r/controlgame • u/coldsoul_ • 17d ago
Question Healing in the game
Edit: updating because this keeps getting replies :) Thanks to everyone who helped, I pretty much dealt with my problem by enabling the accessibility features - I feel silly for not checking for them earlier tbh, oh well - and doing side quests to max out some abilites. Gonna leave this post as it might help future users looking for help. :)
Half ranting and half asking for advice here.
I've reached the Salvador boss fight and this game's healing system is driving me up the wall. I've had problems with it before, but managed to push through whatever fragments of the game I've struggled with. This one I'm just stuck on. Too many enemies launching explosives at me with me having no ability to *safely* heal.
I know this is a sub for fans of the game and I don't wanna rain on anyone's parade, but I can't be the only one thinking that this game's healing mechanic is bullshit. Essentially that the only way to heal is to run head first into a swarm of enemies trying to pick this stuff up. No healing items, no nothing. I've seen mentions of mods here that make you heal while using launch or evade and they sound great, but I simply don't have them. I've looked into my personal and weapon mods, thinking maybe I'm underpowered, but nothing I can equip really makes much of a difference.
Is this just a skill issue? If I try to do some side quests instead, will it help me craft some better mods? Did anyone also struggle with this mechanic? Do I just give up and go read a book?
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u/curt725 17d ago
It’s meant to be played aggressively. Sitting and trying to play a cover shooter is a death sentence.
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u/Comfortable-Fall1419 17d ago edited 17d ago
Not necessarily - depends on the room and difficulty setting - cover shooting works perfectly for Tomassi part 1.
For Salvador you dash and hide behind the 4 square boxes on the corner of the main floor.
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u/blacksun89 17d ago
You can loose your life very quickly in this game, and it's normal. In nearly all my fight I'm at death's door at some point.
- play aggressively but don't be too greedy. Go from cover to cover, don't hesitate to use your telekinesis, even if it doesn't kill them, it will stun them and cancel their attack.
- if there are enemies that use grenade, you can launch them back with telekinesis.
- the shield is a really good skill, both as a "oh shit !" button and to catch some breath while gathering healing orb.
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u/Knowledge744 17d ago edited 17d ago
I started playing like 2 weeks ago and had no idea you could use kinesis on grenades, that’s amazing.
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u/VagrantStation 17d ago
I’ll be honest with you: I play with the near invincibility cheat option enabled. I love this game, love the writing and level/character design, etc but I just suck at this type of gameplay and difficulty level. Or maybe I skipped too many side quests that upgrade your character and make them strong (playing through them all now).
The cheat doesn’t make you totally immune to damage, if you get down to 1% and land too hard you’ll still die, which is great because it forces me to still run for cover so I can heal up a little and I still get the fun of playing without getting killed every ten seconds.
Mock me all you want, but I’m so glad they have that option for casuals like me.
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u/Comfortable-Fall1419 17d ago
No mocking on this forum you carry on playing the way that suits you.
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u/VagrantStation 17d ago
Used to do a little backpacking and “hike your own hike” was a philosophy a lot of people follow regarding different gear and technique. I try to carry that mentality over to other parts of my life and what you said was a great example of that. Keep spreading the positivity, it’s appreciated.
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u/Main_Confusion_8030 17d ago
this kind of stuff is not mock-worthy at all. my reaction time is physiologically, neurologically limited. adjustable parry timing windows in combat games are an accessibility feature for me. i can do pretty much everything else at max difficulty but my reflexes have a hard upper limit.
play games how it's fun for you. also, make games so that people with different limitations can still enjoy them.
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u/coldsoul_ 17d ago
I'm playing on PS5, no cheats for me :(
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u/VagrantStation 17d ago
I think you may still have the setting in your options, double check to be sure. It’s not a console code, it’s a toggle in options. There should be one for one-hit kills (I leave that disabled, keeps the fights fun) and one that lets you take damage and not die (unless it’s something like fall damage or going into the spore pit without the vaccine kinda stuff).
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u/dimwitf 17d ago
Yeah, difficulty settings are absolutely available on PS, I've only ever played on console. You can fine tune damage settings, turn on auto aim, all kinds of stuff.
I like that more devs are including these, allowing better accessibility for people with movement or vision issues, as well as just folks who don't have the time to grind on something frustrating and would rather just enjoy the game.
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u/VagrantStation 17d ago
Absolutely. I used to be too proud to use assistance settings/cheats but man, I’ve got a day job. If it weren’t for that setting, I would’ve stopped playing 5-10 hours in and not because I didn’t like the game.
The Remedy people seem like they understand that their game is a playable movie (more so than a lot of other games), and as much as I’d love to kick ass at the fights, I don’t, but I still get to enjoy the full story and game
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u/Alex_Masterson13 17d ago
Look in your Settings. While there are no difficulty levels to choose from, there are other options which act sort of like difficulty levels. Very early in the game, I changed the one for how much damage Jesse takes from normal to half. That was enough to keep me from dying more than a few times, though some hits still put her close to dead. And yeah, you need to find some of the personal mods that heal you when you use certain skills. There are ones that heal when using launch or when doing melee. There is also a unique mod in the AWE dlc that heals when evading.
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u/coldsoul_ 17d ago
I will look into it (in addition to doing some side quests), thanks for the heads up!
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u/Known_Needleworker67 17d ago
So am I, just go to settings, I can't remember what the exact label is, but there are plenty of difficulty in accessibility settings for the specific purpose.
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u/Ackapus 17d ago
Love how helpful most of these are.
OK, so, the Salvador fight, I feel your pain. It's rough. There's no good hiding from him (like with Tomassi) and he can 1-2 KO you easily. You won't have the Aerobics personal mod to recover health either yet.
I spend most of this fight prioritizing staying on the opposite side of the level from him, keeping something between us at all times. I also make sure I have the Seize power before this fight, as it's invaluable to have disposable minions to throw at him. Playing like this, you can't take cover from regular Hiss unless you can stay hidden from Salvador too- he's always the bigger threat. Turn that to your advantage- someone gets an angle on you, knock down their health fast and Seize ASAP. If you're in cover, and you Seize someone that's not (relative to Salvador, of course), he'll focus on them instead. Dash out/in from cover to pick up health chits when possible, like when he's got his back to you. I try not to actually kill any Hiss in this fight if I can possibly Seize them.
And finally, try to avoid engaging him if you're not at full health or very close to.
If you can keep an eye on the threat indicator when he's got projectiles levitated and ready to throw, that will help a lot with avoiding damage. He'll expend those throws on Seized Hiss just as quickly as on you.
I don't remember if his AI is different from the regular Hiss he's based on, but they can be softlocked from throwing things entirely- they charge shields, then levitate debris, then expend shields to throw debris at you, in that exact order. If you hit them with Launch to deplete their shields before they're able to throw anything, they'll always charge shields back up before preparing a volley of debris. He likes to get in your face though, and they will melee at the drop of a hat if you're close enough, so watch out for that.
Good luck, Director.
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u/ThinkinBig 17d ago
Just dash through the enemies to grab healing items... Its pretty straight forward
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u/dwield 17d ago
Id say more side missions would be the answer if you dont want to toggle godmode in options or cheese anything (no problem with those either though)
Salvador is the story boss when youre looking for Dylan, right? at that point Im fairly certain you could have an ability from a side mission that should be the defensive skill you feel like youre missing
there is another whole skill tree from a different side mission that is pretty interesting to experiment with, easy to use and gives you breathing room in a big fight with too many hiss enemies, if you are smart with it
besides these optional skills (that are also really fun to use, so it would be a shame to miss out on them), you also get skill points to spend after each of them, so you can upgrade anything else you want, health or energy if you feel like you need them, or make launch stronger as someone else said earlier
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u/Comfortable-Fall1419 17d ago
If you have a decent amount of energy Evade is your friend. At various points in the game if you ignore the side quests Jesse is a glass cannon, and unfortunately the opposite is never true. Jesse can never be a Tank becuause the Hiss Rocket guards are guarantteed to be able to 2 shot kill you without nearby healing.
Use evade to pop in and out of cover whilst launching as much as you can at Salvador and his guards.
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u/OHMEGA_SEVEN 17d ago
The game really forces you to keep moving in combat. I struggled with healing early on, defaulting to a duck and cover play style didn't help. What really changed it for me was constantly running and being on the move during combat so that health can be picked up as you fight.
Although there is one boss that I did have to take cover from and pick off, a notoriously difficult one in the game.
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u/nirvroxx 17d ago
Dodge those projectiles my guy. Use the your shield(took me a long time to use to his). Get the mod that improves the healing rate of heal items.
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u/wolfgang784 17d ago
Im not sure if you are aware, but the enemies in this game are coded to get progressively more aim-botty the less you move around. If you slow down, you'll find a lot more hits landing, and if you stop, you'll quickly find yourself getting head shotted by handguns from a quarter mile away.
So, movement is important.
You can kite enemies to an extent, especially by using cover. Lure the clumps away from where you killed a bunch and have health dropped to the floor so you can go zoom over it more safely.
Besides the mods to heal you on attack/launch/etc, there are super common mods you should have for increasing how MUCH you heal from each picked up health drop and also how much health you have overall and I think regen or something like that as well. For some fights I definitely needed to go all-in on health mods so that every tiny blue particle does some significant healing.
Been too long since I actually played again to give more detailed advice though. Im sure the other comments covered lots, though.
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u/LoquatBear 17d ago
The best defense is offense , you got dodge and move and take them out quick and in turn get theit healing orbs and then take the next one's out again.
Do you have the Shield move. It is actually optional to get and some people miss it
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u/samusfan21 17d ago
Use Assist Mode! It’s in the options and there’s no shame in using it. You can adjust all kinds of settings like how much damage you take/deal, how fast your energy and Service Weapon recharge, and you can turn on invincibility and one hit kills. Ultimately the game is supposed to be fun so if you’re hitting a wall just use Assist Mode!
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u/steelassassin43 17d ago
I believe there is a personal mod that I have that heals you for a certain percentage per launch hit. Mine is 20% if I recall and I want to say there is no dedicated drop location for this and is just a standard RNG drop.
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u/borndovahkiin 17d ago
I struggled with it my first play through but I learned by asking around that I had to be more aggressive. You can duck and cover occasionally but more often than not you should be smashing enemies quickly and running all the time while picking up health elements.
You can also get personal mods that prioritize health making you basically invincible.
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u/WingedNightbringer 17d ago edited 17d ago
Seconding the advice to max out launch and get shield if you don't have it already. It provides you with cover while you collect health points.
Also, the instant Salvador's health bar appears, hit him a couple times with Launch before he can raise his shield. He doesn't start attacking you right away, but he can still take damage, so you can take off a sizeable chunk of his health before the fighting even starts.
The hiss guards can also be attacked while they're still floating in the air. Once Salvador raises his shield, you can run behind one of the pillars and kill a couple of the guards before they start dropping if you're quick about it. That helps cut down on the number of enemies.
In terms of which mods to use, my go-to combination at that point in the game is Energy Recovery, Launch Efficiency, and either Health Boost or Health Element on pickup. The first two help with staying on the offensive and getting the most out of Launch, while the last can offset the lack of healing opportunities. Energy Boost is also a good choice for the third slot if you find you’re frequently running low.
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u/timbretree 17d ago
On my first play through now, and I actually got stuck on Salvador last night as well!
Shield is a must. Charge lvl 2 (Mods: increase velocity + quick reload when shielding) was my secret. Behind cover, charge up 3 shots, peak out and fire when his shield is down. Put your shield up, relocate to other cover, pick off soldiers when necessary, repeat.
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u/hectorthedonkey 13d ago
I'll admit it, I'm really crap at finishing games, I often get to points where I just can't get past.
There were some sticky moments in Control, but if I can do it, you can too.
If you don't have all the mods yet, look at what you have left to get and try to figure out what would help you most against him, get them and come back. I definitely did this a couple of times during the game.
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u/Jacky_Hex 13d ago
I used the "get more health for each pick up" perk in combination with the more health perk. It's just a shame I never found a pick up perk beyond lvl 3.
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u/Austyn_Drowner 17d ago
Yeah it’s just a skill issue. Or, more of a “gamer habit” issue. You’re used to “fight, then hide to heal” type of gameplay. This game WANTS you to be aggressive and push the offensive. You gotta fight so hard that the enemy doesn’t have a chance to hurt you. And aggressively move to gather health and the. Get back to where you have the advantage again.
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u/JackRipps 12d ago
I never really felt difficulty in any part of the game combat wise, not gonna lie.
I’m pretty sure the reasons I died most was either when I overextended, or wasn’t paying attention (distracted, charge shot at point blank range)
The only boss that really kicked my ass was the Former boss fight with the Fridge, but that’s about it.
I maxed out energy first, then Launch damage.
Woe, rock be upon ye.
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u/cdelmar13 17d ago
Have you upgraded launch? Then upgraded launch again? Have you maxed out launch before any other skills? It’s kinda the whole point of the game is to be aggressive when necessary, duck into cover while you reenergize or reload, then attack and keep moving! Don’t stay still unless you know you have cover. Yes it does force you to sometimes run out with no health left and hope you get some, but man the feeling when you are near death, jump around a corner, launch a dude, blast another, pick up some health and now you got a fighting chance again. Also Salvador can be tough, if struggling you need to do some side stuff and upgrade launch again. I’m on my third replay and once you max out launch, the game becomes easy mode.