How to unlock characters in The First Descendant

✓ At a glance

• Characters in The First Descendant can be unlocked by research after collecting and researching all of their unique items. Otherwise, you can buy new characters from the Store.
• Each character requires researching unique components – Code, Spiral Catalyst, Enhanced Cells, Stabilizer – and getting their Blueprints by beating bosses.

If you’re like us, you’ll want to try out different TFD characters. However, to do that you’ll first need to unlock them. That’s right, you won’t be able to simply get new characters unless you buy them outright for cash. Otherwise, to unlock new characters in The First Descendant, you’ll have to know how to unlock them through grinding and research. 

How to unlock new characters?

There are two ways to get characters in The First Descendant – you can either buy them from the Store for Caliber, or you can grind for resources and then research them. We’ll explain the ins and outs of both methods.

How to unlock characters with research

The main way to get characters is to use research through Magister Anais in Albion. Access the Research Institute and select Descendants. This will give you the full list of characters that you can unlock through research. You’ll see that you need several components for each character, comprised of:

• Descendant’s Unique Code
• Descendant’s Unique Spiral Catalyst
• Descendant’s Unique Enhanced Cells
• Descendant’s Unique Stabilizer
• Descendant’s Unique Blueprint

What this means is that none of the above materials are interchangeable between characters – you have to research them individually. The last piece of the puzzle will be the Blueprint for the character, with each usually dropping from different bosses. You can click on the Acquisition button to find out exactly where it can be obtained. They are associated with Amorphous Materials drops, so you can plan ahead depending on which Descendant you plan to unlock next. The only current character with guaranteed drops is Bunny, which you can unlock by following the early-game questline.

The rest of the materials need to be researched by combining common world drops that you can get by running missions, opening boxes, and killing enemies. Then, combine the required resources with gold and set up a research queue for all needed items with Anais. You can access the research for all of the necessary components by selecting the Descendant Material tab.

After getting all the items for the Descendant you’re looking for and their Blueprint, speak with Anais again and start researching. This last step will take only 1h to complete and you will have the new character ready to go. You just need to change the active character to give them a try.

The steps are the same for unlocking Ultimate Descendants too. The main difference is that everything above will be harder and more expensive in their case. You will need to get rarer materials and beat bosses on Hard difficulty to get their Blueprints.

How to get characters from the Store

If everything explained above looks like too much of a grind to you, then there’s a shortcut – if you’re willing to pay. The Store offers all available Descendants to be bought with Caliber, the game’s premium currency. They usually cost 300 Caliber for regular characters, 600 for the next tier, and 900 for brand-new ones. Ultimate Descendants cost 1200 Caliber by themselves, or more if you buy a bundle.

However, getting them this way will remove all the grinding and research you will otherwise have to do. You’ll skip ahead of the queue and simply get the character you want. This option can be found by going to the Store and selecting the Descendants or Ultimate Descendants sections.