Complete Character Unlocking Guide for Duet Night Abyss

If you’ve been diving into Duet Night Abyss, you’ve probably noticed something refreshing: no gacha gambling required. The developers made the smart call to ditch the gacha system, meaning every character is technically free to obtain. But here’s the catch—”free” doesn’t mean “easy” or “instant.”

Unlocking new characters in DNA involves a bit of resource management, daily grinding, and understanding a progression system that can feel confusing at first. Don’t worry though—I’ll break down exactly how the system works and share some tips to speed up your character collection.

Understanding the Character Unlock System

The process isn’t complicated once you understand the flow, but the game doesn’t always explain it clearly. Think of it like a recipe: you need to gather ingredients (Secret Letter Clues), buy the recipe (Secret Letters), complete the cooking process (Covert Commissions), and collect the final product (Character Thoughts).

Here’s what you actually need to do:

The 7-Step Character Unlock Process:

1. Farm Secret Letter Clues from daily activities and quests
2. Purchase character-specific Secret Letters from the in-game shop using your Clues
3. Access Covert Commissions through the Combat menu
4. Equip a character’s Secret Letter before launching into a Covert Commission
5. Complete the Covert Commission mission successfully
6. Select Character Thought rewards from the post-mission reward screen
7. Collect 30 Thoughts total for a specific character, then unlock them via Reminiscience in the Armoury

It’s a bit of a grind, but it’s actually pretty player-friendly compared to traditional gacha systems where you might spend hundreds without getting the character you want.

Farming Secret Letter Clues: Your Daily Routine

Secret Letter Clues are the foundation currency for this entire system. Here’s what I’ve found works best:

Daily Commissions (Your Best Friend)

Complete your Daily Commissions every single day—this gives you 15 Secret Letter Clues daily. Since you only need 10 Clues to buy one Secret Letter, you can grab at least one Secret Letter per day just from dailies alone. Miss a day and you’re setting yourself back, so try to log in consistently.

Additional Sources for Secret Letter Clues:

• Side quests scattered throughout the world (check your quest log regularly)
• Treasure chests during exploration—don’t skip these
• Limited-time events (usually the most generous source)
• Achievement completion (one-time rewards, but they add up)

Pro tip: Prioritize events when they’re active. They typically shower you with Clues and other resources, letting you unlock characters much faster than relying on dailies alone.

Where to Find Secret Letters

Most characters have their Secret Letters available in the Covert Commissions shop tab. Just head to the Shop menu and look for the Covert Commissions section—you’ll see Secret Letters for various characters listed there.

However, some characters aren’t in the shop at all. For these exclusive characters, you’ll need to tackle endgame content:

• Immersive Theater challenges
• Nocturnal Echoes missions

These endgame activities drop Secret Letters for premium characters, so there’s actually content to work toward even after you’ve unlocked the basic roster. It’s a nice incentive to keep playing and improving your skills.

Covert Commissions Explained

Think of Covert Commissions as instanced dungeons with a purpose. They rotate hourly, giving you different mission types to complete. You can tackle them solo or bring friends for co-op play—honestly, co-op makes them more fun and usually faster.

Here’s what makes Covert Commissions important:

• They’re the only way to open Secret Letters and farm Character Thoughts
• Missions function similarly to standard combat encounters
• You unlock them early in the main story (so don’t ignore the main quest)
• The hourly rotation means you’ll have variety instead of grinding the same mission repeatedly

Understanding the Reward Tiers

After completing a Covert Commission, you’ll see three reward options based on the Secret Letter you equipped. The tier you get depends on your performance and luck:

• Gold Tier (I): 10 Character Thoughts—this is what you want
• Silver Tier (II): 2 Character Thoughts—decent, but slower progress
• Bronze Tier (III): Character EXP Materials—useful for leveling, but doesn’t unlock the character

Since you need 30 Thoughts total to unlock a character, getting Gold rewards consistently means you could theoretically unlock someone in just 3 runs. More realistically, expect 5-7 runs per character as you’ll likely get some Silver and Bronze drops mixed in.

Actually Unlocking Your Character

Once you’ve ground out those 30 Thoughts for a specific character, head to the Armoury screen and open the Reminiscience menu. Find your character, hover over their portrait, and hit the unlock button in the bottom-right corner.

But wait—there’s more! Any extra Thoughts you collect after unlocking a character aren’t wasted. They convert into Intron bonuses, which function exactly like character duplicates in gacha games. These provide stat boosts and ability enhancements, so there’s incentive to keep farming even after unlocking everyone.

Learn more about the game on Wikipedia or grab it on Steam.

Free Characters You Get Automatically

Good news: you won’t start from scratch. Several characters are given to you just by playing through the story and early game content:

• Berenica
• Rebecca
• Margie
• Outsider
• Truffle & Filbert
• Daphne
• Lisbell

These freebies give you a solid starting roster to experiment with different playstyles before you commit to farming specific characters. Test them out, see what combat style you prefer, then farm accordingly.

For more tips on optimizing your experience, check out guides on changing language and voice settings and co-op multiplayer.

My Honest Take on This System

I’ll be real with you: this unlock system is a mixed bag. On one hand, it’s infinitely better than gacha—you know exactly what you’re working toward with zero gambling involved. On the other hand, the grind can feel tedious, especially when you’re pulling Bronze rewards repeatedly.

The daily time commitment isn’t terrible (maybe 30-45 minutes if you’re efficient), but it does pressure you to log in consistently. Miss a week and you’ll fall significantly behind on unlocking your favorite characters.

That said, I appreciate that skill and persistence matter more than your wallet here. It’s a fair system, just not a fast one. Budget your expectations accordingly and focus on one character at a time rather than trying to unlock everyone simultaneously.

Final advice: Prioritize main story completion first. Unlocking game systems early makes the grind exponentially easier, and you’ll get free characters along the way to keep things fresh while you work on your target unlocks.