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.