Best weapon and combat ability to choose first in Control Resonant

Follow

Link copied to clipboard

Published Sep 24, 2026, 5:54 PM EDT

What primary weapon, secondary form, and resonant ability should you get?

Image: Remedy Entertainment via Polygon

During the prologue of Control Resonant, you need to choose your primary and secondary weapon form and combat ability.

You'll be given three options for all of them, but when given the freedom to choose, it can be difficult to set your mind to just one option. Each weapon and combat ability has their own purpose, so there is no wrong answer. However, you should choose an option that fits your play style.

It's important to note that you will be stuck with your decision until the end of the prologue, but luckily, you won't be stuck for the entire game. You can reset your weapons and combat abilities in the Gap using a reset item. Unfortunately, a reset item won't reset your entire build, but only your weapon, combat ability, or talents. So, you'll need at least three if you want to start over from scratch. Fortunately, reset items are now easier to get due to the day one patch, so feel free to test out multiple builds if you're not happy with your choices.

Here's which weapon and combat ability you should choose in Control Resonant's prologue, and an early game build that will help you get through the first couple zones.

---

Best primary weapon to choose in Control Resonant

Image: Remedy Entertainment via Polygon

Your first choice in the prologue will be for your primary weapon:

• Cleave: An axe-shaped weapon that deals extra damage when hitting an enemy from behind. Its main focus is lifting enemies into the air, which will temporarily stun enemies and prevent them from attacking. As you level it up more, you'll deal more damage to airborne enemies, which ties in perfectly to the lifted status, and your hits will fill up the falter meter quicker. This weapon is for those who don't want their enemies to fight back.
• Strike: Dual swords that specialize in critical hits. This weapon is great for people who enjoy dodging, as you'll need to be up close and personal. These swords have the lowest base damage out of the three primary weapons, but they also attack the fastest — meaning you can get your combo finisher out faster than the others. Additionally, Strike also empowers combo finishers and combat abilities, which will encourage you to tailor your build to them.
• Glaive: A scythe that features a wide-range attack that is great for dealing with groups of enemies. It deals the most base damage out of the three primary weapons, so it's one of the best options at low levels. Glaive is the best at generating power, which will allow you to spam your combat abilities. So, if you want to relive your Control days and throw around projectiles, your best option is to choose Glaive.

Each weapon caters to a different play style: Cleave is for lifted and falter, Strike is for fast attacks and critical strikes, and Glaive is for area-based attacks and combat abilities. If any sound enticing to you, we encourage you to choose them. In our experience, Strike has been the most useful, as its critical attacks make it a fairly strong primary weapon, but it also makes your combo finishers and combat abilities stronger — giving you a stronger overall build. It does have its cons in that it's not great if you're being swarmed by enemies and has short range, but you can make up for its weaknesses with your other weapons.

---

Best secondary weapon form to choose in Control Resonant

Image: Remedy Entertainment via Polygon

Your second choice in the prologue will be for your secondary weapon:

• Crush: A huge hammer that can slam enemies into the ground. This is one of the most satisfying weapons in all of Control Resonant, and also one of the most useful. Not only does it do a lot of damage and falter, but it can also break armor. Not only that, it can open metal doors that you find while exploring. Again, if you like stunning your enemies, this is the one for you.
• Extend: A long range whip capable of hitting multiple enemies in a cone in front of you. You can also charge your attacks for more falter and damage, and if you charge your attack perfectly, you'll deal even more. Extend thrives in situations where there are a lot of enemies nearby. It can be used to make up for the lack of area-based attacks from your primary weapon or combo finishers.
• Drill: A literal drill on a stick that is capable of weakening enemies. Weakened enemies take more damage and falter from combat abilities. If you're just starting out, you won't have many combat abilities to use, but later on you can have up to six. Drill might not be the best right away, but the weakened status effect is extremely helpful when you're facing off against a beefy boss.

From our experience, the secondary weapon isn't exactly your go-to damage source. Like its namesake, it takes somewhat of a backseat to the primary and combo finishers, because the primary attack is the only way to get to the combo finisher. As a result, we recommend choosing Crush or Drill for their utility.

---

Best combat ability to choose in Control Resonant

Image: Remedy Entertainment via Polygon

After you beat the resonant in the prologue, you'll need to choose your first combat ability:

• Barrage: Relive your days as Jesse in Control by launching projectiles at enemies. You can choose to throw all of your projectiles at once or throw them one by one. Barrage has a relatively low power cost and it deals a decent amount of damage, so it's a great choice if you want to use a lot of abilities.
• Volatile Anomaly: Summon an orb that shoots projectiles at enemies, and if you cast it again, you can throw the orb itself at enemies. The second cast does a lot of damage, but the projectiles are the best part of this ability. They do very little damage, but they're great at building up falter on small enemies. This allows you to execute them, and keeps you in Dominance, which is the first talent you can choose and it boosts your melee damage. You want to be in Dominance as often as possible, and Volatile Anomaly helps that immensely. Additionally, Volatile Anomaly is the only combat ability of the three that allows you to keep fighting at the same time.
• Shield: Surround yourself with a barrier that can absorb damage equal to your power meter. You can also dodge into enemies while Shield is active to deal damage to them. The damage is fairly low, but Shield is great if you're not the best at dodging.

We recommend taking Volatile Anomaly just for the sake of building up falter and giving you Dominance. Dominance is an extremely helpful buff when you're fighting multiple heavy enemies at once. Additionally, Volatile Anomaly will help deal with the small enemies as they'll be faltered and you can just execute them to boost your damage and heal a bit of your health back.