Control Resonant: Best Secondary Weapon – Crush, Drill, or Extend?

You’ve picked your primary Aberrant form. Now the game throws a second choice at you: a heavy-hitting secondary weapon that defines your rhythm in combat. Get it right, and fights flow. Get it wrong, and you’ll spend your first hours wondering why armored enemies eat your attacks like breakfast cereal.

The three options — Crush, Drill, and Extend — aren’t balanced. They’re specialized. Each excels in a specific role, and the best pick for you depends on what your primary form already handles well.

Crush's first charged swing removes roughly 40% of their armor in one hit.

Let’s break down exactly what each secondary form does, where it shines, and which one matches your playstyle.

The Three Secondary Forms: What They Actually Do

All three secondary forms share one thing: they build falter (the yellow stagger bar under enemy health) faster than primary attacks. But that’s where the similarity ends. Each one deals a different damage type, attacks at a different speed, and rewards a different combat rhythm.

Crush: The Hammer That Breaks Everything

Crush is a two-handed hammer. Its swings are slow — the full three-hit combo takes about 2.5 seconds if you hold the button. But each swing hits like a truck.

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Damage type: Blunt. This is the critical detail. Blunt deals extra damage to armor. In the first few zones, you’ll encounter Hiss Troopers with a yellow armor icon next to their health bar. Against those, Crush’s first charged swing removes roughly 40% of their armor in one hit. Primary weapons deal raw damage — neutral against armor — so a Strike user hitting an armored enemy does 100% damage, but Crush does closer to 150% per hit against that same armor.

Falter build: Crush builds falter faster than any other secondary. A single fully charged heavy attack against a level 3 Hiss Guard fills about 60% of their falter bar. Two hits lands an execution, triggering the dominance buff — double damage for 8 seconds. No other secondary hits that threshold in two swings.

Utility: Crush is the only secondary that opens certain ground-level doors. These doors have a horizontal orientation and appear in all zones. The game never tells you this, but the hammer’s blunt force shatters the seal. Inside, you’ll find health upgrades, power upgrades, or large resource crates. If you didn’t pick Crush as your secondary, you can still open these by equipping it from your loadout — but you won’t have it until you spend a Living Shard to unlock it.

One specific number: The charged attack of Crush hits for 180-220 baseline damage against a level 3 enemy with no armor. That’s about 3x a single Strike light attack.

Drill: The Shield-Eater

Drill is a pneumatic spike that fires in a straight line. Its light taps produce a fast three-hit combo. Holding the button after the first hit drills into the enemy for continuous damage.

Damage type: Sharp. Sharp damage shreds Hiss shields. The floating Hiss Elevated enemies carry a white shield bar on top of their health. Drill’s held attack removes that shield in about 1.5 seconds. Without Drill (or a sharp combo finisher), you’re beating that shield down with raw damage — roughly 2.5x longer.

Falter build: Drill’s falter is lower per hit than Crush, but the held attack ticks damage quickly. The third hit of its combo turns into a sustained drill that deals 15 ticks over 3 seconds. Each tick builds a small amount of falter. Against a single target with no shield, you’ll fill the falter bar in about 4 seconds of sustained drilling.

Utility: None for opening doors. But the held attack has a hidden property: while drilling, Dylan takes reduced knockback. Enemies that would normally stagger you — like a Hiss Guard’s punch — won’t interrupt the drill. This makes Drill the best secondary for interrupting enemy attack animations at close range.

One specific number: The third-hit held drill deals 8 damage per tick at base Aberrant Strength. Over 3 seconds, that’s 120 damage — plus the 40 damage from the first two hits. This is the highest sustained single-target damage of any secondary.

Extend: The Crowd Controller

Extend is a segmented whip. It swings in a wide arc and its charged attack can be timed for bonus damage. The reach is roughly 1.5x the length of Crush’s hammer.

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Damage type: Raw. No advantage, no disadvantage. Against everything, it deals neutral damage. This is a weakness — it doesn’t break armor or shields faster. But it also doesn’t deal reduced damage to anything.

Falter build: Extend’s charged attack, when released at the white flash, deals about 50% more falter than a normal swing. The third attack in its combo becomes a 360-degree spin that hits everything in melee range. Against a group of three or more enemies, Extend builds falter faster than Crush because it hits multiple targets simultaneously.

Utility: The wide arc and reach make Extend the best secondary for clearing crowds during world feats like Hold the Line, where you’re swarmed by five or six grunts. You can keep them all staggered without needing to aim.

One specific number: Extend’s perfect-release charged attack deals 140 base damage to a single target, and the 360 spin hits each enemy in range for 60 damage. If you’re surrounded by four grunts, that’s 240 total damage and a 40% falter bar on each of them.

How Secondary Weapons Fit Into Your Build

The best secondary isn’t the one with the biggest numbers. It’s the one that covers your primary’s blind spot.

Strike + Drill

Strike is fast, low-falter, high crit chance. It tears through health but struggles against shields. Drill gives you that shield-shatter capability, plus the sustained held attack complements Strike’s hit-and-run style. The synergy: use Strike’s light attacks to build power, then swap to Drill’s held attack to shred a shielded enemy while they flinch.

Glaive + Extend

Glaive is all AoE, with sweeping scythe attacks. It deals raw damage and pushes enemies back. Extend adds another layer of AoE and the 360 spin. This combo turns you into a blender for crowds. Weakness: neither deals blunt or sharp damage, so armored or shielded enemies take full time. You’ll want a fire combat ability (Ignite or Inferno) to cover mold enemies.

Cleave + Crush

Cleave rewards backstabs and has medium range. Crush adds armor-breaking and massive falter. The ideal rhythm: dash behind an enemy with Cleave’s dodge attack (which launches them), follow with a charged Crush swing while they’re airborne. The lifted status from Cleave’s dodge attack buys you the time to land a fully charged hammer hit. This is the highest falter-per-second pairing in the game.

What About the Combo Finisher?

Your secondary also determines your switch attack — the special move that triggers after the third hit of your primary combo. Each secondary has a unique switch attack, unlocked through its skill tree. Crush’s switch attack is a ground-shattering slam that hits everything in a small radius. Drill’s switch attack is a forward lunge that pins the target. Extend’s switch attack is a wide whip crack that can stagger multiple enemies. This matters more in late game when you have the talent that boosts switch attack damage by 50%.

Verdict and Recommendations

There is no single best secondary weapon. But there is a best secondary for your situation right now.

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Pick Crush if: You’re still in the first few zones, you’re struggling with armored Hiss Guards, or you want to open those ground doors early. Crush gives you the most immediate power return for the fewest resources. It’s the strongest early-game choice.

Pick Drill if: You’ve already got a blunt combo finisher (Concussive Beatdown or Uppercut Surge), or you’re fighting zones with lots of shielded enemies — the Park and Evacuation Zone both spawn Hiss Elevated in packs. Drill also pairs well with Strike for pure single-target burst.

Pick Extend if: You chose Glaive as your primary and want to lean into crowd control. This combo is weakest against bosses but strongest during world feats and story encounters where you’re outnumbered.

One more thing: you can unlock all three eventually. Living Shards are rare but buyable from vendors for 4,000 Source each. By mid-game, you’ll have enough Source to buy at least two Living Shards per zone. Use your first one to unlock the secondary you didn’t start with. Then test the combination in the Gap’s practice arena before you leave — you can swap freely inside, and your choice only locks in when you hold down on the D-pad to exit.

Start with the one that fills your primary’s gap. After that, unlock the rest for the Aberrant Strength boost (each new form adds +5 to your multiplier) and the flexibility to adapt to any encounter.