Right after the boss fully appears and I presume it's about to do something, the game just crashes to desktop.

I've seen some potential solutions about setting volume to 0, compatibility mode and others, but they don't work for me.

Any help with the issue would be lovely, tho I'd hope Remedy just fixes the bug.

Edit: If relevant, I have Win 10 Pro N, RTX 2080 Ti, Ryzen 9 3900X, and other stuff that is probably less relevant.

I had this error on an early build, which this is not.

Does the crash happen both with direct x 11 and 12?

Try using the lowest graphics settings in case it's an actual driver feature usage, but otherwise, this is quite the interesting issue that it would be good to take to the game developers and/or Nvidia.

I have the same issue. I'm using directX 12, all rtx settings, dlss and the game crashes as soon as the boss starts its first attack.

I found a way to avoid the game to crash at the start of the fight: use directX 11, turn off rtx and dlss, and then focus on beating the boss as fast as possible. You need to be fast as the game will still crash after a few minutes.

This is something Remedy needs to know.

Both. DX11 disables RTX/DLSS features, too, and was part of the compatibility mode test since I don't think DX12 is compatible with Win7. The game crashes on me the moment the boss is able to take damage, so I can't really do that as things are.

Had an idea and looked into event viewer application logs:

Mostly see this when running normally
> Faulting application name: Control_DX12.exe, version: 0.0.342.9734, time stamp: 0x5f4cd714
> Faulting module name: platform_rmdwin10_f.dll, version: 0.0.342.9734, time stamp: 0x5f4cd5d9

With Win7/Vista compatibility mode
> Faulting application name: Control_DX11.exe, version: 0.0.342.9734, time stamp: 0x5f4cd90e
> Faulting module name: platform_rmdwin7_f.dll, version: 0.0.342.9734, time stamp: 0x5f4cd7d3

And there was one instance of this
> Faulting application name: Control_DX12.exe, version: 0.0.342.9734, time stamp: 0x5f4cd714
> Faulting module name: ghost_api64.dll, version: 1.1.4.0, time stamp: 0x5f4d0682

They all have
> Exception code: 0xc0000005
Which apparently is Access Violation.

I did try running the game as an admin too, and it crashed all the same, so it's not that kind of access problem.

Yeah this is something that needs to be brought up to Remedy and Nvidia.

Fortunately Anchor is optional, so I was able to beat the game ignoring it, but it's still a huge bummer.

Still, I experimented with it a little more and checking some videos about the fight in hopes of finding a solution, and the crash seems to coincide with the boss's attack.

My ability to debug this has reached its limit besides just changing my GPU driver (currently 452.06). If I have the energy, I guess I could try studio drivers since they're supposedly more stable, but there's nothing really pointing at it being driver issue (though I suppose it could be deeper seated issue).

This must be an RTX specific bug, there's a lot more people having the issue.

The fixes for this are (and believe me this is a bit crazy)

1)Turning the audio to 0 on the settings of the game before entering the fight

2) Settings the resolution to less than the full screen resolution of your monitor

3) Playing the game in compatibility mode, specifically Windows Vista mode

Give those all together a try, that's a bit insane, considering that the boss itself is also kinda hard to beat until way later on.

Those are all things I included in my attempts. But yeah, probably RTX specific issue and not just related to having raytracing enabled, just having the card seems enough.

I'm having the exact same issue but I'm on an AMD build (Ryzen 3700x and a rx 5700 xt). So its not exclusive to RTX.

No other issues of note before this fight.

I go into more detail over at the steam forums (I've got the GOG version but steam forums are more active). I've only just posted it as of sending this message so there are no responses yet. It may not show while it is being verified.

EDIT: A link would be handy, wouldn't it:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/870780/discussions/0/2943622078740855223/

You'd both do everyone then a great service to post the issue here: https://support.505games.com/hc/en-us

That's amazing that the issue is also present in the 5700 XT, even under DX 11.

Hopefully it does get a patch, since that is one of the coolest bosses, even if one of the hardest as well.

I contacted 505 Games support team and they told me to share the report via to the Control bug reporting website:
https://fs30.formsite.com/505games/control/index.html

It should make the situation visible to the developers.

I've submitted a bug report. Here's to hoping it isn't a long wait for a solution.

Disabling full screen optimization is worked for me.

Turning off sounds did the trick for me.
However, if the fight lasts for too long, it might still crash.