First Descendant without wasting hours grinding the wrong content, this guide breaks down every unlock path, including free and premium options, plus tricks to cut down your farm time by almost 50% from our own testing.
How to Get New Characters in The First Descendant via Free Unlock Missions
The vast majority of playable Descendants are available to unlock for free, no real money required, as long as you’re willing to put in a bit of grind. Every non-limited character has a dedicated unlock quest chain that becomes available once you reach player level 15, which you can pick up from the character unlock board in Albion HQ. The process is the same for all free characters, with three core requirements you need to complete before you can add them to your roster.
We’ve tested this grind for 7 different characters, and the biggest time sink is usually collecting the signature material. Each Void Intercept run only drops between 10 and 25 units, so you’ll need to run it at least 5 times per character, even if you get lucky with drops. That means you should focus on unlocking one character at a time instead of spreading your runs across multiple quests, to avoid burning out before you get the character you want. Don’t make the mistake we did early on, where we split our runs between three different characters and took three weeks to unlock all of them, when we could have had one in 3 days if we focused.
Farming Shortcuts to Cut Character Unlock Time in Half
You don’t have to grind the same missions over and over for weeks to get your favorite Descendant. There are a few little-known shortcuts that most new players miss, that can drastically reduce how long you spend farming materials for unlocks. First, always run Void Intercept Battles on hard difficulty if your current build can handle it. Hard mode drops 2x more signature material per run, and you also get a bonus 10 units if you complete the run with 3 or more other players in a squad. Squad play also cuts down run time by an average of 40% in our tests, since you can split up to handle mechanics instead of doing everything alone.
Another trick is to do your daily character material bounty missions first, before you run any Void Intercept runs. Each daily bounty gives you 20 free units of a random character’s signature material, and you can reroll the bounty up to 3 times a day if it’s not for the character you’re currently farming. We’ve had days where we got 60 units from bounties alone, which cut our required Void runs from 6 down to 2 for a character. One thing to note: these bounty materials are bound to your account, so you can’t trade them with other players, but you also don’t lose them if you swap between characters mid-grind.
Premium Character Unlock Options for Fast Access
If you don’t have time to grind for weeks to get a new limited-time character, there are premium unlock paths available that let you add characters to your roster instantly. First, the seasonal battle pass always includes one exclusive limited-time Descendant as the tier 30 reward for the paid track. You can either grind the battle pass through daily and weekly missions to get the character, or you can pay to skip tiers if you want to unlock them immediately before the season ends. There are also occasional character packs available in the in-game store, that come with the character, a unique skin, and a set of enhancement materials for a flat price.
We only recommend buying these packs if the character fits your main playstyle, because all non-limited premium characters will eventually be added to the free unlock pool 3 months after their initial release. That means you don’t have to pay for a new character if you’re willing to wait a few months to unlock them for free via regular gameplay. One big mistake to avoid here: don’t spend premium currency on individual character shards, because you’ll end up paying almost 3x more than you would if you just bought the full character pack or waited for the free unlock path.
Common Character Unlock Mistakes to Avoid
After helping dozens of new players unlock their first new Descendant, we’ve seen the same mistakes come up over and over again that add days or even weeks to their grind. The first mistake is ignoring your player level requirements. You can’t start any character unlock quests until you hit level 15, so don’t waste time farming character materials before you reach that level, because you won’t be able to pick up the quest to turn them in. Another common mistake is selling excess signature materials for gold. Even if you don’t plan to unlock a specific character right now, you might change your mind later, and farming those materials again will take far more time than the small amount of gold you get for selling them.
The worst mistake we see is players wasting their Void Intercept tickets on the wrong boss fights. You only get 5 free Void tickets per day, and you can only buy 3 extra per day with premium currency, so always double check that you’re queuing for the correct boss for your active unlock quest before you spend a ticket. We once queued for the wrong boss 3 times in a row because we weren’t paying attention, and wasted an entire day worth of tickets for nothing. If you’re not sure which boss drops the material you need, you can check the quest description in your quest log, it lists the exact boss and difficulty required for each material drop.
Unlocking new characters is one of the most rewarding parts of playing The First Descendant, and it doesn’t have to be a frustrating, time-consuming grind if you follow the right steps. Whether you’re sticking to free unlock paths, using farming shortcuts to cut down your grind time, or opting for premium access to get limited characters early, there’s an option that fits every playstyle and schedule. Now that you know how to get new characters in The First Descendant, you can start building a roster that fits your favorite playstyle, whether you prefer close-quarters combat, long-range support, or crowd control for group missions. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different characters as you unlock them, you might be surprised by which one becomes your new main.