CONTROL Resonant gives you a lot of freedom once Manhattan starts opening up, and that freedom can work against you if you don't know what the game actually expects. Between Build Power, World Feats, weapon forms, Falter, Artifacts, and a talent tree that branches in every direction, it's easy to spend your first few hours upgrading the wrong things or missing systems that matter. This guide covers the most important mechanics and early decisions without spoiling the story.
What is Build Power and why does it matter?
Build Power is the number that tells you whether a fight is going to feel fair or frustrating. It pulls together your weapon upgrades, talent upgrades, ability strength, health, and Power into a single value you can check from the Loadout screen.
Enemies display a level next to their health bar. When that number turns red, the enemy is well above your current Build Power and the fight will feel much harder than it should. The fix isn't always to push through. Spend some time completing World Feats, opening resource crates, exploring side areas, or buying the one or two materials you're short on from a vendor.
Keeping Build Power close to the enemies you're fighting makes every system in the game feel better. Ignore it and you'll hit a wall that has nothing to do with skill.
How does traversal work in Control Resonant?
Dylan starts with more movement options than most games hand you at the beginning: a normal jump, a double jump, a dash, and a jump that transitions into a short float. The key is chaining them rather than treating each one as a separate tool.
A reliable traversal combo that covers large gaps is:
- Run to build momentum
- Jump to clear the initial distance
- Double Jump or Hold to extend height
- Dash to push across the remaining gap
Manhattan is vertical. Rooftops, gaps, and elevated areas show up constantly, and the movement system is built around crossing them efficiently. Gravity-based traversal abilities unlock later and make exploration even smoother, but getting comfortable with the base movement chain early saves a lot of backtracking.
Understanding damage types and enemy defenses
Not every enemy takes the same kind of damage equally. The Loadout screen keeps a reminder available, but here's the breakdown you'll use most often:
Armor appears as an extra defensive layer before the health bar. Shielded enemies have a white layer sitting over their health. Mold enemies are the most common reason to keep a Fire option available, since Ignite adds Fire damage to your weapons and other abilities and pays off regularly.
Switching damage types mid-fight isn't always possible depending on your loadout, which is another reason to upgrade more than one weapon form rather than dumping everything into a single tree.
Control Resonant Ultimate Beginner's Guide
How do Falter and Executions work?
Every enemy has a yellow Falter gauge alongside their normal health bar. Build that gauge up and the enemy becomes vulnerable to an Execution, which finishes them even if they still have health remaining.
This changes how you think about damage. A build that deals heavy Falter damage can reach an Execution faster than one focused purely on raw health damage. Executions also trigger Dominance, which temporarily boosts your melee damage and can increase the health drops from defeated enemies.
Falter is worth paying attention to from the start. Ignoring it and just chipping away at health is slower and wastes one of the cleaner combat tools the game gives you.
What's the best combat loop for recovering Power?
Power fuels Dylan's abilities, and basic attacks recover very little of it. Secondary attacks and especially Combo Finishers restore significantly more.
The most efficient loop for keeping abilities available:
- Primary attacks to build into the combo
- Secondary attack to continue the chain
- Combo Finisher to restore a meaningful chunk of Power
- Ability cast while Power is available
Repeating only the Primary attack drains your ability options fast. Working through complete combos keeps both your melee and ability kit active throughout longer fights. For a deeper look at which finishers are worth your Living Shards, check out the guide on best Combo Finishers to unlock first.
Which talents should you prioritize early?
The talent tree is large, but a handful of upgrades benefit almost every playstyle. These are the ones worth targeting first.
Rush duration is the simplest early win. You spend a lot of time moving around Manhattan, and being able to run for longer makes exploration noticeably faster. A related upgrade also lets Rush clear status effects more quickly, which matters in certain encounters.
Perfect Dodge replaces the traditional parry system in Control Resonant. Landing one briefly slows time and grants Retaliation, which improves the damage and Falter of your next attack. Getting comfortable with dodge timing early is more valuable than any offensive upgrade you could take instead.
Sanctioned Retaliation increases the Power you recover from a Retaliation attack. Since Power drives your abilities, recovering it faster through dodging means you spend less time waiting to cast.
For healing, look for talents that grant health from Perfect Dodges and give successive melee attacks a chance to drop Health Elements. These stay relevant through the whole game because healing during long encounters matters more than most players expect early on.
For a full breakdown of the skill tree, the best talent upgrades guide covers every priority in detail.
Control Resonant Ultimate Beginner's Guide
What are the best early ability choices?
Abilities come with branching choices, so there's no single setup that works for everyone. That said, some options are consistently useful for players still learning the systems.
Push earns its slot because Manhattan is vertical. Knocking an enemy off a rooftop ends the fight faster than any damage combo. Ignite pairs well with the Mold damage type matchup and extends to other abilities, making it one of the more flexible picks.
Players who want a more defensive start should lean toward summons and shield options. If you prefer an aggressive approach, direct damage abilities reward players who already have the dodge timing down.
Before committing to major ability choices inside The Gap, use the Combat Arena to test how they feel. Some choices lock in when you leave, so testing first avoids regret later.
How do World Feats and the Resonant Cycle work?
World Feats are repeatable activities spread across each region. They involve combat challenges, defending objectives, destroying enemies, and similar small encounters. Completing them builds regional progression, which unlocks better vendor inventory, additional drops, and large resource crates.
The Resonant Cycle is what makes them worth repeating. Defeating a major Resonant boss raises the world level, which causes World Feats to respawn at a higher level. Clearing those respawned feats lets you keep upgrading without running out of content.
You don't need to clear every feat before a boss fight, but finishing several before a major encounter makes the progression loop smoother and keeps your Build Power moving.
Control Resonant Ultimate Beginner's Guide
What else is worth knowing before you start?
Health and Power upgrades are permanent pickups scattered through the world. Every 3 Health upgrade pickups increases your health bar, and Power works the same way. Health upgrades are easy to miss, so checking around vendors and side areas is worth the detour.
Artifacts provide passive bonuses and can be swapped depending on your build. You can recycle unwanted Artifacts for resources, but recycling is permanent for that playthrough. Some Artifacts that seem useless early become valuable with a different build later, so hold onto them unless you genuinely need the materials.
Lit buildings are worth entering. Diners, laundromats, galleries, and convenience stores can hide puzzles, resources, and side content. The game doesn't always mark these with a clear objective icon. Small world events like honking taxis, missing items, and environmental puzzles also appear in the open world and lead to extra rewards.
Fast Travel Doors should be activated the moment you find them, even if there's nothing nearby worth doing yet. Manhattan gets larger, and having a travel network in place before you need it saves real time.
For a full look at which starting form suits your playstyle, the guide on best Aberrant Forms breaks down all six options. For everything else, the full Control Resonant strategy guides collection covers builds, quests, keycards, and more.