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Control Ultimate Edition

Control Ultimate Edition

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Welcome to the Oldest House, Agent. In Control Ultimate Edition, you play as Jesse Faden, the new Director of the Federal Bureau of Control, tasked with reclaiming the Bureau from a mysterious, otherworldly force known as the Hiss. This third-person, sci-fi action-adventure throws you into a constantly shifting, brutalist labyrinth where you’ll master supernatural abilities and a transforming Service Weapon to fight off corrupted Bureau agents and bizarre entities.

This guide covers everything you need to navigate the Oldest House. We’ll provide walkthroughs for key sectors like Containment and Maintenance, offer detailed combat strategies against the Hiss, and break down insights into the Service Weapon’s various forms. Whether you're aiming to collect every secret, master challenging boss fights, or simply survive the Bureau's paranormal threats, this guide is your essential tool.

Overview

Explore the paranatural phenomena and the Federal Bureau of Control in Control Ultimate Edition, an action-adventure game with RPG and Metroidvania elements.

In the world of Control Ultimate Edition, resonances from higher dimensions interact with a collective unconsciousness, causing strange phenomena. The Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) studies these paranatural phenomena. Jesse and Dylan Faden were caught in an Altered World Event in Ordinary, Wisconsin, which caused most inhabitants to disappear and changed the surviving children. Dylan was taken by the FBC, while Jesse escaped, guided by a voice in her head. This voice leads her to the Oldest House, the FBC headquarters, where she is appointed the new Director.

The Oldest House is under lockdown due to an invasion by the Hiss. Bureau employees are hostile, and others are mindlessly chanting. As the new Director, your first task is to resolve this situation.

Control Ultimate Edition excels at atmospheric world-building. The Oldest House features environments resembling government offices with desks, chairs, computers (modern technology explodes), filing cabinets, vending machines, cafeterias, and toilets. Bureaucratic communiqués, reports, and correspondence are abundant, featuring jargon like Altered World Events, Altered Items (items changed by exposure to higher dimensions), and Objects of Power (powerful Altered Items that grant paranatural abilities).

The gameplay is action-adventure with RPG and Metroidvania elements. You start with a gun and soon gain abilities to throw objects like furniture, dead enemies, environmental pieces, and even forklift trucks. Later, you can mind-control enemies and launch yourself into the air.

Warning: Control Ultimate Edition incorporates mechanics from the Soulsborne genre, including sudden-death events and a hostile checkpoint (an auto-save point you restart from on death) system. Dying may result in a lengthy loading screen and the need to re-fight enemies. You also lose 10% of your in-game currency upon death. The game features a high, non-selectable difficulty and a single save file that is overwritten automatically, which can be frustrating.

Ultimate Edition Update:

The Foundation expansion, released in June 2020, is a post-game adventure exploring a sealed area of the Oldest House. It is considered less engaging due to a different writing style, lack of world-building, and a story focused on an underdeveloped NPC (non-player character — anyone the game controls, not you). The AWE expansion, released in August 2020, is a significant improvement with better world-building and a creepy creature. To fully appreciate AWE, prior knowledge of the game Alan Wake is recommended, as much of its content can be baffling without it. Cheat modes have been added to address difficulty, though they are not as ideal as proper difficulty settings. The expansions also negatively impact the loot system, with many mods being considered garbage.

Tips

Get the edge in Control Ultimate Edition! Learn essential tips on ability upgrades, combat strategies, mod management, and trophy hunting to conquer the Oldest House.

Alright, so you're diving into Control Ultimate Edition, huh? It's a wild ride! Let's talk about how to make it a bit smoother. First off, don't think of this as your typical cover shooter. While those pillars and ledges are great for blocking bullets, you can't just hunker down forever. Enemies will flank you, and those nasty suicide bombers will find you no matter where you hide. Your only real healing comes from running into the open and grabbing those Health Elements dropped by fallen enemies, so staying mobile is key.

When you start unlocking abilities, focus your early points on beefing up your health and the damage of your Launch ability. The fancy side-skills for Launch can wait. After that, pour some points into your Shield and increasing your energy bar. Seize is less of a priority, and honestly, upgrading your melee attack should be the very last thing you do. Yeah, your melee hits hard, but so does everyone else's, and getting that close is usually a death sentence.

You'll get abilities like Shield, Seize, and Evade through side missions, but don't skip them! Seriously, some enemies are almost impossible without Shield. Seizing enemies is a fantastic way to turn the tide when you're outnumbered, and Evade's invincibility frames can save you from attacks that would otherwise be fatal.

Quick tip for using Launch: if you grab an item and decide you don't want to throw it, just press the interaction button (it's Square on PlayStation) to drop it instead of launching.

You're going to find a ton of mods as you play. Since you have limited inventory space, get into the habit of clearing out the ones you don't need. You probably don't need five mods that just slightly increase ammo efficiency for Levitation, but you might want a few Damage Boost mods. If you find a better version of a mod you already have, ditch the old one. If it's junk, toss it immediately. Speaking of mods, it's generally better to spend your resources upgrading your weapons rather than crafting new mods. It's only really worth crafting mods late in the game when you can make 'Infinity' level ones, and even then, you might just waste precious resources.

Here's a weird one: there's a crouch control that's also mapped to Ground Slam (part of Levitation), which is R3 on PlayStation. This is super annoying because you'll accidentally trigger Ground Slam when you just want to crouch or move the camera. I ended up remapping it to the D-pad down. Trust me, you do NOT want to accidentally Ground Slam into a boss fight like I did – instant death!

If you're struggling or just want to make things easier, check out the Assist Mode in the pause menu (added in the AWE expansion). You can toggle things like Immortality and One-Hit Kills, and as far as I know, it won't mess with your trophies.

Trophy Hunting Tips:

  • The platinum for Control is a tough one, mostly because the game demands you do almost everything. You'll need to unlock the entire ability tree, which means doing all side missions and finding every Hidden Location and Control Point. Plus, you have to take down five optional superbosses.
  • Even after doing everything, I had a few Ability Points left over. So, you might be able to skip a couple of things if you're short on points, like the first Hidden Location in the Executive Sector, the first in the Research Sector, or the second part of the 'Langston's Runaways' mission where you fight a boss you've already beaten.
  • To help with trophies, try to keep three Board Countermeasures active at all times until you get the one for completing 25. The rewards are usually pretty good, and if one is too annoying, just ditch it and grab a new one.
  • Bureau Alerts can stop appearing later in the game, so try to get that trophy done early. Destroying Hiss Nodes is the easiest category. 'Major Target' alerts become manageable once you have some Launch damage upgrades. Missions where you have to protect FBC personnel are incredibly difficult. These alerts pop up pretty frequently in the middle of the game.

Expeditions

Learn how to access Expeditions in Control Ultimate Edition, a game mode unlocked after Side Mission 10, costing Jukebox Tokens.

Walkthrough
  1. 1
    Access Expeditions using Jukebox Tokens.
  2. 2
    Undertake missions within The Formation, completing four tasks across its islands within a 25-minute time limit (the time limit is a constraint on the overall mission, not per island).
  3. 3
    Return to the hub after completing the four tasks.
  4. 4
    Defeat the Distorted Tourist in a boss fight.
Tips
  • There are three tiers of Expeditions: Tier 1 costs 1 Jukebox Token and rewards Rare mods, Tier 2 costs 3 Jukebox Tokens and rewards Prime mods, and Tier 3 costs 5 Jukebox Tokens and rewards Absolute mods.
  • The first time you successfully complete a challenging Tier 3 Expedition, you will unlock a new costume.
  • This mode is recommended for players who enjoy Control Ultimate Edition's combat more than exploration, world-building, and story, providing an activity after the main game concludes.

Guide and Walkthrough (PS4) by chris-williams

Control Ultimate Edition walkthrough covering missions, side missions, abilities, items, collectibles, and trophies.

Walkthrough
  1. 1
    Introduction (Overview, Tips, Expeditions, Copyright and Acknowledgements)
  2. 2
    Welcome to the Oldest House
  3. 3
    Unknown Caller
  4. 4
    Directorial Override
  5. 5
    Old Boys' Club
  6. 6
    Threshold
  7. 7
    My Brother's Keeper
  8. 8
    The Face of the Enemy
  9. 9
    Finnish Tango
  10. 10
    Polaris
  11. 11
    Take Control
  12. 12
    Foundation (The Foundation, The Nail, The Pyramid)
  13. 13
    AWE (A Dark Place, The Third Thing, It's Happening Again)

Side Missions: A dedicated section details all available side missions.

Abilities: Information on all unlockable abilities is provided.

Items: This includes Astral Constructs and Mods.

Collectibles and Secrets: Find Research & Records, Case Files, Correspondence, Multimedia, and Hotline entries.

Hidden Locations: Discover all hidden areas within the game.

Trophies: Guides for trophies related to The Foundation and Altered World Events are included.

Tips: General tips for playing Control Ultimate Edition are available.

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