Control: Resonance Starting Weapon Guide — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] Not only does Control Resonance swap out its main character from the first game, it also trades third-person shooting with your service weapon for a melee action with a new shape-shifting sidearm, the Aberrant. And while Dylan still sports some of the same powers as Jesse,

[00:14] such as levitation, telekinesis, and constant overwhelming confusion, right there with you, buddy, Resonance ends up feeling radically different from its predecessor as a result. You'll be forced to make a ton of progression choices,

[00:26] the first being your starting weapon. So let's break down which starting weapon is right for you and control Resonant. Because of the interconnected nature of the skill trees in Resonant,

[00:40] it's not really sufficient to just tell you what the starting weapons do at first, as decisions made later on will radically change your playstyle. So let's go over the basics of each starting weapon, called primary forms, your heavy attacks, called secondary forms, and combo finishers,

[00:54] as the interplay between those three choices will make a big difference in how you play moment to moment.

[01:08] The primary form of your aberrant governs your light attack, square on PlayStation and X on Xbox. Strike has the fastest attack of any primary form, and it focuses on scoring critical hits. First taking a wide area of attack that would help with crowd control, it hones in on singular

[01:24] opponents so you can finish them off quickly before moving on to the next mob. Glaive is the exact opposite.

[01:37] It swings in a wide arc that helps you attack many enemies at once and clears the space around you, but it gains that utility by losing speed and critical hit chance. Cleave is a mix of the two. It's faster than Glaive and does more raw damage than Strike,

[01:50] but with the added benefit of scoring more damage when it hits enemies from behind. Each primary form also has its own skill tree. These are a bit overwhelming to peruse at first, but make sure you at least take a look at what each weapon does after a dodge attack.

[02:03] While Strike and Glaive simply do more damage, Cleave lifts enemies into the air, an early differentiator between the three choices if that's something you like doing. You can have more than one weapon unlocked at once if you've purchased them in the Weapon Skill Tree using a resource called Living Shards.

[02:18] You can only have one equipped at a time, however, and need to go to your loadout and between fights to swap them out. Your loadout is locked mid-battle. Almost immediately after leaving the oldest house and venturing out into Manhattan you get a second choice this time for your secondary form which is performed by Triangle on PlayStation or Y on Xbox All three of these secondary forms can be charged to do stun damage also called falter

[02:44] in Resonance. Crush is a big hammer. It can do the highest falter damage of the three secondary forms, so it can stun enemies for an execution the most easily out of the three, at least at first. It does blunt damage, which means it breaks armor, but is weak against mold.

[02:59] Drill attacks in a straight line, so it's not good to clear enemies away from you, but can be held to do continuous damage after already striking an enemy, unlike a hammer which must be charged before striking an enemy.

[03:11] Drill does sharp damage, which means it does extra damage to hit shields. And then we have extend, which is a sectional staff that hits a wide area, and its charge attack can be timed perfectly to do extra damage.

[03:23] It does raw damage, like the primary form, without any advantage or disadvantage. These secondary forms also have their own skill trees, albeit smaller ones than the but some early game changers are crushed being able to lift enemies with its third attack,

[03:36] extend gaining a 360 degree swing with its third attack, and an extra long drill for Drill's third attack. All three secondary forms also eventually learn a switch attack, which lets you breath triangle after a combo with your primary attack

[03:50] to perform a special move with your secondary attack, instead of a combo finisher. Once your aberrant strength reaches 15, You can choose a combo finisher if you have enough resources.

[04:03] Aberrant Strength is increased every time you choose a weapon upgrade from the tree. A combo finisher activates if you finish a light attack combo, and then continue to press the light attack button. And a very wild blint damage, halter, and general utility.

[04:17] These combo finishers all have their own skill progressions as well, but they don't branch like the other trees. They just keep adding effects if you go down the line. If you want to build your kit around getting to use your combo finisher more often,

[04:29] The primary form that you choose matters. Doing a full combo with Strike will get you to your finisher about a full second before full combo with Glaive. Concussive Beatdown deals decent damage and a great amount of Falter if you land every hit of it,

[04:45] second only to a fully charged Uppercut Surge. As you unlock further levels, damage and Falter increase, you do more damage to airborne enemies, and follow-up attacks or blasts are added to the end of your combos.

[04:57] If you want to bulldoze through enemies, this is a great choice. Uppercut Scourge launches enemies, giving them the Lifted state. Lifted is different from Airborne.

[05:10] It a particular status that you apply and it will be shown with this orange marker Additional upgrades improve falter you inflict and power restoration and allow you to send nearby enemies into the air with the lifted status as well

[05:23] Hitting lifted enemies restores more power, among other unlockable benefits within the skill trees. The highest single-hit damage combo finisher, Wide Edge,

[05:35] is a wide-range swing that knocks enemies away. An interesting wrinkle with Wide Edge's upgrades is that it can become more effective based on how many enemies you hit with your primary combo leading into this finisher, increasing your multiplier on both critical chance and falter.

[05:49] This makes the Glaive, the wide-ranging scythe attack, the best primary form to pair with this particular combo finisher. You also have a chance to gain health from landing this finisher, as well as instantly faltering enemies. Choose this one if you like clearing out a ton of

[06:04] breathing room for Dylan and dealing a ton of damage all at once. Spin Edge is like a variant of White Edge, but it hits three times instead of just one. While each single hit of this finisher does less damage than the one big hit of White Edge, you'll do more damage

[06:17] and way more falter if you land all three, and there are multiple upgrades that increase either power recovery, a resource you use to cast combat abilities, or damage based on the amount of consecutive attacks you land with this finisher. You can also learn Rousing

[06:30] Sabotage to apply the empowered status on Dylan, giving an extra damage and falter from his combat abilities. Finally, the last upgrade allows Dillon to spin indefinitely, which I just find very funny. This is a great choice if you like maximizing your positioning and

[06:45] picking your moments to be a real bull on a china shop. Split Pivot sends a small spinning blade out in front of Dillon, and while it doesn't do a ton of damage or falter, the first upgrade gives a high critical chance, and further

[07:01] upgrades apply both weakened and burning to enemies, making it combine extremely well with other builds. For instance, one of my favorite combinations for a while was to get this finisher out there and hit an enemy with one charged attack of my drill secondary form,

[07:15] which I had also upgraded to apply weakened. This inflicted the status instantly, allowing you to begin engagements by dealing extra damage. Add this to further burn and falter upgrades along this tree, and you can stun enemies who are already weakened very quickly.

[07:29] This is a great finisher if you want to apply a ton of statuses to enemies. Both Split Pivot and the next finisher, Split Orbit, require one more button press than usual after the standard free hit combo to activate.

[07:41] After a quick swipe, Dylan will launch the real finisher on the fifth button press. Just like the Spin Edge finisher with a variant of the Wide Edge, Split Orbit is a different version of Split Pivot It moves in an arc around Dylan rather than just attacking in front of him and at first it pretty underwhelming with its low damage and falter But further upgrades both extend the amount of time that Split Orbit is active makes it spin faster so it hits more

[08:05] enemies, and increases both the damage and falter it inflicts. Not game changing like some of the other upgrade trees, it just continues to get better at everything it does. Choose this finisher if you want passive damage floating around you as much as possible.

[08:23] You can respec your weapon tree after making decisions, but at the cost of a finite resource, called a reset item. These can be acquired by defeating residents, like the artists you have to fight early in the story, or you can purchase them from vendors.

[08:36] The amount needed varies by vendor level, but they are now substantially cheaper than they were pre-release, so the day one hotfix reduced the cost. Reset items are still also needed to respect combat abilities and talents, though,

[08:48] so don't go spending them all in one place. Thankfully, while you're in the gap, after using a reset item, you can go into the arena and try your new weapon loadout. Fiddle with some things and see if you like it, and if not, you can return to the weapon tree and respec without using another reset item.

[09:03] But once you leave the gap, those new choices are locked in, and you don't get that reset item back. Now's the time to put it all together.

[09:15] Between your primary form choice, your secondary form, and your combat signatures, you have a ton of flexibility with how you play, and it can be overwhelming. I would start by thinking about what you enjoy doing most during combat,

[09:27] and then make decisions to further that playstyle. For instance, do you like to stick and move, doing a ton of damage to a single enemy before moving on to your next target? you might enjoy Strike for your light attack, Drill for your heavy attack,

[09:39] and Concussive Beatdown for your finisher. Do you like controlling space? Try Glaive for your light attack, Extend for your heavy attack, and Wide Edge or Spin Edge for your finisher.

[09:51] When doubling down to fit a particular playstyle, look to match up as many of the bolded words across your build as you can as an easy way to synergize your choices. Or, instead of focusing on doing one thing really well,

[10:03] you can try to diversify and cover the weaknesses of your light attack with your heavy attack or finisher. Now that you know what they all do, it's just a matter of fiddling around with them and finding your sweet spot. You have the control here.

[10:17] And that's our guide to choosing your starting weapon in Control Resonance. While you're here, check out our video on the things it doesn't tell you. For more on Control, and everything else gaming, you're already in the right place. IGN

[10:33] Thank you.