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It is time! The last major update we got was when Ultimate Freyna was released, and since then, the fans have been asking: what’s next? The devs have been feeding us tidbits of info on their official Q&A on Discord, but have promised a huge announcement on the “weekend” (or right now, on this part of the planet), to reveal even more stuff for the upcoming Season 2. We already saw the teaser image for two new characters (or one new character and a skin for Hailey), but more details are incoming. So, stick with us to see our review of The First Descendant Season 2 Dev Commentary.
The First Descendant Season 2: Void Chaser Update
Ultimate Sharen
Let’s start with Ultimate Sharen. As expected, this will continue her personal story. Being half-machine, she’s on a journey to find her humanity and identity. It will culminate in a fight against her nemesis of sorts. Unfortunately, besides the wicked design, we are not offered any additional info (this could be the Void Chaser from the title?).
As for her special Transcendent Modules, we’ll have:
- Area Suppression: this will enhance Sharen’s AoE abilities, and allow her to throw her Shortswords in 360 degree area. Since this will proc a lot of her cooldown reductions, you’ll be able to spam this ability to your heart’s content and clear areas in no time.
- Ambushed: this will buff your Stealth gameplay in general, by increasing your movement speed while stealthed, reducing cooldowns, and the best part: Stealth kills will retrigger Stealth, allowing you to practically be perma-invisible. Super useful in the new Void Vessel missions.
As for Sharen’s Ultimate skin, it will look very sci-fi, like something out of Ghost in the Shell.
Storylines
On the topic of storylines, the devs can’t decide whether to expand the main story or provide more personal stories. They deem personal stories like more of a fan service but will consider player feedback on the official Q&A on Discord. All personal stories have been a success so far and we hope they continue doing them. However, they take a considerable amount of resources, so it’;s not easy to decide whether to focus on the main story or on personal ones.
As for the story in Season 2, it is a narrative that runs parallel to the main storyline. As it turns out, there is a special Void exploration unit called H.O.U.N.D., that explores Void Vessels and wreckage. They received a Void Abyss signal and are investigating a wreckage, hiding some advanced bioengineering secrets that both humans and Volgus are unfamiliar with.
Vessel of Ancestors Dungeon
A new type of Dungeon is on the way. Called Vessel of the Ancestors, players can access it in Normal and Hard difficulty, but, they have to be at least Mastery Rank 8. That is how you get the new character Keelan, and also how to unlock Companions. The trick with these dungeons is the random layout that provides a different experience each time. Furthermore, you’ll have to sneak in if you want to avoid tons of reinforcement (here is where Sharen will be invaluable). If you are detected by sentries or traps, you’ll have a real fight on your hands. The boss in these dungeons is Dread Armor, a new type of enemy. Additionally, some monsters have the Anti-Void Shields, and can only be injured by Skills.
New Enemies
A new Vulgus Legion boss is coming, called Dread Armor. It is noticeably larger than any other named boss (except Colossi, obviously) but the best part is that it changes weapon each phase to keep things interesting. It switches between ranged and melee or both, allowing for more varied patterns than usual. And the design is out of this world. Furthermore, they plan on adding more attack paters for other monsters as well.
Keelan Ayodele
The first new Descendant is Keelan Ayodale. He’s part of the H.O.U.N.D. specialized Void unit and is a Toxic Arche Descendant. His main shtick is using Onslaught, a special dash that pierces enemies and applies Acidic Decay. The more stacks of Acidic Deacy enemies have, the more damage will Keelan’s Skills inflict. Also, the Onslaught skill can be used while airborne, increasing the character’s overall mobility. Lastly, it seems that he does not use any MP for his skills.
Ines Raya
Ines Raya is the second new Descendant coming in Season 2. While we don’t know much about her now, we know that she’s an Electric Arche Descendant in a black bodysuit (having a similar body type to Hailey), specializing in AoE damage. She’ll be added in Week 7, not Week 1.
New Ultimate Weapons
- Voltia (Beam Rifle) – You can up to three Voltia for free in the Season 2 Battle Pass. This weapon releases beams of electricity, that function a lot like Chain Lightning from other games. It is great for crowd control, and it looks like it will be the only weapon that can punch through Andi-Void Shields.
- Hammer and Anvil (Shotgun) – A Shotgun with two firing modes. The first is while you are hip firing, known as the Hammer mode, it functions like a regular shotgun, firing bursts of shots that cover a wide area. But, when you aim down sights it turns into Anvil mode, where you fire projectiles one by one that explore after a while, sending buckshot after a while that explodes, sending buckshot even further down. Additionally, Hammer and Anvil slows its targets down. Lastly, it will have two skins, for free, in Battle Suplly Shop.
One important update for Ultimate weapons, in general, is the nerfing of penalties from Unique Abilities. No longer will you have to rank the weapon up to Rank 4 to lessen the penalties. Now, all penalties that you get when using Ultimate Weapon’s Unique Ability will be at their minimum level starting Rank 0.
Companions
Who let the dogs out? As mentioned earlier, the Companions are a reward for following the Season 2 storyline. They are dogs (the default being a German Shepar), and unsurprisingly, everyone loved that. They can be petted and do tricks, like shaking your hand and doing high-fives.
Furthermore, you can customize your dogs, in the following areas: Fur, Body, Torso Attachments, and Head Attachments. As for their utility, they will pick up items on the ground for you, but be careful. If you are way too fast, they prioritize keeping up, so may leave some items behind, so be sure to give them enough time. Furthermore, they will automatically dismantle your items, according to set filters. Lastly, they seem to slightly increase the Module drop rate.
The Void Abyss Intercept Battle
A new, endgame, Void Intecept Battle. It features Colossus mutations that have access to a special ability called Void Reflux Mode. It replaces the Frenzied state and will show new abilities and regenerate destroyed body parts. Allegedly, they are specific for solo play.
Hard Special Operations
Now Special Operation will get a hard mode, with higher level monsters and different layouts, to provide a new challenge for players, with better rewards.
Improved Farming
- Focus Strategy System – the “pity” system everyone expected. When you go on a mission, you can set an item as your target, and each time you complete the mission without getting the desired item, a bar will fill. Once the bar reaches 100%, the targeted item is guaranteed to drop.
- High Shape Stabilizer – As previously mentioned, these are the super-valuable Shape Stabilizers, that completely switch the drop rates on the associated Amorphous Material. They will be available in limited quantity, via Events or ETA-0.
Void Erosion Control (or Purge)
In week 7 we will get the final endgame content for Season 2. Void Erosion missions are the hardest missions yet, requiring a 4-player party to fight through multiple levels. The party must have teamwork to tackle the final stages, they will be fighting Vulgus and bosses, and each stage will be tougher than the last one. The initial plan is to have a maximum of 30 stages. The best part is that this is where you will get material for Weapon Core Unlocking. It is a new system used to maximize the performance of your weapons, allowing you to further refine them, enhance specs, and make them more powerful. Five Core slots will be available.
Customization Improvements
As expected and previously mentioned, the devs confirmed that a bunch of customization improvements are on the way. You will be able to paint default Skins, both Base and Ultimate, as well as Back Attachments, Badges, and weapons. They plan on adding more diverse skins, so there will be something for everyone.
More Skins
As for Skins, we will get a new evolving skin for Valby, but this one will have reduced requirements for the evolution. The devs realized that previous requirements were a bit too much, forcing you to use one descendant way more than others. so now the evolution will be much easier.
More awesome Skins for Sharen, Bunny, Viessa, Hailey, Kayle, Jayber, and Esiemo are on the way.
Also, more common Skins are coming, such as the Colossus skins that you can get as a reward, as well as casual, everyday wear skins. We’ll get white outfits for winter, for both genders, and a sportswear green one, for the guys. And let’s not forget that all skins wearable by multiple characters will be shareable.
Event Skins
With holidays on the way, we will get Christmas-themed Skins for Hailey, Valby, and Bunny in December. But that is not all. Lunar New Year is also getting closer, and the team has made some Skins inspired by traditional costumes from Korea, Japan, and China. They will be shareable skins for all girls, which will be released in January.
As announced earlier, all Descendant skins, previously only available in bundles, will be released as standalone items. In the future, expect more events skins (called Hot Spring and Valentine’s Day), and stuff like Sharen and Hailey Academy Skins and Sharen and Hailey Maid Skins.
Other improvements
As we are nearing the end, the devs list a bunch of minor improvements that are coming our way. Studd like Rector Enhancement Tier expansion, rebalancing of various content, and some QoL improvements. They plan on adding the option to automatically equip recommended Modules when you unlock a Descendfant for the first time.
Furthermore, random matchmaking will be added for Infiltrations. This way you will pick a mission that you want (the rewards, to be specific), and the game will match you to a random dungeon with random players, but you will still get the rewards from the mission you selected. A pretty cool Quickplay feature. Inversion Reinforcements will also be improved. Like Ultimate Weapoins, the devs will remove the nerfs and keep the buffs, while reworking some less popular ones to make them more viable. You will also get Reinforcement XP in the new Void Vessel missions as well.
Season 2 Roadmap
For the Season 2 roadmap, the team plans to keep the set dates, to make the updates regular regular. The first update will be on December 5, the second on January 16, and the third one sometime in February.
The next broadcast will show some gameplay footage and will go live sometime before Season 2 begins, but no exact date has been announced. It will be before December 5, obviously, when they plan to share more plans for the future. They will also continue to share plans and ideas with the fans and communicate on a daily basis.
And there you have it folks. Quite a lot of cool stuff is on the way. We are especially looking forward to the Companions, because who doesn’t like puppies? And the new Descendant, Keelan, will be pretty cool, being the second Toxic Descendant in the game.