How To Defeat The Deserter In Control Resonant

Published Sep 22, 2026, 10:40 AM EDT Collin is a Guides Staff Writer at TheGamer who has been writing guides for nearly ten years. He is also a professional game/level designer. More importantly, he's still waiting for a new Ape Escape game to release. Control Resonant is filled with all types of monstrosities that want to tear you limb from limb. From the mobile, unrelenting Hiss to slow but exceptionally dangerous Mold enemies, you'll be constantly thrown up against new threats during your journey through New York City. Some of the most dangerous foes are the Resonants, which act as the game's main bosses in the various regions throughout the map. One of these bosses is The Deserter, which is one you will want to consider fighting early since he provides a fantastic Combat Ability and isn't as difficult as some of the later ones, like The Dancer. Located in the northern portion of the Central region, The Deserter is all about fire and inflicting the burn status effect on Dylan. This can be problematic if you're not prepared or bad at dodging his attacks, since the constant damage-over-time effect can really make fighting him tricky. Because of this, I recommend picking up the Cleansing Rush skill before the fight. This reduces status ailments twice as fast when you are using Rush, making it much easier to shake off the burn if you become ignited by The Deserter's attacks. Additionally, it's worth considering the Volatile Anomaly ability since it does a comical amount of Falter damage when thrown at low health. When the fight begins, The Deserter will use one of several attacks, most of which are just variations on the same move. The first involves him spinning in a circle while spewing fire in a large radius around him. This is easily avoided by quickly rushing in the same direction ahead of the fire or by running away and gaining some distance from the boss. You won't want to attack him until after he finishes releasing the fire, as it doesn't linger too long, so you'll have a few seconds to whack at this giant. The Deserter will also occasionally stand up and then slam his entire body down onto the ground, which sounds scary, but it's incredibly easy to dodge by just running behind the boss when it gets close. Doing so will not only avoid the attack entirely, but also provide a fantastic opportunity to deal some serious damage, since The Deserter is stunned for a few seconds. The Deserter occasionally creates large fireballs to hurl at you, which will be fired one at a time. Just like most projectiles, dodging to the side once they're launched makes it quite easy to avoid. I also don't recommend attacking the boss during this move, as you can easily be stunlocked by the constant barrage of projectiles. Just focus on playing defensively, as this boss has way easier bosses to exploit. Nothing will really change during the majority of this fight, as The Deserter largely just tries to use its large fire AoE moves to consistently inflict burn. Managing this is the key to your survival. If you ever get burned, use the Cleaning Rush to clear the status effect before resuming the fight. When the boss only has a third of its health left, jets of flame will spawn around the arena along with the same Hiss growths you were destroying to reach the boss's room. When this happens, stop everything you're doing and focus on destroying the growths. If not, you will have severely limited space to dodge, and it can make not becoming set aflame way tougher. Destroying each growth will turn off a line of fire jets, so focus on getting rid of them before resuming your attacks on The Deserter. It won't summon any more growths after they've been popped, so you can resume your normal attack pattern of punishing his AoE and body slam attacks. If you're using the Volatile Anomaly, make sure to always hurl it at the boss before it goes away. The Deserter is pretty easy to stagger, and if its Falter meter becomes filled, it will collapse for several seconds, giving you a fantastic opening to deal a ton of damage. Upon its defeat, you will be given the option of two combat abilities: Ignite and Inferno. Of the two, I cannot recommend Ignite enough. The flame damage you do is quite strong; it deals a lot of Falter damage and is especially effective against Mold enemies. Inferno is fine, but just imbuing your weapon with fire makes this Combat Ability extremely consistent across all stages of the game.