Control Resonant Vending Machines That Run Away

Vlad Susanu, Map Master’s chief editor, chased down all 43 on his own run, and the Control Resonant zone maps and guides cover every district they’re in, so you can tick each machine off as you destroy it. That includes the Unknown’s eight, which most other lists leave out.

How to Spot a Vending Machine Encounter

Look for the blinking red light. A real kiosk never moves, but these stay still only until your first hit, then run. Returning players will know the idea from the original Control, where altered vending machines also turned red and waddled away.

Your first kill unlocks the machine’s Archive record, one of the files the Hiss Research archive of altered objects collects. The machines never attack you, so the only way to fail is to let one get away, and once it’s out of sight, that encounter is gone.

How to Destroy a Vending Machine Before It Runs

Lock on before your first hit, then keep attacking until it breaks so you never lose it behind a corner. Clear nearby enemies and any security camera first, since an interruption mid-chase is the easiest way to lose one, and one Downtown machine is right beside a camera.

Open with your strongest attack, from close range. Every step it gains brings it closer to escaping, and a burst from a Combat Ability ends the chase faster than light hits. The Central map near the northern Urban Fresh Mart has a good one to practice on.

What Vending Machines Drop: Reset Items, Source, and Materials

Each machine can drop up to two Reset Items, plus Source and a mix of Echoes, Aberrant materials, and Undefined Readings. Reset Items let you respec your Aberrant Forms and Combat Abilities, and the Aberrant Form skill trees are where you’ll spend most of them.

That makes these machines the main Reset Item source. All 43 can give up to 86, compared with one from each Resonant boss hunt and seven from the arcade cabinet prizes. If you want to try a new build, clear a zone’s machines before you pay a Vendor for a Reset Item.

Where the 43 Vending Machines Are: Six Zones, Few Gates

Downtown, the Evacuation Zone, and the Unknown have eight each, Central has seven, and the West Incursion Zone and The Park have six, with none in the Underpass or the Watchtower. The Evacuation Zone is the easiest to clear in one sweep, since none of its eight need a power, and the Evacuation Zone map south of the Evac Building shows where to start.

Only a few machines are gated. One Downtown machine is in a subway station behind an Ability Barrier you can only clear after the Deserter, two more in Downtown need Shift, and so does one in the Unknown. The West Incursion Zone map of the Empire Avenue Station has the only one underground in that zone.

When to Hunt Vending Machines

Sweep each zone once it’s quiet. With the enemies cleared, nothing interrupts the chase, and the machines stay in place until you find them, so there’s no rush to grab them the moment a zone opens. A good habit is to clear a zone’s machines on the same trip as its crates and World Feats.

Do the Unknown last, since the zone only opens late in the story. The Unknown map of Omar’s Halal Truck plaza has one out in the open plaza, and the Park map of the Park Valley Station has The Park’s only machine inside a subway station.