Nexon’s The First Descendant just released its Season 3 update, called Breakthrough, and it’s packed with excitement.
One of the biggest highlights is Nell, a powerful character who uses mind-based abilities to control groups of enemies and weaken them.
If you want to master her and crush the competition, this guide will help. Here’s all you need to know to get Nell and make her as strong as possible—without wasting time on the wrong hunts.
Why Get Nell?
Before we get into the steps, let’s talk about why Nell is worth your effort:
Group Control Expert: Nell’s skills focus on mind powers. She can drag enemies into tight groups, weaken them, and set off huge damage bursts that almost always hit weak spots.
Flexible Style: No matter if you like using skills a lot or relying on weapons, Nell fits many ways to play.
Strong Growth: Her main abilities boost damage to weak points, restore shields, and control large areas.
Nell is great for players who like mixing smart plans with fast action. If you’re set on adding her to your team, here’s how.
How to Get Nell?
In The First Descendant, you can unlock new characters in two main ways: by paying or for free.
- Paying Way: Go to the game’s shop and buy Nell straight up with Caliber (the special money). This is easy, but most people choose the free path to save resources for things like outfits or season passes.
- Free Way: You unlock Nell by researching at the characters Annias and Albon.To do that, gather four key items:
Nell’s Enhanced Cells
Stabilizer
Spiral Catalyst
Code
You find these by playing in Season 3’s main area, Axion Plains, and finishing different tasks.
The Farm Route: Unlocking Nell for Free
Unlocking Nell involves gathering blueprints and materials from specific zones and activities. Below is the step-by-step guide to make the process efficient and less frustrating:
Step 1: Unlock the Axion Plains
The Axion Plains is the heart of Season 3’s new content—a vast, eerie, high-tech zone filled with aggressive enemies called the Legion of Breach.
To unlock it, you must complete the introductory Season 3 questline, which takes roughly 15 minutes. Once completed, you’ll gain access to Axion Plains, along with some initial resources.
Key Tip for Traversing Axion Plains: Get the Hover Bike
Upon logging into Season 3 for the first time, claim the hover bike as a login reward from your inbox.
This vehicle cuts your travel time in half and allows you to zip across the massive Axion Plains, making farming significantly quicker.
Step 2: Farm Nell’s Blueprints
Blueprints for Nell’s components come from loot boxes. There are two key types of loot boxes:
- Blueprint Loot Boxes: These have a general drop table, meaning the item pool is broader and less targeted. The chance of dropping a required item (e.g., Enhanced Cell Blueprint) is 6.25%.
- Arcade Loot Boxes: These are more targeted, offering higher chances of obtaining Nell’s components. The chance of key item drops is 25% for one of the blueprints or Nell’s Code.
How to Get Loot Boxes
- Operations Missions: Focus on missions marked with “fangs.” These deliver Arcade Loot Boxes with a 5% base drop rate—a quicker route for targeted farming.
- Efficiency Reminder: Missions in Axion are not time-limited for completion, so no need to speedrun. Bosses will rotate periodically within the missions, adding variety to farming. Solo runs take about 8 minutes but will be quicker with a team.
Step 3: Gather Materials
In addition to blueprints, crafting Nell requires collecting both basic materials and a newly introduced material called Entropium. Below is a breakdown of how to farm key items:
Nell-Specific Material: Entropium
- Needed: 300 units total (100 per blueprint).
- Drops in:
- Axion mission battles
- Axion supply boxes scattered throughout the zone.
- Average Drop Rate: 15–20 per run (~20 runs are needed for total Entropium).
Other Basic Materials Needed
Before diving into Axion, ensure you have these common materials:
- Helion: 279 (farm in Fortress or Axion).
- Shaped Memory Alloy: 496 (found in Axion or Hagios).
- Metal Accelerant: 515 (farmable in Sterile Land or Axion).
- Hardener: 330 (found in Vespers).
- Monomolecular Extractors: 540 (farm in Agna).
- Reverse Charging Coils: 474 (found in Fortress and Axion).
As you farm blueprints and Entropium, you’ll naturally pick up many of these resources.
Step 4: Start Research
Once you’ve gathered blueprints and materials for all of Nell’s parts:
- Visit Annias to begin crafting her components.
- Crafting Time: 8 hours per part.
- Total Cost: 200,000 gold per Enhanced Cell.
- After crafting all four components (Enhanced Cells, Stabilizer, Spiral Catalyst, and Code), start research on Nell herself:
- Research Time: 16 hours.
- Final Cost: 400,000 gold.
Speed Boost Option: Use a Research Accelerator (optional).
Optimizing Nell: Build Suggestions
Congrats on unlocking Nell! Now it’s time to build her for the best performance. Here’s a breakdown of her skills and strategies to make her shine in solo and team play.
Skill Overview
To make an effective build, you need to understand Nell’s skills:
- Breach Projection:
- Shoots breach shards for direct damage (801% modifier) and bonus burst damage (511%).
- Works best with scanned targets, lowering the cooldown of Gaze of Abyss with each hit.
- Breach Link:
- Makes an AoE field that weakens enemies, slows them down, and increases incoming weak point damage (up to 35%).
- Can be blown up for AoE burst damage.
- Gravitic Reversal:
- Blows up Breach Link, pulling enemies together and dealing huge damage (2100% modifier).
- Gaze of Abyss:
- Increases weapon weak point damage (+35%) and makes durations longer based on skill hits.
- Connects weapon-based and skill-heavy playstyles.
Ideal Play Loop
Timing and order are key for Nell:
- Turn on Gaze of Abyss.
- Use Breach Link to weaken enemies.
- Use Gravitic Reversal to group enemies.
- Scan targets, then hit them with Breach Projection for max weak point damage.
This order makes sure debuffs scale up as much as possible while using less ammo in tough fights.
Recommended Stats
When gearing Nell, focus on these stats based on her playstyle:
- Skill Haste: Speed up ability cooldowns for better uptime, especially with AoE skills.
- Range: Max out range at 300% to avoid weak performance.
- Reload Speed: Make up for her slow reload times, especially for long fights.
Don’t put too much into weak point damage—her kit already gives a lot of bonuses there.
Weapons for Nell
The right weapons make her even more useful:
- The Perforator: Great for weak point damage, but reloading can be a pain.
- Greg’s Reverse Fate: Amazing AoE and high sustained damage, perfect for Axion’s mob-heavy fights.
- The Nazistras: Excellent for bosses and tough elites, with strong weak point damage scaling.
Transcendent Modules
- Shattered Heart: Changes Gaze of Abyss to focus on skill-based gameplay.
- Restored Heart: Boosts team buffs.
These transcendent modules unlock Nell’s true potential, so make farming or combining duplicate mods a priority during the season.
Final Impressions
While Nell is definitely fun and rewarding, her playstyle needs practice and careful prep.
With slower casting times, more need for mobility, and a big focus on AoE, Nell does better with a well-tuned build. Plus, slower reload speeds and Axion’s high enemy density can make solo play tough.
That said, her kit is amazing for teams where she can shine as a strategic debuffer and crowd controller.
Ammo efficiency and huge damage potential make Nell one of the most versatile additions to The First Descendant. Whether you play solo or with a team, she’ll take your gameplay to the next level.
Final Thoughts
Nell isn’t the easiest Descendant to unlock, but with focused farming and the right materials, the grind is worth it.
Use the tips above to move through Axion Plains easily, steer clear of common errors, and create a build that makes the most of her telekinetic powers.
Got any advice to unlock Nell and avoid any mistakes in the due process?
What weapons do you pair with her? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to watch the newest videos to stay on top of the game
