Control Resonant: The Artist First Boss Fight Guide
The Artist is the first boss of Control Resonant: the upper half of a massive head that slides around a circular arena of streets, taxis and signage. Learn her four ground moves, then interrupt the air phase by standing on a cloud of dirt, riding the asphalt lift, and striking the glowing underside. There is no parry in this game, so damage windows come from Dodge invincibility frames and chained Executions.
Executive Overview: The First Resonant Boss
The Artist is the first boss encounter of Control Resonant and the climactic fight of the Orientation prologue. The inside of the mirrored building you enter showcases at least half of an art exhibit by someone named Cassia Nomura, and when you open the sealed mirrored door a massive head — about half of one — drops from the ceiling into the arena. The being is hostile, slides around on her head, and fights by tearing city debris off the ground and hurling it at you with telekinetic force.
This is the fight that teaches the whole combat system, so it is deliberately punishing. Players report dying repeatedly on their first attempt, and one described taking eight tries before the patterns clicked. Remedy has stated in interviews that the game ships without a block or parry — defence is dodge-only — which is why the correct answer to every Artist attack is a movement option rather than a guard button.
Quick Answer: Memorise the four ground moves (Taxi Toss, Traffic Lights, Cement Volley, Object Barrage) and their documented evades. Once The Artist has taken about 30% damage she lifts into the air with chunks of street orbiting her head; stand on a cloud of dirt to ride an asphalt chunk up, then Double-Jump and Elevate to strike the glowing underside and cancel the salvo outright. Finish with an Execution, then pick your first Combat Ability.
What The Official Walkthrough Does and Does Not Publish
Before you build a strategy around precise numbers, know what actually exists. The published reference material for this fight describes The Artist's moves, her air phase and her rewards; it does not publish a total health figure, per-attack damage values, or frame data for any boss. Remedy has not released a boss damage table for Control Resonant, so any guide that quotes a health pool or a per-projectile damage number for her is inventing it.
What you can rely on is the two mechanical tells the walkthrough documents inside the arena itself:
| Observed Element | What It Actually Means |
|---|---|
| Blue orbs on the boss health bar | Points where dropping her health to that level awards Health Elements. Boss behaviour may also change at those breaks, but that is not guaranteed. |
| Icon over her head after she loses health | The Execution prompt. Press the shown button or key to end the fight with the cinematic takedown. |
| Yellow bar under an enemy's health | The Falter gauge. At maximum Falter the foe is stunned and Executable. |
Health Elements matter here more than anywhere else in the prologue: enemies drop them on kill, they restore health on pickup, and The Artist's fight gives you very few other chances to heal.
The Four Ground Moves and Their Documented Counters
The Artist's street-debris kit, move by move, with the evade each one has in the reference walkthrough:
| Move | Behavior | Counter |
|---|---|---|
| Taxi Toss | Picks up a taxi cab and hurls it at your position | Use Rush to trick her into throwing at where you were, then move; or Dodge just before the cab strikes |
| Traffic Lights | Close range: swings two clumps of traffic lights like batons. Held vertically means an overhead smash | Wait until the lights actually start moving, then Dodge. If they point horizontally, hop into the air and attack her face to float while the batons swing above and below you |
| Cement Volley | Pulls a horizontal line of cement chunks and fires them in two volleys | Hop the first volley, Dodge the second, keep closing distance |
| Object Barrage | At range: streams of junk — cement chunks and traffic signs — fly at you | Dash toward her at an angle so you weave in while avoiding the objects |
Two practical notes from players who have beaten her repeatedly. First, the tightest timings are specifically the flying cars and the central vertical swing — those are the two that cost lives, so practise them rather than panicking at range. Second, several players report that turning lock-on off and relying on air dashing made the fight readable, because lock-on anchors your camera to a target that is mostly larger than your screen.
Every move above has a documented evade, so nothing in the ground phase is a forced loss. Running away from the boss is always worse than stepping into the punish window, because your damage windows in this game come from aggression, not from safety.
The Air Phase: Dirt Clouds Cancel the Street Salvo
After taking about 30% damage to her health bar, The Artist flies into the air, the bottom of her head glowing yellow, and lifts large chunks of street into a circle around her. She then fires each chunk at you. Once that volley commits it is genuinely hard to survive — the walkthrough's own advice is to defeat the move before it starts:
- When she lifts off, scan the ground for clouds of dirt.
- Stand on a cloud and you are automatically lifted while riding a chunk of asphalt.
- At the apex, Double-Jump and use Elevate to reach her head.
- Attack the glowing section under her head. This deals massive damage and ends the attack before it fires.
- Her head drops to the ground and stays stunned long enough for several clean swings before she moves away.
After this phase The Artist gains more abilities. Two changes are documented and both are traps for players who got comfortable: do not follow her along the path she travels, because rocks drop onto it; and her Taxi Toss upgrades to two taxis at once, which uses the same last-moment Dodge timing as the original but leaves you no margin if you double-tap early.
Where The Real Damage Comes From: Falter, Executions and Retaliation
There is no parry to land on The Artist, so the damage math is built elsewhere. Player consensus on the mechanic that actually shortens boss fights is the Execution reward: an Execution grants a +100% damage buff, which is large enough to change how you sequence the fight. The routine players describe is to burn a special attack on a weak nearby enemy to max its Falter bar instantly, take the Execution for the buff, then spend the buffed window on The Artist before it lapses, and repeat the loop on trash to refresh it.
Supporting that: Dodge has invincibility frames, so a dodge taken a beat early is a wasted dodge and a dodge taken on the animation is free damage; and Perfect Dodge grants Retaliation, a status that raises your Falter and Raw Damage for a short window. If you are still losing the fight after learning the patterns, the problem is usually that your Falter output is too low to reach an Execution rather than that your raw damage is short.
Rewards and the First Combat Ability Pick
Defeating The Artist rewards:
| Reward | Details |
|---|---|
| Untapped Badge | An artifact covering 11-60; equipped artifacts grant buffs and some carry detriments, so read the full description |
| Reset Item | x1, for respecing Talent choices in The Gap |
| Living Shard | x1, the Aberrant upgrade currency used to unlock additional weapon forms |
| Source | x2000 Source, spendable at Vendors |
Then approach her remains and hold the interact key (left bumper on controller, F on keyboard) to unlock your first Combat Ability. Combat Abilities consume Power, which you generate by attacking. The three documented options and their published parameters:
| Ability | Damage | Falter | Power Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barrage | 60-180 Blunt on projectiles | 12-36 | 400 Power per cast | Ranged pressure, effectively single-target |
| Volatile Anomaly | 15 Blunt projectile, 150-350 Blunt explosive | 5 projectile, 25-180 explosion | 300 Power to summon, 120 Power per throw | A summoned ally you throw; it deals more damage the less health it has |
| Shield | 100 Blunt on Shield Bash | 60 | 150 Power to raise, 180 per bash | A debris barrier that absorbs damage up to your Power meter; holding it locks out your Aberrant |
Against The Artist specifically, Shield is the forgiving pick: her Object Barrage streams are absorbed, and Shield Bash converts the defence into a hit. Barrage and Volatile Anomaly suit players who want to punish from outside her swing radius. The walkthrough's own guidance is to choose against your playstyle and your Aberrant forms rather than chasing a single best answer.
Boss Combat Anti-Patterns
- Waiting for her to attack. Remedy's stated design intent is that defensive play should not pay off; standing still looking for a parry that does not exist is how players die to the taxi salvo.
- Locking on. Reported to make the tight Timings harder to read against a target that fills the arena.
- Chasing her travelled path after the air phase, where dropped rocks punish pursuit.
- Hoarding Power. Power only converts into Falter and Executions once spent; a full meter at the moment she lifts off is what buys the dirt-cloud interrupt window.
If the fight is simply beyond you right now, the accessibility settings are a legitimate answer rather than a cheat: players report raising damage through the assist options to clear the first two Resonant fights and turning the values back down afterwards.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Artist the hardest boss in Control Resonant?
Opinion splits, and the honest answer is that difficulty in this game depends on how quickly you internalise the dodge timing. Multiple players report The Artist as the fight that killed them most, while others found a later Resonant trivial once they understood Falter. What is consistent is that The Artist functions as the exam for everything after her.
Do the blue orbs on her health bar guarantee a phase change?
No. They mark points that award Health Elements if you drop her health to them; behaviour can change at those points, but that is not guaranteed.
Can I skip The Artist?
No. The Orientation prologue requires the kill to progress, and it is the fight that grants your first Combat Ability. The later Resonant Entities are optional, and players report you can finish the campaign without fighting every one of them, tackling them in whatever order you like after the first.
Is there a parry on The Artist's melee swings?
No. Control Resonant has no block or parry system at all; that was confirmed by Remedy in interviews and is the reason every counter in this guide is a movement option.
To review the full prologue mission path leading into this encounter, read the Orientation Walkthrough Guide. For the weapon pairings that raise your Falter output, see the Aberrant Weapons Guide, and for the wider optional-boss picture read the Side Quests Guide.