Tenebris: Terra Incognita Five Basic Classes

Every campaign of Tenebris: Terra Incognita begins with five basic classes. Advanced careers at levels 11 and 21 transform them, but they never erase the core jobs: Miles hits, Pellentes deletes, Defencor holds, Medicus heals, Technicus solves. Master these archetypes before you obsess over late subclasses like Centurio or Phoenix. This deep dive explains how each basic class feels in the early and mid game and how they feed the promotions covered on the Career System page.

Miles — the marine damage dealer

Miles is the poster marine: medium armor, aggressive kit, and competition with Pellentes for top damage charts. His identity includes grenade pressure, armor-ignore tools, bleed application, and mobility talents such as Forced March that can grant explosive early-turn sequencing.

Play him when: you want mission tempo and are willing to manage positioning risk.
Fail state: standing on the wrong front tile into elites without support.
Promotion teaser: level 11 commonly leads toward Impetum, which leans harder into tactical attack chains. Later level-21 branches further specialize the marine fantasy.

Miles loves a rear-row sniper friend. The Miles + Pellentes duo can gut an enemy squad before your healer needs to act—if your aim and armor-ignore lines connect. Rankings for the line live on the Hero Tier List.

Pellentes — precision sniper

Pellentes wears light armor and pays for it with some of the highest single-target threat in the early roster. She is famous for being able to kill eligible targets in a single shot from the start of the game when builds and rolls align. Critical chance, critical damage, and shot-defining actives define her turns.

Play her when: priority targets must die now.
Fail state: getting pulled into the front row or left without a tank.
Promotion teaser: Sancto emphasizes controlled shadow-sniping; Vidua pushes raw damage. Both keep the sniper fantasy intact while changing risk profiles.

Protect Pellentes. A dead sniper is a wasted epic rifle. Formation discipline matters as much as talent order—see Controls for formation drag reminders.

Defencor — the wall

Defencor exists so everyone else gets a second turn. Provocation, bayonet pressure, armor, and front-row presence define the class. Community and patch history often mention armor-ignore adjustments on bayonet-style skills, which helps the tank contribute damage without abandoning the wall job.

Play him when: you are tired of reloading after greedy openings.
Fail state: building pure damage talents and wondering why the squad melts.
Promotion teaser: Legionnaire upgrades the fortress toolkit (including armor regeneration patterns such as Steel Fortress). Ignifer trades some classic Defencor shotgun patterns for flamethrower heat and burn while remaining a durable frontliner.

Defencor is the easiest class to undervalue on damage meters and overvalue the moment a boss stares at your medic.

Medicus — sustain and tempo insurance

Medicus keeps campaigns solvent. Healing, cleanses, and stimulant synergy reduce Solaris hospital pressure. She may also contribute chip damage or poison interactions depending on talent choices and patch state—Early Access repeatedly tuned toxic shot style skills against armored targets.

Play her when: you want consistent clears more than highlight-reel wipes.
Fail state: skipping a healer entirely on higher difficulties, then burning resources on repeated retreats.
Promotion teaser: advanced medical careers deepen panacea-style tools, vaccinations, and control resistance. Exact names vary across the tree, but the job stays “keep the damage dealers alive long enough to win.”

On most difficulties, a Medicus-line hero is not optional fluff—it is economy. More notes in Difficulty Tips.

Technicus — locks, gadgets, and problem solving

Technicus looks modest in a pure DPS tier list and indispensable on maps with locks, technical objectives, or loot-sensitive routes. The class historically ties into lockpicking rules: you may open content without him after certain system revisions, but bringing Technicus can still improve loot and resource outcomes.

Play him when: the briefing rewards utility or your arsenal needs feeding.
Fail state: forcing him into a pure damage role he does not want.
Promotion teaser: advanced tech careers (including lines players associate with Librator-style kits and other gadget specializations) expand hybrid offense and support.

If your campaign feels poor despite winning fights, you may be under-fielding Technicus.

Building a first foursome from the basics

A reliable starter set is Defencor + Miles + Medicus + Pellentes. Swap Miles or Pellentes for Technicus when the map screams utility. Detailed formations and mid/late upgrades are on Best Squads.

Talent points without career panic

Before level 11, spend talent points on the skills that reinforce the class job—Miles damage and mobility, Pellentes shot power, Defencor durability/provoke, Medicus heal reliability, Technicus utility uptime. Save experimental hybrid ideas for a planned reset after you read Career System.

Connecting basics to the 1.0 fantasy

Version 1.0’s ten new subclasses and late biomes still sit on top of these five pillars. Centurio and Phoenix do not replace the need to understand tanks and heat; they amplify lessons you should already know from Defencor and burn-friendly play. Return to this page whenever a new hero feels confusing—identify which basic job it evolved from, then read the promotion guide.

For ranked priorities after you know the jobs, open the Tier List Hub. For the story of how the roster grew through EA, skim Patch History.