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Control’s Salvador boss fight is part of the “My Brother’s Keeper” mission, centered in the Containment/Panopticon sector. In this guide, we’ll show you how to beat Salvador and cleanse the Benicoff TV.
Boss fights are the toughest parts of Control, which seems obvious when we write it out like that. But they’re often so difficult that they veer into frustration as you play them over and over, which is sure what we did.
We won, though, and the trick to beating Salvador is about remembering four simple things: using cover, choosing the right weapon, combining those strategies, and taking over enemies.
Use natural cover
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The arena in which you fight Salvador is full of natural cover, in the form of cement structures jutting up from the ground. You can see them on the left and right as you walk into the arena.
Put this natural cover between you and your enemies, and you can concentrate more on your offense than your defense. Why create a shield when you can get one for free? Doing this preserves your Energy for using Launch and Seize more than Shield.
Use Pierce
Pierce is invaluable in this fight because of its ability to break through shields. It’s also the most powerful single-shot weapon in Control, which makes it more deadly for unshielded enemies.
The only problem with Pierce is that you’ve got to charge it before you shoot it. But if you follow our first piece of advice above and use natural cover, you’ll have a safe place to hide as you prepare your next shot or wait for your Service Weapon to cool down.
Combine Pierce with natural cover and kill the weaklings
Now take the two pieces of advice we gave above and combine them. Take shelter behind cover, charge Pierce, leave cover, shoot, and return to safety to recharge another shot.
The idea is to kill Salvador’s buddies before you worry about him. That has two advantages: It evens the odds, and every Hiss you kill drops health. So when it’s time to fight the big bad, you won’t want for HP.
As you can see above, this is particularly effective at the beginning of the fight. Depending on your upgrades and Weapon Mods, you can kill some floating, unshielded enemies with a single shot and shielded enemies in two.
Use Seize to ease your burden
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Yet another thing that using natural cover allows you to do is burn a few seconds using Seize, the power that turns enemies into allies.
In our experience, Seize is most useful for crowd control, and Control’s Salvador boss fight isn’t a one-on-one joust. If you have the Energy and you’re in (relative) safety, consider conscripting an enemy with Seize.
It’s not so much about the damage that they’ll do. It’s just better to have one less bad guy to worry about and add one more distraction for your enemies.
