There is no reliable universal list of the best talents to take first in CONTROL Resonant, and this guide does not offer one. The best early talent is the one that strengthens the combat ability and melee style you have already unlocked. Remedy built talents as part of a system that creates synergies between abilities and melee attacks, so a talent’s value depends on what you can already do.
How to judge a talent before you spend points
Read each available talent for what it changes, then check whether that change touches something you use. Four questions sort most decisions:
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
- Does it modify an ability you have equipped and use regularly? A talent attached to a tool you rarely press gives you little return in the early hours.
- Does it reinforce your Aberrant melee form and attack rhythm? Melee is the core of the combat loop, so talents that change how your attacks connect or flow are easy to feel.
- Does it help with survivability or combat control? If a particular fight keeps stopping you, a talent that addresses that problem is a sensible target.
- Do you prefer focused investment or flexibility? Concentrating points on one coherent setup usually pays off faster than spreading them across unrelated effects.
Remedy’s official combat deep dive describes talents as amplifying the synergy between abilities and melee attacks. In practice, a talent that only enhances an ability you have not unlocked yet returns nothing until that ability arrives.
Recommended Free Tools
Why your early options are limited
Remedy’s lead gameplay designer, Sergey Mohov, frames the first playthrough around discovery: learning the world, shaping a build, and working out what Dylan can become. The talent tree is part of that discovery, and it opens gradually rather than all at once.
#1 Best Overall
- STEP INTO A WARPED REALITY: Explore multiple areas of a ravaged Manhattan in an expansive, unfamiliar, and exciting world. Traverse perception-bending locations and grapple with gravity anomalies that distort the vertical and horizontal plane, adding additional dimensions to puzzles and new tactical decisions to combat. Meet faces old and new on a path fraught with risk but rich in opportunity as the cityscape is reshaped and reality is redefined by a godlike force.
- MASTER THE PARANATURAL: Channel the raw experiences of Dylan’s past to help understand his present and dig deeper into the inner workings of the FBC and reveal the horrors threatening humankind. Tap into power he must learn to master and take choices to shape how his abilities manifest and grow. Explore a deep progression system to define how Dylan adapts to emerging dangers. Forge connections crucial to Dylan’s fight to retain his humanity as he journeys from former test subject to paranatural superweapon
- THE FIGHT SHIFTS. YOUR WEAPON SHIFTS WITH IT: Meet constantly evolving threats head-on, utilising the environment, deploying elemental abilities and using the raw force Dylan’s shapeshifting melee weapon, the Aberrant. Wield the Aberrant in its many deadly forms. Deliver bone-crunching blows with a two-handed hammer and flow seamlessly into the swift precision of dual-wielded blades as this paranatural weapon morphs on demand to meet each new challenge.
- SHARED LEGACY. NEW THREAT: FBC Director Jesse Faden's lockdown is no longer holding. A paranatural catastrophe has spilled beyond the Oldest House and onto the streets of Manhattan, and the Bureau's grip on containment is failing. Jesse Faden walked into the Oldest House to confront the threat within. Now Dylan must walk out of it to contain the threat beyond.
Talent points can also arrive before the abilities they enhance. A PC Gamer review reports this pattern, which means you may hold points with no obvious target. Holding them is a reasonable choice. Spending them on a path whose ability you do not yet have is the mistake to avoid.
“One of the goals for New Game Plus is to give players more room to experiment with builds that weren’t possible during the first playthrough, as you cannot unlock everything in your arsenal in one go.”
Sergey Mohov, Lead Gameplay Designer, Remedy Entertainment, in the official PlayStation Blog article
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy.
A practical approach for a first run
- List the combat abilities and melee form you currently have unlocked.
- Open the talent screen and read the description of each available talent. Note which ability, melee attack, or survival stat it modifies.
- Commit to one combat direction, such as a single ability you use constantly or a melee pattern you enjoy, and direct your points toward talents that support it.
- Leave points unspent when the matching ability is still locked. Talent nodes for abilities you have not unlocked can wait.
- After each new ability unlocks, check whether a previously held point now has a clear target, and revisit your build.
If early fights feel too hard
Build choice and difficulty settings solve different problems, so keep them separate. A Steam announcement from Remedy’s launch period described a balance adjustment after some players found early enemies too tanky. Patch notes change over time, so check the current Steam announcements page before relying on that note.
Rank #3
- The action RPG sequel to Control, developed and published by Remedy Entertainment.
A PC Gamer review also reports that players can adjust outgoing damage and stagger settings. These options may make early encounters more comfortable without changing your talent path. Treat them as comfort adjustments, not as proof that any single talent is mandatory.
What carries into New Game Plus
Remedy states that New Game Plus keeps much of your progress, but not the story-tied traversal abilities. The second run is where the locked-away options open up.
| Element | New Game Plus status |
|---|---|
| Aberrant upgrades | Carries over |
| Health and combat ability resource improvements | Carries over |
| Unlocked supernatural combat abilities | Carries over |
| Talents | Carries over |
| Artifacts | Carries over |
| Traversal abilities | Does not carry over; tied to story progression and how the world unfolds |
Because talents carry over, a first-run build can be tested and refined in New Game Plus. Mohov says the second run adds room to experiment, including new talent nodes and more flexible ability combinations.
What is and is not established
The official Remedy and PlayStation Blog material confirms the design intent: talents support ability and melee synergy, unlocks happen progressively, and New Game Plus expands experimentation. It does not provide a node-by-node list, exact talent effects, or a fixed unlock order, and this guide does not claim one. For those details, check the talent tree in your own save or a detailed, current talent-tree guide. Balance settings and patch behavior also change, so confirm them against the live game before making a build decision.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
