Best Charms to Equip
Published 2026-09-255 min read
Best charms to equip in Control: Resonant, from early survival picks to late game damage charms, with slot rules, family limits and full craft costs.
Charms are the passive layer of Dylan's loadout in Control: Resonant. Each one applies a constant modifier while equipped, and a first playthrough only offers three slots — which makes the choice itself matter more than the raw numbers printed on the tooltip. The saving grace: charms can be swapped at any time with no penalty, so running a defensive set while you learn the game and trading it for an offensive one once enemy health pools inflate carries zero downside.
Short answer
While learning the game, equip survival charms — Heart Monitor, 1996 Commemorative Coin and the Old Eraser. Once enemies turn tanky in the later zones, rebuild around Brass Knuckles and the Pickpocket Tools.
The two rules that shape every pick
- Slots. Three passive slots on a first playthrough; the fourth opens in New Game Plus, where your existing charms carry over alongside talents, skills and mutation upgrades.
- Families. Charms from the same family cannot be equipped together, so overlapping effects are ruled out by design. Pick one from the family and stick with it until you rebuild.
Charms you retire can be recycled to recover their materials, so there is no reason to hoard the ones you have ruled out.
Early game picks: healing beats damage percentages
Early on, Dylan dies faster than the enemies around him, so healing and damage reduction are worth far more than any percentage boost to output — especially in a game with no parry to fall back on while you are still learning dodge timing.
| Charm | Phase | What it does | Craft cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heart Monitor | Early | Cancels one death outright and refunds one-fifth of the health bar — usually enough to finish a fight you had already lost. It breaks the instant it triggers, so treat it as one-time insurance rather than a permanent slot. | — |
| 1996 Commemorative Coin | Early | Makes healing significantly better: the same pickups stretch across more of the run. Pricey for the early game, so craft it once Source income is steady. | 1,000 Source, 10 Ordered Images, 7 Dread Echoes |
| Old Eraser | Early | Slows the buildup of every status effect at once, making narrow single-status charms redundant in most builds. | — |
| Amulet | All game | A flat critical rate boost. Since Dylan's damage is mutation-melee focused, it applies to nearly every action — the only one of the cheap trio worth keeping permanently. | 150 Source, 3 Echoes |
| Face Mask / Lighter | Situational | Single-status counter charms at 150 Source and 3 Echoes each. Useful in areas where one specific status runs wild, and largely retired once the Old Eraser exists. | 150 Source, 3 Echoes each |
Late game picks: damage and skill uptime
Later zones inflate enemy health pools until defensive passives stop paying for themselves. Rebuild around output and skill coverage instead.
- Brass Knuckles — the biggest raw boost available, adding half again to combat skill damage. The price is real: it gives up the Filter entirely, so it belongs in builds that lean on one or two heavy-hitting skills rather than sustained pressure. Costs 8 Edible Clumps, 750 Source and 5 Violent Echoes.
- Gold Earring — the opposite trade: +20% Filter for −30% raw damage. Only worth it if the build is already Filter-centric; otherwise you pay more than you get.
- Pickpocket Tools — the quiet powerhouse. After a successful perfect dodge, your next combat skill costs no energy, turning good defensive play directly into free damage. Since perfect dodges are already the heart of the combat loop, this fires constantly. Costs 350 Source and 7 Violent Echoes, with no other materials.
- Wallet — lets you keep casting skills with health once energy runs dry, and never drops health below 5% on its own. It pairs naturally with the 1996 Commemorative Coin or a healthy stock of healing items, and pairs badly with Brass Knuckles if the build is already fragile.
Crafting rules worth knowing
Every charm is crafted by consuming its matching inactive charm, found out in Manhattan — the inactive version is destroyed in the process. Echo types, not Source, are the real gate: Violent, Dread, Uncanny, Mourning, Silent and Nostalgic Echoes each feed different recipes, so a missing type can lock a specific charm even when everything else is plentiful. All crafting happens at the Charm Configuration Station inside the Dream Hollow.
Because swapping is free, the practical approach is to maintain two loadouts and rotate between them rather than hunting one perfect trio. Crafting also advances two progress trophies — first craft, then 30 total crafts — and simply wearing three charms at once earns a bronze trophy, so spending materials as you go beats stockpiling.
New Game Plus changes the math
The fourth slot opens, and with it the chance to finally pair Brass Knuckles with survival options instead of choosing between them. The truly aggressive builds only come together here.