How to Unlock Every Descendant in The First Descendant

Every Descendant in The First Descendant is unlocked the same way: research at Anais’s Research Institute in Albion. The process is simple, the materials are not, and the order you unlock characters in determines how fast your account grows.

This guide covers the process, the costs, and the unlock order that works.

How research works

Where: Albion HQ. Find Anais, the Magister, and open the Research Institute.

What: Every Descendant — including the Ultimate versions — appears in the Descendant tab with its requirements visible before you commit.

The requirements: Three things for every Descendant:

• Gold — the main currency, from missions and weeklies
• Time — research takes real time, from one minute for early characters to over a day for Ultimates
• Research materials — Enhanced Cells, a Stabilizer, a Spiral Catalyst, and the character’s Code, all unique to that Descendant

The materials

Each Descendant needs four unique materials. The trick the game never explains clearly: every material can be inspected to show its source.

Enhanced Cells — usually from specific missions or enemies in a specific region.

Stabilizer — often crafted from more common materials, which means an extra research step.

Spiral Catalyst — from specific operations, sometimes from Colossus battles.

The Code — the rarest component, usually from the hardest content that character is associated with.

The rule: Inspect everything. The game tells you exactly where each material comes from, and the players who farm the wrong content are the ones who never checked.

The costs

Normal Descendants: Around 400,000 Gold and a short research time. The materials are the real cost.

Ultimate Descendants: Around 900,000 Gold, over a day of research time, and vastly more materials — including crafted components that need rare materials themselves.

The implication: Your first five or six characters are the expensive ones in terms of progression. The Ultimates are a separate, much longer project.

The unlock order

1. Your starter. Whichever of Ajax, Lepic, or Viessa you picked. Take them to level cap and build them properly before unlocking anything else.

2. Bunny. The story unlocks her, and she is one of the best characters in the game. Electric damage, fast, and her build is forgiving.

3. One more DPS. Enzo, Gley, or Valby — whichever you enjoy. Two solid characters cover more content than five mediocre ones.

4. The rest, as materials allow. After two built characters, unlock for variety and for specific content needs.

5. Ultimates last. Only after you have the normal version fully built, and only for characters you actually play.

The materials strategy

One project at a time. The single most important rule. Materials are scarce, and spreading them across five projects finishes none.

Farm the mission, not the map. When you inspect a material, it names the mission or operation that drops it. Run that, not the region it is in.

Do the weeklies first. Weekly operations pay materials at rates nothing else matches. A week without weeklies is a week of materials gone.

Keep everything. Dismantling materials you do not recognize is how players end up unable to finish a research they already paid Gold for.

The Gold question

Gold is the second bottleneck after materials. The sources:

Missions — the baseline. Everything pays some.

Weeklies — the best Gold-per-hour in the game.

The Mega Dungeon and Onslaught — the highest Gold per run, but they require endgame access.

The trap: spending Gold on the shop. Cosmetics and convenience items feel good and progress nothing. Research is what Gold is for.

The one thing to remember

Anais, one project at a time, and inspect every material before you farm it. The First Descendant’s research system is generous to focused players and punishing to scattered ones — unlock your starter’s build first, then Bunny, then one more DPS, and let the rest come as the materials allow.