I CHOSE THE IMPOSSIBLE! A guide for completing Bioshock on Playstation 3 Survivor mode without using Vita-Chambers. =============================================================================== TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction A) Version History II. Glossary III. General Tips IV. Plasmid Analysis V. Tonic Analysis A) Combat Tonics B) Physical Tonics C) Engineering Tonics VI. Weapon Analysis VII. Tricks of the Trade VIII. Walkthrough A) Welcome to Rapture B) Medical Pavilion C) Neptune's Bounty D) Arcadia E) Farmer's Market F) Fort Frolic G) Hephaestus H) Ryan's Office/Tennenbaum's Safehouse I) Olympus Heights J) Apollo Square K) Point Prometious L) Proving Grounds M) Showdown with Frank Fontaine IX. Tough Guy A) Introduction and Explanation B) General Tips and Tricks C) Challenge Specific Strategies D) Plasmid and Tonic Analysis E) Walkthrough X. Miscellanious/Credits/Legal =============================================================================== INTRODUCTION I am Andrew Ryan and I am here to ask you a question: Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? No, says the man in Washington; it belongs to the poor. No, says the man in the Vatican; it belongs to God. No, says the man in Moscow; it belongs to everyone. I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I CHOSE THE IMPOSSIBLE. I chose... Rapture. I decided to choose this as my first game guide for two reasons: 1) This is one of the few games I feel qualified enough to give expert level advice on, and 2) No one has done this yet, at least not to my knowledge. I'm one of those people who only has a Playstation 3 and doesn't usually use his computer for games, and I know there are others out there like me who spent the end of 2007 hearing about how great Bioshock is but never experienced it for themselves until this iteration. Some people out there who have the original versions still may want to get the "Brass Balls" achievement, this strategy guide will work for that as well. Those who were fanatics of the original and bought/rented this just for the Survivor mode challenge will be able to use this. Right off the bat I should point out that this is not a step by step walkthrough of how to beat this game or specifically how to do every specific task. There are plenty of guides available on this site for where to find what or what to do to finish the game. Every experience will be different and therefore it is impossible to approach this guide in terms simply as saying "do A to achieve desired result B." That being said the majority of this guide will focus on general advice for success and the techniques that were proven effective during my first Survivor mode with Vita-Chambers off play through. The walkthrough portion of this guide will have the bulk of its depth for the first levels for two reasons. The first being that the earliest levels are the ones most uniform in terms of linear game play and consistent experiences. The second being that the earliest levels have always been the most difficult in my experiences. Warning, this guide contains spoilers. I'm only posting this out of obligation, as I would imagine anyone who is trying for this trophy has already played through the game multiple times and may even have the cut scene dialogue memorized. This guide will also contain my personal musings on certain story and game elements and will not in any way help towards completing the game. Most of these sections are just the ramblings of someone who has clearly spent too much time overanalyzing the plot, so look for the word "Tangent" surrounded by asterisks as a warning. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VERSION HISTORY Version 1.00 Original version submitted 01-22-2009 Version 1.10 submitted 01-31-2009 First and possibly last update Contains additional spell checking and proofreading. Updates to tonic analysis to include additional tonics. Alternate strategies for dealing with early on Big Daddies. More tips for later portions of the game. Updates to usage permission. Version 1.20 submitted 02-25-2009 Added additional strategies submitted by readers. Other minor updates. Update to usage permission. Version 2.00 submitted 03-06-2009 Added a "Tough Guy" section that could have be a whole other guide. Additional corrections and updates. =============================================================================== Glossary of terms and abbreviations likely to be found often in this guide: 3rd party damage: refers to any damage done to a Big Daddy by any non-player characters. This includes splicers, turrets, security bots, etc. Ant pistol: Anti-personnel pistol rounds Amp pistol: Armor-piercing pistol rounds Ant machine: Anti-personnel machine gun rounds Amp machine: Armor-piercing machine gun rounds Pttp: Power to the People weapon upgrade station CoV: Circus of Values vending machine BD: Big Daddy LS: Little Sister AB: Ammo Bandito GG: Gatherer's Gardens U-I: U-Invent crafting station TK: Telekinesis SB: Security Bullseye Hot Potato: This phrase is often used in action/shooter type games and refers to the tactic picking up a live enemy grenade and throwing it back. In this case the concept still applies to enemy grenades but can only be used with TK. I'm also listing this here just in case anyone reading this is unfamiliar with the term. Melee: Another term that that is common among action/shooter games. Refers to close quarters attacks such as punching or clubbing. Toaster in the Tub: Name of a trophy obtained when Atlas advices you to use Electrobolt on enemies standing in water. Refers to any means of using electricity against enemies in water. 1-2 Punch: Another term that comes straight for the mouth of Atlas. Refers to stunning an enemy with Electrobolt and striking them with the wrench while still electrified for maximum damage. =============================================================================== GENERAL TIPS SAVE OFTEN!!! First and foremost piece of advice for this. I'm well aware that this seems overly obvious, but it is of utmost importance. If you've played this game before on the normal modes with Vita-Chamber's on, it can become incredibly easy to use them as a crutch. You can do something stupid like run up to a Big Daddy and smack him in the face with a wrench and there aren't any consequences other than having to do a little backtracking. I only say this because I fell into the habit of not worrying about what happens next. I would only save during the auto saves or when I decided to turn off the system. Bioshock does not have a set check point system without Vita-Chambers. None. The only thing that resembles a check-point in this mode are the load screens when you enter a new level. I would recommend a play though with Vita-Chambers off at a lower difficulty first to get used to this. (You probably would want to get the Brass Balls trophy first anyway) As far as when to save, anytime is a good time. After a scripted sequence is always a good time. When you get something important like a new weapon, free plasmid, etc. is an excellent time to save. You'll definitely want to save after defeating a Big Daddy and dealing with a Little Sister. Saving right before you intend to engage a Big Daddy is also a very good idea, especially if it happens to have some 3rd party damage. Get good at hacking. Everything that can be hacked should be hacked. There are a few cameras that are hard to reach (or practically impossible to later on) but other than that, there is no excuse not to hack every turret, safe, or med station you encounter. Most cameras can be approached without shorting them out if you hug the wall they're attached to while its looking the other way. Once hacked they will leave you alone and send security bots after your enemies. Get familiar with the patterns of different machines. Once you know the tendencies of flow patterns for different machines you can know your first move or two before you even begin. This is especially useful on things like safes and U-Invents. Same goes for turrets. The Eve or liquid nitrogen spent to short one out so it can be hacked is a small price to pay in comparison to having a bodyguard. If you really want the ammo contained in them, most will be eventually destroyed anyway. While usually harder to short out, a hacked security bot is the best friend you'll find in Rapture. If you have the cash so spend to shut them down after security send them after you, do it. They can be your own minions ready to do YOUR bidding. Hacked vending machines will grant access to previously unattainable items but will also save valuable cash and resources. Hacked med stations will not only heal you fully for the fraction of the cost of med kits, but will also finish off wounded splicers. You can use auto-hack tools or buy out the machines, but you can't always count on having those options available when you need it. Last but certainly not least if you have Hacker's Delight or its upgrades, successful hacks will replenish health and Eve. If you have this equipped you may find yourself even hacking keypads to which you know the combination just for the bonus. Research, research, research. Once you get the camera, buy as much film as you can afford. Taking pictures of enemies gives research bonuses that are as valuable as any weapon upgrade and is one of the reasons that Bioshock can actually get EASIER as you progress. Aside from the obvious damage increases many of the best tonics are only unlocked through research. Manage inventory wisely. This goes beyond ammo and health pack conservation. Properly using and maintaining high levels of health, Eve, ammo, cash, etc. is essential to surviving on Survivor. Here are many small easy steps to use for doing this: Don't be hasty when searching or picking up items, you may accidentally take something you don't need at the moment. Bandages are the best random items for recovering health, coffee the same for Eve, and pep bars are effective for decent amounts of both. Don't pick up or take any of these if your health and/or Eve bars are full. Heal at health stations instead of using First Aid kits during breaks in the action. Health stations always fully restore health whereas kits only replenish a fixed increment. The amount of health kits restore isn't even enough to go from near death to fully healed at the start of the game. Using health stations saves cash and allows you to keep your health packs for when you need them mid-battle. All items found in corpses or containers will remain there until you take them or use the search again function of the Scrounger tonic. Corpses that have uncollected cash or items will remain where they were until whatever they carry is looted. If left alone for an extended period of time these corpses will be replaced with lockboxes, but still have the same contents. Don't be afraid to backtrack (even to previous levels) to collect items. There is no speed bonus achievement here. One of the best reasons to backtrack is to purchase Health/EVE upgrades. Each Gatherer's Gardens contains one Health and one Eve upgrade that can only be purchased at that Gather's Gardens. (The exceptions being the levels split into two sections like the Farmer's Market and Apollo Square.) Weapons found (either planted or dropped by dead splicers) will always contain small amounts of their default ammo. (See weapons section) If you already have the maximum allotted amount of that ammo you will NOT get a second chance to search the weapon. Prepare to spend a lot of time scavenging corpses and every nook and cranny of Rapture to acquire all kinds of loot. Save Little Sisters. This has nothing to do with any ethical ideology or wanting to unlock an alternate ending (although you do get a trophy for doing so). I've just found it to be ultimately in your best interest. While it is true that you get more ADAM total if you harvest all the Little Sisters, the extra items and other resources more than make up the difference. Besides, Tennenbaum is about the only sane person left in Rapture, throw her a bone. This guide will be centered around choosing to save every Little Sister, so keep in mind that certain sections may recommend using a particular ammo based on the knowledge that said ammo or item will be coming in a future gift. Tennenbaums's gifts are given after every 3rd Little Sister saved. The contents of these gifts are also items that only have one chance to be collected. You can view the items and not take anything but if you can't carry a certain item it goes to waste. To help avoid this situation I've prepared a guide within the guide so that you will know what to expect and when. Don't kill Sander Cohen at the end of the Fort Frolic level. If you start a fight with him right away when he comes out to admire his masterpiece you may not get a chance to get the Electric Flesh tonic and other items in the Fleet Hall projection booth right away. The only way to get the Medical Expert 2 tonic is for him to unlock the case for you. Most importantly letting him live now is the only way to access the Power to the People station on the second floor of his apartment. Don't worry you still get to give him his just desserts and collect the $100, 8 Incendiary Bolts, and 3 Spider Splicer organs in his Muse box. Pick your battles. Some fights can be avoided through stealth, careful sniper shots and the assistance of hacked security equipment. (See above) There is no good reason to start a fight with a Big Daddy unless he is guarding a Little Sister. The amount of cash you get as a reward will not cancel out what you spend on health packs, Eve, and ammo. Keep batteries. Once you begin the Arcadia level, you begin collecting various components with which to create useful items at U-Invent machines. Batteries are easily the most important. They are necessary for creating electric gel, auto-hack tools, and trap bolts. If you find one, don't use Scrounger (if equipped) to search again. Collecting a battery can even be an event that you would want to save the game progress immediately afterward. This is not the time to try to get the "Tonic Collector" trophy. ADAM is the most precious resource in Rapture and you can't waste it on tonics you can't use or don't need. Find which tonics work for you and stick them. There are only a handful that are only available through purchase that I've found useful anyway. That being said, spend wisely when buying plasmids as well. In fact, during the run through which I played while writing this I spent almost all of my ADAM on slots and Health/EVE upgrades. =============================================================================== My opinion on plasmids is just like the song in Dandy Dental: The best things in life are free. (Remember, opinions are like assholes; I have one and therefore am one) ;p My rankings of the best Plasmids: 1) Telekinesis Pros: Free! Does not need to be upgraded to be useful later in the game. The chemical thrower doesn't eventually do essentially the same job as is the case with several other plasmids. If there is another plasmid that uses less Eve per use, I haven't found it. It's also the only plasmid that can be used without using ANY Eve. One of the few plasmids that if used properly deals major damage to BD. Gives you the ability to collect otherwise out of reach items. Helps with recycling crossbow bolts. Makes clearing out trap bolt a snap. (More on this to come) Hot potato! You can use corpses and other objects as a bullet shield. The carry function. (More to come) Cons: Sometimes you grab the wrong thing, but this is only a problem if it happens mid-battle. If there isn't anything in the immediate area worth grabbing, it doesn't really do any good. Explosive items can deal damage to you if you're not careful. 2) Electrobolt Pros: First version is free. Shorts out turrets and bots so they can be hacked. Deals major damage to standard enemies in water early on. Great for buying time to either reload or line up a head shot. Works as a key to unlock certain rooms. The "1-2 punch" Cons: Uses a large amount of Eve. Needs to be upgraded to have any effect in combat later on. Not very effective (damage wise) against enemies on dry land, even less so against Big Daddies. Once you get the chemical thrower, liquid nitrogen replaces it as the preferred method of approaching turrets, etc. The continual burst of electric gel from the chemical thrower does more damage than this plasmid ever could. Can hurt you as well if you're not careful. 3) Security Bullseye Pros: Free! Doesn't need to be upgraded. Great way to get bots and turrets to wear down the health of Big Daddies. BD doesn't consider this being used against him as an act of aggression. Low Eve consumption. Will turn unhacked cameras, turrets, etc. against enemies. Turrets distracted by other enemies can be hacked in the meantime. Hacked cameras, etc. will still ignore BD, unless they have a bullseye. If bots get summoned against you (which will happen) this can buy you time to hide or shut them down while eliminating enemies at the same time. Good way to avoid fights with splicers and still eliminate them. The vandalism/fail a hack trick (more to come). Use with caution. Cons: Useless if there are no enemies in the immediate area. Lesser enemies will be eliminated quickly if there are multiple security bots so little time is bought in these cases. Almost useless if there are no already summoned bots or cameras in an area. Cross fire and exploding bots will still hurt. A lot. I never truly realized the value of this plasmid until I started playing with Vita-Chambers off. In previous runs I rarely used this and sometimes didn't even have it equipped, but with no room for error you'll quickly discover you need all the help you can get. 4) Incinerate Pros: The first version is free. Reasonable Eve consumption. Effective for a slow but eventual death against most splicers. Great way to get splicers into water where they can be finished off with electrobolt. Works as a key to get into certain areas. Cons: Needs to be upgraded in order to remain effective later on. Napalm from the chemical thrower will basically do its job for a lower price. Not effective against some splicers. Minimal to no effect against Big Daddies. Fire can be spread easily to the point where you might catch on fire or cause explosions. 5) Enrage Pros: One of the cheapest plasmids you can buy and available early in the game. Low Eve consumption. Good way to save ammo and health by getting groups of spilcers to fight amongst themselves instead of attacking you. You can use it to send splicers on a kamikaze mission against nearby Big Daddies. No upgrade necessary. Getting enemies to fight amongst themselves gives you time to sneak by safely. Cons: What the message in the load screen says: Don't use this against solitary enemies. Sometimes when you think there are other enemies that an enraged splicer would attack, they still go after you. Kamikaze missions often do little to no damage against Big Daddies. Groups of enemies are uncommon until later in the game (which is when I got this). 6) Hypnotize Big Daddy Pros: Both versions free if you've been rescuing Little Sisters. Any enemy that draws the wrath of a Big Daddy is as good as dead. They make good bullet shields. Lasts a long time. Combine with Enrage for Big Daddy vs. Big Daddy! Cons: He won't attack any enemies unless they harm you first. This means you will still have to take a great deal of damage during this time. The spell can easily be broken and he can turn against you. All it takes is one errant bullet or a static discharge. You are not impervious to his attacks either. Big Daddies make surprisingly bad body guards. He will mostly just stand there staring at you (which is kind of creepy) instead of looking for and eliminating potential threats before they can do any harm. Consumes ridiculously large amounts of Eve. (The whole bar!) Big Daddy vs. Big Daddy not as cool as you may think. All in all I'm not a big fan of this plasmid. I only rank it this high and ever keep it in my arsenal because a) it's free and b) as stated previously I save most of my ADAM for extra tonic slots and Health/EVE upgrades. This plasmid could be much better than it is. If a Big Daddy were your personal attack dog this would be exponentially more useful and fun. (If anyone working on Bioshock 2 happens to read this, please take note.) Even if there was an extension of this plasmid (like Security Bullseye) that would signal who and what to attack (even at the cost of more Eve) this would be much better. Something like this would be insanely fun to use in a multi-player mode which is auspiciously absent from this game. (Cough, cough... Bioshock 2... cough, cough) The rest: The more I've played this the less use I've found for most of the other plasmids, at least when playing on higher difficulties. Many are entertaining and have their benefits, but have limited use to justify spending the ADAM. Cyclone Trap: Fun trap against splicers but overall not practical. Target Dummy: The effects don't last all that long and I haven't seen major benefits in my experiences. Insect Swarm: Another that looks cool but is more of an enemy distraction than a viable attack. Winter Blast: Liquid Nitrogen gets the job done well enough imo and a shattered corpse can't be looted. Sonic Boom: Mostly beneficial on splicers standing in front of a hazard, otherwise weaker version of TK. =============================================================================== Tonic Analysis by Class: Like with Plasmids, I created a list of the various tonics available throughout the game and ranked them according to how useful I've found them on the highest difficulty setting. I'm not going to separate the upgrades from the original versions here. They do the same thing as the original only better and aren't available until later on so comparison would only be redundant. Combat Tonics: 1) Armored Shell Extremely useful. Reduces the amount of damage you take so what's not to like? I would recommend getting the 1st version asap and having at least one version equipped at all times. Having both equipped for additional effectiveness doesn't hurt either. 2) Static Discharge Serves both offensive and defensive purposes. Main downside is that you must be struck by a melee attack to activate it. Other big downside is that it can turn a neutral enemy (read Big Daddy) against you. Pros outweigh the cons though. 3) Photographer�s Eye Helps max out research bars faster. Need I say more? 4) Damage Research Makes the research you've done more effective. 5) Electric Flesh Most beneficial once you have the chemical thrower and in the later levels where enemies use more electricity based attacks. 6) Wrench Jockey It makes the trusty old wrench more effective. 7) Wrench Lurker More useful for its stealth properties than actual combat. 8) Human Inferno I'd probably rank this higher if I used fire more. 9) Frozen Field Can't recommend using a slot for this because: a) there are better tonics for improving wrench attacks b) the wrench is not very useful on Survivor c) no corpse to loot if you kill a frozen enemy 10) Machine Buster Can't recommend buying this because you're better off either hacking or avoiding machines than busting them. --------------------------------- Physical Tonics: 1) Hacker's Delight Have you gotten the hint that hacking is important yet? Only downside to this one is that it doesn't work once the research on bots and turrets enables instant hacks. 2) Eve Link Tough call for the #1 rating, but this one lost out only because I try to use med kits sparingly. 3) Scrounger It helps with acquiring the things you need for free. Just use carefully. 4) Sportsboost Makes you faster and better at swinging the wrench. Can't complain about anything that improves your offensive and defensive capabilities. 5) Medical Expert You will need to use health packs. With this you will need to use less. 6) Natural Camouflage Can help out if security bots get sent after you but SB can keep them away if there are other enemies in the area. Helps with sniping too. 7) Eve Saver Does what it says, reduces the amount of Eve your plasmids use. However, by the time it becomes available Hypos and alternatives means to replenish Eve are plentiful. Also your Eve bar should be big enough to worry less about refills. 8) Boozehound Sometimes I think I'm the only Bioshock player who doesn't hate this. Booze is EVERYWHERE and this helps can help save health packs and hypos. Still not that great though. 9) Bloodlust Not as useful here since the wrench is not the weapon of choice for Survivor. 10) Security Evasion If you have ANY skill with stealth this is practically worthless. If you can combine that skill with any hacking skill it becomes completely useless. 11) Extra Nutrition This could have been a useful tonic if its effects were noticeable. ------------------------------- Engineering Tonics: These are the only tonics that can be easily categorized in my opinion. It took me several playthroughs before I could tell if something was a physical or combat tonic. 1) Speedy Hacker The most sure-fire way to make hacking easier throughout the game. 2) Clever Inventor Makes inventing the items you need easier. 3) Prolific Inventor. Doubles the amount of items you get from a U-I. This would be higher if it weren't available until the game is almost over. 4) Safecracker Safes and keypads are usually the hardest things to hack. This makes them easier. 5) Security Expert This would be higher if research didn't eliminate the need to be good at hacking bots and turrets later on. Still worth a slot for cameras. 6) Hacking Expert This only gets the edge over the other two obstacle removers because it covers one of each. 7) Focused Hacker Not too useful because even if you can't complete a hack there are plenty of ways to avoid running into an overload. 8) Alarm Expert See above. Also, an alarm can be a good thing (see fail a hack trick). 9) Shorten Alarms This gets next to last ranked last because: a) there are plenty of ways to avoid alarms in the first place b) if you happen to trigger an alarm, there are plenty of ways to avoid the security bots (SB, Natural Camouflage, shutdown panels, hacking, etc.) c) if you know what you're doing, you WANT the alarms to last as long as possible. 10) Vending Expert No need to waste ADAM to save a couple bucks at a vending machine. Funny thing is that it doesn't even reduce prices for important things (Health/Eve) as much as hacking the machine does. =============================================================================== Regular weapons analysis: (Order obtained, not subjective ranking) I will point out right now that weapons will be much more important than Plasmids on Survivor. Plasmids are still important, but standard weapons are what deal any significant damage against enemies. The only real advice dispensed here are my recommendations for which upgrade options should take priority. When in doubt, go for increased damage. 1) Wrench Decent melee weapon but limited use on Survivor difficulty. There are many tonics dedicated to making this weapon much more powerful than seems possible but I try to use it sparingly here for a couple reasons. First, I prefer having a balanced variety of tonics equipped rather than being overly reliant on one weapon or fighting style. That and I don't like having to run to the Gene Swap Bank to make changes everytime I come across a Big Daddy or another enemy that requires a different strategy. Second, my obsessive compulsive tendency to explore everywhere and search everything ensures that I am always completely stocked on just about every type of ammunition so running low has never been an issue after the Medical Pavilion level. 2) Pistol Default ammo: Standard pistol rounds Less common ammo: Armor-piercing rounds (Okay against Big Daddies early on) Rare ammo: Antipersonnel rounds (Great against splicers, usually obtained by building at U-Invent) Underrated weapon actually. Good range, does decent damage and ammo is plentiful and fairly cheap. Would recommend expanding the clip size first since it saves precious loading time. 3) Machine Gun Default ammo: Standard machine gun rounds Less common ammo: Antipersonnel rounds (Great against splicers, but unfortunately hard to find) Rare ammo: Armor piercing rounds (Has to be built, and by the time you get the ability to build ammo, there are better options against Big Daddies) Probably the weapon I use most against splicers. Large magazine makes reloading less common and fast firing rate forgives inaccuracy. Ammo is cheap and plentiful. Despite using it often this should be one of the last weapons to do receive an upgrade. 4) Shotgun Default ammo: Standard buckshot Less common ammo: Electric buckshot (Great against Big Daddies and most splicers) Rare ammo: Exploding buckshot (Does most damage, but still may be least useful of the three) Packs a great punch in close quarters. However has limited range (obviously) and is S-L-O-W in both firing and reloading. One shot kills less common as you progress. Another weapon I would ignore when you come across a Power to the People machine early on. Too bad you can't increase the size of the clip. (Four rounds is about the maximum realistic magazine for a 1950's era shotgun) 5) Grenade launcher Default ammo: Frag grenades Less common ammo: Proximity mines (Usually only useful as substitutes for frag grenades) Rare ammo: Heat-seeking RPG (Mostly has to be made, extremely useful) The first weapon that gives you a real chance against a Big Daddy. I can't recommend using this for anything other than them or bosses. However, explosions hurt. I would make Grenade Launcher Damage Immunity the first upgrade of the game. 6) Research Camera Not an actual weapon but an incredibly useful tool. 7) Chemical Thrower Default ammo: Napalm Less common ammo: Liquid Nitrogen (Freezes enemies and machines) Rare ammo: Electric gel (2nd only to ADAM as most precious resource in Rapture) This may be my favorite weapon. A full tank of electric gel with upgraded consumption rate will drain half of a Big Daddy's life bar. Now you know why this is a favorite. This will also do the job of most of the game's best plasmids. Liquid Nitrogen makes buying Winter Blast a complete waste of ADAM, but it's real benefit is not in combat. Equip it to freeze bots and turrets. Better method for disabling them than electrobolt in my opinion. Napalm is weaker than incinerate but if you can get most splicers at point blank range you can cook them pretty quickly. 8) Crossbow Default ammo: Steel-tip bolts Less common ammo: Incendiary bolts (Does at least as much damage as steel-tip bolts, plus sets whatever it hits on fire) Rare ammo: Trap bolts (The name says it all, mainly useful for setting traps) Your de facto sniper rifle. If you see me use the word snipe anywhere in this guide it refers to this weapon. Silent, powerful, and has great range. Downside is that it has a small capacity and takes a long time to load. I would not recommend using this in the middle of a fight but aside from hacking camera's etc. is your best means to avoid them. Headshots will one hit kill just about any splicer and with damage increase can take slightly over 10% of a Big Daddy's health. Did I mention you can reuse some of the ammo for this weapon? =============================================================================== Tricks of the trade. The Telekinesis trap bolt removal trick: Pick up a large object (preferably a corpse). Do not release L2 or whatever button is set for plasmid use. Slowly carry the object to wherever the trap wire is. Carefully position the object to pass through the wire and short it out. Remember, the wire is still a threat to you until it's no longer visible. Continue until all wire is gone. When done and without releasing L2, press the square button to drop the object. (If this doesn't work, switching over to the weapon hand gets the job done as well) If done right you can clear out a room full of wire (like Kyburt's office) without taking any damage, using a single bullet, on even a single drop of Eve. The drop method to avoid using Eve also works if you are retrieving out of reach objects and grab the wrong thing or cannot carry anymore of said item. If you grab and item and pick it up you still don't use any Eve. The Carry Function: Another great application of TK is that it can be used to carry objects and items from one area to another. While this sounds monotonous (and it really isn't exciting or anything), it is extremely practical. The carry function can be used to carry things like explosive barrels into a different room for later battles. In the event that you have a full inventory of a certain item (like a First Aid Kit) and are in an area where said item is available for free, you can carry it to the next area for later retrieval. This is most useful if the original area is a place where backtracking will no longer be an option. The vandalism/fail a hack trick: If you see a Big Daddy walking around (preferably with a Little Sister in tow) and have Security Bullseye as an equipped plasmid, you are presented with one of the most reliable ways to safely drain a large portion of his health. Step 1: Tag him with Security Bullseye. Step 2: Do something that will set off an alarm. This can include standing in front of an unhacked security camera, smashing a window with your wrench (these are common on the Fort Frolic level and usually contain items you would want to collect anyway), or start hacking something but intentionally direct the flow to an alarm tile. Step 3: Keep a safe distance. Reapplying SB every 15 seconds or so to ensure that the bots don't turn their attention on you doesn't hurt either. A safer variation of this is to apply SB eye on a Big Daddy in view of a camera. This way the bots will be focused on him throughout the duration of the alarm and you don't have to worry about them turning on you. In case you weren't already aware, a red timer means you are at risk of being targeted and blue timer means someone else is the primary objective. This tactic works better on Bouncers than Rosies. A fight between a Big Daddy and security bots is also a great time to take research photos. Lots of different subjects plus action equals high grades. Booze Heal: Drinking alcohol will restore a small amount of health at the expense of draining Eve. You can get around this by waiting until your Eve bar is at zero. (You will know this is the case when the right hand of your character begins to inject himself with an Eve hypo. This can be stopped by switching over to the weapon hand.) This trick is most useful in the first couple levels of the game. Later in the game you have the option of building and equipping Boozehound which will cause alcohol consumption to replenish Eve instead of draining it. This can be beneficial since alcohol is often times in with the items found in corpses or other containers. One Shot Eve Refill: This is a variation of Booze Heal intended for refilling Eve when that bar is at zero. By one shot I mean having just enough Eve to use a plasmid once, thus saving hypos and killing enemies more efficiently. I have not seen any reduction in the effectiveness of plasmids when using less than the normal amount of Eve so this makes the one shot technique even more practical. One shot tricks to use when your Eve is zero include: drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes (when your health is high of course), Hacker�s Delight, or using Eve Link when your health is also low. The one shot approach is best suited for non-combat situations like opening entrances to certain areas but still works great for things like the 1-2 punch or toaster in the tub. Bloodlust or Boozehound can also enable a one shot refill, but by the time you have them the need for this is less common. Tag Team: One of the most effective means of dealing with a Big Daddy is to work as a team with a hacked RPG turret. If you are engaged in battle with a Big Daddy in view of a hacked turret the turret will come to your aid. Typically after being hit once or twice the Big Daddy will turn his attention to the turret and quickly destroy it. However, you can work with the turret so that it will eliminate the Big Daddy and possibly still be in tact to deal with other enemies. Once the Big Daddy starts attacking the turret immobilize him with electric buckshot or Electrobolt. After the missile hits him and knocks him out of his paralyzed state, hit him again before he can attack. Repeat as necessary until done. I would only recommend this tactic with an RPG turret because one hit from an RPG does significant damage and the rhythmic nature of this turret gives you the opportunity to time your attacks and reload. Fire/water/shock: This is my name for the tactic of setting a splicer on fire when water is nearby for the deliberate purpose of getting them into the water so that they can be finished of with Electrobolt. You've probably already heard of this maneuver (it's even shown in some of the load screen messages) but I'm listing this here because it is a good move and to give clarification your cases when you'll see this later. I can't think of a name for this so I'll just name it after it's creator. The Chris Newell method: It's a tactic which when used correctly can allow you to deal with two Big Daddies (and therefore access two Little Sisters) using only two frag grenades, two electric buck and one bar of EVE. I guess it can be broken down into 4 steps: 1) Find a BD who's got a LS with him (we'll call this one Big Daddy 1). 2) Memorise their location, then quickly advance into another area of the level and search for a second BD (Big Daddy 2). Once you've found him, use hypnotize and then lead him back to the location of BD 1. Fire ONE FRAG GRENADE and ONE ELECTRIC BUCK into BD1, then remain stationary for a few moments so that he can attack you. This will enrage BD 2, who will then engage BD 1 in combat. 3) Ensure you're out of range of the fight, and both BD's should just ignore you and continue to duke it out. They'll be almost evenly matched, but because of the grenade and shotgun shell you used on BD 1, he should be the one to die first. However, even though BD 2 is eventually victorious, he will be mortally wounded by the encounter and should be close to death. Once BD 1 is dead, move in to rescue/harvest his little sister. 4) Now wait for BD 2's hypnotization to wear off, then follow him as he lumbers around the map. Eventually, he will approach one of those holes in the wall and summon a little sister. As soon as she's out of hiding, fire one grenade and one electric buck into the BD - this should be all that's needed to finish him off. And there you have it, two little sisters under your belt with minimum damage and effort. =============================================================================== WALKTHROUGH As stated earlier, this is actually less of a walkthrough and more of a section by section collection of techniques for dealing with some of the more difficult situations. Welcome to Rapture: Don't waste a health pack before the Electrobolt cut scene, you will be fully healed when its done. One shot of electrobolt will drain over 3/4 of eve bar, close to 80 or 90% in fact. If you want to eat some of the food to refuel a tiny amount of Eve after opening the door go ahead. Your Eve bar should be completely drained after the 1-2 punch, so now would be a good time to use the booze heal tactic for the first time. Don't waste any Eve shocking the guy that comes bursting through the elevator area on fire, the fire will drain about 3/4 of his life bar and a couple decent whacks with the wrench will finish him off. Get the health pack & pep bar next to the shrine to the left before confronting the splicer with the revolver in the baby carriage. Kashmir restaurant: One good head shot can kill a thuggish splicer early in the game, the one at the bottom of the stairs gives you a good chance to aim for this. Zap the splicers on top of the waterfall area next to the Big Daddy corpse. Don't forget to search his corpse because he has a huge pile of cash on him and you can't get back up there. Wait for each wave of splicers to jump down and use the toaster in the tub technique to take care of them all. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MEDICAL PAVILION Hack the security bot stuck between the doors and try to stay to the sidelines so that the splicers & bot can duke it out if at all possible. After grabbing the machine gun and activating the security override switch, head back to corner so that you can only be attacked from one direction. Peek out the door a couple times so that the security bot can shoot them without you getting caught in the crossfire. If you get overrun in the central hub area, the chair in the corner next to the CoV and AB is a good place for a stand since there is only one way for enemies in and you can get shots in or wait to electrocute any that make it into the water. Eternal Flame: Here you will meet the first nitro splicer and your 1st camera, if the security bot is still working try to let it do most of the work. Once the splicer and camera are taken care of, use the furnace control button to get your first tonic: Hacker's Delight. In fact, you may want to hold off on hacking some vending machines until after you get this. The main reason you are here is to collect Incinerate on the second floor. Just run past any splicers that see you and attack them from the safety of the crawlspace room by lighting the oil slick. Twilight Fields: You'll want to take care of this area while you still have Incinerate equipped. Take care of the mourner on the right before she sees you. (She must have really liked that music box) Be ready for a coffin being hurled at you on the other side of the room and have Electrobolt ready to take care of the turret in the closet guarding the safe. In the back room grab Security Expert. Have Incinerate ready for when the guy jumps out of the drawer for the fire/water/shock trick. Downstairs (Dandy Dental, Kure All, etc.): Try to scour the area in the middle with the shotgun before grabbing it. Also, make sure the newly acquired shotgun is fully loaded while the lights are out to be ready for the ambush. Get Telekinesis as soon as you can and replace Incinerate with it. Don't forget to pick up Speedy Hacker and Wrench Jockey before moving on for the showdown against Dr. Steinman. Dr Steinman's section: Don't forget to hack the bot, turret, and health station before the confrontation. Grab Static Discharge after you've hacked the turret. Dr. Steinman tips: Have the bot hacked because that will do some damage to him as well as keeping him preoccupied which will make your job easier. Equip Telekinesis while he's shooting at the bot and grab a flammable tank to fire at him. It will either hit and just do heavy damage to him or cause a fire on the oil slick which will catch on him. Either are fine. If he heads to the water area underneath be ready to zap him with electrobolt. Continue using the Toaster in the Tub technique until dead. Otherwise keep firing tanks or other objects at him until he is either dead or goes running the med station by the entrance. If you hacked it before your work is done. If you do things right you won't need a single bullet and take little to no damage. If the hacked bot is still intact make sure that your little flying bodyguard tags along for the next part. He will be even more helpful than he has been already. Gatherer's Gardens/back to Medical Pavilion: What you choose to get with the 80 Adam is up to you. I would recommend either health upgrade or Armored Shell and Eve Link. First Big Daddy fight: I will go on record now and say that the first two Big Daddy battles will be the hardest of the game. Before any Big Daddy battle you'll always want to be sure you're prepared. Have all your weapons loaded and set to the ammo of preference. In this case I would recommend electric buck, amp pistol rounds, and amp machine gun rounds (if you have a full clip worth, otherwise regular). I can't give a specific strategy since every situation will be different, but here are some general tips: If you have any hacked bots or turrets (at least ones that have yet to be destroyed), USE THEM! Do what you can to draw the Bouncer into a turret's line of fire. Any damage they can do will save many retries. I would also recommend starting with amp pistol rounds. They have a greater range and you'd be better suited saving the electric buck for later in the fight, especially when you're in a tight corner and don't have the luxury of time. The maximum carry able 24 electric buck alone will NOT bring down a Big Daddy on Survivor. Not kidding. My first Survivor Big Daddy fight required about 10-15% 3rd party damage, all 24 amp pistol rounds (some may have missed), a couple shots of electrobolt and 16 electric buck. I was actually lucky the last one did the job because I don't know if I would have had time to reload. Use a health pack any time damage seems immanent. Don't think just because you used a health pack that one hit can't kill you. It can, and that's not just the full head of steam drill bit bull rush attack. A good punch can kill you if you're not at 100% health. A good time to reload would be when he does the ground punch earthquake attack. Try to bring the fight to the most open area possible. One of the biggest factors in making the first fight so hard is that the area is so confined. You'll need to know the turf well to be successful. One of the best tacticsagainst a Bouncer is to side step the bull rush because he will go a great distance, then need to stop and turn around. Easier said than done obviously. When Mr. Bubbles is finally unable to wake up, backtrack to get any remaining health packs, ADAM upgrades, and special ammo before moving on to Neptune's Bounty. Alternate strategy: In the event that both turrets and possibly the security bot are destroyed by the time this fight begins, you'll need a different strategy. This happened on my second attempt to choose the impossible and I found a less efficeint but safer option which still should be able to work even if they are still there. Carefully approach the Little Sister while she is busy gathering. Keep far enough away to avoid getting attention though. Carefully line up the shot and fire all six rounds in the Big Daddy's face as fast as you can and you will have successfully made him angry. Since you won't like him when he's angry, take off running the second you need to reload because he will be preoccupied with making sure the LS is safe for the momement. Head into Twilight Fields. He may be looking for you in the central pavillion area and therefore will need to be drawn into this section. You may find that he will unable to find you unless to come out again, but there are worse predicaments than having to slowly wear him down from a different room. When and if you can get him into this area run into the back room and jump into the drawer that the guy was hiding in before. Once you're safely out of his reach for good you can finish him off with your shotgun. Since he can't get you unless your right on the edge using regular buckshot may not be a bad idea. Another alternate strategy courtesy of Mark Dorney: This tactic, though somewhat underhand, has worked for me several times, and I rarely sustain a hit. Basically, you need to go to the door located quite close to the first Daddy. Shoot him once, and run through the door and corridor, taking you to the entrance of the Medical pavilion (you may have to stun him with a plasmid to slow him down). From here, you can simply jump on to the hanging medical pavillion sign and there's nothing he can do about it. You can just chip away at him with whatever weapon you please, though he won't always be in your line of sight so patience may be required. The only problems are ensuring he follows you into the pavillion lobby and doesn't hang about outside the door. Also, it's rather difficult to describe, but stay on the far side of the sign so that there is a small barrier between you and him to ensure absolute safety. I guarantee you, it will save a lot of bother. Give it a try, you won't regret it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NEPTUNE'S BOUNTY The 1st Tennenbaum gift is found on this level. It contains: 200 ADAM Hypnotize Big Daddy 12 Armor piercing pistol rounds Lower wharf: Just after you finished the first big test, it's time for the second: your first Rosie. In many ways this battle is easier than the first. 1) You will be stronger for this fight (If you've spent your ADAM properly). 2) The arena for this battle is of the most wide open in the whole game which is a stark contrast to your first encounter with the foul smelling palooka in a diving suit. 3) There are a large number of splicers in the area foolish enough to pick a fight with this Big Daddy for a decent amount of 3rd party damage. 4) There are turrets on each end of the arena which can be hacked while the splicers and BD are preoccupied with one another. Both of which will do some damage to Rosie. Basic tips: I usually start by using TK to grab the tank underneath the dock and hurling it at the Big Daddy. Then I run back behind the metal sheet for cover and grab the barrels to do the same. Rosies fighting styles are more along the lines of more traditional shooter enemies. He fires his rivet gun, strafes, throws a grenade, repeat. Oversimplification I know, but it does give you the opportunity to shoot, get behind cover to reload and return fire. Long-range weapons work better than the shotgun since Rosies tend to keep their distance when at all possible. If you insist on going to Peach William's hideout to grab the grenade launcher first, fine. I prefer to wait because a) doing so reduces the possibility of the Little Sister still being around when you come back and b) you'll need it later. You can carry some of the tanks next to the GG in the nearby area for extra heavy artillery as well. Additional strategies for Big Daddies in this area: If he decides to go up the ramp which eliminates your cover, shoot him with electric buck and run through the door to the other section of the lower wharf. Work your way into the area with the GG and Gene Swap Bank which will be good cover from any direction. Do NOT try drawing him into this area unless the RPG turret is hacked. This way you won't have to worry about an additional distraction but he will. Another tip courtesy of Mark Dorney: In the Lower Wharf area, head to the bottom of the staircase that takes you to the first aid station. Near here you should be able to drop in to the sewers (where you acquire the 'Fontaine Must Go' tape). Shoot the Daddy and run here; drop down, but don't go into the sewer. If you stand here (don't crouch) so that you can just see above you the Daddy will often be unable to attack you and simply run back and forth for you to shoot at your leisure. Meeting Peach: Go to Peach's, get whatever item's you can carry. One extra tip, if there is anything on the conveyor belt that you can't take at first, use TK carry to pick them up and put on the floor for later. I've seen times when they disappear during the time between when the Spider splicer attacks and when Peach gives you the launcher. Don't bother fighting the splicer here (Rose is her name from what I've learned), you'll just waste ammo. Dodge her attacks until Peach sends the bot to chase her away and get going. Don't forget to pull down some of the stuff like health packs in the ceiling hole. 2nd Rosie fight: This will most likely take place in the upper wharf area overlooking where you fought the first Rosie. There will probably be some splicers already fighting him, but they will deal very little 3rd party damage. Use the chaos as cover to collect items and move on to hack the RPG turret. This WILL deal some damage to him. It might not hurt to move onto the area behind the gate to pick up extra frag grenades (one on the ledge above the vending machine and one behind the boxes up the stairs past the 2nd camera.) One valuable advantage of this is that Rosie will have time to kill off the splicers. Taking down a Big Daddy alone is a monumental task, having splicers attacking you as well makes the job almost impossible. If you want, you can let the first camera catch you (it's hard to avoid & hack anyway, I usually just shoot it down) then use the bot shutdown panel to hack the security bots sent after you. Now to the actual fight: Approach from behind the area with the pipes and the RPG turret. Let it fire off a couple rounds and don't actually engage Rosie until he has finished it off. You don't want to get caught in the crossfire. Wait until he's walking away to start launching grenades at him. Try to use the maximum amount since reloading takes some time and if you do it right he won't be able to counter-attack. Once they are gone duck behind the wall of pipes to switch to the 2 proximity mines you picked up in the double doors area prior to this. If your aim is good they will hit him and explode on contact. Switch to armor piercing pistol rounds and get a few shot in between the cracks of this good but not great cover. After about a clip or two Rosie will move around one end to get a clear shot. Back around the other end and head towards the big spool the middle of this area. Empty your clip along the way. Now that your at an area with better cover but more close quarters, switch to electric buckshot. Move around the spool (or from one side to the other since he's not dumb enough to play this game for long) and unload at every round you have. Beware melee attacks at this close range. If he's still not dead (entirely plausible) try to head to the double doors area. An ideal time would be if he is on the far side of the spool and you've used your last electric buckshot round (or at least need to reload.) Once you've made it to this area get behind the second door and duck behind the wall area by the rest of the hall since you NEVER want to be backed into a corner against a Big Daddy no matter how close to death he may be. This part is interesting. The small wall area gives you surprisingly good cover from rivet gun shots and will keep the door open. Rosie will stay behind the other door (open though) and keep alternating between gun and proximity grenade attacks. My guess is that he's smart enough to realize chasing an enemy hiding behind a closed door is probably walking into a trap. Equip Telekinesis. Duck behind the wall area and let him fire a couple rounds then step back into the open. If he looks like he's going to use the gun again, get back behind cover. The tell for gun attack is he's holding his gun like he's going to fire it. The tell for the grenade attack is that his left hand reaches behind his back to throw. Easy, right? When you see the grenade attack coming use TK to grab and return to sender. Rinse, wash, repeat until Mr. Bubbles is hung out to dry. Note: I generally wouldn't recommend the Hot Potato strategy on Rosies too often other than on this level because in most areas where there is a greater distance between you, he will have time to pick up the gun and fire again. Additional strategy for any BD battles in the Upper Wharf area: I've learned you can work as a team with the hacked RPG turret instead of just letting it get in whatever shots it can. Start by attacking the Big Daddy by yourself (preferably with any grenades you have) and draw him into the line of turret fire. This way a missile or two will hit him before he focuses on it instead of you. Once he turns his attention to the turret switch over to the shotgun and have it equipped with electric buckshot. Shoot him to both hurt him and freeze him in place. As long as he cannot attack the turret will be able to continue launching missiles at him which will finish him quickly. Recommended Gatherers Gardens purchase: Plasmid Slot if you have at least 100 ADAM, otherwise health upgrade. Wharf master�s Office: Below is a rudimentary map of the automated enemies on this level. Key: ^: Entrance X: Destination MT: Machine gun turret RT: RPG turret C: Camera ]------------------] [ ] X ]RT [ ]--------- ------] [ ] MT C RT [ ] ------ ------ [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] ------ ------ [ ] RT [ ] ^ ------------------[ Attack strategy: Start with the MT in upper left. Return to entrance and hack RT in lower left. Hack RT in corner. Wait for the Camera to looking right before hacking RT near destination. Hug the wall and hack the camera. While you're in this area some splicers will show up, but if you've hacked the cameras & turrets they should take care of them for you. Don't forget to get the cash from the dead Big Daddy in the left cell, the Eve in the right cell and the med kits in the corner. Crawl through the hole by the door to get the goodies (highlighted by 2 heat seeking missiles in the safe) in the room. Proceed forward to get the camera and get started on the pictures mission. If you are fully stocked on health kits and the other items in the final room here, this is a great opportunity to use the carry technique to drop them down to the next level since you can't get back here after the explosion. Photo mission: Grab the Security Bullseye and tag the idiot jumping in from of the security camera. Once the bots have taken care of him (now would be a good time to take a picture or two) crawl down and head over to the next area. Whether you decide to go Jet Postal or The Fighting McDonough's first is up to you. One tip when you head to The Fighting McDonough's is to have the camera equipped right away. You can get a picture of the spider splicer there in the first second if you're ready. Before entering Peach's Fortress take care of Rose (and get some pictures of her as well). She has mini-boss health but if you have ant machine gun rounds she shouldn't be too much trouble. The rewards (including 2 auto-hack tools and 3 Eve hypos) are well worth the effort. Peach: Since this battle must be done primarily with plasmids, I guess I should give recommendations for plasmids. Incinerate is the obvious choice because you'll need it to advance to the next area. Electrobolt is needed for disabling the turret and toaster in the tub. Telekinesis is useful since Peach is a Nitro splicer. Depending on how many slots you have, Security Bullseye and/or Enrage can prove useful. While the fog is surrounding you and Peach is talking, hack the CoV, med station, and camera. Use the auto hack tools you have to save time since there will be plenty lying around shortly. Get ready to hack the turret once the fog clears. Start by equipping Incinerate and start firing away. Even if you miss Peach or one of the other splicers your odds of hitting something like the oil slick or some of the many frozen areas are really good. If you happen to see anyone on fire and happen to be near the pool of water get electrobolt ready for when they dive in. Since the alarm is bound to be going off during the duration of this battle slap SB on Peach so that the bots will focus on him and you can deal with the rest of the enemies. This will make avoiding crossfire easier. If you�re near any barrels lying around (there will be some frozen in ice as well) pick one up and throw it at Peach or anyone in view but at a safe distance. You don't want to be too close to any explosion and a flying barrel will deal damage even if it doesn't explode. When you go downstairs you'll see your first Power to the People machine. I would suggest choosing the damage immunity for the grenade launcher option. Smuggler�s Hideout: This is another level where the carry function comes in handy. Head down towards the submarine. Hack or shoot the turret, the only gain of hacking the turret here is the chance to get 4 photos of it without getting shot. If you have all 9 health packs & hypos grab the one of each and carry them to the room with the switch. Once you flip the switch the door shuts and there is no going back. Before you flip the switch I would also recommend hacking the health station outside and pulling one of the tanks nearby so that you can grab it easily in the next part. Once the scene is done grab the tank head out the door and shoot it at the spider splicer. A direct hit should take care of it right away. Run down the hallway and ignite the oil slick. The fire should hold off any backup, but you should still have a gun ready to take care of anyone still shooting. You'll probably want to set the slick on fire again for the second wave. Another advantage of staying up the stairs is that if you take any damage the health station is right there to heal. After the fire burns out go down the stairs and take a right. Pick up an unexploded tank and go down the next set of stairs. Fire it off at the first splicer to show up. If you do it right it will take care of any other nearby since the explosion should also detonate the cache of tanks near the bottom. Run down towards the submarine. Once it explodes that should be the end but keep on your toes. Once the coast is clear go grab the stuff you left upstairs, the cash on the ground and whatever else you want. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ARCADIA The contents of Tennenbaum's gift found on this level contain: 200 ADAM Safecracker 12 Electric Buck Open up the tomb with incinerate and collect the loot inside. Follow the arrow and the calls of the first Houdini splicer in the game with camera equipped. This way you'll be able to get 3-4 good snapshots of him before he decides to fight. Equip the machine gun with ant rounds (by now should know they are the most effective against all splicers) to make easy work of him. Move on across the bridge to the next room. Grab a barrel to take care of the leadhead on the balcony across the way. Get the camera ready for your first chance to take a picture of your oldest foe, the thuggish splicer. Try to draw the splicers in the next room back into the previous one to avoid the turret. Once finished off, hack the turret and go up the crawlspace. Open the door with electrobolt to collect the items inside then head back to the room with trap bolts. After walking in a scripted sequence between Saturnine and another splicer, head to the U-Invent and start crafting whatever specialty ammo you need. Next is the first Big Daddy of this level. Main recommendations: Use the SB/fail a hack trick for 3rd party damage, grab the missiles in the Waterfall Grotto U-I if you want, use electric buckshot. If you head into the Waterfall Grotto after this fight it will make life a lot easier when you need to come back later. "Get the Rose of Gallagher" mission: During this mission the Tree Farm will become accessible. More specifically, the PttP machine there will be available. You can use this now, but I would strongly advise waiting until after you have the chemical thrower. Get the Rose and take it back to Dr. Langford. Hack the turrets and camera now that they are no longer friendly to you and go to the Farmer's Market. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FARMER'S MARKET Mind the RPG turret to the right. Might not hurt to slap SB on the Houdini Splicer so that the turret will take care of him for you. After hacking the turret go down the stair to the CoV and U-I to get the Eve Link 2 tonic. If you've collected all the electric gel (including the tank behind the gated off area with the key code) and hacked the various cameras and turrets, you'll find out just how much easier dealing with BD is from this point on. Bee Room: ***Tangent*** When you use the smoker control it locks the exit to this room, yet during this time splicers continue to spawn behind you. I know this is to give a degree of difficulty to this section but kind of a big glitch for a game that so carefully crafted every other game mechanic and plot detail. ***End Tangent*** This is my least favorite section of the game, and therefore probably one of the reasons I've never been a fan of the Insect Swarm plasmid. There is a safe on the left hand side with two enzyme samples that will save a lot of time searching. You can get some extra samples for making tonics on the next level if you want. Winery: This area isn't too difficult if you approach it right. Hack everything on the first level and crawl down into the trap bolt guarded room with the large assortment of items. Get every distilled water sample you can get as it becomes a valuable commodity for electric gel and other items that must be built. Don't miss the PttP machine down here either. Deploying the Lazarus Vector: In the main room with the Vita-Chamber, etc. a splicer will cut through the area that looks like a door on the right hand side, take her out and move on. Another will then do the same opposite that spot. Let the turret take of him. Close the door, take the items in the Pneumo, and stick a couple proxy mines by the door and head to one of the cut out spots for your stand. I'd suggest the one with the turret in front of it. Now would also be a good time to use Hypnotize Big Daddy (just be sure not to have Static Discharge equipped). Get in the corner area and use him for a shield. He won't attack them unless they hurt you so you'll still have to do most of the work. Have whatever ant ammo you have and aim carefully. If one of your shots hit him you're dead meat. The last Houdini will have some great loot including some heat-seeking missiles and 3 Eve hypos. Before moving onto the next level stock up on film since it is in short supply there and you will be needing it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FORT FROLIC Tennenbaum gift contents: 200 ADAM Hypnotize Big Daddy 2 4 First Aid Kits Build whatever tonics you want/can and some electric gel and other ammo before heading to the bathysphere on the other side. If static discharge is one of your equipped tonics, it is very easy to have security bots sent after you for vandalizing the display cases with First Aid kits and Eve Hypos during the opening fight with the Spider splicers. This is actually a blessing in disguise. Tag one with SB so that the focus not on you and smash whichever one is still intact with your wrench. This way you can retrieve the items without having to worry about summoning them again. Make sure a splicer has the security bullesye on him throughout the duration of the alarm. You might want to explore are the immediately accessible sections of this level (like the PttP station) before running Sander Cohen's errands. Get the Alarm Expert tonic on the balcony in Fleet Hall if you want it. Leaving it avoids a fight with a Houdini Splicer. At this point Cohen gives gifts for each picture you add to his masterpiece. These gifts do give you a second chance to collect their contents unlike Tennenbaum's gifts, but unless you take everything by the time you add the next photo the results are the same. Nevertheless, this is what rewards are after the crossbow: 1st: 10 Antipersonnel Machine Gun Rounds, $30, and 3 First Aid Kits 2nd: 5 Electric Buck, $30, and 20 Electric Gel 3rd: Medical Expert 2, access to the projection booth and next level You can kill Martin Finnegan with one crossbow shot to the head. Only downside is that the rest of the sculptures shatter and you can't get anything off of them. I haven't found a strategy quite as efficient for Silas Cobb, but the old standards like Hot Potato still get the job done. You can try freezing Hector Rodriquez to keep him from running awaym but it won't work. You can try setting proximity mines ortrap bolts outside the exit or using Enrage on nearby enemies. Worst case scenario is having to chase him around for a while. Once the mission is complete, run up to the now accessible projection booth area in Fleet Hall. Not only will this give you something to do while Cohen is admiring his/your work, the tonic Electric Flesh is found here. By the time you get back Medical Expert 2 should be available as well. During this level there is a PttP in the basement of Sinclair Spirits that, along with another area can only be accessed by activating the switch behind the bar. While the payoff is too great to pass up, accessing this area spawns a large number of silent spider splicers whose only purpose in life seems to be hunting down and killing you. You can minimize the effect of this by waiting until right before you are ready to move onto the next level to cover this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ HEPHAETUS Tennenbaum Gift: 200 ADAM 4 Eve Hypos 6 Proximity Mines Starting with this level many splicers begin to employ the tactic of ambushing you by pretending to be dead. Be on your toes and if you go back to an area you've been to and notice a body lying there that you don't remember, put a crossbow bolt in its head before getting any closer. Don't loot the corpse of whatever Big Daddies you kill in this level until you reach Kyburt's secret area. This way their R-34 wires will still be available whenever the time for them comes. Heat-loss monitoring: In the hall leading to this area is the first big ambush. You'll know its coming because the lights will go out and you'll hear a commotion in the background a couple times. Pick up one of the many explosive tanks and throw into the middle of the group. Sticking a proximity mine in the area in advance can help too. In the main room on the left hand side next to the far wall there is a crate with two wheel like objects by it. Jump onto that and walk up the pipe to the hidden area up top. In addition to the massive cache of goodies up there, this position gives you a substantial tactical advantage for a fight with splicers and especially the Big Daddy is this area. Workshops: The first objective of this level should be to hack the turret upstairs and the two guarding Kyburt's office downstairs. In the event that the Big Daddy patrolling this area turns on you or if you need an extra R-34 wire, one of the crawlspaces downstairs are safe places to camp out and take him down. Most of the items you need for the bomb are nearby. Geothermal Core: This area is pretty easy if you've hacked the turrets on each side. Planting three proximity mines on by each door helps, and you might as well use whatever you have since there are six in the crate by the elevator. After the bomb goes off, an alarm goes off so use SB to throw the bots off your trail. Any Big Daddy that may be in the area and/or the guy playing possum outside the exit to the tunnel toward Ryan's office are both good candidates for whom to apply the bullseye. Having electrical buckshot equipped to deal with either Ryan's security bots or any that splicers may send after you will help. The fire/water/shock trick will only be effective here if you've upgraded Electrobolt. If you still have the original version, I would recommend making your stand in the narrow hallway with the med station at arms length. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ryan's Office: Nothing in particular to advise here other than get whatever items available and fill your wallet since you can't come back. ***Tangent*** If Frank Fontaine's plan for assassinating Andrew Ryan isn't the most elaborate scheme in history (fictional or otherwise), it has to be in the top 5. Step 1: Purchase illegitimate son of Andrew Ryan. This plan couldn't use just any kid to be successful. Somehow he knew that only someone with Ryan's DNA would be able to use Bathysphere's and Vita-Chambers by the time the wheels of this plan were in full motion. Step 2: Genetically alter child so that it a) has planted memories b) can be used as a puppet with the right trigger phrase c) would develop into a full grown man with-in a span of slightly over two years and d) has a built in self-destruct mechanism. Step 3: Fake own death to throw Ryan and any other enemies of his trail. Step 4: Create Atlas persona around which the vast majority of Rapture could use as a leader and rally behind. Step 5: Arrange for programmed assassin to highjack a trans-Atlantic flight and crash the plane at the specific coordinates of Rapture. (The odds of this being successful combined with the odds of Jack surviving are so low that I can't believe Fontaine didn't think of a safer albeit less dramatic means for his ace-in-the-hole to arrive in Rapture) Step 6: Use Atlas persona to guide assassin towards goal and provide enough motivation for killing Ryan that trigger phrase may not even be necessary. Step 7: Have assassin commit suicide once his job is complete. I'm aware this synapses isn't 100% accurate but it still illustrates just how complicated this plan was. Kind of goes against the rational that the best plans are the most simple plans doesn't it? ***End Tangent*** Tennenbaum's Safehouse: Pick up the Eve Hypo and Health pack if you can carry them. There is usually a screw in the crate in the water opposite the Eve hypo and some more components in the lock box next to the girls playing hopscotch. (I like to take the pep bars on the table whether I need it or not just for the reaction.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OLYMPUS HEIGHTS Tennenbaum Gift: 200 ADAM Armored Shell 2 12 Incendiary Bolts Try not to waste too much time because Fontaine will continue to drain your health with "Code Yellow." You can take care of both Litter Sisters on this level before even venturing beyond the diner area. Hacking the camera and turrets makes this a lot easier. Cohen's Apartment: Napalm will finish of the dancers quickly to get Sander to open up the upstairs area. The fastest method I've found for dealing with Cohen is to freeze him as he's running down the stairs and shoot him in the head with the crossbow. (Neither him nor any of his disciples will shatter since they intend for you to take a picture afterward.) If you can't freeze him ant rounds will get the job done. Suchong's Apartment: In addition to the goal item, don't miss the Clever Inventer tonic and various components and items found throughout the place. Tennenbaum's Apartment: Get what you need and move on. If you don't unlock the main door on the lower floor you'll avoid fight. Fontaine's Apartment: You can't avoid the camera so just grab your crossbow and snipe it. Don't miss Electric Flesh 2 or the items in the trunk behind the polar bear. Plasmids are unreliable after you get the Lot 192, so try to get back down to the bulkhead to Apollo Square as quickly as possible. There is no rule that says you have to stand and fight every enemy you come across. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- APOLLO SQUARE Tennenbaum Gift: 200 ADAM Prolific Inventor 150 Liquid Nitrogen Almost right away on this level there is a large group of splicers pretending to be dead, but don't worry, you are not who they're trying to trick. A Little Sister happens to be nearby and thinks they're "Angels". It would be in your best interest to stay behind cover like the tipped over train car until the fight is over. There are actually enough heavily armmed splicers here that their 3rd party damage will make the Big Daddy easy pickings for you. Since your plasmids can't be counted on until you get the other sample of Lot 192 in Suchong's lab, don't get preoccupied with any enemies or exploration. You also can't use the GG machines until you've stabilized so there is no need to look for the other Little Sister until afterward anyway. Have the liquid nitrogen ready for any turrets you come across, don't forget to hack the cameras either. At this point an alarm sends a large enough wave of security bots that they can almost take down a Big Daddy. You don't want any coming after you. Suchong's lab: The camera in the square by this area is hard to approach without it seeing you. There are also usually a couple splicers here so slipping by unnoticed is usually not an option anyway. This is another case where just shooting it down may be your best option. The entrance to the lab is guarded by a camera, trap bolt, and turret. Before you enter have the liquid nitrogen ready. Open the door and go through when the camera pans away. Jump over the trap bolt and freeze the turret. The area by the turret is a blind spot for the camera, so wait for it to look back the other way before hacking. Head to the back room for the other Lot 192 sample to complete your objective. Don't forget Medical Expert 3 on the other side of the lab either. Now that your health is restored and you can control your plasmids, you can explore the area at your leisure. Heading back to Olympus Heights to check out some of the less key areas doesn't hurt either. Fontaine's Home for the Poor: The other place of interest on this level is right behind the target destination for reaching the next level. In addition to the PttP station, there are large amounts of valuable munitions and often times the 2nd Little Sister on this level can be found here. Be warned, just about any body on the ground not covered in blood won't stay put unless you nail them to the floor with a crossbow bolt. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- POINT PROMETHIOUS Tennenbaum Gift: 200 ADAM 100 Anti-Personnel Machine Gun Rounds 4 First Aid Kits Get some electric buckshot ready to take care of the security bots Fontaine sends after you while he's making his escape. There is no fixed order for taking the three different steps towards becoming a Big Daddy. I tend to start with assembling the suit since a) some of the components are can be picked up on the way to the entrance to the different areas and b) the body suit works as armor. Fail-Safe Armored Escorts: Head through the door on the right and go to the area with the row of suits. After you grab that get a helmet, but don't forget to scour the area for items including the massive collection of artillery and items in the locked off room and other areas. Optimized Eugenics: Avoiding the camera by either entrance is near impossible in the likely event of enemies, so destroying one in lieu of hacking it is okay here. The one in the electrified room is impossible regardless so just shoot it down. Little Wonders Educational Facility: There is a pheromone sample in a teddy bear in one of the room, you still want cover the other areas for the items and so forth. Once you have completed the transformation, now is as good time as any to head back to previous levels for various errands such as retrieving the contents of Sander Cohen's Muse box or covering any Health/Eve upgrades that may have been missed along the way. You can cover any area without fear of being attacked now, since splicers will not bother you because as Dr. Suchong said, "once Big Daddy ready, nobody cross Big Daddy." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROVING GROUNDS You don't have to worry too much here. Your main objective is to protect the Little Sister and even if you fail to do so another will still respawn for you. The cameras will not consider you a threat at this point, so whether or not you choose to hack them is your call. You will still want to take care of the turrets and med stations as doing so will make your job a lot easier. Most of your time should be spent setting traps since you are about to be overrun from multiple directions. Use what ever trap bolts (max 10 at once), proximity mines and Cyclone Trap (if you bought it) you have to secure perimeters. Have whatever ant ammo you have equipped to take care of whoever makes it past the traps. During the part with the long stretch of deep water, three shots of Electrobolt 3 will take care of the whole group. If the Little Sister happens to die during one of the later sections, proceed forward alone. The Bouncer will still come through the wall at the end and taking care of him is easier when you don't have to worry about collateral damage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SHOWDOWN WITH FRANK FONTAINE ***Tangent*** I've found myself wondering why Fontaine out of character uses grammar on par with someone who only finished elementary school. When he was playing the role of Atlas he spoke eloquently. Why wouldn't a professional con artist who obviously knows proper English use it in everyday life? He's not just an actor reading a script, he's writing the script. Wouldn't it be easier to pretend to be someone who doesn't speak properly than vice-versa? Since his speech gets worse later in the game (which coincides with him practically overdosing on ADAM) my best theory is that the ADAM probably rotted his mind. ***End tangent*** This is the easiest section for a detailed walkthrough since it's the only part of the game that exists in a vacuum. The arena will always be the same and the AI follows a scripted set of events. It is also the only part of the game that is exactly the same as it is in standard mode. Get the last Health and Eve upgrade at the Gatherer's Gardens if you still have at least 160 ADAM. Make sure that you stop at the Gene Swap Bank to get everything in order. What you equip here makes a huge difference. Physical tonics recommended: Medical Expert 1, 2, & 3 Eve Link 1 & 2 Whatever else you want, Sportsboost 2 is a good call Engineering tonics: Don't really matter as far as the fight is concerned, but be sure to have Clever and Prolific Inventor equipped before heading to the U-Invent. The most important ammunition for this boss fight needs to be built and you'll want to be able to have as much as you can possibly carry. Combat tonics: Electric Flesh 1 & 2 Armored Shell 1 & 2 Static Discharge 1 & 2 As far as plasmids are concerned... Hypnotize Big Daddy: Obviously worthless here. Insect Swarm: Minimal if any benefit. Sonic Boom: Worthless again Fontaine, you can use it against splicers but should be focusing on Fontaine. Cyclone Trap: Ditto. Electrobolt: Doesn't do much actual damage. Telekinesis: Little available to throw at him. Target Dummy: Honestly, I've never tried using this here. I can't imagine Fontaine being fooled by it. Winter Blast: Ineffective when he's in his ice form. With the right tonics and ammo equipped, you can make easy work of Fontaine with only 3 Plasmids: 1) Security Bullseye 2) Enrage 3) Incinerate Stock up on as much ammo as you can carry but the most important is electric gel. Second most important ammo is heat seeking missiles. Equip both on the chemical thrower and grenade launcher respectively. Electric buckshot, incendiary bolts, and both anti-personnel rounds are what I would recommend as Plan B ammo. Round 1: Fry him with the electric gel as soon as he leaves his chair thing. A full tank should drain all but a sliver of his health. A couple shotgun rounds should take care of the rest. Reload the electric gel before draining his ADAM. Round 2: Fontaine will summon security bots. Tag him with Security Bullseye so they attack him instead of you. Hit him with electric gel again. If the bots have been shooting him you may still have some left over for round three. Round 3: If the alarm is still going off, hit him with Security Bullseye again. If you still have any gel left, use it. At this point splicers will join the fight. Enrage one or more so that they will leave you alone and possibly go after Fontaine. Now set him on fire with Incinerate. This won't do much actual damage but... it makes him a magnet for heat seeking missiles. Once he's done go up and drain his ADAM. There are other methods for taking down the down the man most responsible for Rapture's transformation from utopia to dystopia, but I have yet to find an easier one. Congratulations, you've won! Enjoy the Gold trophy for this accomplishment and the Platinum trophy that may also now have if you've accomplished everything else except this already. =============================================================================== TOUGH GUY ON SURVIVOR Complete Bioshock on Survivor difficulty without Vita-Chambers using only plasmids, tonics, the wrench and the research camera. Rather than making a completely separte guide for this I decided to include this with an update due to the self-referential nature of this guide. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION Two things inspired me to try to see if this could be done. First, I enjoyed doing Tough Guy runs on the Worlds of Hurt challenge room enough that I wanted to see if completing the standard game in a similar fashion was possible. http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps3/file/931330/55800 Second, the nearing release of Resident Evil 5 has gotten me thinking about Resident Evil 4 which still may be my all time favorite game. Playing that reminded me of two of my favorite game guides: http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/925156/40537 http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/925156/41017 Remembering the great challenge attempting to emulate that got me thinking about making a similar challenge for Bioshock. I had a reasonable hunch that beating this game using only a melee weapon would be much less of a monumental task than it is in most games for a number of reasons. 1) First and foremost is the presence of plasmids. Plasmids give you the ability to employ ranged attacks and overall variety of attacks and strategies. 2) Tonics Wrench Jockey 1 & 2 Wrench Lurker 1 & 2 Frozen Field 1 & 2 Sports Boost 1 & 2 Bloodlust Nine separate tonics devoted to increasing the viability of the wrench as a primary weapon. That�s not including the dozens of other tonics that reduce the damage you take and/or increase the damage you deal. 3) The Environment Enemies fight amongst themselves. Security systems can be made to attack the very people they were designed to protect. Everywhere you go there is something nearby just waiting to explode or electrocute someone. Stuff like exploding barrels have been a video game staple for years but the entirety of Rapture is designed to be exploited with plasmids. 4) Research Enemies and levels getting progressively tougher towards the end is a given in a video game and no different here. Most games also give the player the ability to level up their character as they progress to negate at least some of the increased difficulty. Not being able to level up your weapons or attacks is what makes these challenges so difficult in the first place. Use of the camera and tonics can negate much of the increased health of later level enemies making you less overpowered at the end here than is normally the case. 5) Flexible Bosses You don�t technically HAVE to fight many Big Daddies to make it through Rapture in one piece. Of course you are probably going to want to for ADAM, but the important thing to remember is that you get to choose when, where, and how to deal with them (if you do at all). Of the end level bosses with a fixed arena only Fontaine presents a significant challenge without conventional weapons. I�ve already described how Steinman can be handled in this manner and Peach requires this strategy anyway. Sander Cohen can be ignored altogether. 6) It�s not hard to avoid confrontation. This is an extension of two other factors described above. First, hacking cameras and turrets will eliminate some enemies that try to sneak up behind you. Second, taking certain routes or not taking certain actions will reduce the number of enemies you have to face thus making staying alive easier. I�ll explain some of the specific examples in the walkthrough. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GENERAL TIPS AND TRICKS Most of the same general strategies outlined can still be employed. The following are specific to this challenge. Hacking is still important but less so here. Your wallet will be overflowing from not having to buy ammunition so saving money is less of a priority for the vending machines. You will still want to hack every turret and health station, but the only reason to hack many things is for the Hacker�s Delight bonus. Just buying out some hacks to save time and free up wallet space is understandable as well. There are several cameras or vending machines you will want to leave un-hacked just so they be used for the fail a hack trick later. You are going to abuse the hell out of the fail a hack trick. You don�t need to save the Little Sisters. One of the main reasons I generally recommend saving Little Sisters is because of the ammos and tonics received from the gifts. However, if you aren�t using weapons specialty ammos aren�t needed. Of top of that Engineering tonics like Safecracker and Prolific Inventor aren�t as necessary. You will still want Hypnotize Big Daddy (it is more useful here) so you will still need to save some. I saved Little Sisters all the way up to receiving the Armored Shell 2 gift and had ADAM for all the Health/Eve upgrades, needed slots, plasmid upgrades, etc. and had still had plenty to spare. One important tip for saving ADAM is to not buy Engineering slots. Speedy Hacker and Security Expert 2 are the only tonics you will really need. Research will make hacking bots and turrets automatic and auto-hack tools will be just about the only thing being built at U-Invents to make everything else fail proof too. =============================================================================== Tactics for dealing with different enemies with just the wrench and plasmids. Some staples like throwing an explosive barrel with Telekinesis work for everything. Hacking is still the best option for anything mechanical. Thuggish Splicer: Standard clubbing matches will get the job done on one. The 1-2 punch will do significant damage and finish off most with existing damage. Toaster in the Tub is an instant kill for the first couple levels and is particularly effective against groups. Incinerate will slowly wear down their health or at the very least set up fire/water/shock. Leadhead Splicer: Plasmids are more effective than clubbing because leadheads try to keep their distance. The 1-2 punch will need to be used multiple times to take care of one with full health. Incinerate is probably the most effective direct method. One shot will mostly cook them if they can�t find water and if they do you know what to do. Nitro Splicer: Hot potato is a slow but safe and effective way of eliminating a single splicer. If you can Enrage one in the presence of a Big Daddy he will do some decent damage to the Big Daddy before he gets pounded into the ground. Try to avoid clubbing or using the 1-2 punch when their health is low because they may drop a live grenade. Incinerate is not effective against the Molotov variety, but still can lure them into water. Homemade Molotov cocktails (setting a bottle of alcohol on fire with Incinerate and throwing it with Telekinesis) isn�t a bad strategy for groups of other types of splicers. Spider Splicer: Electrobolt will bring down any that are on the ceiling or set up the 1-2 punch. Static Discharge also sets up a fairly effective club strike. Incinerate is also effective for a slow death. You can catch their hooks and throw them back but I wouldn�t recommend it because they usually throw more than one at a time. Houdini Splicer: Plasmids in general seem less effective against Houdini splicers probably because they use them themselves and the wrench is hard to rely on because they are always teleporting. You can catch their attacks and return them to sender but, like with spider splicers, not a recommended strategy because of the multiple projectiles. Incinerate will slowly wear them down as is the case with other splicers. Toaster in the tub will take several shots to do the job. Winter Blast will hold them in place but at the cost of not having a corpse to loot when they are dead. The most effective method is probably to shock them immediately after they materialize and then hit them with the 1-2 punch. Bouncers: The wrench will not to any noticeable damage no matter what tonics you have, so don�t use it for anything other than a final blow. Electrobolt will just freeze him in place and slightly increase the effectiveness of the wrench, but still is useful for escaping or Tag Team. Incinerate does some damage, but not nearly enough to rely on. Insect Swarm is amazingly the best plasmid (not counting TK with an explosive barrel) for doing direct damage to any Big Daddy. How bee stings can hurt a guy that is basically an armored suit is beyond my understanding, but it worked in the trailer and it actually works here. It will be a long, slow process, but it can eventually get the job done. I wouldn�t really recommend this as anything other than a means to finish off some on the later levels. In fact, I would suggest waiting until the third version is available and you have Natural Camouflage before employing this tactic. The Big Daddy vs. Big Daddy method another a slow but reliable means of killing one and weakening another. You might want to Enrage some splicers in the area of one to take some of Big Daddy 1�s health if you plan on using a variation of the Newell method. The most reliable means for dealing with all Big Daddy types without weapons is to abuse the fail a hack trick. Also keep in mind the safer variation of applying Security Bullseye on a Big Daddy in view of a camera. Rosies: More or less all the means for dealing with Bouncers can be applied to Rosies. The main difference is that the Tag Team method works well on the Neptune�s Bounty and Arcadia levels and you can also use Hot Potato. =============================================================================== PLASMID AND TONIC ANALYSIS Much of the rankings for plasmids remain. The only real difference is that there value increases exponentially and you don�t necessarily want to put off buying the upgrades. If there are three versions of a plasmid wait until the final one is available to get it. Doing so saves ADAM and the original will get you by up until that point. Enrage is one that is difficult to pin down a recommendation for. It is more useful here and you definitely want it but putting off buying it until later has its benefits. First, the longer you wait the cheaper it gets. Second, slots take priority over both plasmids and tonics. Not being able to have a plasmid equipped makes it worthless and I still don�t like having to run to the Gene Bank to change up my attacks. It can be worth getting it once you reach the Neptune�s Bounty level and can buy some more slots, but I fully understand any desires to procrastinate. There are some other plasmids I didn�t care for previously but now find essential. First is Insect Swarm 3. Wait towards the end to get it but it will be a big help against Big Daddies and Fontaine. Second is Cyclone Trap 2. This is still not really a viable combat plasmid but is incredibly useful for the Proving Grounds level and other spots when you need to fend of a horde now that you can�t use trap bolts or proximity mines. Sonic Boom can be useful in the later levels but due to it�s high Eve consumption can be passed on. Winter Blast and Target Dummy are two plasmids I wouldn�t recommend buying but are two that you will be happy to see during the time when you can�t control your plasmids. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tonic re-ranking: Since your overall strategy changes dramatically for this I�ll need to completely redo the tonic rankings. One thing to keep in mind (then and now) is that if I think some tonics are close in value as far as practicality goes, the ones that don�t cost any ADAM win out. Combat Tonics: 1) Wrench Jockey Any surprise that this becomes more valuable? 2) Static Discharge Still as valuable as ever. 3) Armored Shell Drops down only because the first version has to be bought when there are not slots available to equip it (without sacrificing spots for the previous two). 4) Wrench Lurker Still has the stealth benefits and the extra damage it does is a lifesaver. 5) Photographer�s Eye Speeds up research and therefore more damage and access to several other good tonics. 6) Damage Research Confirmed that there is an increase in damage done with this equipped. Replace Photographer�s Eye with this once research is complete. 7) Electric Flesh Not being able to use the chemical thrower makes this less practical here. 8) Human Inferno Only this low because it has to be bought. 9) Frozen Field No change here. 10) Machine Buster Here either. ----------------------------- Physical Tonics 1) Hacker�s Delight Still incredibly valuable and all versions are free. 2) Eve Link Would have taken over the #1 spot if the 1st version didn�t have to be bought. 3) SportsBoost The technology to make you faster and more powerful than you were before. 4) Natural Camouflage This can get you out of countless tight situations. Even more valuable now that you are outgunned. 5) Medical Expert Anything that helps keep you alive is a good thing. 6) Bloodlust I was expecting to absolutely fall in love with this tonic during this run. It does work if you don�t use the 1-2 punch. Makes the cut if you don�t use the combination of SportsBoost 1 & 2. 7) Eve Saver Still can be useful for certain situations. 8) Scrounger When you don�t need ammunition, most components, and are rarely short on cash, this really isn�t needed at all. 9) Boozehound It can be used for a one shot Eve refill, but other than that no need to build this before Bloodlust or Hacker�s Delight 2. 10) Security Evasion Still not necessary. 11) Extra Nutrition Still not necessary either. ----------------------------------- Engineering Tonics As stated previously these tonics are far less useful here because you won�t be hacking as many things and will have more cash to spend to use to avoid hacking altogether. To reiterate, save ADAM by not buying slots for these. 1) Speedy Hacker Still the best way to make the hacks you do successful. 2) Security Expert Great when you need to hack bots and turrets early on and cameras later. 3) Clever Inventor It�s free and it saves components when you build auto-hack tools. 4) Safecracker Safes an keypads don�t get any easier to hack here either. So if you choose to hack them this helps. 5) Shorten Alarms This takes a major jump only if you are abusing the fail a hack trick. Sometimes if a Big Daddy is low on health the bots will finish him off quickly and turn your attention to you. If you equip this tonic this potential situation can be avoided. 6) Prolific Inventor If you saved enough Little Sisters to get it, it can still be useful. 7) Hacking Expert Same situation as before. 8) Focused Hacker See the original rankings. 9) Alarm Expert If you plan on using the fail a hack trick, you will want as many alarm tiles as possible. 10) Vending Expert Even less useful when your wallet is always full. =============================================================================== WALKTHROUGH Like in the original walkthrough, this will also be mainly a collection of tips for different sections. Welcome to Rapture: The first part will be exactly the same as normal. The only thing to remember is to NOT take the pistol before going into the restaurant. Kashmir Restaurant: The leadhead splicers here will need multiple several hits with the wrench even if you use the 1-2 punch so be sure to have a full Eve bar before approaching one. Toaster in the Tub is still the most effective method for dealing with multiple enemies of any variety. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Medical Pavilion: During the first part you may accidentally pick up the machine gun that is leaning against the security access switch. That�s okay as long as you don�t use it. Instead of backing into the corner you are better off going out to the open area where the bot can target different enemies without you getting in its way. Out here you can also lure enemies into the water by the bathysphere for electrocution. The rest of the general area can be considered done once the turrets and health stations are hacked. Eternal Flame Crematorium: Get Hacker�s Delight but do NOT hack the camera. The rest of this section can be handled with Incinerate as usual. Twilight Fields: Get Security Expert and deal with the enemies using fire/water/shock or 1-2 punch. Downstairs: Get Telekinesis, Wrench Jockey, and Speedy Hacker and deal with the single enemies as usual. One thing you�ll notice is that if you don�t pick up the shotgun the whole lights out ambush doesn�t happen. Can�t complain about that. Dr. Steinman: It might hurt to deactivate the security bot after you hack it so that it or the turret don�t damage each other. Reactivate it before dealing with Steinman directly. The same strategy used in the general walkthrough works here. Bring one of the tanks with you to save a trip later when you are done. Whether you choose to save or harvest the Little Sister is your call. The only disadvantage of harvesting is having to wait a little longer to get Hypnotize Big Daddy. When you stop at the Gatherer�s Gardens only buy Eve Link if you saved the Little Sister. The reason for this is that all of your existing tonic slots will be filled this way and you will have enough ADAM to get a Plasmid slot after dealing with the next one. Tonic slots will not be available for sale until the Arcadia level so you will have to make due with what you have. If you get Armored Shell you will have to swap out Wrench Jockey or Static Discharge to use it. If you harvested the Little Sister you can also get a health upgrade while you�re here but I�d still recommend saving it for buying a fourth slot. The Big Daddy: Wait until later to deal with this guy. You are completely over matched here and there are other benefits for waiting which will become obvious later. If the bot you got from Dr. Steinman is still intact it may not hurt to make sure that you can get some use out of it and any remaining turrets by hurling a tank at him. If you do this run like crazy to the bathysphere once they are all destroyed. Don�t worry about the message you�ll get about leaving the Little Sister. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Neptune�s Bounty: Don�t directly engage the Rosie at the beginning of this level either. Take care of the turrets let them and the splicers here do their damage. If a leadhead or Nitro splicer starts attacking you from a distance try to position yourself where the Big Daddy will be directly in the line of fire. He will take some damage but also eliminate these threats while ignoring you completely. Move onto the wharf area and hack the turret. It also might not hurt to start moving the explosive barrels by the Gatherer�s Gardens/Gene Bank so that they don�t get blown up or can at least be more easily used later. When the Big Daddy is escorting the Little Sister back to the vent in the hallway is when you want to strike. Grab the tank from underneath the dock and throw it at him. Ideally you will want to be at a spot where the door will close so that he doesn�t blow up the other two tanks. If his first attack is the grenade be sure to throw it back. When the other tanks here are gone run into the area that leads to the GG area. If he throws another grenade grab it but hold on until he comes through the door. Use the other tanks you brought over here to do more damage. If they don�t finish him off switch to Electrobolt and lead him into the center of this area. Use the tag team strategy to finish him. Now would be a good time to get an extra plasmid slot. Head on over to Peach�s but don�t pick up the grenade launcher this time. Upper Wharf: Once again leave the Big Daddy alone at first. Take care of the turret and work your way up to the office area. If by chance you anger him try to milk all you can out of the tag team method and run back to the double doors area for hot potato. I haven�t found a way to reach the camera by the stairs to hack so be careful crossing by here. If you leave it alone you can still use it later so it's not necessarily a bad thing. The turret gauntlet can be done exactly as before. Remember to switch to the wrench immediately after disabling each turret with Electrobolt. If you have Hacker�s Delight you won�t need to refill a single time during this part. Photo mission: Make sure that you keep Security Bullseye equipped from the moment you get it. It will help make things a lot easier. Go to Jet Postal first and stock up on film. The Spider Splicer here is crawling on the wall next to a camera that can�t be reached for hacking. Don�t worry, any items of interest can be grabbed with TK. After you take care of the leadheads move over to where you can see her and stick SB on her. This will trigger an alarm that will at least mostly take care of her and give you a chance to make great gains in your research of spider splicers and security bots. The Fighting McDonough�s one can still be taken right away but you still will want to go in through the underground path for additional research and item gathering. When you are done with the photo mission is a good time to head back to take care of the Bouncer on the previous level. If you attacked him before he still may be looking for you so be careful. Now that you have the camera you can get some early Bouncer and extra Little Sister research done. (See, I told you it would all make sense!) There will also be enough thuggish splicers wandering around here to take enough photos of for SportsBoost and maybe even SportsBoost 2. Head into Eternal Flame and stand in front of the un-hacked camera. There are no alarm tiles I�ve found in any hack-able objects in the first two levels so if you want to set off an alarm this is the only way to do it. Run out when the alarm begins and tag the Bouncer with SB. While they work on him go back to Dr. Steinman�s lair. Pick up any health items that still may be here if you can take them but also bring back another tank. Depending on how much health the Big Daddy has left you may need to make another trip or get a tank or get some from Kure All or Dandy Dental. Once you have at least a couple at you disposal use them to finish him off. If they don�t do the trick a couple 1-2 punches should take care of the last bits. When he is done now wouldn�t be a bad time to get an upgrade at this GG. Heading here will also buy some time for a new Bouncer to spawn. Take some pictures of him to get Wrench Jockey 2. Tips for the remaining Rosies in Neptune�s Bounty: Try to go up to the Wharfmaster�s Office area, you might find a Little Sister up there. If you do using SB to get the camera and all the hacked turrets to turn on the Big Daddy will take care of him easily. Otherwise you can wear the ones in the upper wharf area down by standing in front of the camera and triggering an alarm then finishing them off with tag team. If you have Hypnotize Big Daddy use that to make easy work of the boss spider splicer. Peach: The same strategies given before work because you won�t have weapons anyway. If you did pick any up weapons now is you chance to get rid of them and leave them in the Pneumo when you are done. Smuggler�s Hideout: Not much is different here. Throw tanks, set the oil slick on fire, stay up by the health station for cover and club whatever is still alive when everything is done. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arcadia: Finally you will be able to buy Tonics Slots and use the fail a hack trick. By now you should have enough research and be powered up enough that splicers present little challenge. Big Daddies are still a challenge but throwing tanks, failing hacks, and tag team get the job done quickly and with little damage. Farmer�s Market: Get the minimum necessary components needed for the Lazarus Vector and come back. Bee enzymes for tonics will be available to find on the next level and there you don�t need distilled water for anything now. Be sure to have Natural Camouflage equipped so to hide from the horde of security bots that will greet you when you return to Arcadia. Deploying the Lazarus Vector: If you bought Cyclone Trap this is a good situation to use it. For the most part this can be done the same as before. Rely on the hacked security equipment to watch your back and Hypnotize the Big Daddy to use as a bodyguard. The main difference is that you don�t necessarily want to settle down in the corner because you can�t attack them yourself and he won�t stop any from coming in to get you. If you club those that make it past him you run the risk of hitting him or at least taking some damage from his attacks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fort Frolic: Since you don�t need to access PttP machines there is little need to explore the general areas and no need to go downstairs in Sinclair Spirits. Not having to deal with the plaster spider splicers at all is a big help. Martin Finnegan: Obviously you will want to have Incinerate for this mini-boss. Enrage doesn�t hurt either but from what I�ve seen most of the frozen splicers seem to be mad at him anyway. (Whoda thunk?) Silas Cobb: Get ready for a long game of Hot Potato. If you want to speed things up Hypnotize Big Daddy works too. When you place his photo on the quadtych you have to deal with an onslaught of splicers while listening to the Nutcracker theme. Most of these seem to be lower level splicers because they usually go down with one or two hits so all you really need to worry about is getting hit from behind. Hector Rodriguez: This is going to take a while no matter what you do. He doesn�t seem to want to stop running no matter what so he may go all the way to Fleet Hall and back before he finally goes down. If you hypnotize a Big Daddy before you head into Eve�s Garden (don�t worry, he�ll still be there when you get return from backstage) it will speed up his demise but not by much. Since all he does is run and toss Molotov cocktails over his shoulder he�s no real threat to kill you so just be patient. Sander Cohen: Like before just leave him alone. Don�t even set foot in his apartment either. Just let him rot in his never land, maybe someday someone will come by and tell him he�s still got it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hephaetus: You will want to upgrade to Electrobolt 3 during this level. Other than that some good hacking and some bad hacking will do most of your work. Heat-loss monitoring: A tank or two will take care of the ambush. It also might not hurt to bring a few in the main area for dealing with the Big Daddy. Otherwise fire works well for the splicers. Most aren�t dumb enough to jump into the still electrified water but you might get lucky. Workshops: If you hack the turrets and the Big Daddy doesn�t destroy them they should be able to take care of the splicers. If he does try propping the door to Kyburt�s office open with a corpse so that the one inside the office can still be used. Geothermal Core: Hack the turrets obviously. If you have Cyclone Trap now is another good time to use it. You will be able to turn the crank but will take some damage in the process otherwise. Once the bomb goes off stick SB on a Big Daddy or the guy in the tunnel. If you upgraded Electrobolt the fire/water/shock trick will take care of the splicers outside Ryan�s office quickly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Olympus Heights: Take care of the Big Daddies by hacking the cameras but other than that don�t waste time. Once you get to the apartments quickly search Suchong and Tennenbaum�s apartments before entering the code to Fontaine�s. Fontaine�s Apartment: Put SB on the splicer by the turret so that the alarm gets triggered against him and hack the turret. It turns out if you time your jump right you CAN hack the camera which will be a big help later. Before getting the Lot 192 sample be sure that you have Natural Camouflage equipped. Once you can�t rely on your plasmids you will need to perform acts of stealth and diversion that would make Solid Snake proud. Usually the first plasmid that takes effect is Security Bullseye. If the camera and turret are already hacked it won�t really do any good. The best you can do is wait for them to come up the stairs and either club them or make a run for it. Before you get to the elevator you will run into a splicer with a hacked bot. If you are stuck with Winter Blast 3 or Target Dummy for the moment use it to get past the two and go down the elevator. If you have either of those equipped use them to sneak by anyone in your path from here to the bulkhead. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Apollo Square: The first part will be the same. Let the battle between splicers and the Big Daddy take place and run past him when it�s over. You might have Cyclone Trap 2 by now so use it on some of the Nitro splicers in the gallows area. Now is a part that will really test your patience. The road to Suchong�s lab is guarded by a leadhead splicer and a machine gun turret. Leave him alone and stay put in the corner to the left and wait until you turn invisible. He will walk past you several times but if he didn�t see you before hand he won�t unless you move. There are four plasmid that can get you past the turret and you will need to wait until one comes available. Electrobolt 3 and Winter Blast 3 will directly disable the turret while Target Dummy or Security Bullseye will distract it so that it can be hacked. SB will usually be the first to appear in the cycle and if you let the splicer live until it is equipped this and the next part will be easier. After you get past the turret you will want to take care of the cameras and health station before the lab entrance so you won�t need to deal with splicers. If you hurry either Winter Blast 3, Target Dummy, or Electrobolt 3 will be usable when you get to the lab which will make getting the second sample easier. Let the security systems take care of the enemies after you get back to business as usual. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Point Promethious: Hold still so that Natural Camouflage takes effect when Fontaine sends the bots after you. Zap and hack them after they pass you. These two bots and the room full of deactivated ones in Fail-Safe Armored Escorts make for good minions to send after the Big Daddy there. Once again after you complete the full transformation is a good time to backtrack to the various levels for Health and Eve upgrades. You will need them now more than ever. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Proving Grounds: Be sure to be fully stocked on Eve hypos for this because you will go through them quickly here. If you haven�t bought Cyclone Trap 2 yet get it before starting this level. Also be sure to hack everything, cameras included. If the enemies trigger an alarm the security bots will make your job a lot easier, especially when the Big Daddy shows up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fontaine: Now that you aren�t using weapons, this becomes the epic battle one would expect for a final boss. I�m almost ashamed about how little I actually knew about the arena for this battle. I didn�t even know there was a Gene Swap Bank here. Being the final boss I�m naturally inclined to go in with the "big guns" mentality. Once I found out how well the electric gel and heat seeking missiles worked I never had any incentive to deviate from the strategy that eventually materialized in the original version of this guide. Like before, the tonics you equip make a big difference. The excellent guide by Joylock confirmed that Wrench Lurker 1 & 2 combined with Wrench Jockey 1 & 2 allow the wrench to deal good damage: http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps3/file/931330/51592 As far as the other two Combat Tonic slots go, Armored Shell 1 & 2 are always good choices. You can also go with Armored Shell 2 and start with Human Inferno (if you bought a version) and switch to Frozen Field 2 Electric Flesh 2 during the different stages. Physical Tonic recommendations: SportsBoost 1 & 2 Eve Link 1 & 2 Medical Expert 2 & 3 Plasmids: 1) Telekinesis I couldn�t have been more wrong in the original version of my guide. There are dozens of explosive items to throw at him. Also, you can catch all of the elemental attacks he throws at you. I haven�t seen much damage done when throwing them back, but at least having it equipped can serve a defensive purpose as well. 2) Insect Swarm 3 It doesn�t do much actual damage, but it the only plasmid that will effectively get him to stay put for an extended period of time. 3) Security Bullseye Still the best option for Round 2. 4) Enrage You�ll need it for the final round. 5 & 6) Whatever you want. Round 1: Before draining his ADAM with the needle scour the area to get used to the outlay. It might not also hurt to carry some barrels from the back to use later. After you stick him grab a barrel and throw it at him. Switch to Insect Swarm to try to hold him down, it may take a couple tries before he it catches up to him. Even with both SportsBoost equipped you won�t ever be able to outrun him or catch up with him but it does help a lot for getting out of his way and getting as many wrench whacks in as possible when he�s at arms length. Once the bugs take hold, grab a tank and throw it at him. Repeat as necessary until he goes back to his chair. Round 2: Your first instinct when this round starts may be to put Security Bullseye on him right away. The bots won�t show up for a few seconds so the first thing you�ll want to do it immobilize him with Insect Swarm. After casting that is when you want to use SB. If he�s busy swatting at the bugs the bots will easily be able to target him and their shots will always hit there mark. If they have him pinned down now it actually a decent time to stack some extra barrels for the next round, heal at the health station, or switch up your tonics at the Gene Bank. Before the alarm expires you will want to check to see what his health level is. If your lucky you�ll have a couple seconds in the next round to use the bots again. More likely the alarm will wear off before he does so you will need to throw another tank or hit him with the wrench. Round 3: If you can still use the bots for an assist, do it. Otherwise get Insect Swarm ready again to hold him down. Now switch to Enrage for the horde of splicers. Hopefully they attack him but at the very least they will leave you alone. In the far back there are two Nitro splicers that just stand there unless provoked. Like with Big Daddies, these are the ones you want attacking Fontaine so try to draw at least one out first. Also, if they throw a grenade you can catch it and hold it until you can divert its trajectory towards the direction of Fontaine. This round will usually take longer than the others so you may need to use Insect Swarm multiple times. You don�t want to use the wrench too much here because standing next to Fontaine puts you at a greater risk of taking damage than normal. Grab some tanks and let them do their job until it�s over. That's it. You've completed Bioshock or Survivor difficulty without using Vita-Chambers or conventional weapons. No shiny trophies or stats to prove you did it but still a great accomplishment to brag about. =============================================================================== MICHELLANIOUS/CREDITS/LEGAL One of the little extras that helps set Bioshock apart from other games of its type is the choice of music, especially during certain sequences. While lesser games will use generic rock or techno during battles Bioshock mixes it up with songs that on the surface seem out of place. (Rapture is under the surface so maybe that's why it works so well. Whether you hear a splicer singing "Jesus Loves Me" in the background or hear "How Much is that Doggy in the Window?" while a Big Daddy is trying to grind you into dog food the music is one aspect that makes the atmosphere of Bioshock one of a kind. Nevertheless, there are a number of more contemporary songs that I've had in my head while playing this. Some are more self-explanitory than others. "Freewill" by Rush Honestly, there are about a dozen Rush songs that I could imagine Andrew Ryan enjoying at least for their lyrical content. The name of this one says it all. "Little Sister" by Queens of the Stone Age "Little Sister" by Dwight Yoakam "Rature" by Blondie "Eternal Flame" by ??? (Debbie Gibson I think) When I'm in Eternal Flame Crematorium of course. "Electric Feel" by MGMT Only when I pick up or equip either Electric Flesh tonic. "Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden When I'm running to Rolling Hills. Also the first lines fit somewhat. "A Punk" by Vampire Weekend Usally when I'm going through the tunnels and able to look outside at the city. Only the "at the bottom of the sea" part of the bridge though. "Fire Water Burn" by The Bloodhond Gang This song is part of why the fire/water/shock trick is named thusly. I know this isn't the first song to use the "We don't need no water let the motherf***** burn. BURN MOTHERF***** BURN!!" line but I don't know the exact song or artist that was first. "Hypnotize" by Notorious B.I.G. When I Hypnotize a B.I.G. D.A.D.D.Y. "Hypnotize" by The White Stripes Same thing and because of all the Big Daddy/Little Sister hand holding images. "Through the Fire and Flames" by Dragonforce This has practically become the themesong of videogames ever since Guitar Hero III. Here it becomes quite literal. Go ahead and make an "Inspired by Bioshock" mix CD or IPod playlist or just make fun of me. I don't care one way or the other. I would like to take this time to thank 2K Boston, 2K Australia and Digital Extemes for creating and developing this extraordinary game. I would also like to that 2K Marin for it excellent job of porting this game to the Playstation 3. I guess I would also like to thank Ayn Rand for providing much of the inspiration for this game. I have not actually read any of her work but now thanks much in part to this game I would like to. Making this guide was an unique and interesting challenge which greatly surpassed the time and effort it took to achieve the various trophies in this game. This guide could have been available over a month sooner but I chose to wait until is was complete and would require few if any updates. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The game Bioshock and all intellectual properties contained therein are trademarks and copyrighted materials developed by 2K Boston, 2K Australia, 2K Marin, and Digital Extemes. Additional credit is due for the following: Vmerken for the linked Resident Evil 4 Guides Joylock for the linked Bioshock guide. Chris Newell for the Big Daddy tips. Mark Dorney for the Big Daddy tips. The guide is intended for personal noncommercial use at: www.gamefaqs.com www.neoseeker.com www.supercheats.com www.gamerlimit.com Any unauthorized use is prohibited. For information pertaining to other use of this guide or any questions and/or comments pertaining to this guide please contact the author at <[email protected]>. Enter the email minus the spamfilter part. You can also send a message via PSN to Trogdor98. Copyright 2009 Mark Nagel A man chooses. A slave obeys. I CHOSE THE IMPOSSIBLE! ===============================================================================
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