Everyone’s got advice for Control Resonant: pick the hammer, save your living shards, don’t rush the resonant bosses. The problem? That advice works fine — until it doesn’t. What works for one player’s style can completely sabotage another’s. I’ve sunk fifty hours into Manhattan, respecced a dozen times, and watched my early builds crumble for reasons the guides never mention. Here are seven mistakes that sabotage your build before you even realize it — and how to fix them before the Hiss overruns you.
Mistake 1: Picking the Hammer First Because “Everyone Says So”
The most repeated tip: make Crush (the hammer) your secondary weapon immediately. It breaks obstacles, stun locks enemies, and deals heavy blunt damage. That’s true — but only if your playstyle matches. If you prefer fast, hit-and-run combat, that slow hammer will ruin your rhythm. You’ll swing, miss, and eat damage while recovering.
The mistake isn't following advice — it's following advice that doesn't fit your way of playing.
Better approach: Match your secondary to how you actually fight. If you love mobility and chaining combos, choose Extend (the whip). It keeps distance, hits wide, and its timed charged attack rewards precision. Drill is better for single-target pressure and shield breaking. The hammer is powerful, but forcing it on a speed-based build is a mistake from minute one.
Mistake 2: Burning All Your Souls on Living Shards Early
The common wisdom: save souls to buy living shards from vendors because they unlock new weapon forms. That sounds smart. In practice, buying a living shard for 4,000 souls early leaves you broke when you need source for weapon upgrade nodes. You’ll have the shard but no money to unlock the node itself — and farming source later is a grind.
Better approach: Only buy living shards when you have at least 2,000 extra souls beyond what you need for your next few upgrades. Prioritize unlocking weapon nodes first — each one boosts your Aberrant Strength, directly increasing all damage. Living shards are rare, but they’ll come from story missions and side quests naturally. Don’t starve yourself to stack them.
Mistake 3: Rushing Resonant Bosses Without Clearing World Feats
Every guide warns: don’t kill resonant bosses too fast because they reset the zone and increase difficulty. But the real trap is subtler. You might think you can beat one or two early to get new combat abilities, then go back and clear world feats. Problem is, after a resonant cycle, some world feats are permanently replaced by harder ones. Leveling zones past level 5 becomes nearly impossible because you’ve exhausted the simpler feats.
Better approach: Before you even consider fighting a resonant, clear every world feat in the zone you’re in. Use the map to check zone level progress. Aim to level each zone to at least 3 before killing any major boss. This ensures you have enough talent points for key skills (like Perfect Dodge and Dominance) before enemies hit level 5.
Mistake 4: Ignoring Assist Mode Sliders Because “It’s Cheating”
The game literally tells you not to use Assist Mode — that it’s meant for a “challenging but rewarding experience.” So you ignore it. Big mistake. The outgoing and incoming damage sliders exist for good reason: they let you fine-tune combat to your preferred pace without turning the game into a cakewalk. Setting outgoing damage to 150% makes fights snappier without trivializing them. That’s not cheating — it’s customizing.
Better approach: Open the pause menu, go to Assist Mode, and increase outgoing damage to 1.5x or 2x if you find enemies spongey. Decrease incoming damage if you’re dying in two hits. The game’s combat shines when you can actually trade blows without reloading every five minutes. This is especially true if you’re using a fragile build (like Strike + Drill) that rewards aggression but punishes mistakes heavily.
Mistake 5: Only Upgrading Your Favorite Weapon Form
You found the Glaive or Strike and you love it. So you pour all your resources into that one tree. Meanwhile, the other forms sit untouched. This gutters your Aberrant Strength — a stat that multiplies all damage you deal. Every weapon node you skip is a flat +1 to +5 damage multiplier you’re leaving on the table.
Better approach: Unlock every primary and secondary form to at least the first node (costs one living shard each). That alone gives +5 Aberrant Strength per form, adding up to +15 or more. The combo finishers are even cheaper — six shards net you +30 damage multiplier. You don’t need to use them. Just unlock them. Your main weapon will hit harder because of it.
Pro tip that most beginners miss: Right after you spend a living shard to unlock a new weapon or combo finisher in the Gap, check the bottom right — there’s an “Exchange Recents” option. This lets you refund that shard instantly and test a different weapon in the practice arena. You can try every form for free before committing. Leave the Gap, and the choice locks in. Use this to experiment without wasting resources.
Mistake 6: Not Prioritizing Dimensional Faults for Traversal
The game points you toward main story missions and side activities. It doesn’t scream that dimensional faults (the places where Jesse’s giant image appears) are your ticket to the best traversal abilities. You’ll spend hours running around Manhattan on foot, missing half the map, because you didn’t get Gravity Shift or Reach early.
Better approach: As soon as you leave the Oldest House, head to the West Incursion Zone parking garage. Finish that fault to unlock Gravity Shift (wall-running). Then go to the Evacuation Zone subway station for the Reach ability (grappling). These two transforms exploration. You can access loot, shortcuts, and puzzles that are otherwise impossible. More importantly, they make combat significantly more mobile — you can dodge into walls and launch yourself over enemies. Do these before fighting any optional boss.
Mistake 7: Crafting Artifacts Randomly and Never Swapping Them
Artifacts are passive bonuses you equip from the Gap. The mistake is crafting the first three you find, equipping them, and never changing them. Different zones demand different defenses. The Park zone is flooded with mold enemies — you need the Face Mask artifact to resist poison. Boss fights might call for damage artifacts like the Fork or Whetstone.
Better approach: Craft every artifact you find, but only equip what matches the situation. Before entering a new zone, open your loadout, check which status effects are common, and swap accordingly. The game lets you change artifacts mid-combat as long as you’re not actively attacking. Use that flexibility. A single artifact swap can turn an impossible encounter into a manageable one.
The mistake isn’t following advice — it’s following advice that doesn’t fit your way of playing. Control Resonant rewards experimentation, not adherence to one “correct” build. Test everything. Reset frequently. And when the game tells you something is too hard, remember: Assist Mode exists for every player, not just those who struggle. Your build, your pace, your Manhattan. Make it yours.
