If you’ve spent any time running co-op missions or grinding for rare characters in The First Descendant, you’ve almost certainly seen Serena dominate team fights with her area-of-effect frost attacks. She’s one of the most sought-after support-damage hybrid characters in the game, and for good reason: her crowd control abilities can turn even the hardest boss fights into a walk in the park. Today we’re breaking down exactly how to get serena the first descendant, plus extra tips to make the grind as painless as possible, and how to make the most of her kit once you have her unlocked.
Full Step-by-Step Guide for How to Get Serena The First Descendant
A lot of new players assume Serena is locked behind a paid microtransaction, but that’s not the case at all – she’s 100% farmable for free with no real money required. The only catch is you’ll need to hit a few key progression milestones before you can access the mission that drops her character shards. You’ll need 30 total Serena shards to fully unlock the character, and shards drop exclusively from the Void Intercept Battle: Frost Warden endgame mission.
Before you even queue up for your first run, make sure you check off all these pre-requisites to avoid wasted time and resources:
Drop rates for Serena shards sit at roughly 12% per normal difficulty run, and 24% per hard difficulty run, so most players will get enough shards to unlock her after 8 to 12 total runs. Normal difficulty drops her base character shards, while hard difficulty has a 2x higher drop rate and a chance to get her exclusive signature weapon shards. If you’re running squads specifically to figure out how to get serena the first descendant as fast as possible, hard mode is worth the extra effort if your team is strong enough to clear it consistently without wipes.
Best Team Comps to Speed Up Serena Farming Runs
Wiping halfway through a Frost Warden run means you lose your Void Crystals and get no loot, so building a functional team is far more important than stacking the highest possible damage numbers. Public squads can be hit or miss, but if you follow a few simple rules you’ll cut your average run time by 30% or more, even with random teammates.
You don’t need a full team of meta characters, but you do need at least one dedicated healer and one high single-target damage dealer to take down the Frost Warden’s shield phases fast. The boss has two separate shield phases that regenerate if you don’t break them within 10 seconds, so single-target burst damage is non-negotiable. For support roles, characters with shield boosts or cleanse abilities work best, since the Frost Warden’s frost attacks will slow your entire team if you don’t clear the debuff quickly.
If you’re farming solo, stick to normal difficulty and use a high-mobility DPS character like Freyna to avoid the boss’s wide AoE frost attacks. You won’t get the boosted drop rate of hard mode, but you won’t have to wait for other players to load in or deal with teammates who leave mid-run. Avoid bringing multiple frost characters to the fight, as the Frost Warden has 70% frost resistance that will make most of your attacks useless.
What to Do After You Unlock Serena to Max Her Potential
Many players who just figured out how to get serena the first descendant make the mistake of dumping all their upgrade materials into her ultimate ability first, which is a waste for most casual play. Serena’s kit is built around consistent crowd control and supplementary damage, not one-shot burst attacks, so you’ll want to prioritize upgrades that amplify her core strengths first.
Prioritize leveling her "Frost Barrage" ability first, as it deals 3x damage to grouped enemies and applies a 3-second freeze to all non-boss targets hit. Her passive ability also gives her 15% extra attack speed for every frozen enemy on the field, stacking up to 45% total, so spamming Frost Barrage lets her deal far more consistent auto attack damage than most players expect. Her ultimate ability, Frozen Avalanche, is great for boss fights, but it has a 90-second cooldown so it’s not worth maxing first for general open world play.
For mods, the Frozen Core set is her best in slot for almost all playstyles, as it boosts her frost damage by 25% and extends freeze duration by 2 full seconds. You can farm the Frozen Core mod set from the same Frost Warden mission you used to get Serena, so you don’t have to switch to a different grind spot right away. For weapons, fast-firing SMGs and assault rifles work best, since they let her stack attack speed buffs from her passive far faster than slow heavy weapons like sniper rifles or rocket launchers.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Farming for Serena
Even if you follow all the standard farming tips, it’s easy to make small mistakes that add hours to your total grind time. Most of these mistakes come from not reading mission details or wasting resources on runs you aren’t prepared for, so we’ve rounded up the most common ones we see new players make all the time.
One of the most common questions we get from players learning how to get serena the first descendant is whether they should save their premium currency to skip the grind, and we always say no – the grind is fast enough that it’s not worth wasting paid currency on. Don’t waste Void Crystals on hard difficulty runs if your team’s combined combat power is below 18,000, because you’ll almost always wipe before you reach the final boss and lose all your crystals for no reward.
Never leave a mission before the final loot chest spawns, even if you dealt most of the damage to the boss – you won’t get any shards or rewards if you exit early. You also don’t need to pick up every piece of loot that drops during the run, since all rewards are added to your inventory automatically after you beat the boss. If you get a duplicate Serena shard when you already have her unlocked, you can use it to upgrade her skill levels instead of selling it for credits, which is way more valuable long-term.
Farming for Serena can feel tedious at times, but the payoff is more than worth it for anyone who loves crowd control or supporting their team in co-op runs. Once you know how to get serena the first descendant, the grind becomes far more predictable, and you can tweak your runs to cut down on wasted time as much as possible. Don’t get discouraged if you go a few runs without getting any shards – drop rates are random, and you’ll almost always get enough to unlock her within 10 runs if you stick to consistent, well-built teams. Once you have her kitted out with the right mods and abilities, you’ll wonder how you ever ran missions without her frost support on your side.