CONTROL Resonant Push or Ground Slam: Which to Pick at the Dancer

Push or Ground Slam: which should you pick?

Push. When you beat the Dancer, the game offers you one of two combat abilities — and IGN’s ability choice guide is blunt about the pair: “If you have to choose based on functionality, Push is the clear winner.”

The honest caveat first: IGN’s writer calls these two the most disappointing ability picks of the bunch and stopped using either after unlocking later powers. So this is not a build-defining decision — it is picking the more useful tool of two mid-tier ones. That tool is Push, unless what you want from the slot is one big raw-damage number, which is the one thing Ground Slam does better.

Where does the Push or Ground Slam choice happen?

The choice drops after the Dancer, the Resonant boss of the West Incursion Zone. Resonants are the game’s build checkpoints — major boss fights woven into story progression that each hand Dylan a power, and the Dancer is one that offers a branching pick. The full roster of named powers is tracked on the abilities page; the enemies themselves are covered under Aberrations.

A fun continuity note: before launch, preview outlets used different labels for overlapping powers — “Push” was one outlet’s name for the knockback ability, and our pre-launch coverage flagged it as a label that might not survive to release. It did. Push and Ground Slam are the in-game names.

What does Push do in CONTROL Resonant?

IGN’s guide, verbatim: “Sends enemies flying backward. Push them off ledges and into hazards for more Damage.” That one line is the whole case for it:

• Instant environmental kills — on Manhattan’s rooftops and streets, many enemy types die outright when knocked off a ledge or into a large drop, no damage race required
• Defense and offense in one button — shove a crowd back for breathing room, or shove them into the void
• A status-spread upgrade — an unlockable upgrade spreads a status effect (Burn or Infected) from the enemy you hit to the ones nearby, which quietly turns Push into an AoE tool

In a melee-first game where your real damage lives in Aberrant combos and stun finishers, an ability that deletes enemies via terrain asks nothing of your DPS.

What does Ground Slam do in CONTROL Resonant?

IGN again, verbatim: “Slams enemies from above. The area of effect and amount of Damage can be boosted if executed from higher up.” It hits everything surrounding the landing point rather than a frontal cone, and executed from real height it deals more damage than Push ever will.

The practical problem is setup. Ground Slam wants you airborne above a packed group — a decent battle opener from high ground, as IGN puts it, but a situational one. Push’s kills require only that a ledge exists, and Manhattan is made of ledges. Launch-week tips coverage sums the pair up the same way: Ground Slam hits harder, Push is simpler — and simpler wins more fights than harder does.

Can you change your choice later?

Yes — you are not locked in forever. Ability picks can be undone with a Reset Item, which drops from boss kills and can be purchased from zone vendors, per Epic’s launch guide. And a finished playthrough feeds into New Game+, which carries progression over, so a second run is another chance at the other power.

Wrestling with the other launch-window decisions instead? See whether the Aberrant lives up to the pre-launch hype in our combat guide, or how long the whole ride takes in how long to beat.

Sources

• IGN — Control Resonant: Which Combat Abilities Should You Choose?
• Epic Games Store — Control Resonant abilities & skills guide
• GamesRadar — All abilities and powers in Control Resonant