The Artist in CONTROL Resonant: Your First Resonant Orientation Choice Explained
Quick answer: The Artist is the figure behind your very first Resonant Orientation in CONTROL Resonant. That orientation is where you make your opening ability choice, picking one of three options: Barrage, Volatile Anomaly, or Shield. Whichever you pick becomes the backbone of your early kit, and it is the first real build decision the game hands you.
Who The Artist Is in This Context
Inside CONTROL Resonant, The Artist is tied directly to the Resonant Orientation sequence — the structured introduction to how Resonant abilities work before you are set loose with them. Rather than dropping you into the ability system cold, the game frames this moment as a guided session, with The Artist presiding over the first and most consequential of these choices: picking the ability you will lean on from the opening hours onward.
The Three Options
During this first Resonant Orientation, you are offered exactly three abilities:
- Barrage — an offensively focused ability built around direct pressure.
- Volatile Anomaly — an ability centered on an unstable, area-oriented effect.
- Shield — a defensively oriented ability built to protect rather than attack.
These three sit at different points on the aggression-to-survivability spectrum, which is almost certainly intentional: the game wants your very first ability decision to telegraph the kind of playstyle you are leaning toward, whether that is offense (Barrage), area disruption (Volatile Anomaly), or protection (Shield).
Why This Pick Comes First
Placing this choice at the first Resonant Orientation, rather than later, means it is the earliest signal CONTROL Resonant gets about how you want to play. Every later ability choice — including forks like the Ignite-or-Inferno decision at the Patterned Factory — builds on top of whatever foundation you establish here. If you come into the game already knowing your general preference, aggressive, area control, or defensive, this is the moment to act on it.
It also means this choice carries more long-term weight than it might initially feel like in the moment. Because it is your first ability, it is also the one you will have spent the most time with by the time later choices arrive, and the one most likely to already feel comfortable in your hands.
How to Approach the Decision
Since this is presented before you have had a chance to test any of the three abilities in combat, the decision is necessarily based on playstyle preference rather than in-game performance data. A practical way to approach it:
- If you default to aggression in most action games, Barrage is the most direct extension of that instinct.
- If you like abilities that affect an area rather than a single target, Volatile Anomaly fits that preference.
- If you would rather prioritize staying alive over dealing damage early, Shield is the clearer fit.
None of the three options is framed as a trap pick or a strictly inferior choice — they are presented as parallel paths rather than a tiered ranking. The more useful question is not “which is best” but “which matches how I already intend to play,” since that is the lens the orientation itself seems designed around.
What Comes After
The Artist’s orientation is the start of a longer chain of ability decisions that continues through CONTROL Resonant. Later forks, such as the Ignite-or-Inferno choice, assume you already have a working kit in place and ask you to build further on top of it. Because of that, it is worth treating this first choice with the same seriousness you would give any build-defining decision, even though it arrives before you have had meaningful time with any of the three abilities.
If you are replaying CONTROL Resonant or starting a New Game Plus run, remember that this Resonant Orientation choice is part of what defines the run from the ground up, feeding into how your full ability set develops from that point forward.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Artist a playable character? The Artist’s role here is tied to running the Resonant Orientation itself rather than being a character you control. The orientation is the moment that matters for your build, regardless of how The Artist factors into the wider story.
Can I change my pick between Barrage, Volatile Anomaly, and Shield later? This page covers the first Resonant Orientation specifically, the moment where that initial pick is made. Later ability forks, like the Ignite-or-Inferno choice at the Patterned Factory, are separate decisions layered on top of whichever of the three you choose here.
Does this choice affect anything outside of combat? The orientation is framed around combat-oriented abilities, Barrage, Volatile Anomaly, and Shield, so its most direct impact is on how you approach encounters rather than on non-combat systems.