Gaming Guide

Control Resonant: How to Switch Between Dimensions (D-Pad Down)

The monolith only moves you around inside the gap, so here is the input that actually sends Dylan back to the real world.

The monolith only moves you around inside the gap, so here is the input that actually sends Dylan back to the real world.

Image: Remedy Entertainment

Killing a Resonant leaves Dylan standing in a hazy grey void with no obvious door out. The monolith next to you glows, the pedestal in the next room lights up, and none of it puts you back in Manhattan. The exit is not an interaction at all — it is a button on the D-pad that most players forget exists until they need it.

Quick answer: Press Down on the D-pad to switch dimensions and return to the physical world. The monolith’s L1 prompt only moves you between the two halves of the gap.


Inside the gap you are dealing with two connected spaces rather than one room. The outer side is a foggy grey void holding a tall stone monolith split by a crack of white light. Walking up to that crack gives you an L1 prompt.

Pressing L1 there drops you into the dark interior side, which contains a second monolith, a stone altar or pedestal, and a large glowing rock formation. This is where your progression screens live, so it is a reasonable place to go hunting for an exit — and a dead end if that is what you are looking for.

Entering the Dark Realm00:08Entering the Dark Realm
The dark side of the gap, with its own monolith and the glowing formation behind it. Shown at 00:08 in Ditech Gaming’s video. Image: Remedy Entertainment

The link works in both directions and never locks. You can press L1 at either monolith as many times as you like, bouncing between the grey void and the dark chamber, which is useful if you want to check your Aberrant forms or ability trees before you leave. It is also why the space feels like a puzzle when it is not one.

Returning to the Grey Void00:23Returning to the Grey Void
Back in the grey void beside the cracked monolith, where the L1 prompt appears. Shown at 00:23 in Ditech Gaming’s video. Image: Remedy Entertainment

How to switch dimensions back to the physical world

Finish the fight. The dimension shift is not available mid-combat, so clear whatever is still standing in the void before you try the input.
Stand anywhere in the gap and press Down on the D-pad. You do not need to be near the monolith, the altar, or the glowing formation, and there is no on-screen prompt telling you the button is there.
Recalling the Dimension Switch Button00:33Recalling the Dimension Switch Button
Down on the D-pad is the dimension switch, and it works from anywhere inside the gap. Shown at 00:33 in Ditech Gaming’s video. Image: Remedy Entertainment
Let the cutscene play. Dylan grabs his head as the screen cuts between flashes of light, city streets full of red silhouettes, and a green tunnel, then he lands back in the physical world — in the case of “The Central Resonant”, directly in front of the giant core inside the burning factory. Control returning to you on the factory floor is the confirmation that the shift went through.

Dimension controls in Control Resonant

InputWhere it worksResult
L1At a cracked monolithMoves between the grey void and the dark chamber
D-pad DownAnywhere in the gap, or outside combat in the physical worldOpens the gap from the physical world, and switches you back to the physical world from inside it (press, or hold if a tap does nothing)

The same D-pad direction does both jobs: Down opens the gap from the physical world, and Down takes you back out of it once you are inside. The monolith’s L1 prompt never leaves the gap; it only moves you between its two halves.

Official descriptions of the D-pad Down input differ on whether you press or hold it. If a quick tap does nothing, hold the direction instead.


Inputs that will not get you out of the gap

If you have been circling the same two rooms, these are the things that look like exits and are not:

  • Passing through either monolith with L1 — it only swaps you between the void and the dark chamber.
  • Activating the square stone altar with L1 in the dark chamber.
  • Approaching the large glowing rock formation, which acts as a barrier.
  • The Primary Forms, Secondary Forms and Combo Finishers menus, including Reset All.
  • The Ability Strength radial menu.

Because the dimension switch never advertises itself with a prompt, the gap can feel like a soft lock long after you have beaten whatever put you there. It is worth committing the input to memory early, since every Resonant fight ends with the same sequence: kill the entity, shift with Down on the D-pad, and pick up the story wherever Dylan reappears.