Read this before you press the button
The order and the reward sets below come from a community walkthrough rather than an official source, and the English ability labels are the ones that thread through it. We are re-verifying each name against the live 1.4.1 build. Where a label is uncertain it is written as a description rather than a name.
The full list
| Boss | Region | Choice | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Artist | Downtown, prologue | Three-way: Barrage, an unstable-appearance option, or Shield | Barrage is sustained ranged output. Shield is defensive and works everywhere |
| The Deserter | Central Zone | Ignite or Inferno | Ignite is a damage-over-time burn. Inferno is a wide fire burst |
| The Dancer | West Incursion Zone | Push or Ground Slam | Push is a large knockback that can shove lesser enemies off ledges for an instant kill. Ground Slam is a close-range shock AOE |
| The Collective | Park | Spore Burst or Growth | Growth summons mould assistance. Spore Burst is the direct damage option |
| The Physicist | Underpass | Spike or Astral Rebuke | Both single-target; Spike is the more straightforward of the pair |
| Co-Director | Unknown Zone | Command — no choice | The only reward that is not a decision. Unlocks after this fight and gates the final Hedron encounter |
What actually changed the maths
Launch-week advice was "choose carefully, you cannot undo it". The day-one hotfix walked that back substantially:
- Respec cost was permanently lowered
- Every merchant's respec-item stock was increased
- The Artist now drops two respec items rather than one
So the point spend that follows a choice is now cheap to move around. What has not been confirmed to change is whether the ability selection itself is swappable. That distinction is the whole reason this page exists — do not assume a respec resets a boss reward.
The build constraint that matters more than the ability pick
There is no parry in this game. Damage avoidance is dodge, Shift, air displacement and Rush. What ends fights is the Falter meter under an enemy's health: fill it and you get an execution, which deals heavy damage and refunds resources. So a damage ability that does not help you build or exploit Falter is worth less than its number suggests.
That is also why Push is strong: knocking a group apart converts an unavoidable surround into a series of one-on-one Falter builds.
Weapon forms paired with abilities
You can have three weapon forms equipped at once, with light attack, heavy attack and the finisher each bound to a form, and switching between them is seamless. Community recommendations:
- Glaive for crowds, because one swing reaches multiple targets
- Crush for armoured or high-HP enemies, because it builds Falter fast
- Whip to drag airborne enemies down to the ground where they can be executed
If you want the ones you skipped
New Game++ arrived with patch 1.4 on 1 October. Remedy's stated design is that repeat runs open build possibilities the first run cannot reach, including equipping multiple combat abilities tied to the same boss, and a fourth artifact slot on top of the three available in a first playthrough. Traversal abilities do not carry over; you regain them through story progression.
That makes the ability choices a completionist checklist rather than a one-shot decision — but only from 1.4 onward, so if you are reading an advice thread written in launch week, its premises are out of date.
People also ask
- Can I change the ability I picked after a Resonant boss?
- You can re-spec points cheaply, and that is the important change: the day-one hotfix permanently lowered the cost of respecing and increased every merchant's stock of respec items. The Artist now also drops two respec items instead of one. Whether the combat ability itself can be swapped after choosing is a different question and we have not confirmed it — treat the pick as permanent until we say otherwise.
- Which ability should a new player take first?
- Community consensus at the very start is Push or Shield, because both are survival and space-control tools that work regardless of how you build the rest. Fire options are better once you have the point to spend and are clearing large groups.
- Do I lose access to the ability I did not pick?
- New Game++ changed this. From patch 1.4 onward, repeat playthroughs open up options to equip multiple combat abilities tied to the same boss, which the first run does not allow.
Sources & version history
External claims on this page trace to the items below. Anything we could not confirm is written as a question, not a fact.