After a long wait, the first character rebalance for TFD has arrived. Some dreaded it, while others were looking forward to it. As it turns out, only Ines received a nerf, but that has divided The First Descendant community more than everyone expected, with some players claiming it is not that bad, while others are threatening to leave the game altogether.
On April 3, 2025, Nexon released the 1.2.13 Patch that brought the first character rebalance. Complete rebalancing is a lot of work, so the April 3 hotfix was only the first step. It dealt primarily with tweaking the numbers, ie, damage, multipliers, etc. As for the nerfs, Freya has been spared (for now), Serena is still under scrutiny (the reasoning being that she’s still “new”), so it was only Ines who was on the receiving end of the nerf bat. Some of her skills got toned down a bit, and the biggest change is that her skills no longer hit targets behind terrain. However, that was the last drop for some and has created a huge divide in the community.
“This Is an Outrage!”
Ines’ nerfs boil down to her cooldowns getting massively increased, and that her Skills can no longer hit through walls. Doesn’t sound like much, but a lot of players have issues with it. One of the issues some players have is that Ines can no longer hit through walls, but Bunny and Freyna can. The other is that massive changes in her cooldowns and her Skill efficiency made her way weaker than before.
Finally, there are those who argue that they paid good money for a powerful character, and that seeing her get nerfed now is a blatant rip-off. As one player on Discord said: “…this game is for those who got the money to spend, the fantasy that we are powerful is what makes this game amazing. You have taken that away…Ines could not be used comfortably in void erosion 26-30 it was challenging, so it forced you to go another route with a gun build. So what I am saying here is that, Ines cannot [be] used for everything and as long you make content where it forces you to try other builds, there is noooo need for nerfs.”
Another agreed, adding: “..but the fact that they nerf a product that some of us invest real money into is little bit concerning, because if you want to keep playing someone has to be paying. Else the game has no [funding]. And if you deter people to buy something because of nerfs, the founding of the game go down.” Some even go so far as to ask for a refund, as they don’t plan on using Ines any more.
However, a lot of players do not agree with the above statements.
The Ines Nerf Is Not That Horrible, Claim Parts of The First Descendant Community
On the other hand, a lot of players simply say that the Ines nerf is no big deal. As a matter of fact, they even say that removing her ability to hit through walls is a reasonable one. On the topic of her Skills and overall power, they claim you just have to have a different approach. As her Skill cooldown has been increased, you now simply have to invest more in Cooldown Reduction.
Some would even go so far as to say that with the right Reactors and External Components, she’s as powerful as before. Others say that only slight tweaks to her Arche Tuning and Modules are needed, and she can solo for Sigma Sector missions and 400% Invasion with ease. “…As for the Ines nerfs we ALL knew it was needed whether we want to admit it or not. Even still her changes are fair and anyone who has her actually built out most likely won’t feel much of a difference, especially with arche tuning.” said one player on X.
Finally, the Mod team added: “Please do understand that the recent changes have been made to make all Descendants viable and be on par with each other!”
Both sides have a point. While it is true that nerfing characters in a PvE game is a bit weird to some, especially if people have paid good money for a powerful character, we still have to understand that the devs want to make every Descendant (or at least, a majority) viable. That is hard to do if one character is severely outperforming others. Now, we still have the issue of Serena to deal with, but that’s for another time.
