Control Resonant: All Bosses & Where To Find Them

TL;DR

Control Resonant has 6 Resonants (named bosses) plus Hedron (final story boss).
Only The Artist is mandatory. The Dancer and Deserter gate main story progress. The Collective is fully optional.
Every Resonant kill rewards a Combat Ability choice, an Artifact, Source, and a Reset Item.
Hedron gives no Combat Ability — it is the endgame climax fight across three arenas.
Best order: Artist → Dancer → Deserter → Collective → Physicist → Co-Director → Hedron.
Each Resonant kill advances the Resonant Cycle, making enemies harder across Manhattan.

Control Resonant scatters its bosses across every zone of Manhattan. Some you will find naturally. Others stay locked behind traversal abilities, quests, or puzzles you might miss entirely. Skipping them also means skipping Dylan’s best Combat Abilities, so it costs you more than just trophies.

This guide covers every boss in the game — their exact location, how to reach them, what they reward, and a quick tip for beating each one. You can grab the official Control Resonant site for any lore you want alongside this. The game is also available on PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, Steam, and Epic Games Store.

Table of Contents

All Bosses in Control Resonant — Quick Overview

There are 7 major boss encounters total: 6 Resonants and 1 final story boss. Here is the full list with zone and ability reward at a glance.

Boss Name	Zone	Arena	Combat Ability Reward
The Artist	Downtown	Gallery	Barrage, Volatile Anomaly, or Shield
The Dancer	West Incursion Zone	Theater	Push or Ground Slam
The Deserter	Central	Patterned Factory	Ignite or Inferno
The Collective	The Park	Mold Gate	Spore Burst or Growth
The Physicist	The Underpass	The Spire	Spike or Astral Rebuke
The Co-Director	The Unknown	Field Office	Command (no choice)
The Hedron	The Unknown	Far West	None (final boss)

The Quest Log labels each fight by zone — for example, “The Central Resonant” — but the boss health bar uses the real name. Match both to know what you’re fighting. If you want tips before jumping in, check our Control Resonant beginner tips first.

Best Order to Fight the Bosses

Only The Artist is locked to the story. The others can be done in different orders, but some traversal abilities you need from one fight unlock the route to the next. This order keeps things efficient:

The Artist — Mandatory, end of Orientation.
The Dancer — Do early. Clearing the Incursion Fault gives you Shift, which opens three other boss routes.
The Deserter — Do before The Collective. Fire abilities from this fight help against Mold enemies in The Park.
The Collective — Optional but worth it. Fire damage makes this fight much easier.
The Physicist — Only accessible after the main quest Recursions and Iterations.
The Co-Director — Late game. Requires Pope’s Research side quest to be done first.
The Hedron — Final boss. Fight this last when Dylan has all abilities.

Control Resonant Boss 1: The Artist

Control Resonant Boss 1 The Artist

Where to Find The Artist

The Artist is the very first boss in Control Resonant. You fight it at the end of the Orientation prologue in Downtown. After the Jesse ritual, follow the rooftops toward the Patterned area. Climb to the gallery building at the top. The door at the back of the gallery starts the fight. You cannot skip or delay this one — it is the only fully mandatory boss.

How to Beat The Artist

The Artist slides around the arena constantly. Do not stand still. It throws cars and sends rock waves across the floor. Dodge through its close-range swings — it uses pairs of traffic lights overhead and across the front. After each swing, punish with short combos.

When the health bar hits the blue dot, a phase change triggers and healing pickups drop. In the second phase, The Artist floats above the arena. Jump to the platforms that appear and hit the glowing spot underneath it to bring it down. Sidestep falling rocks during the final stretch.

The Artist Rewards

Combat Ability: Barrage, Volatile Anomaly, or Shield.
Resources: Two Reset Items, 1,000 Source, 1 Living Shard.
Artifact: Untapped Badge 11-60.

Control Resonant Boss 2: The Dancer

Where to Find The Dancer

The Dancer is the West Incursion Zone Resonant. It is inside the Theater Hall. But you cannot enter until you complete The Incursion Fault quest in the Parking Garage, which rewards the Shift traversal ability. Read our Underpass Fault quest walkthrough for context on Fault quests if you are unsure how these work.

Once you have Shift, inspect the eye icon on the Theater across the gap. Jump to the left platform, Shift onto the ceiling, make the balcony jump to the scaffold on the side of the building, follow the path to the red EMPIRE sign, take the subway tunnel left of it, and head to the stage at the far north end.

How to Beat The Dancer

The Dancer is a fast melee boss with two full health bars. It fights in rhythmic strings. The key rule: only the final committed strike of each string is truly dangerous. Dodge that last hit, then punish with two or three quick attacks and back off.

Watch for the two main attacks — a two-handed forward lunge and a spinning dash. Use Rush to reposition behind it when it spins in place. When the first health bar empties, it comes back with a second full bar and starts throwing bodies from the air. Sprint along the stage edge or dodge just before impact. Never stand directly under it during the aerial phase.

The Dancer Rewards

Combat Ability: Push or Ground Slam — both add crowd control for group fights.
Resources: 1 Reset Item, 2,000 Source.
Artifact: Untapped Amulet.

Control Resonant Boss 3: The Deserter

Where to Find The Deserter

The Deserter is the Central Resonant, hidden at the bottom of the Patterned Factory in the north of the Central Zone. No traversal ability is needed to reach it — just follow the route through the factory dungeon.

Inspect the eye icon on the pipes along the factory’s south wall to start the quest. Climb to the roof using the east side platforms, break the wooden door on the roof, take the elevator down, destroy the three heat growths on the cooling pipes, then run straight through the flame corridor to reach the arena.

How to Beat The Deserter

The Deserter does not chase you much. It floods the arena instead. Circle the edge during its attacks and dive in during recovery windows. Stay off the lava to keep the Burn status low — it builds fast if you stand still in fire.

At one-third health, four magma sacs appear and the floor erupts in flames. Stop attacking the boss immediately. Destroy all four sacs first. Each broken sac shuts off a fire line and chips the boss’s health. After the fourth sac, go back to the punish loop and finish it.

The Deserter Rewards

Combat Ability: Ignite or Inferno — Ignite adds fire damage to Dylan’s melee attacks.
Resources: 1 Reset Item, 3,000 Source.
Artifact: Untapped Lighter.

Control Resonant Boss 4: The Collective

Where to Find The Collective

Control Resonant Boss 4 The Collective Location

The Collective is the optional Resonant in The Park, an area accessed through The Park Checkpoint in the northeast corner of Central. This is a fully optional fight — it plays no role in the main story — but it rewards good abilities and is much easier if you already have fire damage from The Deserter.

To unlock the fight, you need to eat three Mold strains scattered around The Park. Start at the “New Mold strains?” text in the middle of The Park, drop into the hole, and eat the Mold on the left side. Then find the Pizzeria Mold in the northeast sewers, the Minimart Mold in the southwest corner, and the Gym Mold in the northwest. Return to the starting hole — the Mold Gate opens when you approach.

How to Beat The Collective

The central body is almost invulnerable at the start. Ignore it. Walk the wall using Shift and destroy the tentacles on the walls first. Kill one at a time to reduce incoming projectiles. Once both tentacles are gone, attack the swollen weak points exposed on the body. Then clear the new Mold wave that spawns and repeat the loop as tentacles return.

The Collective Rewards

Combat Ability: Spore Burst (rapid Mold projectiles) or Growth (summons a Mold turret).
Resources: 1 Reset Item, 3,000 Source.
Artifact: Untapped Face Mask.

Control Resonant Boss 5: The Physicist

Where to Find The Physicist

Control Resonant Boss 5 The Physicist Location

The Physicist is the Underpass Resonant, fought on the Astral Plane at the top of The Spire. The Underpass zone only becomes accessible after the main quest Recursions and Iterations. You will also need Shift to climb The Spire. For more on this quest, see our Recursions and Iterations walkthrough and our guide on how to reach the Unknown Resonant for navigating late-game zones.

Stand north of The Spire and climb using Shift on the red blocks. Defeat enemies at the top to open the Astral path. Then collect three Astral Keys from three separate floating islands — one directly across from the locked door, one to the right, one to the left. Use all three keys to open the boss arena.

How to Beat The Physicist

The Physicist cycles between ground and air phases. Survive the chase, outrun the aerial volleys, and deal damage in the ground recovery windows. At the start, just keep running — it chases and charges a large area explosion when close. Sprint until it stops.

When it rises, sprint in a wide circle to outrun its three waves of debris. When it drops back down and sweeps a limb, jump and attack from the air to stay above the sweep. Later in the fight, it summons minions. Kill minions first, then return to the same loop.

For more help navigating The Underpass, see our Underpass Resonant walkthrough and our guide on the Subway Fault Reach ability.

The Physicist Rewards

Combat Ability: Spike (knocks enemies down) or Astral Rebuke (homing spike that launches enemies and applies Lifted). Both build Astralized.
Resources: 1 Reset Item, 3,000 Source.
Artifact: Untapped Golden Earrings.

Control Resonant Boss 6: The Co-Director

Where to Find The Co-Director

Control Resonant Boss 6 The Co Director Location

The Co-Director is the Unknown Resonant and the last regional boss before the final chapter. The Unknown opens during the main quest Sever the Hedron Links, but the islands stay out of reach until the side quest Pope’s Research spawns the Gravity Wells. Do not skip Pope’s Research or you will be stuck.

Once the Gravity Wells are active, ride to the Field Office island in the north. Clear the enemies with the trapped Rangers, hit the shed that moves out of sync to disrupt the Pattern (four times), power the gate using the electricity from the path on the left, climb the rooftops around the gate instead of going through, drop to the plaza below, survive the ambush, ride the elevator with the Rangers, and go through the portal. For more on this area, see our guide on how to reach the Unknown Zone.

How to Beat The Co-Director

This is the only boss with a timer mechanic. A Command meter fills throughout the fight — if it fills completely, you fail. Cautious play loses. Attack every recovery window you can find.

The fight opens with a beam that turns some of your Rangers hostile. Kill turned Rangers first, then switch to the boss. Dodge the long purple beam sideways, not backward. Back off when the outer ring contracts before spinning outward, then attack during the exposed seconds after. At half health, a fresh Ranger wave arrives — kill any Ranger the beam targets immediately. After the rocket phase, no new attacks appear, so just push damage and execute.

The Co-Director Rewards

Combat Ability: Command (turns enemies into temporary allies). No second option on this one.
Resources: 1 Reset Item, 4,000 Source.
Artifact: Untapped 1996 Commemorative Coin.

Control Resonant Final Boss: The Hedron

Where to Find The Hedron

The Hedron is the true final boss of Control Resonant, fought during the main quest Fight to the Core. It sits on the far west side of The Unknown. Once Fight to the Core is active, go to the Gravity Well at the northwest point and drop toward the Hedron. The fight starts the moment you land — finish your upgrades in The Gap before going.

Important: The Hedron is not a seventh Resonant. It gives no Combat Ability choice and does not count toward the Resonant Cycle. It is the endgame climax encounter.

How to Beat The Hedron

The Hedron spans three arenas, each with its own health bar. You never hit the Hedron directly. You drain each bar by killing the linked enemies it sends out. This is a crowd control and traversal test, not a traditional boss dodge fight.

In phase one, kill the linked enemies the Hedron sends to the center. Heavy enemies spawn later at fixed spots and drain the bar fastest. When the bar empties, execute the Hedron’s center, then execute the core once pulled inside.

In phase two, dodge the lasers at the ground near Dylan. The linked enemies slide back and forth firing their own lasers — hit one to stop it, then attack. Cross to the other side of the arena at half health using Reach on the floating platforms.

In phase three, only Heavy enemies drain the final bar. They arrive in two waves. Use the side Gravity Wells and Shift to reach whichever area they spawn in. Finish the center and core one last time to complete Fight to the Core.

Assist Mode stays available throughout all three phases with no trophy penalty. For more on accessibility options, see our Control Resonant Assist Mode settings guide.

The Hedron Rewards

Resources: 1 Living Shard, 1 Reset Item.
Artifact: Untapped Worn Eraser.
Trophy: Completing Fight to the Core unlocks a Silver trophy.

Tips Before Fighting Any Boss in Control Resonant

Every Resonant has a Build Power number on their health bar. Walking in below that number makes every fight much harder. These habits close the gap fast:

Unlock more Combat Abilities. Each one raises your Build Power.
Collect Health Upgrade Points. Every three you gather increases Dylan’s maximum health. Vendor trucks usually have one nearby.
Upgrade the Aberrant weapon. Aberrant Strength boosts both damage and Falter speed — it speeds up execution windows on every boss.
Spend Talent Points before the fight. Unused points do nothing inside an arena. Assign them in The Gap first.
Clear side content before each kill. Every Resonant death advances the Resonant Cycle, which respawns tougher enemies across Manhattan. Finish the quests and World Feats you want before pulling the trigger.

For build decisions and stat upgrades, see our guides on how to respec in Control Resonant and all Power Upgrade Chest locations. If you want to optimise your setup for PC, the best PC settings guide is also worth checking before long sessions.

More Control Resonant Guides

Looking for more help with the game? Here are some useful resources to go alongside your boss hunting: