Forge Your Path: Master Early Game Combat in Control Resonant
Laying the Foundation: Initial Weapon and Ability Selections
As you begin your adventure in Control Resonant, you'll encounter a pivotal decision point: choosing your primary and secondary weapon forms, alongside a core combat ability. While the game provides several options for each, the sheer variety can make these initial choices challenging. There isn't a single 'correct' answer, as each selection caters to diverse tactical approaches. Your ultimate decision should reflect your preferred combat style, setting the tone for your initial gameplay experience.
Adapting Your Arsenal: Respeccing Weapons and Abilities
It's important to remember that your initial weapon and ability selections are not set in stone for the entire game. While you're committed to these choices throughout the prologue, Control Resonant offers flexibility for adjustments later on. Within 'the Gap,' you can utilize a special reset item to reconfigure your weapons, combat abilities, or talents. If you aim for a complete overhaul, you'll need multiple reset items. Fortunately, a recent patch has made these items more accessible, encouraging players to experiment with different builds until they find one that perfectly suits their evolving playstyle.
The Art of Engagement: Selecting Your Primary Weapon
Your first significant choice in the prologue involves your primary weapon. Each of the three available options offers a distinct combat advantage:
- Cleave: This axe-like weapon excels at aerial combat, capable of lifting enemies and temporarily stunning them, preventing counter-attacks. As it levels up, Cleave deals increased damage to airborne foes and quickly builds up their 'falter' meter, making it ideal for players who prefer crowd control and preventing enemy actions.
- Strike: Dual swords designed for close-quarters combat, specializing in critical hits. This weapon is perfect for agile players who enjoy dodging, as it demands proximity to enemies. Despite having the lowest base damage, Strike boasts the fastest attack speed, allowing for quicker combo finishers. Furthermore, it enhances combo finishers and other combat abilities, encouraging a synergy-focused build.
- Glaive: A scythe with broad-range attacks, effective against multiple adversaries. Glaive has the highest base damage among primary weapons, making it a powerful choice in the early stages. Its primary strength lies in energy generation, enabling frequent use of combat abilities. If you enjoy launching projectiles and utilizing special skills, Glaive is an excellent pick.
While each weapon caters to specific preferences—Cleave for crowd control, Strike for critical hits, and Glaive for area damage and ability spam—Strike often proves to be the most versatile. Its critical strike potential makes it a formidable primary damage source, and its ability to empower combo finishers and combat abilities leads to a robust overall build. Although its short range and vulnerability to swarms can be drawbacks, these can be mitigated by complementary secondary weapons.
Strategic Support: Choosing Your Secondary Weapon Form
The secondary weapon in Control Resonant plays a supportive role, complementing your primary attack strategy. Here are the options:
- Crush: A massive hammer that delivers satisfying slams, dealing significant damage and falter. Beyond its combat prowess, Crush can also shatter enemy armor and open metal doors, adding utility to exploration. It's an excellent choice for players who value stunning enemies and environmental interaction.
- Extend: A long-range whip capable of hitting multiple enemies in a cone. Its charged attacks increase falter and damage, with perfectly timed charges yielding even greater results. Extend is invaluable in situations with numerous enemies, compensating for any lack of area-of-effect capabilities from your primary weapon or combo finishers.
- Drill: A unique weapon that weakens enemies, making them more susceptible to damage and falter from combat abilities. While its immediate impact might be limited early on due to fewer available abilities, Drill's weakening effect becomes incredibly potent against formidable bosses later in the game.
Given that the secondary weapon often takes a backseat to the primary and combo finishers, focusing on utility is often beneficial. Therefore, Crush or Drill are highly recommended for their strategic advantages, providing either powerful crowd control and environmental interaction or valuable enemy weakening for more challenging encounters.
Unleashing Potential: Selecting Your Combat Ability
After conquering the resonant in the prologue, you'll choose your first combat ability, which significantly impacts your tactical options:
- Barrage: This ability allows you to launch projectiles at enemies, reminiscent of Jesse's powers in the original Control. You can unleash all projectiles simultaneously or individually. Barrage has a low power cost and decent damage output, making it suitable for players who enjoy frequently deploying special abilities.
- Volatile Anomaly: This ability summons an orb that fires projectiles at enemies. A second cast allows you to throw the orb itself for high damage. While the orb's projectiles deal minimal damage, they are highly effective at building falter on smaller enemies, enabling executions and maintaining 'Dominance'—a crucial early talent that boosts melee damage. Volatile Anomaly is particularly advantageous as it allows you to continue fighting while its effects are active.
- Shield: This ability creates a protective barrier around you, absorbing damage equivalent to your power meter. You can also dodge into enemies while Shield is active to deal minor damage. Shield is an excellent defensive option for players who are still mastering dodging mechanics.
For maximizing early-game effectiveness, Volatile Anomaly is highly recommended. Its ability to build falter and sustain Dominance is incredibly valuable, especially when facing multiple strong enemies. Volatile Anomaly also assists in managing smaller threats, allowing for executions that not only clear the field but also provide health regeneration and damage boosts.
