The First Descendant: Which Character Should You Play?

Now that The First Descendant has been fully released, new players are flocking to try this free looter shooter that borrows a few elements from games like Warframe and Borderlands. With a handful of characters to potentially start with, along with many others to unlock throughout your time playing it, this guide will try to help you decide who to go for first.

Which Character Should You Play?

As you may already know by now, all of the characters can be acquired through grinding or paying real money (if you want to skip the grind). Because of this, the only limiting factor for the most part will be your time.

In the following sections, we’ll briefly go through what each character is capable of. This will hopefully help you decide which characters to prioritize unlocking first without taking into account what weapons and modules you have.

Ajax – Tank

Ajax is one of the three starting characters you can choose from when you first create your account. Despite being more of a tank, Ajax is actually a pretty decent all-arounder as far as starting characters go.

He has a couple of barriers, a decent stun ability, and a bit of knockback through his Expulsion skill. Overall, he’s a nice pick for any new player, and he remains viable even in later stages of the game.

Lepic – DPS

Lepic is another one of the starting characters that you can pick, and he leans more towards the DPS side of things. His entire mainly revolves around the use of explosives, and he is great at clearing out mobs due to his AOE abilities.

Viessa – Debuffer

Last, but certainly not the least, of the starting choices is Viessa. She is classified as a debuffer due to her kit being centered around ice, which mainly means that her abilities can inflict immobilizing effects on enemies.

Her abilities shine more as you progress through the game, as you’ll start to notice the value of her slow and freeze debuffs when tougher enemies start rolling up on you.

Bunny – DPS

Bunny is one of the first characters you’ll unlock after your starter choice, and she is another DPS option. She is a highly mobile descendant who focuses more on burst damage, making her great for grinding in general.

The only real downside to using her is that she is a glass cannon and many players will be picking her in lower levels, to varying degrees of success. So, you might find yourself having to fill a support role if absolutely necessary for a mission.

Freyna – DPS

Although she is a DPS, Freyna is the polar opposite of someone like Bunny and Lepic in that she focuses more on damage over time effects rather than straight up bursting things down.

She is a great pick for both single target fights and mob clearing due to her AOE, though just keep in mind that you need to stack up her poison first to maximize your DPS. She’s my preferred choice for DPS, though she might not be ideal for the early game.

She doesn’t truly shine until much later, as her DoT will only start becoming more noticeable once enemies start to turn into bullet sponges. Early on, things will die too quickly for her abilities to matter.

Sharen – DPS

Sharen is a descendant that you can unlock relatively early on, but she is considered to be a pretty mediocre choice overall. She is basically a melee-centered DPS character, and as an assassin, she has some stealth abilities.

She can do some insane damage, but there’s a lot of risk involved with her kit. If you like that type of playstyle, though, then this character will be the perfect choice for you.

Blair – DPS

In a similar vein as the previous entry, Blair is another character that specializes in damage over time effects.This time, though, his element is fire.

Unlike, Freyna, however, he can get a lot of use out of his abilities even in earlier levels as he has a mix of both AOE burst and DoT. His passive skill is also centered around critical hits, giving him some decent burst potential.

Unfortunately, without spending money, you’ll likely only be able to grind for him once you’ve already progressed relatively far into the campaign. By then, you’re probably already comfortably maining somebody else.

Gley – DPS

Don’t let her getup fool you, Gley is a DPS character whose kit revolves around having both a frenzied state and a non-frenzied state.

While in a frenzy, she will deal a lot more damage at the expense of her own HP, and she can activate a brief period of infinite ammo in that state that gives her massive burst potential.

Although we haven’t been able to do any extensive testing in the launch version so far, I have played her quite a lot in the beta and unless she was nerfed to the ground, she was one of the best options for boss killing and just solo gameplay in general.

Valby – DPS

Valby is essentially a DPS character who specializes in spreading water all around the field, dealing a lot of AOE / DoT damage and applying a debuff known as Laundry. This increases the amount of damage enemies take from fire and electric attacks.

Because of her debuffs, she pairs well with somebody like Bunny, though she is a decent enough damage dealer on her own. 

Esiemo – DPS

Just like Lepic, Esiemo is a DPS character who has a kit centered around explosives. He’s in a bit of an odd spot right now as his abilities make him seem like more of an offtank kind of character, and he doesn’t really excel in any particular niche.

The general consensus is that he is just not very good right now, though we could be proven wrong as more players reach the endgame and try out various builds with him. Hold off on this descendant for now and spend your resources and time on somebody else.

Kyle – Tank

Kyle is the other real straight up tank descendant in the roster, as his entire kit firmly places him as a frontline character, whether you want to or not.

If you like the idea of running headfirst into danger and dealing a respectable amount of AOE damage as you do so, then Kyle is going to be right up your alley.

Yujin – Support

Yujin is, as far as we’re aware, the only true healer in the game right now. As you’d expect, he is fully kitted for supporting other players, making him a valuable asset to any team.

If you prefer to stay in the backlines and keeping people alive in any encounter, Yujin is going to be perfect for you. He has a fast rez, various healing tools, AOE buffs for teammates, and active debuff prevention/immunity.

Enzo – Support

Another decent option for players who like the support role is Enzo. Rather than heals, his specialization is in supplying ammunition to his team. If you typically play with a group that just burns through ammo, consider picking this character up.

Jayber – Support/DPS

Finally, we have Jayber, the turret master with the funny name. He was one of my personal favorites during the beta, and he falls somewhere between the DPS and support roles due to having both an assault and medical turret.

He is probably one of the best choices for a solo player, but he also shines in a group as he is one of the few characters who can provide healing. On top of that, the medical turret can draw some aggro and act as a distraction in wave-based missions.

And those are all of the characters currently in the game right now, as well as a quick summary of what they’re capable of and what roles they fall under. If you’re still very new to the game, consider checking out our complete beginner’s guide for The First Descendant for a few more tips that might help you!