Control: How To Start (And Win!) The New Expedition Mode | 'Put A Record On' Mission Guide

Control just dropped the new endgame Expedition Mode, and everyone can play for free right now. This is a challenging new add-on that sends you deep into a mysterious section of the Oldest House, forcing you to take on three tiers of increasingly difficult combat scenarios. These missions are only for the hardest of the hardcore, and they’re genuinely difficult!

With this guide I’m going to answer three questions about Expedition Mode — how to start it, what it even is, and how to win. It’s actually surprisingly complex to explain what this even is. It’s a new challenge with random battles, a timer, and big rewards if you can finish.

And this thing is hard. Like, ridiculously hard. It’s going to take a few attempts to win, so let’s dive in and I’ll explain how Expedition Mode works.

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How To Start Expeditions:

Go to the Central Executive fast travel point and collect the small token on the metal cabinet right next to the circle. This begins the ‘Put A Record On‘ mission — go talk to Arish to begin.

NOTE: You must have Levitate to begin this quest. It’s only available in the end-game portion of Control.

Use the Jukebox located in the locked room nearby, past the security checkpoint in Central Executive, to begin the Expedition.

Inside, follow the trail to the central camp, and enter through the green portal. Platforms will appear, and you’ll be able to reach a new recording that reveal what’s going on. Enemies will spawn, and the timer will end — you’ll only have 25 minutes per expedition.

What Is Expedition Mode? How Does It Work?

On the return trip, Arish will provide more information. You need to use Jukebox Tokens to access the Jukebox and go on Expeditions — you can get more by spending Source (x1 for 10,000 / x3 25,000 / x5 40,000) or by completing Board Countermeasures.

There are three difficulty tiers to explore. Each tier grants better rewards. You’ll need to unlock each tier before you can visit them. Each tier has a random modifier — some modifiers are better (or worse) than others!

Tier 1: Costs 1 Token – Rare rewards.
Tier 2: Costs 3 Tokens – Prime rewards.
Tier 3: Costs 5 Tokens – Absolute rewards & Expedition Gear costume.

You have 25 minutes in real-time to complete the four objectives on all four island sites and finish the tier. You’ll have infinite respawns on your tier, but you’ll fail once the 25 minute timer is up.

There are special objectives on each island. You’ll need to collect an object and defeat three waves of Hiss, capture three Control Points, collect three Ranger logs (listen for the beeps), or destroy three Hiss corrupted objects in a furnace. The objectives are always the same, so you can learn from failures or quickly re-locate objectives on return trips.

Seizing strong enemies is one of the best ways to survive.

Tips To Help You Survive & Win Expeditions:

After each objective, the enemies gain one danger level. By the end, you’ll be fighting enemies are danger level 9 in Tier 1.

Complete the waves objective first. The bosses are extremely tough! Do the Control Point objective second. Those are the toughest and most time-consuming objectives.

Use Sieze as often as possible! The toughest the enemy, the more you’ll want to seize them. It’s especially handy to Seize the healing orb enemies — they won’t make you invincible, but they’ll make you way, way tougher.

Play defensively and let the enemies come to you. Don’t rush out into the open — stay at full health as long as possible. The more you’re at 100%, the more health orbs will accumulate around the arena. When you’re in trouble, you’ll have a lot more health laying around to grab.

If you keep failing, clear out your inventory of mods. You’ll find lots of loot and rewards for completing each objective. Use that stuff at the Astral Construct to make better mods for your weapons.

Keep trying! It might seem impossible, but once you learn how each objective works, you can complete everything (except the boss waves) very quickly.