What Are Resonants? Control Resonant's Bosses Explained

The game isn’t called Resonant for nothing. Resonants are its marquee bosses, and they’re tied directly to how your character grows. Here’s what’s known so far.

Quick answer

Resonants are major story-integrated bosses. Defeating one grants a unique supernatural Combat Ability, while some bosses offer branching ability choices that shape Dylan’s first-playthrough build and expand into new combinations in New Game Plus.

What a Resonant is

Resonants are powerful, paranatural antagonists — twisted, amplified beings shaped by the same reality-warping forces tearing through Manhattan. They function as the campaign’s major boss encounters, set-piece fights that gate progress and test whatever build you’ve assembled. Each one is distinct in look and behavior rather than a reskin.

Beating one rewards an ability

This is the key hook: defeating a Resonant grants Dylan a new combat ability. So bosses aren’t just obstacles — they’re the primary way you expand your kit. Your power curve is paced against them, which means build decisions and boss fights feed into each other throughout the game.

Some choices are permanent

Several of these unlocks come with a catch. Some Resonants offer branching, exclusive choices, and the hands-on build presented three options after one encounter: Barrage, Seekers, and Shield. Remedy has not published a universal number for every boss or a first-run respec rule, so the accurate conclusion is that the choice shapes the current playthrough rather than that every Resonant always gives exactly two or three rewards.

New Game Plus adds confirmed flexibility: it can let Dylan equip multiple different Combat Abilities obtained from the same boss. That is the documented route to combinations that are not available during the first journey.

Why this matters for your build

Because abilities flow from bosses, the Resonants effectively author your options. Plan around them:

• Go into a fight knowing what your current build does well, so you can lean on it.
• Read each post-boss choice in terms of the playstyle you’re building toward, not in isolation.
• Record which boss pool a power came from; New Game Plus can later open combinations from that same pool.

What’s been shown

Previews have shown at least two visually distinct encounters: a masked, dual-mallet figure tentatively called the Dancer, and a huge head-shaped entity embedded in pavement. They are tracked separately because the working Dancer name may change and the later hands-on did not assign the same mechanics or reward screen to both bosses.

We’ll expand this into full per-boss strategies — patterns, phases, and recommended setups — as the game releases and encounters are confirmed. For how the abilities you earn here slot into a build, see the combat and build systems guide.