Things Control Resonant Doesn't Tell You

Control Resonant features numerous tutorials and one-time windows explaining all the mechanics, systems, states, and items that you need to know. However, many of these are thrown at you right at the beginning, so you might forget a few, and other nuances are left to interpretation. That's why we have thought about 10 things Control Resonant doesn't tell you — without spoilers!

In this IGN guide, we will go over many things that we have learned about Control Resonant after dozens of hours fighting and exploring Manhattan. We wish we had known these tips before playing!

• You Can Change up Your Aberrant Form
• You Can Swap up Your Loadout
• You Always Get Reset Items From Resonants
• Vendors Sell Different Things in Different Zones
• The World Is Bigger Than You Think
• You Can Change the Difficulty at Any Time
• The Open World Has Some Caveats
• You Can Find an Extra Power Shard
• Zone Upgrades
• You Can Use Resource Crates To Sniff Out Secrets

You Can Change up Your Aberrant Form

As soon as you start playing the game, you will have to make a big decision about your starting weapon, called Aberrant. The Aberrant has multiple forms. It might seem like you will have to stay with the same Primary Form for long, but in reality, you’ll be able to change it pretty soon if you don’t like it.

You simply have to visit the Gap, the interdimensional space occupied by the Board, the head of the FBC (the Federal Bureau of Control, the main organization in the game). Then interact with the big pillar object, which has the upgrade trees for every possible Aberrant you can unlock. If you start with Strike as your Primary Form, which has quick attacks with a built-in crit chance but doesn’t build Falter (stun damage), you’ll have to rely on your Secondary Form and Combo Finisher for that.

Maybe you’re fine with that at first, but then you want to change. Simply find Reset Items (more info in a bit) and visit the aforementioned object in the Gap to reset your Aberrant Forms and upgrades. There is a limited amount of Reset Items throughout the game, though, so you might want a second option.

Find Living Echoes, a rare material, or purchase them from Vendors (which have limited stock). As you make progress, you will want to unlock every weapon for a simple reason: Aberrant Strength. You earn a few points with every unlock and upgrade, and Aberrant Strength determines your base Raw Damage and Falter Damage.

You Can Swap up Your Loadout

Speaking of your weapons, you have to equip a Loadout for your battles. This is made of one Primary Form, one Secondary Form, one Combo Finisher, three Artifacts, and six Combat Abilities (only three are active at all times, unless you press a button and swap them).

You can change your Loadout from its menu all the times that you want, but you can’t change a weapon during an attack. However, you can change your Artifacts outside of combat for the best results possible. For example, if an Artifact gives you healing outside of combat. You can equip this right up until you get into a fight, then swap it out for something else, like an Artifact that boosts your blunt damage, to give you the best chance.

You Always Get Reset Items From Resonants

As mentioned before, Reset Items are a finite resource needed to respec Combat Abilities, Talents (your skill tree), and Aberrant Forms. Vendors sell these items for 1,000, 1,500, and 2,000 Source. This will depend on your Vendor Level, which you can increase when you level up a Zone. Source is the main resource that you get from defeating any type of enemy.

Also, you always get one Reset Item from defeating a Resonant, including the one from the Prologue. We won’t spoil how many Resonants are in total, but you’ll be able to reset anything you want a bunch of times.

Vendors Sell Different Things in Different Zones

Vendors appear as ice cream trucks, and they sell all the resources that you need to craft Artifacts and upgrade your weapons. They can be easily missed, though – there’s only one per Zone, and they’re usually tucked away in some random corner of the map.

Control Resonan doesn’t tell you that different Vendors sell different resources. Vendors generally sell resources themed to their Zone; for example, the Vendor in the Park will sell items like Edible Globs and other resources themed to the Mold.

Also, keep in mind that, generally speaking, Vendors sell these items because they are drops from that Zone’s enemies. Consider buying them as a way to speed up the grind.

The World Is Bigger Than You Think

Apart from Vendors, you’ve probably seen various shop fronts lining the streets of Manhattan: laundromats, grocery stores, cafes, and pizzerias. Most of the time, you can’t go inside any store on the streets. But if you notice that there’s an illuminated interior inside, you can go in.

Doing so will reward you with crafting items, Health or Power Upgrade Points, Documents, and sometimes they will be locked behind small riddles. These are called Secrets, marked on your map with a question mark, and you’ll want to solve them for their rewards.

You Can Change the Difficulty at Any Time

Control Resonant can be a tough game from the start, with the endless waves of aggressive enemies. However, there is an Assist mode on the pause menu screen available at all times, and you can turn it on at any point to tweak the difficulty.

The game never tells you about this – in fact, it suggests that you don’t turn it on. The adventure is already “balanced as it was intended”. There was a patch at the game's launch that addressed the balance, though whether it was enough or not, it will depend on you. If everything’s still a bit too hard, feel free to play with different settings, such as the damage you deal or you receive.

The Open World Has Some Caveats

When you beat a Resonant, the optional bosses available in each Zone, you will earn a new Combat Ability. However, the world also resets. This means that our protagonist Dylan gains another ability in his repertoire, but the enemies also increase their level. Enemies have a base Power Level (level 1, 2, 3, and so on) that indicates their health and damage, and this will change when you defeat the Zone’s Resonant.

Also, while the game is not linear and you can explore multiple Zones at your own pace, you’ll find high-level areas with high-level enemies, which will be stronger than you can handle at that particular time.

For example, you can find enemies with Power Level 4 as part of an early-game side quest. You will struggle to get past them, but they’ll stay at that level until you reach the same level. This means you won’t be able to go everywhere immediately… at least not without a good fight.

You Can Find an Extra Power Shard

After the opening credits, you return to Manhattan, but the game doesn’t tell you can return to where you first fought the Artist, the first Resonant you meet.

That arena has some more information on Patterning, the dimensional warping affecting New York, and what caused it to form. There’s also a Power Upgrade Point to be collected. Collect three of those and Dylan will get a Power Upgrade, increasing his total Power and allowing him to use more combat abilities before recharging.

This arena is completely out of the way and doesn’t make much sense to return to, so make sure you explore every inch of this packed world for even more secrets.

Zone Upgrades

If you do enough things in Zones, like completing World Feats, taking on enemies, or exploring and opening chests, you’ll earn enough Zone XP to level it up automatically. This means that you’ll unlock a Talent Point, which can be spent to upgrade Dylan’s stats and boosts.

It also means you’ll unlock some extra goodies. Sometimes that can be cosmetics, but also something a bit more useful, like increased resource drops from enemies or marking Large Resource Crates on the map.

The game tells you that you can level up your Zones, but it doesn’t directly tell you to open the map, open the Zone information screen, and scroll for a bit to see all the goodies on offer. This is one of the best ways to get stronger quickly because while there’s only a limited number of Dimensional Faults and Resonants, there are a good number of Zones, and most of those Zones can go as high as level 15.

You Can Use Resource Crates To Sniff Out Secrets

Health and Power are two of the most important and effective ways to get stronger in Control Resonant. But they can be a little tough to come by. To help you out, the game will reward you if you engage with the world.

Return to our previous tip: the Large Resource Crates markers can also be used as waypoints to find other stuff. It turns out that these crates are often found next to important things like Vendors, FBC experiments, and the Secrets we mentioned before. So be sure to explore every bit in every Zone.