If you’ve spent any time grinding missions in The First Descendant, you know how big a difference a max-tier ultimate character can make to your run success. Even if you’ve got a solid build for your starting unit, swapping to a fully unlocked ultimate character turns tough boss fights and high-difficulty co-op runs into far more manageable, even fun, challenges. This guide breaks down exactly how to get ultimate characters in the first descendant, with no hidden tricks or pay-to-win loopholes required to unlock every rare unit available.
Complete Main Story Missions to Unlock Base Ultimate Character Blueprints
The first and most accessible way to unlock ultimate characters is by working your way through the main story campaign. You won’t get full character drops from story missions, but each act finale will give you a permanent blueprint for a new ultimate character once you clear all associated objectives. This is the first step you should take when figuring out how to get ultimate characters in the first descendant, as it requires no endgame grind to access.
You only need to clear the final act of each story arc once to unlock the corresponding ultimate character blueprint permanently, even if you replay the mission later on lower difficulty for extra rewards. Once you have the blueprint, you’ll get a full list of crafting materials you need to farm to build the character, all of which drop from common low-difficulty missions for new players. Just don’t use story skip tokens if you’re chasing these blueprints, as skipping missions will not trigger the blueprint drop even if you mark the arc as complete.
How to Get Ultimate Characters in The First Descendant via Void Intercept Battles
For rarer ultimate characters that don’t come from the main story, you’ll need to run endgame Void Intercept Battles. Each of these boss rush missions drops specific character shards for pre-set ultimate characters, so you can target exactly the unit you want instead of relying on random drops. You’ll need 80 shards total to unlock most rare ultimate characters, plus a small stack of common crafting materials to finish the build.
Grinding the same battle 10+ times in a row can get tedious fast, so many players split their farming sessions into 20-minute blocks to avoid burnout. If you need a quick, low-stakes break between runs to reset your focus without stepping away from your desk entirely, you can load up RummyLudo for a few fast rounds to pass the time before you queue for your next battle. It fits perfectly into the 5-minute wait time between mission queues, so you don’t lose track of your farming schedule.
Run Void Intercept Battles on difficulty level 3 or higher to get a 30% higher drop rate for character shards, which cuts your total farm time almost in half compared to running lower difficulties. If you’re not sure which battles to run first, here are the most efficient ones for top-tier meta ultimate characters:
Don’t forget to claim your weekly challenge rewards after running these battles, as they often include 10-20 free shards for random ultimate characters to speed up your unlocks even more. You can also trade duplicate shards with friends if you’re part of a consistent co-op group, as long as both players have completed the associated Void Intercept Battle at least once.
Complete Weekly Co-op Challenges to Earn Exclusive Ultimate Characters
A small set of limited-edition ultimate characters are only available through weekly co-op challenge milestones, and they can’t be unlocked via story missions or Void Intercept Battles. These characters often have unique team support abilities that make them invaluable for high-difficulty raid runs, so they’re worth prioritizing if you play a lot of group content.
You can track your co-op challenge progress in the in-game events tab, and you don’t lose progress if you leave a match early due to a disconnect or bad team. You don’t need a full pre-made squad to complete these challenges either, as random matchmade teams will usually clear the basic objectives as long as most players are focused on the mission. If you’re struggling to get wins, try queuing for challenges on weekday evenings, when more experienced players are online and less likely to abandon runs halfway through.
You can also earn exclusive cosmetic skins for these limited characters if you complete the bonus challenge objectives each week, which is a nice extra reward for putting in the extra work. These challenges reset every Tuesday, so make sure you claim all your rewards before the reset to avoid losing any progress you made that week.
Avoid Common Mistakes That Slow Down Your Ultimate Character Unlocks
Most new players take twice as long to unlock their first ultimate character as they need to, simply because they make a few easily avoidable mistakes. The first and most common mistake is wasting rare crafting materials on upgrading low-tier starting characters that you’ll never use once you unlock an ultimate unit. Hold onto all rare crafting materials until you’ve unlocked at least one ultimate character blueprint, so you don’t have to re-farm materials you already spent on a throwaway unit.
Another common mistake is skipping daily bonus rewards, which give you double drops for the first three missions you run each day. That means you can get twice as many shards or crafting materials in the same amount of time if you log in for 20 minutes each day, instead of grinding for 3 hours one day a week. Even if you don’t have a lot of time to play, logging in to run your three daily bonus missions will drastically cut down your total grind time for ultimate characters.
Never exchange ultimate character shards for general currency, even if you have extra for a character you already unlocked. You’ll need those extra shards later on to upgrade the character’s maximum level and unlock their full ability kit, so trading them for a small amount of currency is never worth it long-term. If you have way more shards than you need for upgrades, you can trade them to friends for shards of characters you haven’t unlocked yet instead.
Unlocking every available ultimate character doesn’t have to take months of mindless grinding if you follow the strategies laid out above. Target the specific units you want first, split your grind into manageable chunks to avoid burnout, and don’t waste resources on low-priority upgrades to speed up the process even faster. Once you learn how to get ultimate characters in the first descendant, you’ll be able to take on every high-difficulty mission in the game, whether you’re playing solo or with a group of friends, and get far more enjoyment out of every run.