Control Ultimate Edition: Complete Guide

A spoiler-light guide to Control Ultimate Edition: the Service Weapon and abilities, upgrade priorities, how the Oldest House is laid out, the two expansions, the March 2025 PC update, and settings for a smooth run.

Researched September 2026 — current as of PC patch 1.30 (March 2025 update). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

• The Ultimate Edition is complete. It includes the main game plus both expansions, The Foundation and AWE. You start with the main story; expansion content opens up once you reach the right point in it.
• Health comes from enemies. Killed enemies drop health pickups. Aggression is how you heal, so fight forward instead of hiding behind cover.
• Your gun reloads itself. The Service Weapon never needs ammo pickups; its ammo gauge refills on its own over time (and fully empties into a longer recharge if you drain it). Alternate gun fire with abilities while it refills.
• Launch is your best early weapon. Throwing debris (and later enemies' own projectiles) does huge damage. Keep it upgraded.
• Unlock and use Control Points. They are checkpoints, fast travel, and the place where you change loadouts and craft. Always cleanse a new one.
• Spend Ability Points early on Health, Energy and Launch. These three make the whole game easier.
• Mods drop from enemies and chests. Weapon mods and personal mods matter more than you think. Check them often and scrap duplicates for materials.
• Explore off the critical path. Three of Jesse's five core powers are optional and only come from exploration or side missions, and side content also gives weapon forms and some of the best writing in the game.
• Assist Mode is available. If a fight stalls you, Control has built-in Assist options (for example reduced damage taken or one-hit kills). Use them without shame.
• Outfits unlocked by the 2025 update are equipped at the Control Point in the Central Executive Sector.

Controls (PC Defaults and Concepts)

Most PC players use mouse and keyboard; everything can be rebound under Controls. The key ideas:

Action | What it does

Fire / aim | Service Weapon, with a primary and a secondary form equipped

Swap weapon form | Switch between the two forms you have loaded

Launch | Hold to pick up debris, release to throw

Melee | Close-range energy strike

Evade | Quick directional dash

Shield | Pull debris into a protective wall

Seize | Take control of weakened enemies

Levitate | Hover and fly (jump while airborne)

Energy powers every ability and regenerates over time. Upgrades increase the total pool.

Service Weapon Forms

The Service Weapon shape-shifts into six forms, five from the base game and one from AWE, unlocked through the story and crafting:

Form | Role

Grip | Default pistol; reliable mid-range, great all-rounder

Shatter | Shotgun; close-range burst

Spin | Automatic fire; sustained damage

Pierce | Charged high-damage shot that punches through shields and cover

Charge | Explosive projectiles for area damage

Surge (AWE) | Grenade-launcher form for explosive crowd damage

You can equip two forms at once. A good default pairing is Grip or Spin for general fighting plus Pierce for shielded and distant enemies. Each form gets upgraded ranks through crafting, and each takes weapon mods.

Abilities

Abilities are unlocked by bonding with Objects of Power during the story and side content:

• Launch: the core damage ability. Upgrade it early.
• Evade: dodge dash; upgrade to reduce energy cost.
• Shield: a debris barrier that blocks incoming fire. Great against snipers.
• Seize: convert weakened enemies to fight for you.
• Levitate: hover and fight from above. Opens up new routes and ground-pound attacks.

Ability point priorities

Priority | Upgrade | Why

1 | Health | You die fast early

2 | Energy | More abilities between recharges

3 | Launch damage and multi-throw upgrades | Your main damage

4 | Melee | Melee upgrades turn it into a strong crowd-control tool

5 | Evade / Levitate | Mobility and survival

6 | Seize and Shield | Situational but strong on hard encounters

The Oldest House

The Federal Bureau of Control's headquarters is a shifting, Metroidvania-like building split into sectors:

• Executive Sector: the starting area, with the Central Executive Control Point, the Director's Office and the Hotline.
• Maintenance Sector: the building's infrastructure and several critical story beats.
• Research Sector: labs and some of the strangest Altered Items.
• Containment Sector: where the Bureau holds its most dangerous Objects of Power.

Areas unlock as you gain clearance levels and abilities. Levitate in particular opens new paths, so revisit old areas after unlocking it.

Key side content (no spoilers)

• Bureau Alerts and Board Countermeasures: timed or repeatable objectives that reward materials and mods.
• Side missions from characters in the Central Executive and elsewhere (including Ahti the janitor) unlock extra powers and forms.
• Dr. Yoshimi Tokui's Guided Imagery Experience: a mission voiced in part by Hideo Kojima, previously a PS4 Digital Deluxe exclusive. Since the March 2025 update it is available to all players; pick up the Dr Tokui Tapes collectible in the Extrasensory Lab of the Research Sector to start it.

Expansions

Expansion | What it adds | When to play it

The Foundation (March 2020) | A cave system beneath the Oldest House where the Astral Plane is colliding with reality; adds the Shape ability and the Fracture skill | After you have gotten far into the main story; it is tuned for a developed Jesse

AWE (August 2020) | The Investigations Sector, a crossover threat tied to Remedy's Alan Wake, and the Surge weapon form | After The Foundation or late in the game

Expeditions are also included: standalone challenge missions of up to about 25 minutes with difficulty tiers, a good use for a late-game build once the story is done.

Both are best tackled with most main-game upgrades unlocked. If an expansion feels brutal, it is usually a sign to finish more of the base game first.

The March 2025 Update (1.30)

A free content update to all Ultimate Edition owners:

• Outfits for everyone: Astral Dive Suit, Tactical Response Gear and Urban Response Gear (formerly pre-order exclusives), equipped at the Control Point in the Central Executive Sector.
• Dr. Yoshimi Tokui's Guided Imagery Experience mission for all players.
• Graphics: HDR support, a new Ultra ray tracing preset, super sampling (render above output resolution), a High Quality Post Process setting, higher-quality anisotropic filtering, DLSS 4 support, a shadow-flicker fix on NVIDIA 5000 series GPUs, and improved ultrawide support.

Settings and Performance

• Ray tracing looks superb in the Oldest House (reflections on polished floors and glass). The new Ultra preset is heavy; High is a sensible start on mid-range RTX cards.
• DLSS is the easiest performance win on NVIDIA GPUs.
• HDR: calibrate in the menu; Control's high-contrast red Hiss lighting benefits a lot from it.
• Film grain/motion blur can be turned down if the image feels soft.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Playing like a cover shooter. Staying back starves you of health drops. Push in, kill, pick up health.
• Emptying the gun to overheat. Keep a little heat headroom and fill gaps with Launch.
• Ignoring Pierce. Shielded enemies and long-range threats melt to it.
• Hoarding mods. Equip the best ones, scrap the rest for crafting materials.
• Skipping side missions. Several abilities and forms are much easier to get along the way than to backtrack for.
• Rushing the expansions at low level.
• Not cleansing Control Points. They are your respawns and fast travel.

Advanced Tips

• Launch the environment, not just debris. Heavy and explosive props make much better Launch ammo than scraps of concrete; look around each arena for them before the fight starts.
• Levitate plus ground slam clears clusters of ground enemies and keeps you out of melee range.
• Seized enemies as distractions: they draw fire and soak damage on tough encounters.
• Stack mods on one playstyle. For example, Launch-focused personal mods plus Spin weapon mods for sustained pressure.
• Explore after each ability unlock. New abilities regularly reopen old areas with loot and lore.
• Read and watch the collectibles. Documents, recordings and TV segments explain the world; Control rewards players who dig.

What Next: Control Resonant

• Control Resonant, the sequel, launched on September 24th, 2026. You play as Dylan Faden, Jesse's brother, in a warped Manhattan, with a shapeshifting melee weapon called the Aberrant.
• Finishing Control first is strongly recommended; the sequel follows directly from the Faden siblings' story.
• Remedy's co-op spin-off FBC: Firebreak is set in the same Federal Bureau of Control.

FAQ

What is included in the Ultimate Edition? The base game plus The Foundation and AWE expansions.

Do I need to play the expansions in order? It is recommended: The Foundation first, then AWE, both after substantial main-story progress.

How long is Control? The main story is a medium-length action game; add a substantial chunk for side missions and both expansions.

Is there New Game Plus? Control has no traditional New Game Plus; after finishing the story you can keep playing to complete side content, Countermeasures and Expeditions.

How do I get the pre-order outfits? Since the March 2025 update (1.30) they are unlocked for all owners; equip them at the Central Executive Control Point.

Is there an easy mode? Assist Mode offers options like reduced damage and one-hit kills.

Do I need to play Alan Wake to understand AWE? No, but you will get more from it if you know Alan Wake.

Sources

• Control Ultimate Edition on Steam
• Steam news: March 2025 Update (1.30) notes, Control Resonant release date
• Control on Wikipedia (weapon forms, powers, expansions, Expeditions)