Control Ability Points Guide: Hidden Locations and Best Early Upgrades

Ability points are the quiet bottleneck in Control. The game hands you powers for free - Launch, Evade, Shield, all that telekinetic fun - but every chunk of bonus damage, health, and hover time has to be bought with a currency that only drips in. Missions pay some of it. The other big pot is stashed in 34 hidden spots around the Oldest House that the sector map never marks.

So here's the whole loop: how each power actually unlocks, where the hidden locations sit sector by sector, what every mission pays, and which tree nodes deserve your points first. There's a respec option too, since the game added one after launch, and it's cheaper than most people remember.

Unlocking Core Abilities

One thing the game doesn't spell out: earning a power costs nothing. Cleansing an Object of Power hands you the ability outright, and ability points only buy the upgrades wrapped around it. You also can't spend points wherever you stand - the upgrade menu lives at Control Points, those fast-travel shrines. Pocket your points after a mission, then do your shopping the next time you're standing in one.

The tree has seven branches to feed: Health, Energy, Melee, Launch, Shield, Seize, and Levitate, plus a Ground Slam line hanging off Levitate. (Evade has no branch of its own, oddly. More on that in a second.)

The two story powers

Launch shows up early and stays your best friend the whole way through. You get it in the Unknown Caller mission, right after cleansing the Hotline - the dead director's phone up in Dead Letters. From then on you're flinging concrete chunks, desks, and forklifts at the Hiss, and a huge slice of the combat revolves around it.

Levitate lands near the other end of the story, during My Brother's Keeper. You cleanse the Benicoff TV inside Fortified Unit 716 in the Panopticon, just past the Salvador fight. It arrives late, but half the building's secrets flat-out don't open without it. That's why hidden location hunting is mostly an endgame job, not something to force on your first visit to a sector.

The three side quest powers

Evade, Shield, and Seize are all optional. The story will happily let you finish without two of them, which is a shame, because they're cheap to grab and they change how fights feel:

• Evade - A Merry Chase. Cleansing the merry-go-round horse (yes, really) teaches you the dash. You reach it through the break room with the blinking red light in Maintenance, where the floor drops you into the Astral Plane. Evade has no upgrade branch, so if you want more dashes, buy Energy nodes - that bar is its fuel tank.
• Shield - A Good Defense. First find the Research and Records: Home Safe Tests document near the NSC Energy Converters, up the stairs on a blue cabinet. Track the quest, then beat the timed obstacle course past the metal detectors by the big Maintenance lift. Cleanse the Object of Power, survive the Hiss wave it drops on you, done.
• Seize - A Captive Audience. Grab the Research and Records: Astralnauts document by the Parapsychology Control Point (the room with the big brain statue), then solve the cube puzzle at the X-Ray Box in the Hypnosis Lab. Seize turns a nearly-dead enemy into a temporary ally, which is free aggro relief whenever a room gets crowded.

| Power | Where it comes from | Own upgrade branch? | | --- | --- | --- | | Launch | Story - Unknown Caller (Hotline) | Yes, 6 ranks plus extras | | Levitate | Story - My Brother's Keeper (Benicoff TV) | Yes, 6 ranks plus Ground Slam | | Evade | Side quest - A Merry Chase | No, feed Energy instead | | Shield | Side quest - A Good Defense | Yes, 6 ranks plus extras | | Seize | Side quest - A Captive Audience | Yes, 6 ranks plus extras |

Finding Hidden Locations

What counts as one

A hidden location is any unmarked room or ledge tucked somewhere the map doesn't acknowledge. When you stumble into one, a "Hidden Location Discovered" banner pops and an ability point lands in your pocket on the spot. The base game has 34 of them, and each is worth 1 point - a couple hand over a little extra, like the break room spot that opens up right after A Merry Chase wraps. The Foundation and AWE expansions track their own separate stashes, so don't mix the two counts.

Three gates lock most of these away:

• Levitate. The vast majority sit on high ledges or inside ceiling holes. No Levitate, no reward.
• Clearance level 5 doors. A few spots (the Luck & Probability room, one Quarry entrance route) sit behind high-clearance doors, so they wait until late in the story.
• Mold immunity. Several rooms are choked with the toxic stuff. Finish Old Growth, Dr. Underhill's quest in the Research Sector, and you can walk into any mold room without melting.

Two habits make the hunt way easier. Listen for a faint echoing hum - hidden spots often have their own audio vibe and weird lighting. And Evade while hovering: the dash works mid-air, giving you a burst of horizontal distance that turns "slightly out of reach" into "made it."

Executive Sector (3 spots)

The Executive Affairs one is sneaky. The big white pillar in the center of the room has a flat top with a container on it, and the room is bright enough to hide your aiming reticle - some players actually turn brightness down to land it. Levitate as high as you can and angle yourself onto the pillar's top surface. Over in Communications, the Mail Room holds two: levitate onto the concrete-walled computer stations up on the second floor for one, and the mold-caked office down the hall for the other (that one needs Old Growth done).

Maintenance Sector (10 spots)

The densest sector. Ride the elevator to the Maintenance Access Corridor and look straight up - there's a stack of holes in the ceiling, and you levitate up through roughly three layers of them, jumping off a pipe if you need the height. The Janitor's break room has a hole high in the wall that leads into a floating-platform run through the Astral Plane, item boxes included. Past the Janitor's office tunnels, a doorway opens over a Firebreak; jump out, hover, and swing around to the entrance just left of the one you left. The NSC Power Plant pays out at the very top of the metal towers (say hi to the furnace TV up there). And the Quarry Entrance hides two, the best one being the vertical shaft marked with a giant 02 painted on the wall - chuck the forklift through the block wall, or levitate through the gap in the upper right corner, then drop to the mossy bottom.

Research and Containment Sectors (21 spots)

This is the bulk of the list, spread across Central Research, the Active Threshold, the Panopticon, and the Transit Corridors. A taste of what you're in for:

• Central Research window office. From the elevator, walk down to the first landing, spot the office behind the glass, and levitate straight through the window. A mold enemy waits inside, so bring the immunity.
• Lab 79. Take the stairs to the top, near Dr. Darling's office, and hop between the balconies above his door. You'll levitate high, aim your reticle at a ceiling corner, and Ground Slam into it to sandwich yourself up onto ledges - fiddly, but it works.
• Active Threshold bathroom. Down in Underhill's mold zone, find the bathroom sign, look up, and levitate through the hole above the doorway. If you keep falling short, grab one of the fridges and drop it below the hole as a stepping stone.
• Logistics ceiling. Face the big U.S. map on the wall from the Logistics Control Point and look up - the hole above leads to a small office with two containers.
• Unit 716. Back where you earned Levitate, on the fourth floor of the Upper Panopticon: levitate toward the light at the end of the tunnel past the boss arena. The fifth floor hides another in a small opening beside the big Floor 5 markers, near the swan.
• Transit Corridor South. Head toward the NYC subway sign and smash through the glass office along the wall.

Do these after the credits and they take maybe two hours. Thirty-four points for that is a steal.

Earning Points From Missions

Story payouts

Main missions pay a flat 4 ability points each once you're past the opening stretch, and the base game runs 10 of them. That's about 40 points from the story alone - steady, predictable, and you'll collect it whether you're paying attention or not.

Side mission payouts

Here's where the real money is. The base game has 18 side quests (19 on PlayStation), and they pay 2, 3, or 4 points each:

| Reward | Side missions | | --- | --- | | 2 points | A Matter of Time, Mold Removal, A Merry Chase, What a Mess: Burn the Trash | | 3 points | A Captive Audience, Fridge Duty, Langston's Runaways, Mr. Tommasi, The Enemy Within, What a Mess: Clear the Clog, What a Mess: Clear the Mold | | 4 points | Old Friends, Old Growth, Self-Reflection, A Good Defense, What a Mess: Even More Mold, What a Mess: Talk to the Plants, What a Mess: Take a Break |

Add it up and side content outpays the story by a wide margin, roughly 57 points before counting the hidden location pile.

Which ones to grab first

A Merry Chase should be near the top of your list - it pays 2 points, teaches you Evade, and its break room hides a bonus point right after it wraps. Three birds, one pony. The whole "What a Mess" chain is chores-in-Maintenance stuff - burn trash, clear a clog, scrub mold, chat with plants - and it's low-risk points you can knock out between story beats. Old Growth deserves special priority even beyond its 4 points, because the mold immunity it grants unlocks several hidden locations and makes the Research Sector's lower level survivable. And since A Good Defense and A Captive Audience each pay 4 while handing you Shield and Seize, they double as power pickups.

One small heads-up: points occasionally get awarded silently during story scenes, with no banner, so your total can tick up without an obvious reason. Check the wallet at a Control Point if the number looks off.

Prioritizing Early Upgrades

Milestone rewards come free with spending

Every point you spend also fills a progress bar at the bottom of the upgrades screen, and the milestones along it are honestly the best "upgrades" in the game:

| Points spent | Reward | | --- | --- | | 3 | Extra weapon form slot | | 15 | Extra personal mod slot | | 30 | Extra personal mod slot |

Jesse starts with one mod slot. Thirty points in, she has three, plus room for another Service Weapon form on the quick-swap. Getting there fast matters more than any single node, so early spending should be somewhat aggressive rather than hoarded.

What the ranks cost

The seven branches all follow the same rhythm - cheap first rank, pricier middle, small discount at the end:

| Branch | Rank 1 | Rank 2 | Rank 3 | Rank 4 | Rank 5 | Rank 6 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Health | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | | Energy | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | | Melee | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | | Launch | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | | Shield | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | | Seize | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | | Levitate | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |

Launch first, and it isn't close

Community consensus on this has held steady since 2019: pump Launch, then Energy, and don't overthink it. Launch ranks are the cheapest damage you'll ever buy, and the side nodes attached to the branch are absurdly good value. Launch 2 unlocks Launch Explosives for 2 points - catch enemy grenades and rockets mid-air and send them back, which is basically the printed counter to Salvador's grenade spam in the Panopticon. From there, Launch Enemies (2 points) lets you grab weakened Hiss and hurl them into their friends, and Launch Strength (1 point) lets you swing the big stuff that instantly squashes smaller enemies.

Energy is the follow-up because it fuels everything. Launch, Evade, Shield, and Seize all draw from the same bar, and a bigger bar plus faster recovery means you're casting constantly instead of gunning things down while you wait.

A worked example for your first 20 points

Something like this order works for almost anyone:

1. Launch 1 through 4 (1 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 7 points)
2. Launch Explosives (2 points, total 9)
3. Launch Enemies (2 points, total 11)
4. Energy 1 and 2 (1 + 3 = 4 points, total 15 - second mod slot unlocks right here)
5. Health 1 and 2 (1 + 3 = 4 points, total 19)
6. Melee 1 (1 point, total 20)

That's a stronger throw, a grenade counter, crowd control, a deeper energy pool, and both early milestone rewards, all before the halfway mark of the story. Health ranks after Energy are a solid call too - Control hits hard in the mid-game, and extra health keeps the one-shot-y moments survivable.

What can wait

Shield ranks are situational - great for a defensive player, skippable if you stay mobile, and the branch does nothing until you've done A Good Defense anyway. Melee beyond rank 1 is niche; the punch is a combo tool, not a build. Seize nodes can wait until you actually own Seize and have felt it out, though Seize 3's add-on (Seize an Additional Enemy, 3 points) is a genuine standout once you're there. Levitate ranks and Ground Slam (3 points once Levitate hits rank 2) are endgame toys - fun, flashy, and mostly about platform comfort rather than raw power.

Respeccing and Late Game Picks

Yes, there's a respec

Control shipped without one, and the March 2020 Foundation update fixed that. Now, at any Control Point, the ability screen lets you refund every ability point you've spent for 30,000 Source. Full refund, no partial losses, redo the tree any way you like. Two limits: the 30k Source is gone for good either way, and the respec covers ability points only - Source spent crafting weapon forms and mods does not come back, so that regret is permanent.

Thirty thousand sounds steep early on, but Source piles up fast once you're clearing alerts and looting everything not nailed down. By the late game you'll be sitting on far more than the respec costs, which makes it a "why not" button more than a decision.

Late-game picks worth the points

• Multi-Launch (8 points, needs Launch 6). Added in the free August 2020 update, so base-game players with the patch have it too. Hold the Launch button and grab up to three objects, then throw all three. It deletes elite packs and turns shielded enemies into paste.
• Seize Additional Enemy (3 points, needs Seize 3) and Seize Strength (2 points, needs Seize 5). Two pet Hiss instead of one, then the ability to mind-grab the big ones. Fights get silly in your favor.
• Shield Barrage (3 points) into the Shield Rush line. Barrage flings debris when you release the shield; Rush lets you shoulder-charge through enemies while holding it, Evade-style.
• Ground Slam and its damage ranks (3 points, then 1/2/2/3). Slam down from a hover for area damage. Great for the tight platform-and-arena sections near the end, and it doubles as a movement trick for jamming yourself onto high ledges during the hidden location hunt.
• Energy 5 and 6 (4 + 2 points). The boring pick that quietly makes every flashy pick better. Evade in particular has no tree of its own, so this is the only way it improves.

Will you run out of points?

Pretty much no. Between ~40 story points, ~57 side quest points, and 34-plus from hidden locations, you'll earn about five more points than the full tree costs, and that's before the DLC quests chip in another 9 or so (Foundation's Found Footage, Swift Platform, and Pope's Collection each pay 3). Buy what looks fun; the numbers say you'll afford it all eventually.

So if you want the classic endgame monster: max Launch (13 points), add Multi-Launch (8), and top off Energy (16 more). That's 37 points for a build that can clear most rooms without firing the Service Weapon once - and if you get bored of it, 30,000 Source buys a fresh start at whatever Control Point is nearest.