Control Resonant The Physicist boss strategy
How to defeat The Underpass Resonant.
The Physicist, also known as The Underpass Resonant, is the boss of 'The Underpass Resonant' in Control Resonant. (Unsurprisingly.) It's basically a regular Astral Spike on steroids and can be quite difficult to defeat if you're at a lower Power Level. Thankfully, its attacks are quite well telegraphed! If you need a hand defeating it, take a look at my The Physicist boss strategy for Control Resonant down below.
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Need more help in Dylan's fight against the patterning? Then check out our Control Resonant walkthrough.
Control Resonant The Physicist boss strategy
The Physicist fight is clearly divided into three phases and I say clearly because it will literally move location in-between each phase. When this happens you'll have to do a short platforming segment to catch up with it. Make sure you don't fall during these sections as you will take damage! Don't hang around on the platform you previously fought The Physicist either as it will start to fall into the void. The good news, however, is that The Physicist's falter metre won't decay while you're catching up with it.
The Physicist has quite the range of attacks, including the ability to summon Astral Spikes, throughout its battle. Due to this, I recommend taking a quick read through the attacks I've outlined below before getting to my advice on defeating it. This will ensure you're properly prepared for the fight ahead! I've also outlined roughly when the first two phases will end.
The Physicist Attacks
Phase 1
- Ground slam - The Physicist will open with the fight with this attack. The attack itself involves The Physicist rising into the air before slamming back into the ground and an aftershock radiating across some of the area around it.
- Outward blast - At the beginning of this attack, The Physicist will begin sucking in pieces of rumble towards it before shooting them outwards. The blast radius is kept to the area around The Physicist, so the best way to avoid this attack is to put some distance between yourself and it the moment you see it sucking in rumble.
- Arm attack - Well it's more like a pillar or a blunt spike really. Basically, an 'arm' will appear out of The Physicist which will rotate around its body. Thankfully, it's quite easy to jump over.
- Throwing projectiles - For this attack, The Physicist will rise into the air and take on a cross shape for a few seconds. It will then toss four projectiles at you. A quick dodge will save you here.
- Big ground slam - The Physicist will end this phase with one large ground slam. Keep an eye on when it raises into the air and, when it does, run away. This will hopefully get you out of the blast radius, but you can also try floating to make sure you're safe.
This phase ends after you've depleted roughly a quarter of The Physicist's health.
Phase 2
- Astral Spike summon - The Physicist opens this phase with this attack and, depending on how long the phase takes, it may reuse it. What happens is that The Physicist will vanish, leaving four Astral Spikes in its place. The Physicist will actually be absent from the fight for a while as you deal with the Astral Spikes, but, thankfully, its falter bar won't decrease during this time. It will return so try your best to defeat the Astral Spikes before it does!
- Spike attack - This attack is signaled by The Physicist taking on a triangle shape before slamming into the ground. When it does, a line of spikes will shoot out from it towards your current direction. They can be avoided by jumping over them.
- Returning attacks - In my experience only the throwing projectiles/cross attack returned for this phase. Depending on how long it takes you, however, you may see other attacks return.
This phase ends after you've depleted roughly half of The Physicist's health.
Phase 3
- Cross shaped Astral Spike summoning - The Physicist now has a different version of the cross shaped attack, which it will use to summon two Astral Spikes. It will open this phase with this attack, giving you a good idea of what to look out for in the future. The way this attack works is that The Physicist once again molds itself into a cross shape, but this time it will have two large pieces of rumble either side of it. It will shortly send both boulders towards you and this way you'll discover said boulders are actually Astral Spikes. Unlike in the previous phase, The Physicist won't vanish for a while after summoning Astral Spikes so you'll need to manage fighting all of the monsters on the field.
- Returning attack - Most of The Physicist's previous attacks make a return in this phase. This includes the original cross/projectiles, outward burst, arm swinging and triangle attack.
Mold, mold, mold. That's how you defeat The Physicist. Toss a little fire in there to cause some explosions and you're on the right track. Seriously, this tactic is a little too OP at times in Control Resonant that I'm starting to wonder if Remedy is considering making the Mold the villain of Control 3.
Back to The Physicist though - mold really is the way to go. Personally, I used Growth to summon my little mold turrets and allowed them to do the majority of the work. This allowed me to focus on staying alive and getting in some hits when I could. Growth also came quite handy when The Physicist summoned some Astral Spikes, because the mold turrets provided a small amount of crowd control by inflicting the infected status effect upon them. It also meant that I didn't feel bad focusing on dodging, because I knew some damage was being dealt somewhere.
Overall, this is a battle you shouldn't be afraid to take slow and steady. While this Resonant's attacks hit hard, they're also clearly telegraphed. Ideally you'll want to keep moving, dodging attacks as they come, before getting a few hits in and retreating. If you can, focus on filling up the falter metre but, just keep in mind that, if you do fill in and there's Astral Spikes on field, you might be making yourself an easy target for them. And again, when in doubt, use mold.
Should you pick Spike or Astral Rebuke?
After defeating The Physicist, you'll have to choose between two Combat Abilities:
The Physicist Combat Abilities
- Spike - Summon an Astral Spike to attack enemies. It can also be directed to attack and knock down a target. Builds up Astralized.
- Damage: 37-367 Astral
- Falter: 11-78
- Power Cost: 305
- Astral Rebuke - Unleash a homing spike that erupts beneath enemies and throws them in the air. Applies Lifted and builds up Astralized.
- Damage: 459 Astral
- Falter: 69
- Power Cost: 155
Do you have, or are working towards, a summons build? If the answer is yes, then you have to go with Spike. If the answer is no, then Astral Rebuke is the way to go. This is because, while having an Astral Spike on your side is useful, it really needs all of those little extras from the Talent tree to be truly useful. (Look, it's no mold turret.) Due to this, it's not really suited for a build that doesn't focus around summoning somewhat.
Astral Rebuke, meanwhile, comes with the Lifted status effect and, man, can that be useful in Control Resonant. Using it to toss an enemy in the air allows you to either put them out of play in battle for a while or get in some really good damage. Seriously, don't overlook the Lifted effect. I've used it throughout my first playthrough thanks to my choice of finisher (Uppercut Surge) and I honestly don't think I could play the game without it.
Best of luck defeating The Physicist in Control Resonant! If you fancy taking a break from combat, why not hunt down the dog locations and taxi locations.
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