Skip To...
The First Descendant will start off in style by letting you pick three of its most starting characters. What it doesn’t tell you is that you’ll be locked out of the other two (and you need to grind for them) if you make your choice. Thus, choosing wisely can help you have a good start in The First Descendant. Here’s what I recommend you pick for as your best starting characters.
[Updated on July 4, 2024 – Revised the guide to reflect the 1.0 full release for The First Descendant]
Pick Ajax for the Best Overall Beginner Experience
As a beginner, you probably want to avoid dying too much. You want to stay away from the more complex playstyles such as glass cannon or pure DPS. To that end, Ajax is your best bet. He’s the tank character out of the three starting classes in The First Descendant (Ajax, Lepic, and Viessa).
Ajax being a “tank” class archetype means you can focus less on survival and more on testing out weapons that suit your preferred playstyle. Weapons do most of the damage anyway since most of the Descendant skills have long cooldowns.
Ajax is also great if you can’t find any public players with whom to play co-op. He has the best chance of survival among all the starting characters in The First Descendant. However, that doesn’t mean Ajax is the most fun to play; he’s merely the safest option for beginners. For your consideration, here’s what other characters offer.
Lepic for DPS and Area Damage
If you enjoy lobbing grenades and drawing enemies out of cover or simply dealing large swathes of damage to multiple enemies, then you might enjoy Lepic better.
He isn’t as tough as Ajax, but Lepic likely has the highest damage potential out of all three starting characters in The First Descendant. Moreover, his skills are rather flashy and instantly useful.
Viessa for Crowd Control
Viessa can be a bit of a mixed bag since freezing enemies instead of outright killing them might feel counterintuitive for some players. Still, she has a couple of short-range frontal cone skills that deal good damage (while putting herself at risk).
Her ultimate skill is a stationary blizzard with a small range, and it’s highly useful for boss fights. Hence, Viessa has her strengths if you use them right.
Reach Level 10 (On Your First Descendant) Quickly for Bunny
It’s also important not to get attached to your starting class in The First Descendant. Come level 10 on your first chosen Descendant, and if you simply play the main quest up to the Void Intercept, you’ll get Bunny right away. She’s the best Descendant for speed farming and has excellent single-target and area damage skills.
So even if you pick a starting class and find them lacking, you needn’t worry as you will typically get Bunny before you can even max out your first Descendant to Level 40.
