From the final beta of Duet Night Abyss to its official release, one of the biggest changes made by the developers was removing the character and weapon gacha systems. This decision allowed the game to stand alone as a game of its own and generated a lot of excitement among players.
With the gacha system gone, all characters and weapons are now completely free. You can unlock any of them by grinding through the game’s various modes. To do this, you’ll participate in modes like Covert Mission, Nocturnal Echoes, and Immersive Theatre. Here’s how you can unlock characters in each mode.
Complete Covert Commissions Guide
Covert Commissions is one of the first game modes you’ll unlock and serves as the main way to get most characters and weapons. You can unlock it by completing the Art Of Survival quest, which involves finding a specific crystal given to you by Henrik in The Asphodel. After completing Art Of Survival, you need to finish the Go, Geniemon mini-quest to unlock Covert Commissions.
You’ll visit two locations for this: the Covert Commissions shop in the main menu and the game mode itself. In the shop, you can buy a secret letter for certain characters, weapons, and even golden Demon Wedges using ten Secret Letter Clues. These clues can be obtained from quests, exploration, events, endgame modes, and sometimes they drop randomly during dungeon runs.
Once you have the secret letter for your target item, head to the Covert Commissions combat screen by going to the combat menu, selecting Commissions, then choosing Covert Commissions. Here, you can undertake different commissions based on the item you want. The available commissions reset every hour. The easiest commissions for grinding are Hedge, Termination, Exploration, Escort, and Capture. However, receiving these commissions is based on luck. When completing a dungeon using a character’s or weapon’s secret letter, there’s a 10% chance of getting a golden drop, which includes ten character Thoughts or a weapon blueprint.
Based on experience, there seems to be a kind of pity system. While the base chance is 10%, players have reported getting the golden drop as early as the ninth run, indicating some form of soft pity in the process.
After gathering 30 character Thoughts through this grind, you can unlock them or their Introns in the character screen. For weapons, once you get a blueprint, you’ll need to forge the weapon using various items and coins, which can only be obtained by running secret letter missions for that weapon.
Here’s a list of all characters and weapons available through the Covert Commissions shop:
Characters: Berenica, Lady Nifle, Rebecca, Lynn, Margie, Randy, Sibylle, Outsider, Daphne.
Weapons: Amberglow, Remanent Reminiscence, Ingenious Tactics, Siren’s Kiss, Wanewraith, Ironforger, Pyrothirst, Exiled Fangs, Undying Oneiros, Momiji Itteki, Withershade, Entropic Singularity, Rendhusk, Destructo, Silverwhite Edict, Flamme De Epuration, Searing Sandwhisper, Fathomless Sharkgaze, Tetherlash, Excresduo, Bluecurrent Pulse, Screamshot, Silent Sower, Osteobreaker, Soulrend.
Complete Nocturnal Echoes Guide
Nocturnal Echoes is another mode where players can find secret letters for various characters and weapons, which can be used directly in Covert Commissions without needing Secret Letter Clues. You unlock this mode by fighting Sibylle during the prologue, and each boss added here after you defeat them. The first attempt at each fight on any difficulty is free, but subsequent tries cost attempts.
You can earn rewards from Nocturnal Echoes up to five times a week. Each run rewards you with three to five secret letters for characters or weapons. Different difficulty levels yield different secret letters. The available secret letters for each boss include:
-
Sibylle: Tabethe, Bast Artistry, Stellar Finality, Sacrosanct Chorus, Shackle Of Lonewolf.
-
Crystalophile: Truffle and Filbert, Yale, Guixu Ratchet, Viridis Reefs, Vernal Jade Halberd.
-
The Eclosioner: Rhythm, Submerged Serenade, Exiled Thunderwyrm, Sacrosanct Decree, Wandering Rose.
-
The Warden of the Inferno: Hellfire, Embla Inflorescence, Arclight Apocalypse, Day of Sacred Verdict, Punitive Inferno.
-
Beast From the Snowfield: Lisbell, Phantasio, Daybreak Hymn, Sacred Favour, Aureate Yore.
How To Get Psyche
Even though gacha has been removed, some characters like Psyche are still limited-time. Psyche, the first limited character, is only available during the first 28 days after her release, which are featured for a limited window. To unlock her, you need to participate in the endgame mode called Immersive Theatre, which resets every four weeks with each new character release.
Theatre challenges have different difficulty levels. You need to challenge each difficulty with two separate teams of three characters each. Completing higher difficulties will unlock secret letters for Psyche. To get weapon secret letters, you can purchase them from the shop with Ticket Stubs earned after beating each act.
After the first four weeks, you can obtain Psyche’s secret letters through Covert Commissions or Nocturnal Echoes just like for any other character.
You can also buy all these items with real money using Phoxene Plumules. Each character Thought costs 150 Plumules, and a full set runs about 4,500 Plumules.
How To Get Phoxhunter’s Introns
The main character, Phoxhunter, is given to players for free at the start. However, their Introns are not initially unlocked. You’ll need to grind through the game to earn their Thoughts. During the release, completing the main story allows you to unlock up to the third Intron. Future updates are likely to continue adding Introns as you progress through story missions.
The weapon for Phoxhunter also needs to be acquired through Covert Commissions and Nocturnal Echoes, similar to other weapons. While you can use any weapon on any character, each character benefits from a damage bonus when using their preferred weapon type, which can be checked on their main character screen.
