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Bioshock Guide Tips & Tricks |
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Tags: Bioshock Guide Game Guides, Bioshock Guide Hints, Bioshock Guide Walkthrough |
Bioshock Guide
Bioshock:
Weapon/Plasmid/Enemy/Boss Guide
Document Started: January 04, 2008
by Alan Chan (joylock @ hotmail.com)
The Usual:
This document is mine. Please don't rip it off or take credit for it. If you
use any of the information provided in this guide in your own FAQ,
walkthrough, or guide, you must acknowledge that you obtained the information
from me, and give me proper credit.
That being said, feel free to post it on any site you want, provided you a)
don't make any changes to it, and b) don't charge money for it. You
don't even have to get my permission to post it (as long as it remains
unaltered), but it would be nice if you emailed me and let me know
(joylock @ hotmail.com).
Version History:
*******************************************************************************
* *
*1.0: Initial Release *
* *
*1.1: Assorted updates/corrections *
* *
*1.2: Minor corrections and updates *
* *
*******************************************************************************
The latest version of this FAQ can be found at www.gamefaqs.com.
CONTRIBUTOR AND RESOURCE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
If you'd like to take a look at the game's files, use notepad or
wordpad to open the file Configini.IBF in your Bioshock folder.
Thanks to www.gamebanshee.com for listing the specific % effects of all
gene tonics. I don't know where they found this info, but it really
helps me that they did.
EMAIL CONTRIBUTIONS:
Martijn Gest wrote:
Firstly, my compliments. Your guide is the only document I've found so far
which lists the damage of weapons/plasmids and boost percentages of tonics.
I'm not sure if you're still updating it, or if you accept other people's
submissions. If you don't, feel free to ignore this E-mail entirely.
I found my favorite tactic. It's very powerful yet very economic. Just
slap on the Human Inferno tonics, fully upgrade the crossbow and get
yourself some Incendiary Bolts. They'll very rarely break and one-hit-kill
all late game splicers. With a full stockpile of these bolts you can get
through the last quarter of the game with ease (more or less depending on
luck, you might break 20 of them in no time if you're unlucky), and you
can always make/buy more if you want.
3 trap bolts kill Elite Big Daddies if you have the electrical damage
tonics equipped, too.
I just wonder how much and what type of damage a trap bolt does when shot
directly into the enemy, rather than used as a trap, since you can retrieve
it afterwards (contrary to traps). It might even be very helpful to shoot
a trap bolt into the first splicer of an oncoming group. The trap will still
shoot out of the corpse, and another splicer might run into it. Two birds
with one stone, basically.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
GAME MECHANICS:
WEAPONS:
- Wrench
- Pistol
- Machinegun
- Shotgun
- Grenade Launcher
- Chemical Thrower
- Crossbow
- Research Camera
PLASMIDS:
- Electrobolt
- Incinerate
- Telekinesis
- Enrage
- Hypnotize Big Daddy
- Security Bullseye
- Winter Blast
- Target Dummy
- Cyclone Trap
- Insect Swarm
- Sonic Boom (Downloaded Content Only)
USEFUL GENE TONICS:
- Combat Tonics
- Engineering Tonics
- Physical Tonics
ENEMIES:
- SPLICERS:
- Thuggish Splicers
- Electrified Thuggist Splicers
- Leadhead Splicers
- Machinegun Leadhead Splicers
- Nitro Splicers
- Molotov Nitro Splicers
- Spider Splicers
- Life Draining Spider Splicers
- Houdini Splicers
- Magic Houdini Splicers
- SECURITY DEVICES:
- Security Cameras
- Security Bots
- Gun Turrets
- Flamethrower Turrets
- RPG Turrets
- BIG DADDIES:
- Bouncers
- Rosies
- Elite Bouncers
- Elite Rosies
- Little Sisters
- MINI-BOSSES:
- Rose
- Magic Splicer
- Plaster Splicers
- Martin Finnigan
- Silas Cobb
- Hector Rodriguez
- BOSSES:
- *SPOILER WITHHELD*
- *SPOILER WITHHELD*
- *SPOILER WITHHELD*
- *SPOILER WITHHELD*
*****************
*GAME MECHANICS:*
*******************************************************************************
============
=DIFFICULTY=
============
On EASY difficulty:
- Enemies have 40% health (e.g. a default Thuggish Splicer has 40 health)
(e.g. a standard Bouncer has 1100 health)
- Enemies only do 17.5% damage (e.g. a pistol shot only does 3.5 damage!)
- Enemies are less accurate and less agile
- Plasmids cost 50% EVE (aka half as much) (e.g. Enrage! costs ~ 15 EVE)
- Random loot is more generous
On NORMAL difficulty:
- Enemies have 100% health (e.g. a default Thuggish Splicer has 100 health)
(e.g. a standard Bouncer has 2750 health)
- Enemies do 100% damage (e.g. a pistol shot does 20 damage)
- Enemies accuracy and agility is standard
- Plasmids cost 100% EVE (e.g. Enrage! costs ~ 30 EVE)
- Random loot is standard
On HARD difficulty:
- Enemies have 155% health (e.g. a default Thuggish Splicer has 155 health)
(e.g. a standard Bouncer has 4263 health)
- Enemies do 150% damage (e.g. a pistol shot does 30 damage)
- Enemies are more accurate and more agile
- Plasmids cost 130% EVE (e.g. Enrage! costs ~ 39 EVE)
- Random loot is less common
Honestly, it's practically impossible to die on EASY difficulty. You can
survive more than 50 pistol shots without even healing or using a first
aid kit!
HARD difficulty is a decent challenge; you die after 6 or 7 hits from
even the most basic enemies, firearm-wielding enemies are extremely
accurate and almost never miss, and the increased health of your
enemies makes them much harder to kill. Big Daddies are a real menace,
capable of killing you in only 2 hits, and requiring you to spend
most of your ammo to kill them. Intelligent use of plasmids,
hit-and-run tactics, and good use of resources and the environment
will be necessary for your survival.
For an added challenging, in the 1.1 version of Bioshock (after
downloading the PC patch or the Xbox 360 DLC content) you can turn
off the Vita-Chambers, preventing you from respawning after death.
Some tips for beating HARD difficulty without using Vita-Chambers
(in other words, getting the "Brass Balls" achievement).
- Get WRENCH JOCKEY as soon as possible. Without it, trying to wrench
Leadhead Splicers and possibly even the basic Thuggish Splicers will
only get you killed.
- Use Telekinesis. In the early to mid game, it's still your best
way to kill most Splicers in 1 hit.
- Once you get the crossbow, try to snipe enemies in the head with
it as much as possible. Even on HARD difficulty, the toughest
Splicers still die after a single crossbow headshot.
- Never fight a Big Daddy directly. Use indirect methods to kill them;
i.e. use Security Bullseye to get Security Bots to fight them, use
Hypnotize Big Daddy + Enrage to get them to fight each other, or
set up boobytraps using explosive barrels or electric trap bolts
from the crossbow.
=================
=Health and EVE:=
=================
You start the game with 200 health and 200 EVE. To increase your
maximum health and EVE levels, you can purchase health upgrades and EVE
upgrades at Gatherer's Gardens. Each upgrade costs 80 ADAM. There are a
total of 8 health upgrades and 8 EVE upgrades throughout the game. Each
upgrade increases your maximum health or EVE by 40. You also receive a
small boost to your maximum health and maximum EVE for each research
level of the Little Sisters you achieve with your research camera. With
all upgrades from Gatherer's Gardens and Little Sister research, you'll
have a total of 560 health and 560 EVE.
On Easy and Normal difficulty, you won't die instantly from a "fatal"
injury; instead your health will be reduced to 1, and you'll only
die if you take 1 more hit. For example, if you only have 20 health,
and take 30 damage, instead of ending up with -10 health (i.e. dead),
you'll still be alive, with 1 health.
In Bioshock, the main methods of restoring your health are first aid
kits and health stations. You can carry a total of 9 first aid kits at
any given time, and can use them instantly with the quick-heal key.
Each first aid kit restores about 150 health, although the MEDICAL
EXPERT gene tonic can be used to increase the amount of health they
restore. Health stations are stationary healing dispensers that restore
you to full health, but which cost money to use ($16 if unhacked, and
$10 if hacked).
The main method of restoring your EVE is the EVE hypo. You can carry up
to 9 EVE hypos at once. Injecting a EVE hypo takes a second or so,
during which you cannot fire a weapon or use plasmids. Using an EVE
hypo restores your EVE level to maximum. You can inject yourself
manually at any time by pressing the "reload" key when you have a
plasmid equipped, and you'll inject yourself automatically whenever
your EVE meter reaches 0.
You can also snack on discarded food items strewn throughout the ruined
cityscape of Rapture for various effects. Eating potato chips or creme-
filled cakes restores a very small amount of health, drinking coffee
restores a moderate amount of EVE, smoking cigarettes restores a small
amount of EVE (but costs you a small amount of health), drinking
alcohol restores a small amount of health (but costs you a small amount
of EVE), and eating a Pep Bar restores a small amount of both your
health and EVE. You can also equip the BOOZE HOUND gene tonic to gain
EVE after drinking alcohol instead of losing it, or the EXTRA NUTRITION
gene tonic to increase the amount of health you get from eating snacks
(although even the highest level of EXTRA NUTRITION still doesn't
restore much health at all).
===============
=ENEMY DAMAGE:=
===============
Bioshock uses a simplified hit-location damage system.
Splicers take extra damage from headshots, but only from certain
weapons. Otherwise, shooting a Splicer in the leg, arm, or chest does
the exact same amount of damage. Splicers take 4x damage from pistol
headshots, 2x damage from shotgun headshots, and 10x damage from
crossbow headshots.
Big Daddies (and also the final boss) do not take extra damage from
headshots. Also, they take reduced damage if they are shot in the arms
or legs instead of the main body. Big Daddies take 60% damage from arm
shots, and 80% damage from leg shots.
**********
*WEAPONS:*
*******************************************************************************
"Do unto others before they can do unto you." - On Altruism
Bioshock's gameplay involves a degree of inventory management and ammo
conservation. Ammo is less common than in more action-oriented shooters
like Quake or Doom, and you can run out if you use firearms too much.
HOWEVER, Bioshock is actually more forgiving than other FPS-RPGS like
Deus Ex or System Shock or survival horror games like Resident Evil.
Ammo pickups (as well as cash to buy ammo at vending machines) are
actually reasonably common if you explore throughly. Still, it's useful to
keep in mind that Bioshock isn't like standard shooters such as Halo or
Call of Duty 4, where you typically get ammo faster than you can spend
it.
Each weapon in Bioshock (except the wrench) have 3 different types of
ammo that can be loaded into it. Each type of ammo has a significantly
different effect. Each weapon features a standard ammo, an uncommon
ammo, and a rare ammo. The standard ammo is the easiest to obtain. The
uncommon ammo is harder to find, either lying around or for sale in
vending machines. The rare ammo is much harder to find, can almost
never be purchased at vending machines, and can usually only be
obtained by manufacturing it at a U-Invent station. Additionally, you
can only carry half as much uncommon or rare ammo as you can standard
ammo.
Bioshock has no inventory system, and uses the simplified "pocket-
dimension trousers" approach taken by most simpler action-based first-
person shooters. Thus, you can carry all useable weapons at once,
instead of having to chose between them like in games such as Deus Ex
or Halo.
===============================================================================
Wrench:
Rate of Fire: ~ 88 "rpm"
Damage: 20 (5 vs Big Daddies)
DESCRIPTION:
Gordon Freeman has his crowbar, Doomguy has his chainsaw, you've got
your wrench. The wrench is pretty simple, really. You swing it, and it
whacks enemies standing in front of you. You swing the wrench
reasonably quickly, although (initially) not nearly as fast as Gordon
swings his crowbar around, and also not as quickly as you can pull a
trigger on a gun.
When you start the game, the wrench doesn't do much damage, and using
it forces you to get close to enemy Splicers, putting you in the path
of their own melee attacks. On the plus side, the wrench uses no ammo,
which is good if you're concerned about conserving ammo since ammo
supplies are less common in Bioshock than in most other first person
shooters.
The Wrench can also be used in combination with Plasmids to do more
damage. Notably, using the wrench on an enemy that has been stunned by
Electrobolt will do 4x normal damage.
Although the wrench is initially the weakest weapon in the game, you
can obtain Gene Tonics that increase your strength and speed and thus
allow you to do significantly more damage as well as swing the weapon
much more quickly.
IMPORTANT GENE TONICS:
WRENCH JOCKEY: Adds an additional 350% damage (70 damage) to your
wrench, so that it does a total of 90 damage. This should allow you to
smack down most Thuggish and Leadhead Splicers with just one or two
hits in the first few levels. You can get this tonic VERY early in the
game in the Medical Pavilion, and it's one of the best ones out there.
WRENCH JOCKEY 2: Adds an additional 550% damage (110 damage) to your
wrench. As a plus, this STACKS on top of the 350% damage increase given
by the original Wrench Jockey (as long as you equip both), for a grand
total of 200 damage per wrench strike. First available in Fort Frolic,
as a level 2 research reward for photographing Bouncer Big Daddies.
SPORTSBOOST: Sportsboost lets you run faster and swing quicker; it
increases your movement speed by 10%, and the speed at which you swing
the wrench by 25%. This allows you to run up to enemies faster, and
inflict multiple wrench strikes more quickly.
SPORTSBOOST 2: The improved version of Sportsboost increases your
movement speed by 20%, and the speed of your wrench swings by 50%.
Stack this on top of Sportsboost 1, and you can run 30% faster and
swing the wrench 75% more quickly.
WRENCH LURKER: Wrench Lurker quiets your footsteps, allowing you to run
up behind unaware Splicers without alerting them to your presence. It
also increases the damage your wrench strikes do against unaware foes
by 150%. This can often allow you to run up behind unaware Splicers,
and bash them to death with a single strike. Note that the Wrench
Lurker damage bonus is also applied to enemies who are stunned by
Electrobolt.
WRENCH LURKER 2: Similar to the original Wrench Lurker, Wrench Lurker 2
quiets your footsteps, and also increases the damage of your wrench
strikes against unaware foes by 200%. The effects also stack atop those
of Wrench Lurker 1, increasing the damage you do against unaware foes
by 350%.
OTHER RELEVANT GENE TONICS:
FROZEN FIELD: Besides giving you 15% resistance against cold attacks
and increasing the effectiveness of your own cold attacks, Frozen Field
also gives you a chance of freezing your enemies with each wrench
strike. This can immobilize enemies and allow you to shatter them with
a couple more strikes. On the down side, shattered enemies leave no
corpse to loot.
FROZEN FIELD 2: Besides giving you 30% resistance against cold attacks
and increasing the effectiveness of your own cold attacks, Frozen Field
also gives you a chance of freezing your enemies with each wrench
strike. This can immobilize enemies and allow you to shatter them with
a couple more strikes. On the down side, shattered enemies leave no
corpse to loot.
BLOODLUST: Bloodlust can be manufactured at a U-Invent Station in Fort
Frolic or later, using glue, enzyme samples, and empty hypos (enzyme
samples can be obtained from Houdini Splicers. The other items are
commonly found on slain enemies). It restores a small amount of your
health every time your strike an enemy with a wrench. The amount of
health restored is very, very small, although it can add up to a decent
amount after several wrench strikes.
EVALUATION:
With the proper Gene Tonics equipped, the wrench can be the very best
weapon in the game. Wrench Jockey allows you to kill early enemies with
just 1 or 2 wrench strikes, and Wrench Jockey 1 and Wrench Jockey 2
combined with damage research bonuses can allow you to kill even the
toughest Splicers with only a few whacks from the wrench. Sportsboost
and Wrench Lurker can increase your speed and silence your footsteps,
allowing you to run up to armed Splicers and bash their heads in before
they can retaliate against you with firearms. Wrench Jockey, Wrench
Lurker, and Sportsboost combined will make you a deadly ninja armed
with a plumbing instrument. Best of all, the wrench uses up no ammo,
allowing you to conserve ammo for your firearms for major shootouts or
use against Big Daddies (Big Daddies are, unfortunately, highly
resistant to melee attacks, so the wrench is fairly ineffective against
them).
===============================================================================
Pistol:
Clip Size: 6
Rate of Fire: 180 rpm
Damage:
Pistol Rounds: 40
Armor-Piercing Pistol Rounds: 40 (80 vs Big Daddies)
(160 vs Machines)
Antipersonnel Pistol Rounds: 40 (240 vs Splicers)
Max Ammo:
Pistol Rounds: 48
Armor-Piercing Pistol Rounds: 24
Antipersonnel Pistol Rounds: 24
Ammo Cost:
Pistol Rounds: $4.16; $25 for 6
Armor-Piercing Pistol Rounds: $10; $60 for 6
Antipersonnel Pistol Rounds: $10, $60 for 6 (CAN'T ACTUALLY BE BOUGHT)
DESCRIPTION:
A .38 Webley Mk IV revolver, the pistol is the first firearm you pick
up, as well as the weapon of choice for the game's Leadhead Splicers
for the first 1/2th of the game. The pistol has decent stopping power,
good accuracy, and a decent rate of fire. Although it needs to be
reloaded after every 6 shots, the reload time is reasonably quick since
Jack can manage to load all 6 bullets at once.
Early on, the pistol can kill most Splicers with just a few shots.
Headshots from the pistol are particularly lethal; a pistol headshot
does 4x damage against Splicers, and will kill most early Splicers with
just one hit. However as the game progresses, Splicers become
increasingly tougher, making the pistol less effective. In the mid-
game, you'll have to make 2 to 4 headshots to kill enemies with the pistol.
In the late game, only antipersonnel pistol rounds will do significant
damage to Splicers; use antipersonnel ammo and go for headshots if you
want to kill late-game Splicers effectively with the pistol.
AMMO TYPES:
PISTOL ROUNDS: Standard ammo for the pistol is reasonably common; you can
find it laying around Rapture or looted from dead enemies. Also, many enemies
carry pistols, and you can usually get 1 to 3 pistol bullets from every
slain enemy's pistol that you pick up. You can carry up to 48 rounds of
standard .38 ammo; early on, this is sufficient to kill many Splicers,
but later in the game it's not enough ammo to do significant damage.
ARMOR-PIERCING PISTOL ROUNDS: The pistol's uncommon ammo,
which do 2x damage against Big Daddies and 4x damage against security
machines. Armor-piercing ammo still isn't very effective against Big
Daddies; even using all 24 rounds you can carry will only bring a Big
Daddy's health down to about 50%. Armor-piercing ammo is reasonably
effective against turrets and bots, although it's generally better to hack
machines rather than destroy them outright. Armor-piercing ammo can
occasionally be found lying around Rapture, and you can also purchase
it at a few Circus of Values or Ammo Bandito vending machines.
ANTIPERSONNEL PISTOL ROUNDS: The pistol's rare ammo, which do massive
damage against Splicers (antipersonnel rounds do 6x damage against
Splicers). A single shot from an antipersonnel round should kill most
Splicers early in the game, and they do significant damage even against
many late-game Splicers. Unfortunately, antipersonnel pistol ammo is
quite rare; you'll rarely find it laying around Rapture, and will
usually only be able to obtain it by manufacturing some at a U-Invent
station. You can also only carry 24 rounds at a time.
EVALUATION:
Overall, the pistol is good for killing Splicers at range early in the
game, but is fairly ineffective in the game's last few levels. The
pistol really doesn't do enough damage to compensate for later
Splicers' drastically improved health. Also, the amount of ammo you can
carry for the pistol is somewhat limited, which is a problem when you
start meeting enemies that require many pistol shots to bring down.
Antipersonnel rounds do significant damage against Splicers, even late-
game Splicers, but you can only carry 24 rounds of antipersonnel ammo
at a time.
WEAPON UPGRADES:
PISTOL DAMAGE INCREASE: Increases the pistol's damage by 25%. I.e.
standard pistol rounds do 50 damage after the upgrade.
PISTOL CLIP SIZE: Increases the pistol's ammo capacity from 6 bullets
to 24 bullets.
===============================================================================
Machinegun:
Clip Size: 40
Rate of Fire: 350 rpm
Damage:
Machine Gun Rounds: 40
Antipersonnel Auto Rounds: 18 (108 vs Splicers)
Armor-Piercing Auto Rounds: 30 (60 vs Big Daddies)
(120 vs Machines)
Max Ammo:
Machine Gun Rounds: 360
Antipersonnel Auto Rounds: 180
Armor-Piercing Auto Rounds: 180
Ammo Cost:
Machine Gun Rounds: $1.5; $60 for 40
Antipersonnel Auto Rounds: $2.5; $100 for 40
Armor-Piercing Auto Rounds: $2.5; $100 for 40 (CAN'T ACTUALLY BE BOUGHT)
DESCRIPTION:
A Tommy Gun that fires .45 ACP rounds, and can first be obtained inside
the Security Office at the beginning of the Medical Pavilion. This
"Chicago Typewriter" machinegun has a good rate of fire (although it's
about 1/2 that of a modern assault rifle), and a relatively large drum
magazine that allows you to fire 40 rounds before needing to reload.
The machinegun suffers from moderate recoil when fired in long bursts;
prolonged fire causes the weapon's barrel to swing upwards, interferring
with your aim. The machinegun also has below average accuracy; the rounds
tend to drift somewhat off course instead of hitting at the exact center
of the crosshair. Because of the weapon's recoil and inaccuracy, it's best
used for close-to-medium range combat, and ineffective for long range
combat.
The machinegun is reasonably powerful; it can kill most early Splicers
with just a few bullets each, and can bring down mid-game Splicers with
about a dozen rounds or so. Unfortunately, in the last few levels enemy
Splicers receive a significant health boost, making the machinegun
rather ineffective against them (although antipersonnel rounds still
work well, and can bring down many late-game Splicers with less than a
dozen shots). The machinegun doesn't do locational damage, so don't
bother trying to score headshots with it. Just aim for the body and
fire away.
AMMO TYPES:
MACHINE GUN ROUNDS: Standard machinegun ammo can be found throughout
Rapture. At first, machinegun ammo is less common than pistol or shotgun
ammo, but you'll find more of it as the game progresses. Machinegun ammo
can be found in drum magazines laying around, and you can obtain machinegun
ammo from destroyed security turrets. Ammo can also occasionally be looted
from slain Splicers. Although Leadhead Splicers will drop machineguns later
in the game, you'll only find 1 to 8 rounds in their clips, making
enemy firearms an inefficient source of ammo. You can carry a LOT
of ammo for the machinegun (a maximum of 9 full drum magazines),
allowing you to get a lot of use out of it before running low.
ANTIPERSONNEL AUTO ROUNDS: The machinegun's uncommon ammo, these rounds are
normally very weak (only doing 18 base damage), but do significant damage
against Splicers (antipersonnel ammo does 6x damage against Splicers).
Antipersonnel rounds can kill early-game Splicers with only a few shots,
and even late-game Splicers will usually go down after a dozen or so hits.
Antipersonnel ammo can occasionally be found laying around Rapture or
purchased from certain vending machines, and you can carry quite a lot of
it around (4 and a half full drum magazines, a.k.a. 180 rounds of ammo).
ARMOR-PIERCING AUTO ROUNDS: The machinegun's rare ammo, these rounds
are slightly weaker than regular machinegun rounds (with a base damage
of 30 instead of 40), but do increased damage against Big Daddies (2x
damage vs Big Daddies) and security machines (4x damage vs security
machines). Armor-piercing rounds can destroy machines with only a few
shots, and can bring down a Big Daddy with a clip and a half of
constant fire (however, by the time you have reliable access to armor-
piercing ammo, you'll have much better ways of killing Big Daddies
available to you). Unfortunately, armor-piercing rounds are quite rare,
and can usually only be obtained by manufacturing them at a U-Invent
station.
EVALUATION:
The machinegun is a great weapon with powerful bullets and a large clip
size, allowing you to quickly mow through multiple enemies with it.
However, it has accuracy issues and should only be used for close to
medium range combat. The rate of fire is good, but not too high,
so the machinegun actually uses up ammo at a reasonable rate (also,
machinegun rounds become more common as the game progresses).
In the later levels, the increased health of enemy Splicers makes the
machinegun's normal bullets ineffective, so you'll want to use
antipersonnel rounds if you want to use the machinegun to fight
Splicers later in the game.
WEAPON UPGRADES:
DAMAGE INCREASE: Increases the machinegun's damage by 25%. I.e.
standard auto rounds do 50 damage after the upgrade.
KICKBACK REDUCTION: Reduces the machinegun's kickback, reducing recoil.
However, this upgrade does nothing to improve the machinegun's basic
inaccuracy.
===============================================================================
Shotgun:
Clip Size: 4
Rate of Fire: 48 rpm (120 rpm after upgrade)
Damage:
00 Buck: 35 x 8
Electric Buck: 35 x 8 + [70 x 8 if in water]
(105 x 8 vs Machines)
Exploding Buck: [49 + 1 ] x 8
(+ 6 dmg per sec )
Max Ammo:
00 Buck: 48
Electric Buck: 24
Exploding Buck: 24
Ammo Cost:
00 Buck: $9; $54 for 6
Electric Buck: $12; $72 for 6
Exploding Buck: $12; $72 for 6 (CAN'T ACTUALLY BE BOUGHT)
DESCRIPTION:
A pump-action shotgun that fires 00 buckshot, the shotgun can first be
acquired from a long deceased corpse inside the Medical Pavilion. The
shotgun fires a spread of 8 pellets per shot; as with most FPS
shotguns, the shotgun is powerful at close range, but the spread of the
pellets makes it less effective at long range since not all pellets
will strike a distant enemy. The shotgun can still do lethal damage
against enemies at a range of a couple dozen feet. Any pellets that
strike an enemy Splicer's head will do double damage. On the downside,
there's a slight delay between each shot as you pump a new round into
the chamber. The shotgun's greatest weakness is that it only holds 4
shells, forcing you to reload after every 4 shots (the shotgun takes
relatively long to reload, since each shell must be loaded
individually).
The shotgun is very powerful, and can drop most Splicers in just 1 or 2
shots. Even Big Daddies can be brought down with about 12 shots. Later
in the game, enemy Splicers receive significant boosts to their health,
but with the shotgun's weapon damage upgrade and research damage
bonuses, most late-game Splicers can still be brought down with only 2
to 4 shotgun blasts.
AMMO TYPES:
00 BUCK: Standard 00 buck is relatively common in Rapture; you can find
boxes of shells scattered around the levels, and you can also purchase
shells from Circus of Values or Ammo Bandito vending machines.
ELECTRIC BUCK: The shotgun's uncommon ammo. Electric buck fires
electrified pellets that inflict electrical damage on enemies. Enemies
hit by electrical buck will also be stunned for a couple seconds,
preventing them from moving just as if they had been hit by
Electrobolt. Electric buck also does increased damage against enemies
standing in water, or against machines. Early on, it is probably your
best option for taking down Big Daddies, due to the high damage and
stunning effect. It is quite uncommon, although it can be occasionally
found laying around Rapture, or purchased from certain vending
machines.
EXPLODING BUCK: The shotgun's rare ammo. Exploding buck pellets will
explode on contact, dealing significant damage to enemies. In fact, a
close-range blast from exploding buck is somewhat more powerful than a
direct hit from a frag grenade. Exploding buck can also set enemies
on fire, damaging them further. Best of all, the splash damage from
exploding buck won't harm you, so you can still blast enemies with it
at close range without taking damage yourself. Exploding buck is quite
rare, and can usually only be obtained by manufacturing it at a U-
Invent station.
EVALUATION:
The shotgun is an excellent weapon for delivering big damage in a short
period of time. Early in the game, it can kill Splicers with 1 close-up
blast, and is probably the only weapon you possess that can effectively
kill the first few Big Daddies you encounter. Later in the game, you'll
acquire more powerful weapons such as the grenade launcher and
crossbow, but the shotgun remains a good weapon for close-range combat.
WEAPON UPGRADES:
SHOTGUN DAMAGE INCREASE: Increases the shotgun's damage by 25%. I.e. a
full hit by all 8 standard buck pellets would do 350 damage after the
upgrade.
SHOTGUN RATE OF FIRE: Converts the shotgun from pump-action to semi-
automatic, increasing the weapon's rate of fire. You still need to
reload after every 4 shots, however.
===============================================================================
Grenade Launcher:
Clip Size: 6
Rate of Fire: 45 rpm
Damage:
Frag Grenade: 200 + 150
(30 + 30 to player)
Proximity Mine: 450
(60 to player)
Heat-Seeking RPG: 400 + 75 (400+450 vs Splicers)
(60 to player)
(+1 dmg per sec )
Max Ammo:
Frag Grenade: 12
Proximity Mine: 6
Heat-Seeking RPG: 6
Ammo Cost:
Frag Grenade: $20; $60 for 3
Proximity Mine: $25; $75 for 3
Heat-Seeking RPG: $20; $60 for 3 (CAN'T ACTUALLY BE BOUGHT)
DESCRIPTION:
This homemade bazooka is first given to you in Neptune's Bounty as a
present from Peach Wilkins, shortly after you first meet him. The
grenade launcher fires assorted explosive projectiles, and can hold up
to 6 rounds at a time. Grenades travel in an arc, and are pulled
downward by gravity. They have decent range, but unlike a bullet will
not travel in a straight line, limiting them to medium-range combat
only.
This weapon does lots of damage, but the amount of ammo you can carry
for it is very limited; grenade ammo is also relatively expensive. It's
best to save the grenade launcher for use against single, powerful
opponents such as Big Daddies or bosses. Because grenades do explosive
splash damage, you really shouldn't use it in close quarters or point-
blank range, or else you'll end up hurting yourself as well as your
enemy.
One advantage of the grenade launcher is that the explosive force of
a direct hit will knock Splicers to the ground for a few seconds,
allowing you to attack them while they're down. A direct grenade
hit will also stun a Big Daddy for a second, allowing you to land
another grenade hit without worrying about their counter-attack.
AMMO TYPES:
FRAG GRENADES: These are powerful homemade bombs made out of explosives
stuffed inside old tin cans. They travel a couple dozen feet when fired
out of the grenade launcher, and will either bounce off surfaces and
explode after a few seconds, or detonate immedietely upon impact with
an enemy. It's uncommon to find frag grenades just laying around the
levels, although you'll occasionally find caches of them squirreled
away. You can also buy them at some vending machines, although they are
rather expensive.
PROXIMITY MINES: These are fired out of the grenade launcher just like frag
grenades, but instead of bouncing off surfaces, they will stick onto
whatever they land on, be it the floor, a wall, or even an object like
a trash can or barrel. When an enemy gets close enough to the proximity
mine, it will detonate, dealing significant damage to them. For an
extremely powerful attack against Big Daddies or bosses, you can attach
all 6 of your proximity mines to a explosive barrel, then pick up the
barrel with Telekinesis and hurl it at an enemy to inflict massive
damage (a corpse or trash can will also work as a projectile if no
explosive barrel is available). Proximity mines are even more rare than
frag grenades, although you can find a few laying around Rapture, and
they can also occasionally be purchased at vending machines.
HEAT-SEEKING RPGs: These are self-guided rockets. Unlike grenades, they fly
in a straight line, and will home in on enemies. They can track an
opponent and chase them regardless of any attempts to dodge or run
away. Rockets do antipersonnel damage, so they inflict particularly
harsh damage against Splicers. However, they are very powerful, and do
lots of damage against all enemy types. Rockets are quite rare, and can
usually only be obtained by manufacturing them yourself at U-Invent
stations.
EVALUATION:
The grenade launcher is a good weapon for taking on particularly
powerful opponents; it's one of your better options for taking out Big
Daddies in the earlier levels. Once you get the crossbow, however, you
might prefer it over the grenade launcher, since crossbow ammo is
significantly less expensive than grenade launcher ammo. The amount of
ammo you can carry for the grenade launcher is also extremely limited,
so it's best to save it for special situations.
WEAPON UPGRADES:
GRENADE LAUNCHER DAMAGE INCREASE: Increases the weapon's damage by 25%.
GRENADE LAUNCHER DAMAGE IMMUNITY: You are immune to the splash damage
from your own grenades, allowing you to blast enemies with grenades at
close range without fear of harm.
===============================================================================
Chemical Thrower:
Clip Size: 100
Rate of Fire: 1200 rpm
Damage:
Napalm: 30 + (1.2 dmg per sec )
Liquid Nitrogen: 0
Electric Gel: 25 + [25 if in water]
(75 vs Machines)
Max Ammo:
Napalm: 400
Liquid Nitrogen: 200
Electric Gel: 200
Ammo Cost:
Napalm: $0.75; $75 for 100
Liquid Nitrogen: $1; $100 for 100
Electric Gel: $ 1.25; $125 for 100 (CAN'T ACTUALLY BE BOUGHT)
DESCRIPTION:
Cobbled together from assorted pipes and plumbing parts, the chemical
thrower is a rather non-standard weapon that you first obtain in
Arcadia from Julia Langford. The chemical thrower is similar in
function to a flamethrower, only it has the capacity to fire multiple
liquid chemicals instead of just napalm. The weapon fires a pressurized
stream of dangerous liquid up to almost 20 feet. Sustained streams from
the chemical thrower constantly consume fuel, and without a fuel-saving
weapon upgrade, you can burn through a cannister of fuel very quickly.
The weapon also takes a few seconds to reload, so try not to empty
your fuel tank in the middle of a firefight.
The chemical thrower has the capacity to inflict fire, ice, and
electrical attacks. The effects of these attacks mimic the plasmids
Incinerate, Winter Blast, and Electrobolt. You can use the chemical
thrower to achieve plasmid effects if you don't have those plasmids
equipped. For example, if you need to freeze a turret to hack it, but
lack the Winter Blast plasmid, you can freeze the turret with a stream
of liquid nitrogen instead. This is a good way to save on EVE, as the
chemical thrower generally consumes less fuel than plasmids consume EVE
to achieve the same effect.
AMMO TYPES:
NAPALM: This is the standard ammo used by the chemical thrower. As you
would expect, contact with napalm inflicts moderate damage, while setting
your enemies on fire. Besides the damage done by direct contact with
the napalm, enemies will also take additional damage from burning
alive. The chemical thrower has a very high "rate of fire", and a
steady napalm stream can burn down an enemy Splicer very quickly.
There's a modest amount of napalm laying around the game's levels,
and you can also loot it from enemy corpses or purchase some from
vending machines.
LIQUID NITROGEN: The chem thrower's uncommon ammo, liquid nitrogen
does no damage to enemies, but can be used to freeze them solid
just like the Winter Blast plasmid. The more liquid nitrogen you
spray an enemy with, the longer they will remain frozen. Frozen
splicers can be smashed to pieces with your wrench or other weapons,
and frozen machines can be hacked more easily. Liquid nitrogen can
rarely be found laying around the levels, and it can occasionally be
purchased at certain vending machines.
ELECTRIC GEL: The chem thrower's rare ammo, which inflicts
electrical damage onto enemies while stunning them at the same time.
Electrical gel essentially renders enemies helpless; they are unable to
move as long as you spray them with the gel, and they will take
constant damage as well. With the reduced ammo consumption upgrade,
about 3/4ths of a can of fuel should be sufficient to kill a Big Daddy.
Electrical gel is probably the easiest way to kill powerful enemies,
but it is also very rare. You're unlikely to find it through
exploration, and can only manufacture it at U-Invent stations.
EVALUATION:
Although the chemical thrower's range is limited to medium-range at
best, most of the game takes place in close-quarters, so the chemical
thrower's inability to hit enemies at long range isn't too much of a
handicap. However, the specialized nature of each of the chemical
thrower's ammo types makes it more suited for specific situations
rather than general use as your default weapon. Still, the chemical
thrower is nice in that it allows you to inflict elemental damage at
any time, instead of only when you have the proper plasmids equipped.
It is particularly useful in Olympus Heights and Apollo Square, when
your ability to use plasmids is crippled by plot occurances.
A steady stream of napalm actually does good damage, and can burn
down early-to-mid game Splicers in just a second or two. The chemical
thrower actually makes a better weapon than the machine gun; it
kills strong Splicers much more quickly (due to the higher "rate
of fire"), and the constant stream of fire means you don't need to
aim it quite dead-on accurately, which is helpful against tough-to-hit
enemies such as fast-strafing Leadhead Splicers.
Liquid nitrogen is useful for stunning turrets or bots so you can hack
them, especially if you don't have a plasmid like Electrobolt or
Winter Blast for stunning machines. Finally, electric gel allows you to
kill even the toughest opponents without giving them the chance to
fight back.
WEAPON UPGRADES:
CHEMICAL THROWER CONSUMPTION RATE: Reduces the rate at which the
chemical thrower consumes fuel. Very useful, as otherwise the chemical
thrower burns through fuel very quickly.
CHEMICAL THROWER RANGE: Increases the range of the chemical thrower's
liquid spray.
===============================================================================
Crossbow:
Clip Size: 5
Rate of Fire: 30 rpm
Damage:
Steel-Tip Bolt: 450
Incendiary Bolt: 600
Trap Bolt: 700
(175 to player)
Max Ammo:
Steel-Tip Bolt: 48
Incendiary Bolt: 24
Trap Bolt: 24
Ammo Cost:
Steel-Tip Bolt: $5; $30 for 6
Incendiary Bolt: $13.33; $80 for 6
Trap Bolt: $10; $60 for 6 (CAN'T ACTUALLY BE BOUGHT)
DESCRIPTION:
The crossbow is the last and most powerful weapon you'll acquire in the
game. You receive it as a gift from Sander Cohen in Fort Frolic, when
you bring him the 1st of the 4 pieces of his Quadtych. The crossbow has
perfect accuracy, as well as a long-range zoom that allows you to snipe
enemies from very far away. It is also extremely powerful, doing more
damage with a single shot than any other weapon in the game. Headshots
from the crossbow are absolutely lethal; Splicers take 10x damage from
crossbow headshots, and a single headshot will bring down even the
strongest Splicers in the game. The only downside to the crossbow is
its low rate of fire; there's a 2 second delay between each shot as you
re-cock the bow. The crossbow also needs to be reloaded after every 5
shots, although the reload time is average.
Besides being a powerful weapon, the crossbow is also economically
efficient. Standard ammo for the crossbow is very cheap. Also, crossbow
bolts are reusable; after you kill an enemy with the crossbow, you can
retrieve the bolts from their body (bolts sometimes break, though, so
you will gradually use them up).
AMMO TYPES:
STEEL-TIP BOLTS: Standard bolts are difficult to find just lying around
the environment. They can, however, be purchased from certain Circus of
Values or Ammo Bandito vending machines. Trap Bolts are also very
cheap, only costing $30 for 6 (which is great value considering how much
damage each individual bolt does). You can also re-use bolts by retrieving
them from slain enemies.
INCENDIARY BOLTS: The crossbow's uncommon ammo type. Repeat after me:
MASSIVE BOLTS = MASSIVE DAMAGE. These red hot metal arrows do even more
damage than the standard steel-tip crossbow bolts. In fact, the
crossbow loaded with incendiary bolts becomes the most damaging single-
shot weapon in the game. With the weapon damage upgrade and research
damage bonuses, you can 1-shot-kill most Splicers, and can even bring
down a Big Daddy with only 4 incendiary bolts. You can increase the
damage done by incendiary bolts even more with HUMAN INFERNO and HUMAN
INFERNO 2, which increase fire damage by 30% and 50% respectively (with
HUMAN INFERNO 2 equipped, you can kill Big Daddies with only 3 shots!).
Incendiary bolts can be purchased at certain vending machines, or
rarely found in stashes or corpses. As with steel-tip bolts, you can
sometmes retrieve used bolts from the bodies of slain enemies.
TRAP BOLTS: The crossbow's rare ammo type. Trap bolts create an
electrical trip wire that will discharge and do electrical damage to
any enemy that walks through it. Trap bolts do lots of damage, and will
kill or severely injure most Splicers. Just be careful not to step on
them yourself. They're great for blocking off corridors from Splicers,
and you can also set up several trap bolts at once and lure a Big Daddy
into running through them all for massive damage. Just be aware that
you can only have 10 active trap bolts at any given time; setting up
more will cause your previous trap bolts to simply disappear. Trap
bolts are very rare, and normally can only be acquired by manufacturing
them at U-Invent stations. Unlike steep-tip bolts and incendiary bolts,
trap bolts are not re-usable.
EVALUATION:
The crossbow is the most powerful weapon in the game (you can tell by
how many times I've used the words "massive damage" in talking about
it), as well as one of the more useful weapons in the game's later
levels. A single headshot from the crossbow will bring down even the
most powerful of Splicers, and the long-range zoom lets you pick off
Splicers from a significant distance. The crossbow is also great for
killing powerful foes such as Big Daddies and bosses. Best of all,
standard ammo for the crossbow is very cheap, and bolts can even be
retrieved from slain enemies and reused.
WEAPON UPGRADES:
CROSSBOW DAMAGE INCREASE: Increases the crossbow's damage by 25%.
CROSSBOW BREAKAGE CHANCE: Reduces the chance of a crossbow bolt
breaking upon hitting a target. This allows you to reuse more bolts,
thus reducing your ammo consumption rate.
===============================================================================
Research Camera:
Max Ammo: 100 film
Ammo Cost: $1; $15 for 15
DESCRIPTION:
The research camera is a special camera for photographing and analyzing
Rapture's genetically altered inhabitants. As Atlas tells you, it
features the ability to "analyze genetic information, parse biological
structures, and lots of other five dollar words". By taking photos of
the game's various characters,you earn research bonuses, which include
increased damage against the characters in question, unlocking new gene
tonics, and various other rewards.
There are 5 different levels of research bonuses for each of the game's
characters. To earn a research bonus level, you need to earn a certain
number of points. The number of points required increases from one
level to the next. For example, you'll automatically earn the first
research level when you first take a picture of a character, but you'd
need to take dozens of pictures to earn the fifth research level.
SCORING SYSTEM:
The amount of points you receive from a photo depend on a variety of
factors. Each photo you take receives a grade from A to C (with A being
the best and C being the worst), indicating roughly how many points
you've scored.
POINTS AWARDED FOR:
CENTERNESS: The close a character is to the center of the photo, the
more points you'll earn.
DISTANCE: The larger the subject is in the frame, the more points you
earn. Thus, you get much more points for taking a picture of a
character at close range rather than long range. You can also zoom the
camera to get a bigger picture of a subject.
ACTION SHOT!: You earn more points for photographing characters that
are attacking you, or (in the case of Big Daddies) making threatening
gestures at you because you're too close to their Little Sister.
MULTIPLE SUBJECTS: You earn extra points if there are multiple
characters in a photo (i.e. Splicers, Bots, a Big Daddy, and a Little
Sister all at once).
POINTS SUBTRACTED FOR:
SUBJECT ALREADY PHOTOGRAPHED: Each time you take a photo of a
particular character, you get fewer and fewer points per photo.
SUBJECT DEAD: The subject must be alive, or else you'll earn almost no
points regardless of what else is happening in the photo.
EVALUATION:
It is a very good idea to research enemies and other characters as much
as possible, because the research bonuses you earn with the camera are
all very useful. Film for the camera is very cheap, and you can hold a
lot of it at once, so use it as much as possible.
To earn research bonuses quickly, always take multiple pictures of
every subject. You'll earn less and less points each time for
photographing the same subject, but you'll still earn points more
quickly than if you only took 1 photo of every new subject you meet.
RESEARCH BONUSES:
Every character in the game can be researched for research bonuses.
Level 1, 3, and 5 research bonuses allow you to inflict extra damage
against that enemy type. You can also earn enemy specific rewards from
level 2 and 4 research bonuses, such as special gene tonics or other
miscellaneous rewards.
RESEARCH BONUS 1: Damage+ (attacks do 10% more damage against this
enemy)
RESEARCH BONUS 2: Enemy Specific Reward
RESEARCH BONUS 3: Damage ++ (attacks do 25% more damage against this
enemy)
RESEARCH BONUS 4: Enemy Specific Reward
RESEARCH BONUS 5: Damage +++ (attacks do 45% more damage against this
enemy)
***********
*Plasmids:*
*******************************************************************************
Plasmids are the "special powers" of Bioshock. They allow you to
perform a variety of superpowered attacks, such as firing lightning
from your fists, setting enemies on fire with a snap of your fingers,
and even shooting a swarm of angry bees out of your arteries (how that
works, I've NO idea). However, plasmids cost EVE to use, and most will
drain your EVE bar fairly quickly. In essence, plasmids are the "magic
spells" of Bioshock, and EVE is the game's "mana". Hell, the game even
uses red to represent your health bar and blue to represent your
EVE/mana bar, just like Diablo, Might and Magic, and most other RPGs.
Some plasmids can be found simply laying around the game's levels, but
most must be purchased at Gatherer's Garden vending machines. In order
to buy plasmids, you need ADAM, the game's genetic currency which can
only be obtained from Little Sisters. Interestingly, Plasmids cost less
ADAM if you buy them later in the game: For example, the Target Dummy
plasmid costs 60 ADAM when it's first available in Neptune's Bounty,
but can be bought for only 30 ADAM in Olympus Heights/Apollo Square.
Some plasmids have multiple levels of power. For example, Electrobolt
comes in level 1, level 2, and level 3. Purchasing a higher level will
automatically replace the lower level plasmid in your inventory. Higher
level plasmids have a greater effect (level 2 has 2x effect, level 3
has 4x effect) but cost more EVE to use. To save on ADAM (you don't
have nearly enough to buy every level of every plasmid), it's a good
idea to skip level 1 and level 2 if possible, and just purchase level 3
when it becomes available in the game's later levels.
At first, you can only equip 2 plasmids at the same time. You'll store
any extra plasmids you have at the game's Gene Banks. You can purchase
extra plasmid slots at the Gatherer's Gardens in order to be able to
equip more plasmids at once. Each extra plasmid slot costs 100 ADAM,
and you can have a maximum total of 6 plasmid slots.
NOTE: Listed below are the approximate EVE costs of using each plasmid.
I've used the ~ symbol to indicate these are just guesses based on in-
game observation, because the info doesn't seem to be available in the
game's data files.
===============================================================================
Electrobolt:
EVE Cost: High
Electrobolt 1: ~90 EVE
Electrobolt 2: ~110 EVE
Electrobolt 3: ~120 EVE
Damage (from water electrocution):
Electrobolt 1: 400
Electrobolt 2: 1600
Electrobolt 3: 8000
DESCRIPTION:
Electrobolt is the first plasmid power you acquire in the game, and is
also one of the most useful. As Atlas tells you in the beginning of the
game... "there's nothing like a fistful of lightning, now is there?".
Basically, electrobolt fires a 1000 volt bolt of lightning that hits
instantly. It has multiple uses.
STUNNING ENEMIES: A direct hit from electrobolt won't do any damage,
but any enemy hit by it will be stunned for a few seconds. Enemies also
take extra damage from wrench attacks while stunned. Striking a stunned
enemy with the wrench causes 4x normal damage. Note that, once hit by
any attack, a stunned enemy will recover and resume attacking.
ELECTROCUTING ENEMIES IN WATER: Using electrobolt on a pool of water
will electrify the water for several seconds, causing considerable
electrical damage to any Splicers that happen to be standing in the
water at the time. In the first few levels of the game, the damage is
usually enough to kill Splicers with one shot. Try not to be standing
in the water yourself, however, or else you'll end up taking some
damage as well.
DISABLING SECURITY DEVICES: A shot from electrobolt can stun a camera,
turret, or security bot for a few seconds. While a device is disabled,
you can run up to it and hack it to make it friendly towards you.
Turrets and Bots cannot be hacked while they are attacking you, so you
can only hack them by stunning them with Electrobolt (or Winter Blast)
or distracting them with another plasmid such as Target Dummy or
Security Bullseye.
OPENING LOCKS: Electrobolt is required to open certain short-circuited
electronic locks around Rapture. These broken locks are easily spotted
by the arcs of electricity they give out.
PLASMID ATTRIBUTES:
Unfortunately, Electrobolt costs quite a bit of EVE to use. In fact,
you'll usually only be able to fire off 3 or 4 electrobolts before
running out of EVE and having to refill using an EVE hypo. HACKER'S
DELIGHT is a useful tonic to use in combination with Electrobolt;
whenever you hack a turret or bot, you'll recover most of the EVE you
spent stunning the machine with Electrobolt.
Also, as you progress from level to level, enemies will become
increasingly resistant to the effects of electrobolt; they'll recover
from being stunned more quickly, and will take less damage from being
electrocuted in water. After the first couple of levels, enemies
typically take half damage or less from being shocked in water. To
compensate for increased enemy resistance, you'll probably have to
upgrade to a higher level of Electrobolt. Higher levels of Electrobolt
stun enemies for longer, and do more electrical damage when used to
electrify water.
EVALUATION:
Overall, Electrobolt is a great plasmid to use in combination with your
wrench. Hitting a stunned enemy with the wrench is usually a 1-hit
kill, what Atlas refers to as the "one-two punch" when you first get
it. Electrifying water is also a good way to kill multiple Splicers at
once, saving on time and ammo. Electrobolt is also very useful in
stunning security devices so you can hack them. On the downside, the
EVE cost is quite high. Once you upgrade your wrench with gene tonics
like WRENCH JOCKEY, you should be able to kill Splicers very quickly
without needing to resort to Electrobolt for stunning. Once you get
more comfortable with the wrench, try to use Electrobolt sparingly to
save on EVE. As has already been mentioned, if you're going to use
Electrobolt to stun turrets, it's a good idea to equip HACKER'S DELIGHT
so that you'll get the EVE back when you hack the stunned turret.
===============================================================================
Incinerate!:
EVE Cost: Average
Incinerate! 1: ~48 EVE
Incinerate! 2: ~60 EVE
Incinerate! 3: ~72 EVE
Damage:
Incinerate! 1: 12 per second
Incinerate! 2: 24 per second
Incinerate! 3: 48 per second
DESCRIPTION:
Incinerate! is another plasmid you'll acquire very early on in the
game. Activating incinerate will basically snap your fingers, setting
whatever you point the crosshair at on fire. There's no projectile, the
effect is instantaneous. The effect also has splash damage, so you
can set multiple enemies on fire at once if they're close together.
Once on fire, enemies take continuous damage, and may even stop
fighting and run away to look for water to douse themselves (when
they step in the water, hit them with Electrobolt to deal even more
damage to them). Incinerate uses an average amount of EVE; it's not as
costly as Electrobolt or Winter Blast, but you'll still need to refill
your EVE bar after several shots.
Incinerate is very powerful; it can often kill enemy Splicers
in a single shot (although it does take several seconds for them
to burn to death). It is, however, fairly ineffective against Security
Bots/Turrets and Big Daddies, since they are resistant against
burning damage.
While on fire, Splicers will often flail around screaming in pain.
While they'll still stumble towards you and attempt to attack you
if they get close, they move a lot slower than they normally would,
making them easier to avoid. Flaming enemies can also set other
enemies on fire by touching them (just don't let them get close,
because they can do the same to you).
Besides setting enemies on fire, Incinerate can also be used to melt
ice, allowing you to progress through areas that were previously
blocked off by ice walls or frozen doors. You can also sometimes melt
flows of ice to find hidden items.
Incinerate can also be used to ignite oil-slicks found throughout
Rapture, creating flaming infernos that last for a few dozen seconds.
Enemies caught in a burning oil slick will take considerable damage,
often quickly burning to death.
EVALUATION:
Incinerate deals good damage against enemies (one or two shots
is often eventually lethal), but the damage done is gradual, and
enemies will still be able to attack you while their health is
being burned away. Therefore, it's a good idea to use hit-and-run
tactics with incinerate; set an enemy on fire by using Incinerate
on them once or twice, then run off and hide while their health
is drained. Alternatively, you can use Incinerate in combination
with weapons; set an enemy on fire, then bash or shoot them to finish
them off.
Because Incinerate does so much damage, and the EVE cost is reasonable,
it makes a good mainstay combat Plasmid against Splicers. However,
Molotov Nitro Splicers, machines, and Big Daddies are all resistant to
fire, so you'll want to use something else against them.
===============================================================================
Telekinesis:
EVE Cost: Very Low
Telekinesis: 15 EVE
Damage:
Objects vs Splicers: Velocity x 5.5, maximum 1500
Objects vs Bouncers: Velocity x 15, maximum 350
Objects vs Bots: Velocity x 6, maximum 1500
Objects vs Turrets: Velocity x 4, maximum 1500
Explosive Barrels: 600 (50 to player)
Nitro Splicer grenades: 120 + 120 (30 + 30 to player)
Nitro Splicer molotovs: 350 (90 to player)
Spider Splicer hooks: 150
Life Draining Spider Splicer hookers: 200
Rosie Proximity Mine: 450 (60 to player)
RPG Turret Rocket: 250 + 200 (60 + 20 to player)
DESCRIPTION:
As any crowbar-wielding scientist or brain-eating supervillain will
tell you, Telekinesis is one of the most versatile and useful powers
out there. This plasmid basically allows you to remotely manipulate any
moveable object with your mind alone. You can use it to grab distant
items, punt heavy objects at high velocity towards your enemies, throw
up a large object in front of you to use as a shield against incoming
bullets, and even grab enemy projectiles and toss them right back for
major damage. Telekinesis can inflict massive damage, and costs very
little EVE, making it one of the game's most economic plasmids. In
fact, Telekinesis uses the least EVE out of all the game's plasmids,
about 1/2th as much EVE as the next lowest-costing plasmids, Enrage!
and Security Bullseye.
Telekinesis has only a few weaknesses. Grabbing and throwing objects is
not as fast as firing off an automatic firearm, but once you get the
rhythm down you can toss/grab/toss/grab fairly quickly. Your
Telekinesis can also be confused in areas with lots of random debris
(i.e. small rocks, beer bottles, etc.) as you have a tendency to
accidentally grab small objects instead of the explosive barrel or
large boulder you were trying to reach for.
USAGE:
To use Telekinesis, press the fire button to draw an object towards
you. Hold down the fire button to hold the object in front of you and
carry it around with you. Release the fire button to punt the object at
high velocity in front of you. You can also switch to a weapon while
holding an object with Telekinesis to drop the object at your feet
instead of punting it.
One notable feature of Telekinesis is that it doesn't cost any EVE to
grab an object, only to punt them. So, you can use it to grab distant
items, then press the "use" key to pick up the item in mid-air without
using up any EVE. You can also move objects (such as explosive barrels)
with Telekinesis, then drop them to reposition them.
MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS:
Telekinesis has a number of very useful applications.
ATTACK: Use Telekinesis to pick up large objects, then punt them at
enemies for massive damage. The heavier the object, the more damage it
will inflict upon impact. Anyone who's played Half-Life 2 and used the
Gravity Gun should be familiar with the concept. You can use this
tactic to kill most Splicers in just one or two hits. Corpses work well
as TK projectiles, since they're quite plentiful in Rapture and heavy
enough to inflict considerable damage (a corpse hit will inflict about
600 to 700 points of damage, more if you use a Big Daddy corpse). Trash
cans, bags of fertilizer, and other large objects also work well.
COUNTER-ATTACK: You can use Telekinesis to grab enemy projectiles and
throw them right back. You can't catch bullets, but you CAN catch the
bombs thrown by Nitro Splicers, the hooks thrown by Spider Splicers,
the fireballs thrown by Houdini Splicers, the proximity mines thrown by
Rosies, and the rockets fired by RPG turrets. TK is particularly useful
against Nitro Splicers, as they only throw one projectile at a time,
and the explosive splash damage of their projectiles makes it easy to
hit them with it.
DEFENSE: You can use Telekinesis to pick up a large object and hold it
in front of you as an impromptu shield. A large enough object should
block most or all of the bullets, blades, or plasmids fired at you by
enemies standing in front of you. Be aware, however, that this will not
protect you from melee attacks or explosive splash damage. Splicer
corpses and trash cans work reasonably well as shields, while Big Daddy
corpses make excellent shields due to their large size.
RETRIEVAL: Telekinesis can allow you to grab items such as ammo or food
across gaps, high up on platforms, or otherwise outside your normal
reach. This application of Telekinesis doesn't even cost any EVE, as
long as you pick up or drop the items instead of throwing them.
STACKING: Telekinesis can be used to grab and drop moveable objects,
such as explosive barrels. For example, you can use it to stack
multiple explosive barrels in an area to use as a booby-trap against
passing Big Daddies.
EVALUATION:
With it's extremely low EVE cost and ability to inflict massive damage
on enemy Splicers (killing most baddies with a single hit from a
decent-sized object), Telekinesis is one of the most effective plasmids
available. I highly recommend it.
===============================================================================
Enrage!:
EVE Cost: Low
Enrage!: 30 EVE
DESCRIPTION:
Enrage fires an apple-sized red globule that bursts against a humanoid
opponent (it works on Splicers and Big Daddies, but not Bots), coating
them with a red substance which causes them to go into a berserk rage,
attacking all other characters in sight (including their former
allies). As a plus, Enrage also homes in on enemies, allowing you to
easily hit them even at long range. Enrage costs very little EVE to
use, and is a fun way of getting Rapture's inhabitants to attack each
other instead of you.
An enemy hit by Enrage will attack all characters in sight, INCLUDING
YOU. If there are other enemies nearby, the Enraged enemy will almost
always attack them instead of you, but the Enraged enemy WILL attack
you if you're the only person in their line sight. Enrage is still a
good way to get Splicers to stop fighting you and start attacking other
Splicers; I've often used it on Splicers chasing or shooting at me, and
they've always stopped attacking me immedietely and turned on their
allies instead.
Enrage is also excellent when used on Big Daddies. Enrage a Big Daddy,
and they'll clear the entire area of Splicers. Just be sure to duck
behind some cover so the Big Daddy doesn't see and attack you. If two
Big Daddies are in the same area, you can hit one with Enrage to get
the two of them to battle to the death (you'll probably need to use
Hypnotize Big Daddy to lure one Big Daddy near the other, since they
generally don't cross paths naturally).
Characters that damage each other will continue fighting to the death
even after Enrage wears off (after all, even at their best the citizens
of Rapture aren't exactly the most cooperative and self-controlled
folks out there).
EVALUATION:
While Enrage works well as a distraction, it isn't particularly
effective for eliminating Splicers; it can take Splicers a minute or
two to kill each other, while you can kill them much quicker yourself.
To speed things up, you can try attacking enemies while they're busy
fighting each other. While it's much faster to eliminate Splicers by
blowing them away or bashing them in the head with your wrench, Enrage
is a cheap plasmid to use, and can be used to set up lots of fun enemy
vs enemy battles.
===============================================================================
Hypnotize Big Daddy:
EVE Cost: Extreme
Hypnotize Big Daddy 1: ? (A LOT)
Hypnotize Big Daddy 2: ~610 EVE
DESCRIPTION:
The Hypnotize Big Daddy plasmid is only available as a reward from Dr.
Tenenbaum for saving the Little Sisters. You'll receive it after
rescuing your first 3 Little Sisters, along with a gift of 200 ADAM. An
upgraded version, Hypnotize Big Daddy 2, will be made available to you
after rescuing 9 Little Sisters. Hypnotize Big Daddy basically fools a
Big Daddy into thinking you're a Little Sister. It's eyes will turn
green, and it will follow you around and protect you like your very own
2-ton killer steel puppy. On the down side, the EVE cost on this
plasmid is insane; one use will drain your entire EVE bar, even if
you've acquired all possible EVE upgrades in the game.
Hypnotize Big Daddy works for a decent period of time. Hypnotize
Big Daddy 1 makes a Big Daddy friendly for 1.5 minutes, and Hypnotize
Big Daddy 2 makes one friendly for 3 minutes.
Unfortunately, as your buddy, the Big Daddy's relatively easy-going
attitude works against you. Big Daddies won't attack Splicers until
they actually strike you or you shoot them, so you can't just hide
behind it and expect it to clear the area for you. Also, you need to
watch for friendly fire; accidentally shooting or hurting the Big Daddy
yourself will cause it to go berserk and start beating down on you
also. Area effect plasmids or tonics (namely Insect Swarm and STATIC
DISCHARGE) should NEVER be used when you have a friendly Big Daddy in
tow.
It's a good idea not to hang around the Big Daddy after this plasmid
wears off; once he realizes you're NOT a cute little girl, he usually
just turns neutral again, but there's a chance he's go hostile and try
to beat you into the pavement for messing with his mind.
Also, be aware that Hypnotize Big Daddy has no effect on Big Daddies
that are already hostile towards you (as shown by their glowing red
eyes). Also, if you hypnotize a Big Daddy that's escorting a Little
Sister, the Little Sister will run away and hide inside a Little Sister
vent, preventing you from harvesting/rescuing her.
BIG DADDY VS BIG DADDY:
Hypnotize Big Daddy can be used to get one Big Daddy to attack another
Big Daddy. Just get a friendly Big Daddy to follow you to a neutral
Big Daddy, then attack or Enrage the neutral Big Daddy. The two
will fight it out; when the slugfest is over, one Big Daddy will be
dead, and the other will be almost dead and easily finished off by you.
This is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to kill Big Daddies and
farm them for cash ($50 to $75 per Big Daddy corpse).
===============================================================================
Security Bullseye:
EVE Cost: Low
Security Bullseye: 30 EVE
DESCRIPTION:
Security Bullseye fires an apple-sized blue globule that bursts against
a target, coating them with a blue paint that causes all security
systems to attack them on sight. Although the paint wears off after
several seconds, security machines will continue attacking any target
they've already locked onto. Like Enrage, Security Bullseye costs very
little EVE, allowing you to use it quite often.
Security Bullseye isn't particularly useful against Splicers. Hacked
turrets, cameras, and bots will attack enemy Splicers anyway, and
hacking is so easy to perform you'll probably end up doing it to every
security machine you come across. Security Bullseye has some usefulness
when you're entering a new area; you can use it to tag enemy Splicers
to get the local hostile turrets to attack them. Optionally, you can
run up behind the turrets and hack them while they're occupied shooting
up the Splicer.
FOR KILLING BIG DADDIES:
THE ABSOLUTE BEST USE of Security Bullseye is killing Big Daddies.
Security Bullseye doesn't count as an attack, so you can tag a Big
Daddy with it without angering them. You can therefore use Security
Bullseye to get local security systems to attack the Big Daddy and kill
it for you. Turrets die very quickly against Big Daddies, but
constantly respawning security bots can knock off more than half of a
Big Daddy's health in a single 60 second alarm sequence. You can either
tag a Big Daddy with Security Bullseye while it's in front of a
security camera to get the camera to summon bots against it, or (if no
cameras are available) you can summon the Bots yourself by deliberately
triggering an alarm tile while hacking a nearby machine. Tag the Big
Daddy with Security Bullseye, and the Bots will attack it when they
come by to investigate (be sure to use NATURAL CAMOUFLAGE so the Bots
don't attack you also). This is a great and cheap way to kill Big
Daddies for easy cash (Big Daddies typically drop $50 to $75 when
killed).
===============================================================================
Winter Blast:
EVE Cost: High(ish)
Winter Blast 1: ~80 EVE
Winter Blast 2: ~90 EVE
Winter Blast 3: ~108 EVE
DESCRIPTION:
Winter Blast fires an icy projectile that freezes enemies in their
tracks, turning them into living ice sculptures. Similar to
Electrobolt, its primary purpose is to stun enemies; while it does no
damage, it leaves enemies frozen and vulnerable for a few seconds. Winter
Blast often immobilizes enemies for slightly longer than Electrobolt.
You can also strike a frozen enemy multiple times, whereas shocked enemies
will recover and continue attacking as soon as they take damage.
You can smash enemies into pieces while they're frozen, killing them.
Unfortunately, smashing a frozen enemy reduces them to powder, and thus
there's no corpse left behind to search for ammo and supplies (this is
the biggest drawback to Winter Blast). Winter Blast costs slightly less
EVE than Electrobolt, but the EVE cost is still quite high.
While frozen, an enemy can survive less damage before dying. If they
thaw before you smash them, they still suffer whatever amount of damage
you managed to inflict on them while they were frozen. However, this
does not apply to Big Daddies; while they can still be smashed by
inflicting enough damage on them while they're frozen, Big Daddies do
not suffer damage to their normal health while frozen.
PLASMID ATTRIBUTES:
When used on a machine such as a turret or camera, Winter Blast freezes
the water in their pipes, slowing down the speed the water flows in the
hacking mini-game. Winter Blast is thus slightly superior to
Electrobolt for stunning turrets/cameras/bots, since as a bonus it also
makes hacking them somewhat easier.
As with Electrobolt, enemies become increasingly resistant to Winter
Blast as you progress through the game; for each successive level,
enemies will be stunned for a shorter period of time. You need to
upgrade to a higher level of Winter Blast to compensate. Winter Blast 2
freezes enemies for twice as long as Winter Blast 1, and Winter Blast 3
freezes enemies for 4 times as long as Winter Blast 1.
===============================================================================
Target Dummy:
EVE Cost: Below Average
Target Dummy: ~48 EVE
DESCRIPTION:
Target Dummy creates a stationary illusion of a cowering man; this
distracts enemies, causing them to attack the target instead of
yourself. Oddily, enemies will attack the target even if they can
clearly see you; apparently, they hate the target dummy much more than
they hate you. It works on all enemies, including Splicers, Bots, and
Big Daddies. The illusion lasts for 10 seconds, and the EVE cost is
less than most other plasmids (although still noticeable).
When selected, target dummy displays a floating figure in front of you.
Activate the plasmid to actually create the target dummy at the spot
shown by the indicator. The figure is stationary, and will disappear
after 10 seconds or if you create another target dummy.
EVALUATION:
A very useful plasmid, Target Dummy will immedietely cause enemies to
stop attacking you and turn around and go after the dummy. You can then
either run away, or attack the enemy in their backside while they're
distracted. Be careful, though, as enemies will resume attacking you
once you hit them with a weapon. You can also use Target Dummy to
distract turrets, allowing you to sneak up on them and hack them.
===============================================================================
Cyclone Trap:
EVE Cost: High
Cyclone Trap 1: ~95 EVE
Cyclone Trap 2: ~120 EVE
Damage: Velocity x 7
Cyclone Trap 1: Approximately 135
Cyclone Trap 2: Approximately 350 to 650
DESCRIPTION:
Cyclone Trap creates a swirling vortex on the ground about the size of
a manhole cover. When an enemy Splicer steps on the vortex, a powerful
wind will hurl them upwards, damaging them when they crash back onto
the ground. After landing from the trap, Splicers will also be stunned
for a few seconds, laying helplessly on the ground. Although generally
intended to be used as a trap, Cyclone Trap can be used offensively by
casting it on the ground immedietely under an enemy Splicer. Like
Electrobolt, the cost of Cyclone Trap is quite high, and you can only
use it a few times before using up your entire EVE bar.
Unfortunately, Cyclone Trap only works on Splicers. It has no effect on
security devices or Big Daddies.
There are two levels of Cyclone Trap; Cyclone Trap 1 spits enemies
several feet into the air, and does a total of approximately 135
damage. Cyclone Trap 2 is much more powerful, hurling enemies at
breakneck speeds several dozen feet into the air, and doing roughly 350
to 650 damage, depending on how fast they impact against the ceiling
and the floor. Damage is decent, but not exceptional; it usually takes
2 or 3 hits to kill a Splicer (although you can stun a Splicer with a
single trap, then whack them with the wrench while they're curled up on
the ground).
EVALUATION:
Overall, I didn't find much use for Cyclone Trap. EVE cost is high, and
generally it's more effective in Bioshock to deal direct damage to your
enemies rather than going around setting up traps for them. With that
said, Cyclone Trap can be useful in certain areas where you have to
defend a fixed position from several waves of oncoming Splicers that
attack from different directions (it's a lifesaver in the final
"Protect the Little Sister" mission, for example).
===============================================================================
Insect Swarm:
EVE Cost: Average
Insect Swarm 1: ~48 EVE
Insect Swarm 2: ~60 EVE
Insect Swarm 3: ~72 EVE
DESCRIPTION:
Insect Swarm is the only "area effect" plasmid in the game; in other
words, it hits multiple enemies with a single shot. Insect Swarm
summons a swarm of bees that attack nearby enemies, doing modest damage
to them while also distracting them so that they're unable to attack
you. Like Incinerate, Insect Swarm costs an average amount of EVE;
you'll need to refill your EVE with a hypo injection after several
shots.
The swarm of bees created by Insect Swarm acts as an actual entity in
the game world; it will fly towards nearby enemies, causing bees to
break off from the swarm and start attacking enemy characters. While
being attacked by bees, enemies will scream in pain and flail around.
The damage done by the bees is decent (although usually less than that
done by Incinerate), and they're also useful for stunning and
distracting multiple foes.
PLASMID ATTRIBUTES:
Insect Swarm has some advantages and some disadvantages compared to
Electrobolt and Winter Blast, the game's other two stunning plasmids.
On the plus side, it can affect multiple enemies at once, while
Electrobolt and Winter Blast only work on one enemy per shot. It also
costs less EVE to use than Electrobolt and Winter Blast. You also don't
need line-of-sight to hit an enemy with Insect Swarm; just release the
bees, and they'll seek out enemies around corners or behind walls
(they'll even attack Splicers pretending to be dead). On the down side,
Insect Swarm doesn't act immedietely; it takes a few seconds for the
bees to seek out and attack enemies (during which time they'll be busy
shooting you), whereas Electrobolt and Winter Blast stun instantly.
One major disadvantage of Insect Swarm is that it is completely
indiscriminate. Besides seeking out enemies attacking you, Insect Swarm
will also attack any other characters nearby. For example, if there's a
neutral Big Daddy in a room with a couple Splicers, using Insect Swarm
on the Splicers will also damage the Big Daddy, causing it to go
hostile on you. Insect Swarm can also travel through walls, causing
Splicers and Big Daddies in other rooms to become hostile and seek you
out.
Higher levels of Insect Swarm create a larger cloud of bees that can
attack more foes at once. Higher levels of Insect Swarm also do more
damage.
===============================================================================
Sonic Boom (Downloaded Content Only):
EVE Cost: High
Sonic Boom 1: ~90 EVE
Sonic Boom 2: ~120 EVE
Damage:
Sonic Boom 1: Approximately 90
Sonic Boom 2: Approximately 300
DESCRIPTION:
Sonic Boom is a special downloadable Plasmid, that becomes available
after installing the 1.1 patch in the PC version of Bioshock, or as
downloadable content from Xbox Live in the Xbox 360 version. After
installing the downloaded content, you can purchase Sonic Boom from any
Gather's Garden for the bargain price of only 1 ADAM.
Sonic Boom causes you to emit a powerful burst of pressure from the
palm of your hand that blasts Splicers standing in front of you
backwards a few dozen feet. It's similar to Telekinesis, except it
affects enemies directly. Enemies take damage from being blasted
backwards and slamming into walls or the floor. As with Electrobolt,
the EVE cost of Sonic Boom is quite high, and you can usually only fire
off 3 or 4 shots before needing to refill your EVE bar.
Like Cyclone Trap, Sonic Boom only works on Splicers. It has no
noticeable effect on security machines, and the only thing it does to a
Big Daddy is piss him off.
There are two levels of Sonic Boom; Sonic Boom 2 hurls enemies back
faster and further than Sonic Boom 1. However, neither Sonic Boom does
much relative damage. A direct hit from Sonic Boom 1 only does about 90
damage to enemies, while Sonic Boom 2 does about 300 damage (damage
varies somewhat based on how far enemies travel, and how hard they hit
the floor or wall). Generally, the relatively low damage inflicted by
Sonic Boom doesn't compensate for its high EVE cost. You can use it to
shove enemies off ledges or into fires and other hazards, although
there really aren't many situations in the game where doing so is
practical.
*********************
*USEFUL GENE TONICS:*
*******************************************************************************
Similar to plasmids, Gene Tonics are gene-splicing modifications that
alter your body's biological functions, allowing you to run faster, hit
harder, and even turn invisible or freeze enemies on touch. Unlike
plasmids, gene tonics are passive; they are always active, and do not
cost any EVE to use.
This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all Gene Tonics
available in the game. There are already other excellent FAQs that
cover that aspect of the game. Instead, this is merely a list of the
Gene Tonics I personally found most useful, and which I usually equipped
myself with.
================
=COMBAT TONICS:=
================
WRENCH JOCKEY: A very useful gene tonic found very early in the game,
in the Medical Pavilion. WRENCH JOCKEY increases the damage you do with
the wrench by an additional 350%, allowing you to kill most early-game
Splicers in just 1 or 2 wrench strikes. Very useful for killing
Splicers fast, and for conserving ammo for your firearms.
WRENCH JOCKEY 2: The improved version of WRENCH JOCKEY increases your
wrench damage by an additional 550%. As a plus, the effects stack if
you also equip WRENCH JOCKEY 1 at the same time. With both WRENCH
JOCKEY tonics equipped, you can practically mow through foes with the
wrench. You can get it in Fort Frolic as a level 2 research reward from
photographing Bouncer Big Daddies.
WRENCH LURKER: This tonic silences your footsteps, allowing you to run
up behind an unaware Splicer and bash them in the head. Also, if you
hit an unaware enemy with WRENCH LURKER equipped, you do 150% more
damage. Very useful for sneaking around Rapture and stealth-killing
Splicers.
WRENCH LURKER 2: Similar to WRENCH LURKER, except stealth-hits do an
extra 200% damage. Stacked on top of WRENCH LURKER 1, this allows you
to steath-kill most Splicers in 1 hit.
ARMOR SHELL 2: One of Dr. Tenenbaum's last gifts to you, if you rescued
all the Little Sisters. Reduces all piercing (bullet) and bludgeoning
(melee) damage you receive by 25%. Very useful. Also stacks with the
25% damage resistance you receive from wearing Big Daddy armor,
increasing your damage resistance to 50%.
=====================
=ENGINEERING TONICS:=
=====================
SPEEDY HACKER: Obtained early in the game in the Medical Pavilion, this
reduces the flow speed of the water in the hacking minigame, giving you
more time to solve the puzzle.
FOCUSED HACKER or ALARM EXPERT: These gene tonics reduce the number of
overload tiles or alarm tiles when hacking any machine. This is very
useful later in the game, when there are many overload/alarm tiles
during the hacking mini-game (in fact, without tonics, hacking can be
impossible in the later levels, because there are so many trap tiles
that the puzzles are unsolveable). I find these general tonics more
useful that item-specific tonics such as SAFECRACKER or SECURITY
EXPERT, since those bonuses only apply when hacking certain types of
machines.
==================
=PHYSICAL TONICS:=
==================
HACKER'S DELIGHT 1, 2, or 3: HACKER'S DELIGHT restores a decent amount
of health and EVE whenever you hack a machine. It is probably the only
"healing" tonic that's particularly effective. EXTRA NUTRITION (even
the highest level), BOOZE HOUND, and BLOODLUST really don't restore
enough health or EVE to be all that useful. You can get level 1 early
in the game by feeding a corpse in the Medical Pavilion Crematorium
into a furnace.
SPORTSBOOST 1 and 2: SPORTSBOOST increases the speed at which you move,
and also the speed with which you swing the wrench. VERY useful, they
allow you to cover ground more quickly, dodge enemy attacks more
easily, and hit enemies more quickly with the wrench. The 2 tonics also
stack together for a higher effect. These tonics are given as research
rewards for Level 2 and Level 4 research of Thuggish Splicers.
NATURAL CAMOUFLAGE: The Level 2 research reward for photographing
Houdini Splicers, this is one of the best gene tonics in the game.
NATURAL CAMOUFLAGE automatically turns you invisible whenever you stand
still for 2 seconds or so. While invisible, enemies will completely
ignore you as long as you don't move and break the illusion. This lets
you hide from Splicers you hear coming around the corner, and is an
excellent way to evade attacking Security Bots. Note that NATURAL
CAMOUFLAGE doesn't work if an enemy Splicer or Big Daddy has already
spotted you and is in an alert combat state, even if you're not
directly in their line of sight. It does, however, turn you invisible
in front of hostile Security Bots, even if they are currently attacking
you.
MEDICAL EXPERT 1, 2, or 3: Increases the amount of health your regain
whenever you use a first aid kit. Levels 1 and 2 aren't that useful
early in the game, since your maximum health is relatively low anyway,
but Level 3 can be helpful later in the game when your maximum health
is much higher, and enemies do more damage.
EVE SAVER (Downloaded Content Only): Only available as downloaded content
(for the Xbox 360 version) or after installing the 1.1 patch (for the
PC version), this gene tonic reduces the EVE cost of all your active
plasmids. With it equipped, plasmids only use 85% as much EVE. You can
first purchase it in Arcadia for just 1 ADAM.
**********
*ENEMIES:*
*******************************************************************************
***********
*SPLICERS:*
*******************************************************************************
Splicers are the crazed inhabitants of Rapture, named after their
excessive use of ADAM to "splice" alterations into their genetic code.
Their usage of ADAM has left them physically and mentally disfigured,
and they will attack you on sight. These folks are all too far gone to
negotiate or reason with; the only solution to their grievances is a
shotgun blast to the face.
Bioshock isn't Doom, where enemies attack you in wave after wave.
Initially Splicers aren't even aware of your presence, and will wander
the ruined halls of Rapture going about their daily business (looting
corpses, banging on vending machines, or simply wandering around).
However, once they spot you, they'll go craphouse rat insane and try to
kill you on sight.
It's possible to evade Splicers instead of fighting them if you're sneaky
enough and have the right gene tonics equipped. If you like stealth, stick
to dark areas; enemies take longer to spot you if you're in the dark
than if you're in the light. Still, Bioshock isn't Deus Ex or Thief
either; combat is generally the simplest solution to any problem, and
even on Hard mode you're usually well-equipped enough to effectively fight
through the opposition.
About halfway through the game (from Hephaestus onwards), Splicers
begin to play dead, pretending to be just another of the many corpses
that litter the ruined halls of Rapture. However, when you approach
them, they'll pop up, scream at you, and start attacking you. You can
use Insect Swarm to flush out faking Splicers, or bash them a few times
with the wrench while they're standing up.
Splicers constantly respawn throughout a level, so you'll never be able
to entirely clear out an area of enemies. Still, the respawn rate is
reasonably low. Often respawns are scripted (i.e. 2 or 3 Splicers will
repopulate a central hub area every time you accomplish a major level
objective). While Splicers do respawn randomly, they do so slowly
enough that after clearing an area, you can explore at your leisure
without worrying about being mobbed by surprise attacks.
All Splicers are vulnerable to headshots from certain weapons.
Splicers take:
4x damage from pistol headshots
2x damage from shotgun headshots
10x damage from crossbow headshots
Splicers also take 6x damage from antipersonnel rounds.
In combat, many Splicers have no obvious physical enhancements (other
than severe disfigurement) and attack with improvised melee weapons,
firearms, or homemade explosives (although even these Splicers may
exhibit unnatural durability, as evidenced by a cutscene early in the
game where a Splicer manages to live for about 3 seconds after having
their entire chest removed by a Big Daddy's huge mining drill). Other
Splicers display obvious superhuman abilities, such as being able to
jump a hundred feet into the air and crab-walk on the ceiling, or to
teleport around and throw fireballs from their hands.
There are five basic types of Splicers: Thuggish, Leadhead, Nitro,
Spider, and Houdini. Additionally, each type has an "advanced" version
that appears later in the game, displaying extra attributes such as
different powers or a stronger attack.
====================
=MEET THE SPLICERS:=
====================
"What will the neighbors think?!" - The Parasite
There are 9 different Splicer models used in the game, ranging from
demented starlets, to crazed cops, to berserk football players. Each
different Splicer model has their own unique appearance and
personality, and can appear as a Thuggish, Leadhead, Nitro, Spider, or
Houdini Splicer.
Baby Jane: An aspiring starlet wearing a brief cocktail dress, with a
rather nasal voice. One of the more common Splicer types. Baby Jane
alternates between blaming you for taking away her looks, and being
offended that you're not attracted to her.
Toasty: The first Splicer you fight in the game, and fairly common in
many of the game's levels. Toasty is relatively well-dressed in a shirt
and waistcoat vest, although the right side of his face is bandaged up.
His ramblings are a bit incoherent, but it seems he has a history of
being overly aggressive with women (a fact he is extremely defensive
about).
Lady Smith: A rich, upper-class socialite with an aloof demeanor, Lady
Smith seems completely oblivious to the ruined state of Rapture, and
seems lost in her own little world complaining about the taste of the
tenderloin and her daughter's upcoming wedding to the Prime Minister's
son. She's quite common in the classier areas of Rapture. Outraged by
your existence, she attacks you as a parasite and a hanger-on.
Rosebud: A working-class woman wearing goggles and mechanics'
coveralls, and one of the most common Splicer types in the game.
Rosebud is probably the most deformed Splicer seen in Rapture; the right
side of her skull is missing, exposing her overgrown brain. She is
obsessed with finding her missing child, and blames you on sight for
taking her away, often calling you "monster".
Doctor: Dressed in surgical coats and gloves, these mad doctors are
most prominent in the Medical Pavilion, and found in other medical-
related rooms in other areas of Rapture. They are obsessed with
vivisection and badly want to perform unnecessary surgery on you. They
also constantly complain that you're crawling with germs and that
everything is covered with semen. EVERYTHING!
Ducky: First appearing in Neptune's Bounty, these Splicers are dressed
in a baggy, full-body raincoat-like garment, and wear a large military-
style cap. As shown by the Plasmid Ad cinematics, these guys are what's
left of Rapture's police force. Which makes sense, since most of the
Duckys you encounter carry firearms. They talk like crazy old coots,
and most of their speech consists of paranoid ramblings.
Waders: A machinery worker wearing suspender overalls and an engineer's
hat, Waders first appears in Neptune's Bounty, and make frequent
appearances throughout the game, often in working-class areas of
Rapture. A religious fanatic, Waders can frequently be heard lamenting
the collapse of society around him as a result of sin and Mammon.
Breadwinner: A Chicago gangster wearing a pinstripes suit. He can first
be seen in Arcadia, and makes appearances in later levels, although
he's a bit less common than the other Splicer types. Breadwinner dreams
of being a bigshot, and desperately craves money and power.
Pigskin: A football player wearing full 1940s-era equipment. Another
less common Splicer, he's most prominent in the Arcadia Farmer's
Market, and makes sparing appearances in the game's later levels.
Surprisingly, if you stick around and listen to his dialogue, Pigskin
seems to be one of the more lucid Splicer types in the game. He seems
at least partially aware of his surroundings (as opposed to say, Lady
Smith, who's off living in her own little world), and the fact he's
being mind-controlled by Andrew Ryan. Of course, he still excessively
uses football terminology and is crazy as hell.
===============================================================================
Thuggish Splicers:
Health:
Default: 100
Welcome to Rapture: 50
Medical Pavilion: 80
Arcadia: 150
Farmer's Market: 150
Fort Frolic: 200
Attacks:
Melee Attack: 25 damage
DESCRIPTION:
The most basic enemy Splicer you'll encounter in the game, the Thuggish
Splicer is simply a crazed inhabitant of Rapture armed with a melee
weapon, such as a wrench, steel pipe, or flashlight. Thuggish Splicers
attack simply by running straight at you once they spot you, and
attempting to bash or slash you to death with their weapons. They are
one of the most common enemy types you'll encounter throughout the
game.
Besides their basic behavior, Thuggish Splicers also generally have
less health than the other Splicer types. Overall, they should be the
easiest of your enemies in Bioshock to dispatch.
BEHAVIOR:
Thuggish Splicer behavior is fairly simple; once they spot you, they'll
charge straight at you in an attempt to engage you in melee combat.
They can occasionally sidestep sideways when you shoot at them to
try and dodge your shots, but usually they just make a beeline
straight for you.
Thuggish Splicers have 2 basic types of attack:
At long range, Thuggish Splicers will charge at you, and when they get
close enough they'll leap forward from several feet away and attempt to
brain you with a swing of their melee weapon. You can actually dodge
this attack by stepping backwards or sideways when they leap at you.
Once a Thuggish Splicer is up close, it will swing it's melee weapon to
strike at you. Thuggish splicers have a variety of different swings,
but they all boil down to either a single strike, or a double-swing
that will hit you twice if you don't dodge after the first swing.
However, unless you're daft enough to just stand still right next to a
Thuggish Splicer, you really shouldn't end up being hit by its melee
swings.
Finally, if you get behind a Thuggish Splicer, it can spin around 180
degrees and strike you with a backwards attack. So don't think you're safe
just because you're standing behind a Thuggish Splicer.
However, Thuggish Splicers aren't completely mindless opponents. They
can also sometimes employ hit-and-run tactics. Every time you strike a
Thuggish Splicer, there's a 25% chance that they'll run away into
another room. If you don't chase them and they get away, they'll
remember you and attempt to ambush you shortly afterwords.
KILL STRATEGIES:
It's actually fairly easy to "duel" a Thuggish Splicer in melee with
your wrench, and kill them without getting hit. When a Splicer charges
at you, wait for it to leap at you, then step backwards or sideways to
dodge its attack. Before it can recover, dart forward and whack it once
or twice with your wrench, then dodge back again before it can
retaliate with a melee swing. Step back several steps so the Splicer
tries to leap at you again, and repeat the process. At the beginning of
the game, you can kill a Thuggish Splicer with 3 to 5 wrench strikes.
Once you acquire the WRENCH JOCKEY gene tonic, you can actually kill
early Thuggish Splicers with a single hit, which allows you to simply
run up to them and mow them down with the wrench. Even in later levels,
you can kill a Thuggish Splicer with 1 or 2 wrench strikes, using
WRENCH JOCKEY and research damage bonuses.
Thuggish Splicers can usually also be dispatched with a single pistol
headshot. Because they run straight at you without really making any
attempt to dodge or zig-zag, it's fairly easy to score headshots on
them with the pistol. If you're being attacked by multiple Thuggish
Splicers, you can also mow them down with the machinegun or shotgun.
Hurling corpses or heavy objects at Thuggish Splicers with Telekinesis
also works well; you can usually kill them with one hit, and their lack
of ranged attacks means they can't do anything about you flinging
objects at them from a couple dozen feet away.
Thuggish Splicers can also be stunned with Electrobolt, then killed
with a single wrench strike, or frozen with Winter Blast then shattered
with a couple strikes. However, these plasmids use up a relatively high
amount of EVE, and will burn through your EVE reserves fairly quickly.
===============================================================================
Electrified Thuggish Splicers:
Health:
Default: 630
Hephaestus: 700
Olympus Heights: 600
Apollo Square: NORMAL: 600
BUFF : 1500 (TOASTY)
Point Prometheus: 800
Proving Grounds: 1200
Attacks:
Melee Attack: [40 + 40 ] damage
DESCRIPTION:
About halfway through the game, Thuggish Splicers will be upgraded to
Electrified Thuggish Splicers. These enemies have increased health, and
are also electrified; they are completely immune to electrical attacks
(such as the Electrobolt plasmid), and also inflict extra electrical
damage with their melee attacks. Electrified Thuggish Splicers are
fairly easy to spot; their veins occasionally glow blue with
electricity, and their bodies are constantly giving off blue arcs of
electricity that arc towards walls, floors, and other nearby objects.
Electrified Thuggish Splicers typically have more health than similarly
leveled Spider or Houdini Splicers, but less health than Leadhead or
Nitro Splicers. They have decent durability, but can still be brought
down quickly with the right weapons.
BEHAVIOR:
Other than being genetically altered to produce a few thousand volts
from their bodies, Electrified Thuggish Splicers behave exactly the
same as regular Thuggish Splicers. Just watch out for their electrified
melee attacks, which do significantly increased damage.
KILL STRATEGY:
Because Electrified Thuggish Splicers are immune to Electrobolt, you'll
have to use Winter Blast instead if you want to stun them. The downside
of Winter Blast is that it causes enemies to shatter when you kill
them, preventing you from obtaining loot from their bodies.
As with regular Thuggish Splicers, Electrified Thuggish Splicers can be
easily killed with the wrench. Although they have increased health, by
the time you face them you should have obtained the WRENCH JOCKEY 2
gene tonic, which when stacked on top of the original WRENCH JOCKEY and
combined with research damage bonuses, allows you to inflict
considerable damage with the wrench. For most of the game, you should
be able to kill Electrified Thuggish Splicers with just 2 to 3 wrench
strikes (with WRENCH LURKER equipped, you can even run up behind
unaware Splicers and kill them with just 1 hit).
Because of their increased health, basic firearms such as the pistol
and machinegun are less effective against Electrified Thuggish
Splicers. It takes more than a dozen hits or even multiple headshots to
kill an Electrified Thuggish Splicer with the pistol. However,
Electrified Thuggish Splicers remain vulnerable to antipersonnel
rounds, and can be killed with a few antipersonnel shots or a single
pistol headshot. The shotgun also remains reasonably effective against
them, and with the weapon damage upgrade you can usually kill them with
2 close-range blasts or a single point-blank blast to the face.
Finally, Electrified Thuggish Splicers can be brought down very quickly
with the crossbow. A single headshot from the crossbow is lethal
against any Splicer, and you can also kill Electrified Thuggish
Splicers with a single bolt to the chest if you have the weapon damage
upgrade and research damage bonuses.
As with regular Thuggish Splicers, their lack of ranged attacks makes
them vulnerable to high velocity objects hurled via Telekinesis, which
is still powerful enough to kill them in 1 or 2 hits from a corpse or
anything heavier.
SPLICERS OF NOTE:
In Apollo Square, some of the Thuggish Splicers are significantly
tougher than normal, being able to survive more than twice as much
damage as the other Thuggish Splicers in the area. These Buff Thuggish
Splicers are always Toasty Splicers (sex-obsessed men wearing yellow
waistcoat vests).
===============================================================================
Leadhead Splicers:
Health:
Default: 150
Medical Pavilion: 160
Neptune's Bounty: 120
Arcadia: 500
Farmer's Market: 500
Attacks:
.38 Pistol: VS PLAYER: 20 damage
VS AI : 15 damage
Melee Attack: 36 damage
DESCRIPTION:
A step up from the basic Thuggish Splicer, the Leadhead Splicer is
equipped with a revolver, and will attempt to shoot you to death.
Leadhead Splicers appear very frequently, and will probably be the most
commonly encountered enemy you'll face in Bioshock.
Leadhead Splicers have more health than Thuggish Splicers, and can
generally take quite a few hits before dying. Still, with the right
weapons and tactics, you can bring them down reasonably quickly.
BEHAVIOR:
Leadhead Splicers are quite agile, and will constantly dodge and strafe
around while shooting at you in order to reduce your ability to shoot
back at them. They even strafe in and out of cover, will occasionally
dive and roll sideways to evade your fire, and will run off and take cover
when they need to reload. Their agility makes them harder to hit than
the game's other Splicer types.
Besides shooting at you, Leadhead Splicers can also pistol-whip you if
you get too close to them. However, they can only strike you in a
straight line, so their melee swing can actually be dodged by circle-
strafing around them.
KILL STRATEGY:
The most economic way to kill Leadhead Splicers is still to bludgeon
them with the wrench. However, their increased health means you'll
usually have to strike them several times to kill them. Meanwhile,
they'll be busy unloading their pistol into your face while you run up
to them and while you bash them.
To wrench Leadhead Splicers to death without taking much damage, it's a
good idea to lure them around corners, then ambush them when they run
into view. This allows you to catch them by surprise and strike them a
few times before they can react and shoot at you. Leadhead Splicers
will usually chase you when you run away from them, or (if they haven't
spotted you already) will walk over to investigate when they hear a
noise or spot a quick movement around the corner, so it's fairly easy
to lure them into an ambush.
You can also try to kill Leadhead Splicers with pistol headshots, since
it usually only takes 1 to 3 headshots to drop them, and they drop a
pistol containing 1 to 3 bullets to replenish your ammo with. This is
best done before they become aware of you, since they dodge around and
make themselves difficult targets once they become alerted to your
presence.
If you're facing multiple Splicers at once, or are otherwise under time
pressure, Leadhead Splicers can also be dispatched with 1 or 2 shotgun
blasts or several hits from the machinegun.
You can also use Telekinesis to lift a large object (such as Big Daddy
corpse) in front of you to absorb enemy bullets. Hurl the large object
at your enemies to bowl them down with one hit.
===============================================================================
Machinegun Leadhead Splicers:
Health:
Default: 450
Hephaestus: 1500
Olympus Heights: 1000
Apollo Square: NORMAL: 1000
BUFF : 2500 (Waders, Ducky)
Point Prometheus: 800
Proving Grounds: 800
Attacks:
Tommy Gun: 6 damage
Melee Attack: 60 damage
DESCRIPTION:
About halfway through the game, Leadhead Splicers will be upgraded to
Machinegun Leadhead Splicers. These Splicers have significantly
increased health, and instead of simple 6-shot revolvers will carry and
unload on you with fully automatic tommy guns.
Machinegun Leadhead Splicers have considerable health (they are the second
most durable Splicers in the game, next to Molotov Nitro Splicers), and
can take multiple hits from even your better weapons.
BEHAVIOR:
Like regular Leadhead Splicers, Machinegun Leadhead Splicers are very
agile: dodging, strafing in and out of cover, and side-stepping around
to avoid your return fire. They can fire many bullets before needing to
reload, and usually try to take cover while reloading. Their individual
bullets are rather weak, but they have a high rate of fire and can hit you
multiple times in a short period. If you get too close to them, they will
try to strike you with the butt of their machineguns, although you can
dodge their melee strike by circle strafing around them.
KILL STRATEGY:
While Machinegun Leadhead Splicers can still be wrenched to death,
you'll need the proper gene tonics to do the job. Both WRENCH JOCKEY 1
and WRENCH JOCKEY 2 are a must to deal with their increased health, and
ideally you'll also want WRENCH LURKER to sneak up behind them and bash
them before they notice you. Even with a WRENCH LURKER backstab, you'll
need to strike 3 or 4 times to bring them down.
One way to melee-kill Machinegun Leadhead Splicers is to get up close
to them, either by zig-zagging through cover or using SPORTSBOOST to
close the distance rapidly while taking only a few hits. At close
range, Machinegun Leadhead Splicers will stop shooting you and attempt
to melee you with the butt of their firearms. You can then strafe in
circles around them while bashing them with your wrench, and as long as
you keep moving you should be able to dodge their melee strikes.
Because of their increased health, Machinegun Leadhead Splicers are
fairly resistant to most firearms. Their constant dodging also
makes it more challenging to hit them with multiple consecutive
rounds. The only way to effectively kill them with the pistol or
machinegun is to use antipersonnel rounds, and even then it will take
almost a dozen shots to do the job. 3 or 4 shotgun blasts or 2 or 3
grenade rounds also work. The chemical thrower, with it's wide arc of
fire and rapid damage rate, works well for hitting the quick-moving
Machinegun Leadhead Splicers and burning them down quickly.
A headshot from the crossbow should bring down a Machinegun Leadhead
Splicer, although you should do this before they become aware of you,
since it's hard to hit them while they're dodging and strafing around
in combat mode. You can also usually kill a Machinegun Leadhead Splicer
with 2 crossbow bolts to the body (as long as you have the weapon
damage upgrade and research damage bonuses), although again it can be
hard to hit them while they're dodging around.
In terms of Plasmids, both Telekinesis and properly leveled Incinerate
work well against Machinegun Leadhead Splicers, killing them in a few
hits.
SPLICERS OF NOTE:
In Apollo Square, some of the Leadhead Splicers are significantly
tougher than normal. These Buff Leadhead Splicers can survive more than
twice as much damage as the other Splicers in the level, and are in
fact the toughest regular Splicers in the entire game. These guys can
take multiple hits from even your best weapons. These Buff Leadhead
Splicers are always Ducky (Rapture cop) or Wader (religious fanatic
mechanic) Splicers.
===============================================================================
Nitro Splicers:
Health:
Default: 200
Medical Pavilion: 400 (Doctors)
Neptune's Bounty: 300
Attacks:
Bomb: VS PLAYER: [40 + 40 ] damage
VS AI : [60 + 20 ] damage
Melee Attack: 75 damage
Suicide Bomb: 150 damage
DESCRIPTION:
First encountered in the Medical Pavilion, Nitro Splicers are one of
the nastier Splicer types. These Splicers carry a small crate full of
powerful homemade bombs, which they will toss at you one after the
other. Their attacks are very powerful, but fortunately these Splicers
appear significantly less often than most other Splicer types.
Nitro Splicers are quite durable, and have significantly more health
than other similarly leveled Splicer types. This makes most basic
weapons less effective against them.
Notably, Nitro Splicers are immune to the splash damage of their own
bombs (unless you grab one with Telekinesis and toss it back at them).
BEHAVIOR:
Nitro Splicers move at an average speed when pursuing you through
a level. They're not very agile, and generally stand in one spot
throwing bombs at you. Like Thuggish Splicers, they can sometimes
sidestep sideways when shot at in an attempt to avoid your fire.
They may also reposition themselves after every few tosses.
Nitro Splicers attack by throwing homemade bombs at you. These bombs
are essentially metal cans with a lit fuse attached. If a bomb hits
you, it will detonate on impact, dealing significant damage. Otherwise,
the bomb will bounce on the floor and explode after a couple seconds. On
the plus side, Nitro Splicers aren't particularly quick attackers.
There's usually a delay of a couple seconds between each bomb throw,
giving you time to prepare a counter-attack.
Besides throwing bombs at you, Nitro Splicers can also run away while
tossing bombs over their shoulder to cover their escape. They'll
usually do this if they feel threatened, such as if you've managed to
hit them a few times.
Nitro Splicers can also toss a smoke grenade at their feet, creating a
cloud of smoke to obscure themselves from your vision. They usually use
the smoke's cover to either run away, or reposition themselves to
attack you from a different angle.
Besides tossing bombs at you, Nitro Splicers can also kick you if you
get too close to them. Surprisingly, this kick attack does significant
damage, and it's also very quick and hard to dodge.
If a Nitro Splicer is critically injured (when it's health drops
below 33%), they may attempt a suicide attack where they light their
entire crate of bombs, lift it above their head, and explode themselves.
If you're standing next to them when this happens, you'll suffer
significant damage. The suicide attack also vaporizes their body,
leaving no corpse to loot. There's a 50% chance a Nitro Splicer
will use the suicide attack when critically injured.
If you kill a Nitro Splicer without them using the suicide attack,
there's still a good chance that they'll drop a final bomb on the floor,
which will detonate after a couple seconds, or if it touches you.
KILL STRATEGY:
Nitro Splicers have one major weakness; the Telekinesis plasmid, which
is also the absolute best and most economic way of dispatching them.
When they toss a bomb at you, grab it with Telekinesis and toss it
right back at them; the resulting explosion should kill or severely
injure them; even if they aren't killed in one hit, they should be
knocked to the ground by the blast, allowing you to run up and bash
them to death with the wrench. Because there's a delay of a couple seconds
between each bomb toss, you have plenty of time to grab each bomb and
line up your return shot. If you find yourself fighting a Nitro Splicer
alongside a few other Splicers, you can even grab the bombs from the
Nitro Splicer and toss them at the other Splicers to wipe them out
quickly. Just be sure not to stand too close to your enemy when you
toss the bomb at them, or else you'll be hurt by the splash damage.
Because of their surprisingly strong melee kicks and the fact they
often explode upon death, it's actually not such a good idea to kill
these guys with the wrench. Besides, their increased health means they
can survive several strikes from the wrench before dying, making it
less effective against them when compared to Thuggish or Leadhead
Splicers. If you must wrench a Nitro Splicer to death, circle strafe
around it while whacking away to try and dodge its melee attacks.
The relatively high durability of Nitro Splicers also means firearms
aren't the best way of killing them either. It takes several pistol or
machinegun hits to kill them. They can be killed with 2 or 3 pistol
headshots, and they generally stand still enough so that scoring
headshots on them is fairly easy. However, it's much easier just to
kill them with their own bombs using Telekinesis.
===============================================================================
Molotov Nitro Splicers:
Health:
Default: 420
Fort Frolic: 1200
Olympus Heights: 1500
Apollo Square: 1500
Proving Grounds: 2000
Attacks:
Molotov VS PLAYER: 90 damage + (1 dmg per second )
VS AI :150 damage + (1 dmg per second )
Melee Attack: 80 damage
DESCRIPTION:
After the first few levels of the game, Nitro Splicers will be upgraded
to Molotov Nitro Splicers. Instead of homemade bombs, these guys throw
Molotov cocktails at you. Unlike bombs, which bounce on the floor
unless they hit you directly, molotov cocktails detonate on impact with
any surface or object. Molotovs are therefore more difficult to dodge
than bombs, because even if they don't hit you directly, you can still
be injured by the splash damage if they land close to you.
Molotov Nitro Splicers are very hardy. They are generally the most
durable Splicers in Bioshock, and almost always have significantly more
health than any other similarly leveled Splicer types. Molotov Nitro
Splicers are also highly resistant to heat and fire attacks; they take 50%
damage from heat-based attacks, and only burn for a second or so (which
makes the Incinerate! plasmid almost useless against them). The only
exception to this are the randomly spawned Molotov Nitro Splicers in Fort
Frolic, who have normal [i.e. no] heat resistance, but who still
extinguish themselves from burning after only a second.
BEHAVIOR:
Molotov Nitro Splicers behave pretty much the same as regular Nitro
Splicers. They toss Molotov cocktails at you, use smoke grenades to
conceal themselves, and occasionally run away while tossing Molotovs
over their shoulder to cover their escape.
Unlike regular Nitro Splicers, Molotv Nitro Splicers don't use the
suicide attack when critically injured, preferring to go down
fighting instead.
Like regular Nitro Splicers, Molotov Nitro Splicers will often drop a
final molotov cocktail when killed, causing damage to anything standing
near them when they die.
KILL STRATEGY:
As with the regular Nitro Splicers, the best way to kill these guys is
to grab their Molotovs with Telekinesis, then chuck them right back in
their faces. Because of their high health (and their resistance to
their own fire attacks), you'll have to repeat the grab and toss a few
times to kill them. You can speed things up by damaging them with
your weapons while they're knocked down.
Since your wrench is so powerful by the time you start meeting these
guys, you can, if you insist, circle strafe around them while bashing
them to death. It takes several hits to get the job done, however, and
returning their Molotovs with Telekinesis is still more effective.
Because of their significant health, fighting them with firearms is
generally not as effective. However, a crossbow bolt to the face is
instantly lethal against them, and it's fairly easy to hit them in the
head with the crossbow since they tend to stand relatively still while
fighting you (stunning them with Electrobolt or Winter Blast also helps).
===============================================================================
Spider Splicers:
Health:
Default: 300
Neptune's Bounty: 600 (immune to shattering)
Fort Frolic: NORMAL: 250
SILAS COBB'S KITTENS: 600
Hephaestus: 400
Attacks:
Slash: 60 damage
Leap: 80 damage
Dropkick: 80 damage
Hook Throw: 35 damage
DESCRIPTION:
Spider Splicers are the first Splicers with obviously superhuman
abilities that you'll encounter in Bioshock. Equipped with a pair of
red-hot hooks, Spider Splicers are very fast and have incredible agility,
allowing them to leap upwards a few dozen feet onto the ceiling, where
they can use their hooks to scurry along the ceiling like an insect. Very
agile enemies, Spider Splicers strike with a variety of leaping attacks,
and can also toss their sharp hooks at you from long range. Their melee
attacks do fairly high damage, especially early on in the game when
your maximum health is relatively low.
Spider Splicers only appear in a few of the game's levels, although
they are fairly common in the levels in which they do appear.
Fortunately, they usually have fairly low durability, especially when
compared to other similarly leveled Splicers.
BEHAVIOR:
Spider Splicers are significantly faster than other Splicer types;
Indeed, they can outrun you even when you have both SPORTSBOOST
gene tonics equipped. They are also very agile. Their most distinct
ability is their tendency to leap upwards a few dozen feet, stick to
the ceiling, and start crawling around up there. You can sometimes fail
to spot a Spider Splicer approaching because they're hiding up on the
ceiling where it's dark. However, Spider Splicers make a distinct
clicking sound while walking on the ceiling with their hooks, which
you should learn to listen for to recognize their presence.
Spider Splicers have a number of attacks. Their basic attack pattern
goes something like this:
First of all, Spider Splicers will attempt to run at you, leaping at
you from a dozen feet away to slash at you with one of their hooks.
This attack is similar to the leaping attack used by the Thuggish
Splicer, but Spider Splicers can leap much further, preventing you from
dodging them by simply stepping backwards. Instead, trying strafing
sideways to dodge their strike. Sometimes, instead of leaping, Spider
Splicers will try to run right up to you and slash you with their hooks.
If they do so, just back away and shoot/bash them as they chase you.
If you stand next to them, Spider Splicers will usually do a dropkick
to push you away. They can also run towards you and slash you if you're
standing too close.
After striking you, Spider Splicers will somersault backwards a few
times to get away from you. Once they've put some distance between you
and them, they'll leap onto the ceiling and start throwing hooks at you.
Spider Splicers usually throw 3 hooks in a row. Their hooks can be
dodged by strafing sideways. After tossing 3 to 6 hooks at you, they'll
drop back to the ground and charge at you for another leaping slash
attack.
To mix things up, Spider Splicers can also toss hooks at you while on
the ground if you're at long range. As usual, you can almost always
dodge their hooks by strafing sideways.
KILL STRATEGY:
Spider Splicers have high agility, but (usually) relatively low health.
With the proper gene tonics and damage research bonuses, you can
usually beat them to death with just 1 or 2 wrench strikes. Certain
Spider Splicers (such as the first 3 you fight in Neptune's Bounty) are
tougher than normal, but can still be killed with several wrench
strikes. Try sidestepping their leaping attacks, then strike them a
couple times in the back. You can also get a couple free hits on a
Spider Splicer when they drop down from the ceiling to the floor,
or while they're somersaulting away from you.
If you want to get a Spider Splicer down from the ceiling, you can
either stun them with Electrobolt, or knock them down with Sonic Boom.
They'll drop to the floor, stunned and vulnerable to your wrench strikes.
Their relatively low health also allows you to kill them with 1 hit
from health-draining plasmids like Incinerate 2 or Insect Swarm 2.
You can also toss a corpse at them with Telekinesis to kill them
with one hit.
Due to their relatively low health, Spider Splicers go down reasonably
quickly when shot with firearms. Several bullets from the pistol or
machinegun, or 1 or 2 shotgun blasts, should usually be sufficient to
put them down. 2 or 3 pistol headshots also usually does the trick.
It is possible to grab a Spider Splicer's hook and toss it back at them
with Telekinesis, but this isn't as effective as tossing bombs back at
Nitro Splicers. First of all, the hooks don't have splash damage, so
you actually have to hit the Splicer accurately with your return shot.
Secondly, unlike Nitro Splicers who only toss 1 bomb at a time, Spider
Splicers toss 3 hooks in a row, so you'd have to grab the 1st hook and
sidestep the 2nd and 3rd one. If you do try tossing hooks back at them,
it usually takes 2 to 4 hits to kill them.
SPLICERS OF NOTE:
You'll first encounter Spider Splicers in Neptune's Bounty. There are 3
of them in the level, and you'll be given a mission objective of
photographing all 3 for Peach Wilkins. 1 is behind an inaccessible
glass window, while 2 will attack you normally in different areas of
the level. These Spider Splicers are somewhat tougher than normal, but
can still be brought down reasonably quickly.
Neptune's Bounty is also the home of a unique super-powered Super
Splicer, who is discussed in more detail in the mini-boss section of
this guide.
Fort Frolic is home to 3 other unique Spider Splicers. When you first
confront Silas Cobb, he'll set fire to his lair, triggering his pet
"kittens" to attack you. Silas Cobb's kittens are 3 Baby Jane Spider
Splicers wearing cat masks who drop down from the ceiling. They have
more health than normal, but are also on fire (apparently crazy Cobb's
way of communicating with his "kittens" is to light them on fire) and
as a result their health will rapidly drain as you fight them.
Fort Frolic is also home to a rather unique brand of Spider Splicer
that is covered in plaster and behaves significantly different from all
other Splicers in the game. Because of their unique attributes, they're
covered in the mini-boss section of this guide.
===============================================================================
Life Draining Spider Splicers:
Health:
Default: 520
Point Prometheus: 1200
Proving Grounds: 1200
Attacks:
Slash: 60 damage
Leap: 80 damage
Dropkick: 80 damage
Hook Throw: 100 damage
DESCRIPTION:
In the last couple levels of the game, you encounter upgraded Spider
Splicers. The game files refers to them as Life Draining Spider
Splicers, although they do not appear to actually have the ability to
drain your life. Indeed, the only real difference between Life Draining
Spider Splicers and regular Spider Splicers is that the Life Draining
Spider Splicers have significantly more health, as well as a much more
damaging thrown hook attack.
BEHAVIOR:
Life Draining Spider Splicers behave exactly the same as regular Spider
Splicers. They leap and slash at you, somersault away, then jump up to
the ceiling to toss hooks at you. Their hooks do significantly more
damage, however, so you should take care to dodge them by strafing.
KILL STRATEGY:
Life Draining Spider Splicers can be killed in the same manner as
regular Spider Splicers, although their upgraded health means that
you'll have to deliver significantly more damage to put them down. Of
course, by the time you face them, your character should be almost
maxed out and extremely powerful.
By the time you face them, you should have WRENCH JOCKEY 1 and WRENCH
JOCKEY 2, along with maxed-out research damage bonuses, allowing you to
bash them to death with 4 wrench strikes. You can also put them down
with several antipersonnel bullets, or a single crossbow bolt to the
face.
Because of their high health, it's generally ineffective to throw their
hooks back at them with Telekinesis, as you'll have to hit them several
times to kill them. You can, however, still throw heavy objects at them
and kill them in 2 or 3 hits. Incinerate 3 and Insect Swarm 3 also work
well against them, killing them in just 1 or 2 hits of Incinerate 3, or
3 to 4 hits of Insect Swarm 3.
===============================================================================
Houdini Splicers:
Health:
Default: 300
Arcadia: 250
Farmer's Market: 250
Fort Frolic: 250
Hephaestus: 300
Attacks:
Fireball: VS PLAYER: [40 + 40 ] damage
VS AI : [60 + 60 ] damage
DESCRIPTION:
Houdini Splicers are the only Splicers you meet in the game who are
seen actually using offensive plasmid powers against you. Houdini
Splicers have 2 basic plasmid powers; fireballs and teleportation. They
use hit-and-run tactics, tossing a few fireballs at you, then
teleporting away and reappearing elsewhere a few seconds later to
strike at you from a different angle.
Their hit-and-run tactics makes Houdini Splicers difficult to hit, but
fortunately they also have relatively low health when compared to other
Splicer types like Thuggish or Leadhead Splicers, which means it takes
far fewer hits to bring them down.
BEHAVIOR:
Houdini Splicers attack with fireballs. These travel quickly and do
significant fire damage, and also cause decent splash damage. However,
they can be dodged fairly easily by strafing sideways. Houdini Splicers
usually throw 3 or 4 fireballs at a time, then turn around and teleport
away.
Houdini Splicers teleport around you to attack you from different
angles, often appearing behind you to blast you by surprise. You can
track their teleportation by the distinct sucking sound they make when
appearing and disappearing. Turn in the direction of the sound to be
ready for them. Their teleportation also creates a red mist whenever
they're about to appear or disappear, allowing you to anticipate where
they're going to pop in. Once you reach research level 4 with them,
their teleports also create a distinct distortion in the air which
contracts around the spot where they're about to materialize, making
them even easier to track.
KILL STRATEGY:
Like Spider Splicers, Houdini Splicers have relatively low health, and
can be beaten to death with 1 to 3 wrench strikes as long as you have
the proper gene tonics and research damage bonuses. If you can spot the
red mist that signals where they're about to appear, you can run up and
whack them a couple times just as they materialize. Circle strafe
around them to dodge their fireballs, and continue whacking them to
bring them down quickly.
Their relatively low durability also makes them reasonably vulnerable
to firearms. 2 pistol headshots, several hits from the pistol or
machinegun, or 1 to 2 shotgun blasts should kill them. It's fairly easy
to score headshots on Houdini Splicers, since other than their
teleportation trick, they really don't dodge around much. You can also
kill them with a single crossbow bolt to the chest, and the long-
distance crossbow makes a good weapon against Houdini Splicers if you
fight them in a wide-open area.
Telekinesis also works well against them, as a single hit from a corpse
or trash can should be sufficient to kill them. TKed objects can also
be used as a shield to block their fireballs. You can also stun them
with Electrobolt or Winter Blast so they don't teleport away, then bash
them to death with the wrench.
Finally, you can catch their fireballs with Telekinesis and hurl them
back at them, but (as with the Spider Splicer's hooks) this isn't as
effective as throwing a Nitro Splicer's bombs back at them. The
fireballs have relatively small splash damage, so you'll have to hit the
Houdini Splicer accurately and directly with your return throw. Also,
unlike Nitro Splicers who throw 1 bomb at a time, Houdini Splicers toss
3 fireballs in a row, so you'll have to catch one fireball and sidestep
the other two. You also have to him them with about 3 returned
fireballs to kill them, whereas it's much easier to kill them with a
single thrown corpse.
===============================================================================
Magic Houdini Splicers:
Health:
Default: 420 (Doctor)
Default: 500 (Ducky, Waders, Pigskin, Rosebud, Toasty)
Olympus Heights: Default
Point Prometheus: 500
Proving Grounds: 500
Attacks:
Icicle Assault: 150 damage
DESCRIPTION:
Later in the game, Houdini Splicers upgrade to using ice-based plasmids
instead of fire-based plasmids. These upgraded Houdini Splicers,
referred to as Magic Houdini Splicers by the game files, behave in the
same manner as regular Houdini Splicers, but their ice attacks also do
significantly more damage. Indeed, their ice bolts are the most damaging
Splicer attack in the game, and can kill you in just a few hits.
Magic Houdini Splicers have slightly more health than regular Houdini
Splicers, but their health is very low when compared to other similar
leveled Splicers in the later game. Indeed, while most other late game
Splicers receive a significant health boost, Magic Houdini Splicers
have almost the same amount of health as the regular Houdini Splicers
you fought earlier in the game.
BEHAVIOR:
Magic Houdini Splicers behave similarly to regular Houdini Splicers,
tossing 3 or 4 icicles at you in a row, then teleporting away to strike
at you from another angle. The only noticeable difference is that Magic
Houdini Splicers teleport in a blue mist instead of a red mist.
KILL STRATEGY:
If you can spot where they're about to materialize and be there waiting
for them, you can club a Magic Houdini Splicer to death with 1 or 2
hits from the wrench. By the time you face them, you should have WRENCH
JOCKEY 1 and 2 and full research damage bonuses, making them easy
wrench fodder.
Unlike most other late-game Splicers, Magic Houdini Splicers have
relatively low health, and thus standard firearms are still relatively
effective against them. You can kill them with several shots from the
pistol or machinegun, or a single shot to the chest from the crossbow
(as long as you have the weapon damage upgrade).
Plasmids are also still as effective as usual against them. Toss a body
at them with Telekinesis to bowl them over, or stun them with
Electrobolt or Winter Blast and finish them with the wrench.
*******************
*SECURITY DEVICES:*
*******************************************************************************
Besides its crazed Splicer inhabitants, Rapture is also defended by an
extensive security system set up by its increasingly totalitarian
ruler, Andrew Ryan. Rapture's security network comprises security
cameras, fly Security Bots, and automated gun turrets, all programmed
to attack intruders from the surface world (aka YOU) on sight.
However, the security systems can be a blessing in disguise. It is
possible to "hack" the security machines, turning them into your
friends. Instead of attacking you, they'll instead attack Rapture's
hostile Splicer inhabitants, giving you some useful asssistance and
firepower as you explore the city.
Unlike Splicers, security devices like cameras and turrets are fixed.
Once destroyed, they're gone for good.
All security machines take 4x damage from armor-piercing rounds, and 3x
damage from electrical attacks.
The security machines also become increasing powerful as you progress
through the game. Unlike Splicers, who become stronger with each
successive level, security machines improve along "Decks"; each Deck
represents a related set of levels. There are 7 Decks in total.
Deck 1 = Welcome to Rapture, Medical Pavilion
Deck 2 = Neptune's Bounty, Smuggler's Hideout
Deck 3 = Arcadia, Farmer's Market
Deck 4 = Fort Frolic
Deck 5 = Hephaestus, Rapture Central Control
Deck 6 = Olympus Heights, Apollo Square
Deck 7 = Point Prometheus, Proving Grounds, Fontaine
===============================================================================
Security Cameras:
Appearance: Wall-mounted, Art Deco-style metal security camera.
Health: 240
Lock-On Time:
Deck 1: 4.0 seconds
Deck 2: 3.5 seconds
Deck 3: 3.0 seconds
Deck 4: 2.5 seconds
Deck 5: 2.0 seconds
Deck 6: 1.5 seconds
Deck 7: 1.0 second
DESCRIPTION:
You'll find automated security cameras positioned throughout Rapture,
set to trigger security alarms if they spot an unauthorized intruder
(such as yourself). Cameras emit a large red searchlight, and slowly
pan left and right. If you step into the searchlight, the light will
turn white and the camera will lock onto you and begin clicking a
warning signal. If you stay in the camera's line of sight for a few
seconds, the camera will trigger a 60-second security alert, during
which an endlessly respawning supply of Security Bots will fly by to
kill you.
For each level of the game you progress, the cameras will be able to
lock onto you 0.5 seconds quicker. It takes 4 seconds for a camera to
lock onto you in the game's first real level (the Medical Pavilion),
whereas a camera can lock onto you after only just 1 second by the
game's final levels.
At first, cameras will only summon 1 Bot at a time to fight you; from
Arcadia onwards, cameras summon 2 Bots at time.
AVOIDANCE STRATEGY:
If you're spotted by a camera, it's a good idea to duck behind cover so
that you're out of the camera's line of sight. After a couple seconds,
the camera will stop searching for you and return to its default
scanning mode.
The best way to deal with cameras is to hack them. Once hacked, a
cameras will ignore you, and will even trigger alarms on any Splicers
that pass through their line of sight. These alarms summon Security
Bots that are neutral to you, but hostile to the Splicers that set off
the alarm. Best of all, Splicers are too dumb to attack the camera, and
will spend all their time fighting the respawning Bots. Overall,
leaving friendly cameras around is a great way to deal with the fact
that Splicers are always respawning throughout the game's levels. Note
that friendly cameras will not react to Big Daddies, even ones that are
hostile to you (unless you use Security Bullseye, of course).
To hack a camera, you just have to run up to it and hack it before it
triggers an alarm (cameras cannot be hacked during a 60-second alarm
sequence). You can either sneak around it's searchlight and get under
it, or just run straight through the searchlight and try to reach the
camera before the alarm triggers. Alternatively, you can stun the
camera with Electrobolt or Winter Blast, then hack it while it's
deactivated. If a camera is too high up for you to reach, try jumping
up in order to get close enough to hack it.
KILL STRATEGY:
If you can't or don't want to hack a camera, you can also destroy them.
They're reasonable breakable, and can be smashed with a few wrench
strikes or several bullet hits. Toss a corpse at them with Telekinesis
is also a very effective way of smashing them. If you search a broken
camera, there's a chance you'll find extra film for the research camera
inside (this chance increases with research bonuses earned by
photographing security cameras).
===============================================================================
Security Bots:
Appearance: Machinegun turret attached to a helicopter propeller, with
an old food carton serving as an ammo magazine.
Health:
Default: 300
Deck 1: 300
Deck 2: 300
Deck 3: 200
Deck 4: 200
Deck 5: 600
Deck 6: 400
Deck 7: 400
Attacks:
Machinegun:
Deck 1: VS PLAYER: 9 damage
VS AI : 5 damage
Deck 2: VS PLAYER: 9 damage
VS AI : 5 damage
Deck 3: VS PLAYER: 12 damage
VS AI : 10 damage
Deck 4: VS PLAYER: 12 damage
VS AI : 10 damage
Deck 5: VS PLAYER: 15 damage
VS AI : 15 damage
Deck 6: VS PLAYER: 18 damage
VS AI : 20 damage
Deck 7: VS PLAYER: 18 damage
VS AI : 20 damage
Explosion: 60 damage
DESCRIPTION:
Security Bots are Rapture's mobile law enforcement element. They are
basically a machinegun turret with a box of ammo and a helicopter
propeller attached, allowing them to fly through the air and seek out
enemies to fill with hot lead.
Security Bots can quickly chip away at your health with their
machinegun turrets, and it takes several shots from your basic weapons
to bring them down. Still, individually they aren't too difficult to
destroy or subvert. Unfortunately, Bots usually attack you because
you've tripped a 60-second alarm, in which case new Bots will continue
to spawn to replace any you destroy until the alarm actually ends.
You will also sometimes encounter enemy Splicers who have hacked 1 or 2
Security Bots into following them and acting as their bodyguards. These
Splicers and Bots can be spotted by the red circles that float over the
Splicer's head as well as the Bots, indicating the Bots are being
controlled by the Splicer.
You too can hack Security Bots, causing them to follow you around and
attack any enemies that try to harm you. Bot pathfinding is decent, but
not perfect, and they can sometimes get hung up on walls or otherwise
become incapable of following you from room to room. Bots are also
rather defensive; they won't attack enemy Splicers or security devices
until the enemy actually shoots or hits you, or you attack them. Still,
hacking a couple Bots is a nice way to add some firepower to your
arsenal before a major fight, such as taking on a Big Daddy. Just don't
try to melee attack enemies while friendly Bots are following you,
or else they'll end up shooting you in the back while firing at the enemy.
BEHAVIOR:
When an alarm is triggered, Bots will fly into the area looking for the
offending intruder (you). Once they spot you, they'll fly around you
while continuously blasting you with their machinegun turrets.
Note that, in combat, Bots have a 1-second delay in seeing something
and reacting to it. So, it takes a Bot about 1 second to start shooting
at an enemy after they spot it, and they also continue shooting at an
enemy's corpse for 1 second even after the enemy has already died. For
friendly Bots, this can often result in friendly-fire issues, as Bots
continue to shoot an enemy even after they die and you run up to the
corpse to loot it.
When killed, Bots will fall to the floor and explode; this can damage
you if you're too close to them when they blow up, so try to keep your
distance from them when they die.
If the Bots arrives at the scene of a triggered alarm and finds no one
there, they'll usually split up and search adjacent rooms to see if the
intruder has run off there. If you trigger an alarm and manage to get
away before the Bots arrive, it's a good idea to get as far away as
possible so they don't manage to hunt you down.
AVOIDANCE STRATEGY:
The best way to avoid Bots is simply not to trip any alarms. Watch out
for cameras, and don't trigger the alarm tiles during the hacking
minigame. This is easier said then, done, however, especially in the
later levels where cameras trigger an alarm after only a second or so,
and alarm tiles practically fill the hacking minigame.
If you do trigger an alarm, Bots can easily be avoided using the
NATURAL CAMOUFLAGE gene tonic. Just stand still for a couple seconds,
and you'll turn invisible, causing Bots to completely ignore you and
fly past. Notably, NATURAL CAMOUFLAGE is much more effective against
Bots than against Splicers; you can't turn invisible if a Splicer has
already spotted you, and you will lose your invisibility if a Splicer
touches you. However, you CAN turn invisible even when Bots have
already spotted you and are already shooting at you; once you do turn
invisible, they'll completely forget about you and move on. Bots also
fail to notice you while invisible even if they fly right up to you and
touch you.
You can also use the Security Bullseye plasmid to tag a nearby Splicer
or Big Daddy, causing the Bots to target them instead of you. This is
less effective than NATURAL CAMOUFLAGE, however, since it requires a
Splicer or Big Daddy to be nearby for you to tag.
You can also try to run away and hide from the Bots until the alarm
ends. Bots fly to and search the area where the alarm was triggered, so
you might be able to avoid them by running to an entirely different
part of the level and hiding there.
Finally, if all else fails, you can run up to a Bot Shutdown Panel and
pay $20 to cancel the alarm and get the Bots to stop hunting you and
go away.
KILL STRATEGY:
If you must fight Bots, you can use Electrobolt, Winter Blast, or
liquid nitrogen from the chemical thrower to stun them, then hack them
while they're stunned to make them friendly towards you. You can also
destroy Bots with your weapons (armor-piercing rounds from the pistol
or machinegun are particularly effective), but this doesn't do much
good since more Bots will just respawn to replace them. Remember, Bots
can take off more than 1/2th a Big Daddy's health in a single 60-second
alarm sequence, so you can imagine the kind of damage they can do to
you if you just stand and fight. Avoidance is almost always a better
option.
Hacked Bots being controlled by a Splicer are easier to deal with. Just
kill the Splicer, and the Bots will deactivate and fall to the ground.
You can then hack them to get them to protect you, or just leave them
laying there.
===============================================================================
Gun Turret:
Appearance: Vacuum-cleaner-sized mechanical tower with a motorized
machinegun on top.
Health:
Default: 300
Deck 1: 300
Deck 2: 350
Deck 3: 400
Deck 4: 450
Deck 5: 500
Deck 6: 550
Deck 7: 600
Attacks:
Machinegun:
Deck 1: VS PLAYER: 6 damage
VS AI: 6 damage
Deck 2: VS PLAYER: 7 damage
VS AI: 8 damage
Deck 3: VS PLAYER: 8 damage
VS AI: 10 damage
Deck 4: VS PLAYER: 9 damage
VS AI: 12 damage
Deck 5: VS PLAYER: 10 damage
VS AI: 14 damage
Deck 6: VS PLAYER: 11 damage
VS AI: 16 damage
Deck 7: VS PLAYER: 12 damage
VS AI: 18 damage
Explosion: 60 damage
DESCRIPTION:
These floor-mounted automated machinegun turrets are positioned all
over Rapture, and are programmed to open fire on unauthorized intruders
entering the city (in other words, you). Once you enter a turret's line
of sight, it will activate and, after a second, lock onto you and start
shooting you with its mounted machinegun.
Turrets can survive a decent amount of damage. Fortunately, their
individual bullets are fairly weak, although they can fire at you
continuously for as long as you are in their line of sight.
Turrets are also resistant to fire; all turrets burn only 1/4th as long
as normal.
BEHAVIOR:
Like Security Bots, turrets have a 1-second delay in their response
time. It takes them 1 second to lock onto and start shooting at an
enemy when it enters their line of sight, and they will continue
shooting at an enemy's corpse for 1 second after it dies.
Turrets can rotate 360 degrees, and can also rotate quickly enough to
deal with enemies trying to sneak up behind them. Also, many turrets
are positioned against walls and stationed so that they are facing the
only entrance to a room.
Overall, turret behavior is quite simple. Once you enter their line of
sight, they lock onto you and keep shooting until you either leave
their line of sight or die.
STRATEGY:
As with security cameras, the best way to deal with turrets is to hack
them so they'll be friendly towards you, then leave them around to deal
with the level's respawning Splicer population. Unlike cameras, turrets
cannot be hacked once they spot you. In order to hack a turret that is
currently attacking you, you need to either stun it or get it to attack
another target. Turrets can be stunned with Electrobolt or Winter
Blast, after which you can run up to them and hack them. You can also
use Target Dummy, Enrage, or Security Bullseye to get the turret to
attack another target; once the turret is no longer shooting at you
personally, you'll be able to hack it. The HACKER'S DELIGHT gene tonic
is useful to have if you're going to be hacking turrets; it restores
most of the EVE you use up stunning the turret after you hack it.
Unlike with cameras, Splicers WILL attack your turrets, eventually
destroying them. Still, they last for a fairly long period of time, and
can usually kill several Splicers before being destroyed.
You can also destroy turrets if you don't want to bother hacking them.
They explode and deal damage when destroyed, so it's not really a good
idea to smash them with the wrench. Try shooting them at a distance
with your firearms. Once you get the crossbow, a single bolt will
usually destroy a turret, especially if you have the weapon damage
upgrade. You can also use Telekinesis to hurl a couple heavy objects at
them.
===============================================================================
Flame Turret:
Appearance: Vacuum-cleaner-sized mechanical tower with a motorized
flamethrower on top.
Health:
Default: 400
Deck 1: 400
Deck 2: 450
Deck 3: 500
Deck 4: 550
Deck 5: 600
Deck 6: 650
Deck 7: 700
Attacks:
Flamethrower:
Deck 1: VS PLAYER: 1.00 damage + (2.0 dmg per sec )
VS AI : 1.00 damage + (2.0 dmg per sec )
Deck 2: VS PLAYER: 1.15 damage + (2.5 dmg per sec )
VS AI : 1.30 damage + (2.5 dmg per sec )
Deck 3: VS PLAYER: 1.30 damage + (3.0 dmg per sec )
VS AI : 1.60 damage + (3.0 dmg per sec )
Deck 4: VS PLAYER: 1.45 damage + (3.5 dmg per sec )
VS AI : 1.90 damage + (3.5 dmg per sec )
Deck 5: VS PLAYER: 1.60 damage + (4.0 dmg per sec )
VS AI : 2.20 damage + (4.0 dmg per sec )
Deck 6: VS PLAYER: 1.75 damage + (4.5 dmg per sec )
VS AI : 2.50 damage + (4.5 dmg per sec )
Deck 7: VS PLAYER: 1.90 damage + (6.0 dmg per sec )
VS AI : 3.00 damage + (6.0 dmg per sec )
Explosion: 60 damage
DESCRIPTION:
These automated turrets are equipped with a flamethrower instead of a
machinegun; they're actually very rare; I've only seen a couple of them
throughout the entire game. Flame turrets can be quite dangerous; not
only do they damage you, but they also set you on fire, and the flame
stream they emit blocks your vision and can make it hard to see.
Like gun turrets, flame turrets are also resistant to fire; all turrets
burn only 1/4th as long as normal.
BEHAVIOR:
Flame turrets behave the same as gun turrets; they lock onto you once
you enter their line of sight, and open fire on you with a stream of
flames. Their flamethrowers actually have pretty good range, and can
set you on fire even from a couple dozen feet away.
STRATEGY:
As with gun turrets, the best strategy for dealing with flame turrets
is to stun or distract them, then hack them so they'll be friendly to
you and attack any passing Splicers.
Alternatively, you can destroy them with your weapons. Whatever you do,
do not try to approach the flame turret; its flamethrower will just
cause you loads of pain.
===============================================================================
RPG Turret:
Appearance: Automated tennis-ball-cannon modified to launch heat-
seeking rockets.
Health:
Default: 600
Deck 1: 500
Deck 2: 550
Deck 3: 600
Deck 4: 650
Deck 5: 700
Deck 6: 750
Deck 7: 800
Attacks:
Rocket Launcher:
Deck 1: VS PLAYER: [ 60 + 20 ] damage
VS AI : [150 + 100 ] damage
Deck 2: VS PLAYER: [ 72 + 24 ] damage
VS AI : [150 + 100 ] damage
Deck 3: VS PLAYER: [ 84 + 28 ] damage
VS AI : [200 + 100 ] damage
Deck 4: VS PLAYER: [ 96 + 32 ] damage
VS AI : [200 + 100 ] damage
Deck 5: VS PLAYER: [108 + 36 ] damage
VS AI : [250 + 100 ] damage
Deck 6: VS PLAYER: [120 + 40 ] damage
VS AI : [250 + 100 ] damage
Deck 7: VS PLAYER: [140 + 45 ] damage
VS AI : [300 + 100 ] damage
Explosion: 60 damage
DESCRIPTION:
These automated turrets appear to be constructed out of modified tennis
ball launchers, except instead of serving tennis balls they serve heat-
seeking rockets. Once an RPG turret spots you, it will fire a heat-
seeking rocket at you every couple of seconds.
Like gun turrets, RPG turrets are also resistant to fire; all turrets
burn only 1/4th as long as normal.
BEHAVIOR:
RPG turret behavior is straightforward enough; they fire a heat-seeking
RPG at you every couple of seconds. They also have no sense of self-
preservation, and will shoot enemies at point-blank range even if the
splash damage would damage them as well. Like regular turrets, they
have a 1-second delay in their response time, taking 1 second to start
firing at an enemy, and they will continue firing for 1 second even
after their enemy is dead (which usually results in them launching 1
final rocket at their enemy's corpse).
STRATEGY:
To protect yourself from the RPG turret's rockets, you can either hide
behind cover so that the rockets impact harmlessly against your cover,
or you catch catch the rockets with Telekinesis. Trying to dodge the
rockets in a wide open area really doesn't work, since they can change
course to track your movements. Always use cover to hide behind when
dealing with incoming rockets.
RPG turrets make excellent allies, especially early in the game when
they can kill most Splicers with just 1 or 2 hits. They also can be
helpful when fighting Big Daddies; although a Big Daddy can kill them
in just a few hits, their rockets will knock out a decent chunk of the
Big Daddy's life with each shot. If you keep the Big Daddy distracted
and focused on you, an RPG turret shooting him in the back can help you
kill the Big Daddy much quicker. Overall, I highly recommend hacking
the RPG turrets when you find them.
If you want to destroy the RPG turrets, the most effective way is to
grab their rockets with Telekinesis and toss them right back at them. 1
or 2 hits should be sufficient to blow them sky high. Because there's a
couple seconds delay between each shot, you have plenty of time to
react, catch, aim, and return the rockets.
**************
*BIG DADDIES:*
*******************************************************************************
Big Daddies are the biggest, toughest inhabitants you'll encounter in
Rapture. These imposing steam-powered metal behemoths cause the ground
to shake with their footsteps, communicate with deep whale-like sounds,
and can quickly and brutally murderize pretty much anyone else in Rapture
(including you). However, they are also gentle giants: unlike the
homicidal Splicers, Big Daddies will leave you alone if you leave them
alone; their sole concern is to escort and protect their helpless
Little Sisters as they wander the halls of Rapture gathering ADAM.
Big Daddies are significantly more powerful than even the strongest of
Splicers; they have incredible durability, powerful attacks that can
usually kill you in just 3 or 4 hits, and resistance to many of your
offensive Plasmids. While you may not want to mess with them, killing
the Big Daddies is the only way to interact with their Little Sisters,
who are the game's only source of ADAM, the genetic currency you need
to upgrade your character (sort of like experience points in RPGs).
Big Daddies patrol an area along a pre-defined patrol path.
Occasionally, they will walk over to a Little Sister vent and bang on
it, summoning a Little Sister, who they will follow around as she
gathers ADAM from scattered corpses. When the Little Sister is done
collecting ADAM, the Big Daddy will escort it to another Little Sister
vent, and deposit her safely inside. There are usually 2 Big Daddies
wandering a level at any given time. Like Splicers, Big Daddies will
eventually respawn if killed. Unlike Splicers, Big Daddies have no way
of healing damage, and can slowly be worn down by repeated injuries.
Although there are a few pre-scripted fights in which you see groups of
Splicers attacking a Big Daddy, Splicers are usually sensible enough to
leave Big Daddies alone. After all, a Big Daddy is powerful enough to
massacre even the strongest of Splicers.
There are two types of Big Daddies: Bouncers and Rosies. Bouncers are
monsterous hulks with a bulbous multi-eyed metal "head", and a drill
for an arm. They are incredibly fast, and focus on powerful melee
attacks. Rosies are more humanoid in appearance, and carry a powerful
rivet gun with which to perforate enemies in long-range combat. Each
Big Daddy type upgrades to an "Elite" version about halfway through the
game. Elite Big Daddies have even more health and stronger attacks than
the standard versions.
Unlike Splicers, Big Daddies do not take extra damage from headshots.
Also, they take reduced damage if shot in the arms or legs.
Big Daddies take 60% damage from arm shots
Big Daddies take 80% damage from leg shots
Big Daddies take 2x damage from armor-piercing rounds, but only take
25% damage from wrench attacks and other bludgeoning melee attacks
(including objects thrown using Telekinesis. In fact, a Big Daddy
only takes a maximum of 88 damage from Telekinesis attacks).
===============================================================================
Bouncers:
Appearance: 6-foot tall, light grey metal hulk with a large, round,
forward-facing "head" with multiple portholes, and a
drill for a right arm.
Health: 2750
Attacks:
Drill Punch: VS PLAYER: 100 damage
VS AI : 70 damage
Charge Attack: VS PLAYER: 140 damage
VS AI : 100 damage
DESCRIPTION:
The Bouncer is Bioshock's mascot, and the first Big Daddy you'll
encounter in the game. He's the big guy on the front cover of the game,
featured prominently in the pre-release trailers for the game, and you
even got an action figure of him if you ordered the special edition of
the game. Surprisingly, despite the large amount of publicity he
receives, you actually won't encounter the standard Bouncer very much
at all in the game. In fact, you only fight one standard Bouncer in the
entire game, at the end of the game's second level, the Medical
Pavilion.
As with all Big Daddies, the Bouncer is incredibly durable and has
powerful attacks that can kill you in 2 or 3 hits. However, fighting
him is the only way to get your hands on his Little Sister, and the
tasty ADAM that she carries.
It should be noted that the Bouncer has partial resistance to
electrical, freezing, and burning attacks; he'll only be stunned for
1/2th as long by Electrobolt or Winter Blast, and will only burn for
1/2th as long also. He also takes reduced damage from being
electrocuted in water. The Bouncer, like all Big Daddies, is also
highly resistant to the wrench, only taking 25% damage from wrench
attacks. He even resistants Telekinesis attacks; like all Big Daddies,
the Bouncer can only take a maximum of 350 damage from any single
strike with Telekinesis. To makes things worse, Telekinesis strikes
count as wrench-like attacks (bludgeoning damage), and thus that
350 damage is reduced further to 25%.
BEHAVIOR:
The Bouncer is a melee-based fighter; he has no long-range attacks, but
possesses powerful melee strikes that can kill you in just a couple of
hits. Despite his apparent bulk, the Bouncer is also incredibly fast;
he can run just as fast, and possibly faster, than you can, and also
possesses a dash attack that allows him to slam into you from a couple
dozen feet away.
The Bouncer's most basic attack is to run up to you and whack you with
his drill-arm, a powerful strike that can kill you in just 2 or 3 hits.
Being struck by the Bouncer will also knock you back about a dozen
feet, dropping you to the ground and briefly disorienting you. Also, if
you try to get behind the Bouncer, he can whirl around 180 degrees and
club you with a spinning backhand.
At medium range, the Bouncer can dash at you at high speed, zooming a
few dozen feet in a split-second. If the Bouncer slams into you with
this attack, you'll take massive damage and also be briefly knocked to
the ground. You can try to dodge the Bouncer's dash attack by
sidestepping, but you won't always succeed, especially if the Bouncer
dashs at you at close range. On the plus side, if you do manage to
dodge the dash attack, you can spin around and blast the Bouncer in his
unprotected backside as he's briefly stunned from missing you and
slamming into the wall.
Finally, the Bouncer can slam his drill into the ground, creating a
small localized earthquake. This attack doesn't do any damage to you,
but it stuns and disorients you, blurring your vision and causing you
to move at a slow crawl for a couple of seconds, allowing the Bouncer
to catch up to you and beat you senseless.
KILL STRATEGY:
When you face the Bouncer at the end of the Medical Pavilion, your
options for killing him are fairly limited. Your only weapons are the
wrench, pistol, machinegun, and shotgun, and your only plasmids are
Electrobolt, Incinerate, Telekinesis, and possibly Enrage if you bought
it earlier. Of all these weapons and plasmids, only the machinegun and
shotgun will do any noticeable damage. It takes about 10 to 12 shotgun
blasts, or almost 2 full clips of machinegun fire, to bring the Bouncer
down.
Probably the best way to kill the Bouncer at this point is to shoot him
with about a dozen rounds of electric buck from the shotgun. A shot of
electric buck will stun the Bouncer, allowing you to shoot him again
without worrying about his quick counter-attacks. Run up close to the
Bouncer and blast him 4 times with electric buck (be sure to step back
after each shot to avoid a potential counter-punch), then run away to
reload. Dodge the Bouncer's attacks, if possible, and blast him 4 more
times. Repeat until "Mr. Bubbles" is scrap metal. You can buy electric
buck from the Circus of Values vending machine in the Medical Pavilion
lobby, where you first entered the level, and there are also several
rounds scattered throughout the level.
If you don't have enough electric buck to do the job, you'll just have
to use standard buckshot, or automatic fire from the machinegun. Since
these attacks won't stun the Big Daddy, you'll have to stay nimble and
dodge his attacks while unloading into him with your weapon. I
recommend the machinegun over the shotgun, as its longer range allows
you to attack the Bouncer from a safer distance. Another tactic that
works is to unload all 4 rounds of your shotgun into the Bouncer, then
switch to your machinegun and blaze away instead of wasting time
reloading the shotgun. No matter what you do, expect to use up a few
first aid kits in the process of fighting him.
Before fighting the Bouncer, you can trip an alarm to summon Security
Bots, then zap and hack 2 Bots to have them follow you around as your
wingmen. Having 2 Security Bots buddies helps significantly in the
Bouncer fight, as they have a tendency to distract the Bouncer, causing
it to attack them instead of you, and letting you empty your machinegun
into the Bouncer's backside without having to worry about dodging its
attacks.
Finally, you can try luring the Bouncer someplace where he can't reach
you, then shooting him from your little safe spot. Some effective areas
include the empty cabinet in the funeral home morgue, and the
crawlspace room on the top floor of the crematorium. This is not an
ideal strategy, however, as the Bouncer will often get bored and run
outside your line of sight, forcing you to leave your safe zone to
track him down again.
===============================================================================
Rosies:
Appearance: 7-foot tall orange metal hulk, looking like a large man in
an old-style diving suit.
Health: 3300
Attacks:
Rivet Gun: [35 + 35 ] damage
Melee Attack: 120 damage
Proxy Mine: 120 damage
DESCRIPTION:
The second type of Big Daddy in Bioshock, Rosies will be your most
often encountered Big Daddy, and you'll find several of them in the
game's earlier levels. They appear in Neptune's Bounty, Arcadia, and
Farmer's Market.
Rosies are more humanoid in appearance than Bouncers, and their
fighting style is more orthodox. They can't run quite as fast as
Bouncers (although they are still quicker than their large size
suggests), and lack a dash attack. Instead, they are equipped with a
powerful "rivet gun" that fires red-hot foot-long spikes, and attack by
running around shooting up their enemies. Rosies also carry proximity
mines, which they toss like grenades.
Rosies are much more resistant to elemental plasmid attacks that
Bouncers are. They are only stunned by Electrobolt for 1/4th as long as
normal, and also only burn for 1/4th as long as normal. Like Bouncers,
they can only be frozen for 1/2th as long by Winter Blast. Also, Rosies
are barely stunned or harmed by being electrocuted in water.
BEHAVIOR:
A Rosie's main method of attack is their powerful rivet gun. They'll
charge at an enemy while firing away, and they've got pretty good
accuracy too. They've got a decent rate of fire (roughly 2 shots every
second), and their weapon is VERY powerful; the red-hot, armor-piercing
rivets can kill you in just 3 or 4 hits.
Rosies can also toss proximity mines, which they throw like grenades.
While their proximity mines are fairly easy to dodge, they remain on
the battlefield and will detonate if you accidentally step too close to
them later on. It's hard to keep track of the proximity mines while
you're occupied with fighting the Rosie, and you can often find
yourself accidentally bumbling into them.
Finally, while they're not as melee-oriented as Bouncers, Rosies are no
slouch in hand-to-hand combat either. At close range Rosies can whack
you with the butt of their rivet gun, which does lots of damage,
knocks you to the ground, and can kill you (as you've already heard
so many times) in just 2 or 3 hits. Rosies can also backhand you
when you're standing behind them, so their back is not a safe spot.
In combat, Rosies basically charge at you while firing away with their
rivet guns. They strafe left and right to dodge return fire and angle
around any cover you try to hide behind. They're reasonably fast, but
nowhere near as agile as Bouncers or even Leadhead Splicers. Rosies
will chase you much more aggressively than Leadhead Splicers, and will
even try to run up to you so they can bash you in the head with their
melee attack. They are also seemingly unburdened by the need to reload,
and can keep a constant rate of fire on you.
KILL STRATEGY (STANDARD COMBAT):
By the time you face Rosies in combat, you should have access to 2
weapons that are reasonably effective against them; electric buck fired
from the shotgun, and frag grenades from the grenade launcher. With
electric buck, you can run up to a Rosie and shoot him 4 times (be sure
to step back after each shot to avoid a potential counter-punch), then
retreat and take cover while reloading. The Rosie will recover and
resume attacking before you finish reloading, so pop out of cover,
blast the Rosie at medium range to stun it (or zap him with
Electrobolt), and run up close and fire the remaining 3 shots into him
for maximum damage. It should take about a dozen close-range shotgun
blasts to kill him. With the grenade launcher, you can pop out of
cover, shoot a frag grenade at Rosie, then dodge back behind cover to
avoid his counter-attack. It should take 10 frag grenades to do
the job.
When fighting a Rosie, when you've used up all the ammo in your clip,
it's a good idea to switch to a different weapon rather than wasting
time reloading. Start with several grenade launcher blasts, then a few
shotgun blasts, then finish Mr. Bubbles off with a clip of machinegun
fire.
You can also catch the Rosie's thrown proximity mines and toss them
back at him using Telekinesis, but this can be difficult to perform
since a) you never know exactly when the Rosie will toss a proximity
mine, and b) between tosses the Rosie will be busy shooting you with
his Rivet gun.
KILL STRATEGY (THROWN EXPLOSIVES):
Another effective way to kill Rosies is to use the grenade launcher to
attach 6 proximity mines to a throwable object (preferably an explosive
barrel). Use Telekinesis to pick up the mined barrel and toss it at a
Rosie. The resulting massive explosion of both the barrel and the 6
mines should either kill or severely injure the targeted Rosie. The
only downside is this method uses up all your proximity mines, which
can be hard to come by.
Explosives barrels thrown by Telekinesis also work well against Rosies.
It only takes about 4 to 5 barrel hits to kill one. It's a good idea to
find explosive barrels in a level, and stockpile about 5 of them in an
area where you expect to meet and fight a Rosie. When the Rosie shows
up, pull the barrels from the pile and toss them at the Rosie. Just
don't stand too near your little barrel stockpile, or the Rosie might
shoot the barrels and detonate them all.
KILL STRATEGY (EXPLOSIVE BARREL BOOBY TRAP):
If you're patient, one extremely easy way to kill a Big Daddy is to
stack about 5 or so explosive barrels at the nearest Little Sister
vent. Eventually, the Big Daddy will walk up to the vent to retrieve or
deposit a Little Sister, completely ignoring the pile of explosives
right at his feet. Set off the explosives to leave the Big Daddy blown
to smithereens and probably feeling a lot like a certain coyote.
However, don't set off the explosives while the Big Daddy is pulling a
Little Sister from the vent, because he's invincible during this
particular animation. If you shoot at the barrels instead of the Big
Daddy, he won't even blame you for the resulting explosion, and will
still be neutral even if he manages to survive the blast (giving you
time to walk up to him and finish him off with a few shotgun blasts).
KILL STRATEGY (PECKED TO DEATH BY SECURITY BOTS):
Another extremely easy (and extremely cheap) way to kill any Big Daddy
is to use the Security Bullseye plasmid. Security Bullseye doesn't
count as an attack, so you can stick one onto a Big Daddy without
angering him. If the Big Daddy walks into the path of a security
camera, stick him with Security Bullseye to get the camera to summon
Bots to attack the Big Daddy. Alternatively, if there are no cameras in
the area, you can summon the Bots yourself by deliberately triggering
an alarm tile when hacking a nearby machine. When the Bots show up to
investigate, stick the Big Daddy with Security Bullseye to get them to
attack him (it REALLY helps to use Natural Camouflage so the Bots don't
attack you as well). By the time the 60 second alarm timer runs out,
the constantly respawning Bots should have done significant damage to
the Big Daddy. You can either finish him off with your own weapons, or
summon some more Bots to damage him even more. This is a great and
cheap way to kill Big Daddies for easy cash (Big Daddies typically drop
$45 to $75 when killed).
Note that this strategy doesn't work in Neptune's Bounty, because
almost none of the machines have alarm tiles in their hacking minigame,
and the cameras only summon 1 Security Bot at a time (you need at least
2 Bots at once to do significant damage to a Big Daddy). Instead, you
should try to get the Rosies in Neptune's Bounty to fight each other
(see below):
KILL STRATEGY (BUBBLES VS BUBBLES):
One final extremely easy way to kill a Big Daddy is to get it to fight
another Big Daddy. On every level of the game from Neptune's Bounty
onwards, there are usually at least 2 Big Daddies active inside the
level at the same time. What you need to do is use the Hypnotize Big
Daddy plasmid to get one of the Big Daddies to follow you around. Then,
lead it through the level to the other Big Daddy. Once the 2 Big
Daddies are in the same room, use Enrage on one of them to get them to
fight each other (if you don't have enrage, shoot the neutral Big
Daddy, and it will attack you, causing your friendly Big Daddy to step
in and defend you). Keep a safe distance away, and enjoy the carnage.
When it's all over, 1 Big Daddy should be dead, and the other will
probably be seriously wounded and can easily be finished off with a
couple shotgun blasts or a burst of machinegun fire. This little trick
can net you about $90 to $150 from the 2 Big Daddy corpses, and only
costs you 1 EVE hypo (to cast Hypnotize Big Daddy).
===============================================================================
Elite Bouncers:
Appearance: A Bouncer with white armor and red stripes, with a spinning
golden harpoon instead of a drill attached to their left arm.
Health: 4100
Attacks:
Drill Punch: VS PLAYER: 150 damage
VS AI : 240 damage
Charge Attack: VS PLAYER: 200 damage
VS AI : 240 damage
DESCRIPTION:
Elite Bouncers are upgraded versions of the standard Bouncer. They can
easily be spotted by their distinct white and red armor, as well as the
golden harpoon attached to their arm instead of the usual drill. Elite
Bouncers have about 50% more health than standard Bouncers, and also do
almost twice as much damage with their melee attacks. Elite Bouncers
are encountered about mid-way through the game, and appear in the
levels Fort Frolic and Hephaestus. A final, berserk Elite Bouncer
also attacks you at the very end of the game, just before the final
battle (oddly, this Elite Bouncer looks like a regular standard Bouncer).
Like Rosies, Elite Bouncers are much more resistant to elemental
plasmid attacks than regular Bouncers. They are stunned by Electrobolt
or Winter Blast only 1/4th as long as normal, and also burn for only
1/4th as long. Finally, they are barely damaged or stunned from being
electrocuted in water.
BEHAVIOR:
Elite Bouncers have the same basic moves and attacks as the standard
Bouncers; they smash you with their harpoon-arm, have a dash attack
that lets them slam into you from a couple dozen feet away, and will
also pound the ground to stun you for a couple seconds if you try to
get away.
The one plus is that, by the time you face them, you'll probably have
acquired the SPORTSBOOST gene tonic, which lets you move faster and
makes dodging the Bouncers' melee attacks much easier. The levels
where you fight Elite Bouncers are also more open than the Medical
Pavilion where you fought the original Bouncer; there's more room to
manuever, you're less likely to get hung up on a wall while dodging,
and you can even attack from behind desks and pillars to prevent
the Elite Bouncers from reaching you.
KILL STRATEGY:
Elite Bouncers can be killed with any of the effective methods useable
against Rosies (electric buck, frag grenades, a proximity mine TK bomb,
summoned bots using Security Bullseye, or explosive barrels). Exploding
buck from the shotgun also does significant damage (especially if you
have the weapon damage upgrade), but it requires you to get close to
the Big Daddy to do the most damage, which leaves you more vulnerable
to their attacks. You can also bring down a Big Daddy with a clip of
armor-piercing auto rounds from the machinegun, but only if you have
the weapon damage upgrade and full research damage bonuses.
By the time you face Elite Bouncers, you'll also have access to two new
weapons; the crossbow and the chemical thrower. The chemical thrower's
electric gel is extremely effective against powerful enemies of any
sort; the stream of electric gel stuns them, preventing them from
moving or attacking. With the ammo consumption weapon upgrade, you can
kill a Big Daddy with about 3/4ths of a full can of electric gel. The
crossbow is also extremely effective against Big Daddies; with the
weapon damage upgrade (which you REALLY should get as soon as you
acquire the crossbow) and a few research damage bonuses, you can bring
down an Elite Bouncer with a clip of 5 steel-tip bolts and a burst or
two of machinegun fire, or 4 to 5 incendiary bolts. With the weapon
damage upgrade, full research damage bonuses, and the HUMAN INFERNO
gene tonic, you can kill a Big Daddy with just 3 incendiary bolts.
You can also use the crossbow's trap bolts to significantly deplete a
Bouncer's health. Use the trap bolts to set up several electrified trip
wires in a narrow corridor (you can set up to 10 trap bolts at a time),
then shoot a Bouncer to anger it into charging through all the trip
wires to get to you. The Bouncer should take significant damage from
charging through all those electrified trip wires, and if it doesn't
die already you can easily finish it off with a couple grenades or
steel-tip or incendiary bolts.
===============================================================================
Elite Rosies:
Appearance: A Rosie with white armor and a red collar around their
neck.
Health: 4900
Attacks:
Rivet Gun: VS PLAYER: [ 50 + 50 ] damage
VS AI : [200 + 200 ] damage
Melee Attack: VS PLAYER: 180 damage
VS AI : 400 damage
Proxy Mine: 180 damage
DESCRIPTION:
Elite Rosies are the upgraded versions of the standard Rosies; they
appear in the levels immedietely after the big plot twist, and will be
the Big Daddies that you encounter in the game's last few levels. They
appear in the levels Olympus Heights, Apollo Square, and Point
Prometheus. Like Elite Bouncers, Elite Rosies have increased health and
more powerful attacks when compared to the standard versions you fought
earlier. They have more than 50% more health than standard Rosies, and
their attacks do about 50% more damage.
Elite Rosies are incredibly resistant to elemental plasmid attacks.
They are shocked for only 1/6th as long as normal, are frozen for only
1/8th as long as normal, and burn for only 1/4th as long as normal.
They are also barely stunned or harmed by being electricuted in water.
BEHAVIOR:
While Elite Rosies behave and attack similar to standard Rosies, they
also have improved accuracy. You'll notice that Elite Rosies have
excellent accuracy with their rivet guns, and can consistently nail you
from across a wide area, even shooting through small gaps in cover.
Given that they can kill you with just a few shots, even with all
health upgrades obtained, this makes them extremely dangerous to
fight directly.
KILL STRATEGY:
All of the previous strategies described for defeating Big Daddies work
for Elite Rosies. They are the toughest Big Daddies in the entire game,
though, so you'll want to be careful when facing one. My personal
favorite methods of defeating them are either to tag them with Security
Bullseye and summon Security Bots to peck them to death, to unload a
full tank of electric gel into them (you'll need the fuel consumption
weapon upgrade to do the job with only 1 tank), or to shoot them with
3 to 5 incendiary bolts boosted with the weapon damage upgrade, research
damage bonuses, and the HUMAN INFERNO 2 gene tonic. Methods that kill
quickly or that don't involve direct combat with the Elite Rosie are
preferred, since they're so deadly with their high-powered, long-range,
highly accurate rivet guns.
===============================================================================
Little Sisters:
Appearance: Little girl in a dress, with glowing yellow eyes and weird
gapping fish-like mouth.
Health:
Default: 50
Friendly: 800
DESCRIPTION:
Little Sisters are the key to character advancement in Bioshock. They
are the game world's only source of ADAM, the genetic resource that you
need to purchase new genetic powers and character upgrades. There are
two ways to acquire ADAM from a Little Sister; a good way and an evil
way. The good way is to rescue the Little Sister, using a special plot
power given to you by Dr. Tenenbaum early in the game that "heals" the
Little Sister of her sea-slug symbiote, turning her from a mutant freak
back into a normal little girl again. The evil way is to harvest the
Little Sister, ripping the sea-slug bodily out of her stomach cavity, a
process that is invariably fatal for the Little Sister in question.
Little Sisters are tasked with wandering the halls of Rapture,
harvesting dead corpses to recycle their ADAM. However, being little
girls, they have no combat ability and are completely vulnerable to the
city's population of stem-cell-hungry mutant psychotics (not to mention
any passing plane-crash survivors with a taste for sea-slug that might
happen to wander by). As a result, whenever Little Sisters wander
Rapture, they are always accompanied by a powerful Big Daddy protector
who must be dealt with before the Little Sister herself can be
interacted with.
BEHAVIOR:
Little Sisters live inside the golden "Little Sister vents" that are
positioned throughout Rapture. Occasionally a wandering Big Daddy will
pound on the vent, drawing out a Little Sister. The Little Sister will
then patrol the area, searching for corpses to harvest for ADAM. Little
Sisters can harvest both from long-dead corpses, and freshly killed
Splicers. After harvesting about 3 or so corpses, the Little Sister
will tell her "Mr. Bubbles" that she's "ready for dream-time". The two
of them will make their way back to a Little Sister vent, where Mr.
Bubbles will deposit the Little Sister into the safety of the vent (and
out of your avaricious grasp).
It's pretty straightforward what you're supposed to do. Find a Big
Daddy with a Little Sister accompanying him, use a high-powered weapon
to send Mr. Bubbles to Lollipop Land, then harvest or rescue the now
helpless little girl.
Little Sisters are completely invulnerable to damage, as the sea slugs
inside their stomaches will instantly regenerate any of their host's
damaged tissue with fresh stem cells. Striking a Little Sister only has
2 effects; the Little Sister will briefly flash yellow (indicating
their tissue regeneration), and their accompanying Big Daddy will
instantly go hostile and attempt to smash your child-beating ass into
the ground. The only way to interact with a Little Sister is to kill
their Big Daddy protector, then either harvest or rescue them while
they cry over the corpse of "Mr. Bubbles".
EVALUATION:
There are a a total of 21 Little Sisters throughout the entire game.
You have the option of either rescuing them, harvesting them, or
ignoring them. Although the first Little Sister you meet is completely
unprotected, the remaining 20 are guarded by a Big Daddy, whom you will
have to defeat if you want to rescue or harvest her. While you can
ignore the Little Sisters (and thus avoid fighting their Big Daddies),
if you do so you'll fail to acquire ADAM, and thus be unable to
purchase new plasmids, gene tonics, plasmid/gene tonic slots, or
health/EVE upgrades.
Harvesting a Little Sister nets you 160 ADAM, a considerable amount.
However, by harvesting instead of rescuing Little Sisters, you will
miss out on the special plasmids and gene tonics given as rewards by
Dr. Tenenbaum for taking the more altruistic path. On the plus side,
harvesting nets you more immedietely ADAM than rescuing does, and
ultimately provides you with more total ADAM. By harvesting all 21
Little Sisters in the game, you'll earn a total of 3360 ADAM. However,
it should be noted that if you harvest even one Little Sister,
you will get the "evil" ending, even if you rescue the rest of them.
Saving a Little Sister only nets you 80 ADAM, but with every 3 Little
Sisters you save, you'll receive a gift of 200 ADAM from Dr. Tenenbaum,
along with some special plasmids that are unavailable elsewhere, and a
decent supply of rare ammo. Saving the Little Sisters is the only way
to receive the plasmids HYPNOTIZE BIG DADDY and HYPONOTIZE BIG DADDY 2,
and the gene tonics SAFECRACKER, ARMORED SHELL 2, and PROLIFIC
INVENTOR. While Tenenbaum's 200 ADAM gifts are very helpful, they still
leave you short 40 ADAM (you get 480 ADAM for harvesting 3 Little
Sisters, but only 440 ADAM for saving 3 of them). To compensate for the
lost 40 ADAM, Tenenbaum's gifts also include unique plasmids/gene
tonics, as well as rare ammo and other supplies. Saving all 21 LIttle
Sisters will earn you a total of 3080 ADAM. If you rescue every Little
Sister than you interact with (and again, you don't HAVE to interact
with ANY of them except for the very first one you meet), you'll also
earn the game's "good" ending.
APPEARANCES:
You'll first encounter a Little Sister in a pre-scripted cutscene
towards the end of the Medical Pavilion level. After some dialogue from
both Dr. Tenenbaum and Atlas, you'll be given the choice of either
rescuing or harvesting the Little Sister. Note that you HAVE to perform
one of these actions to progress in the game, as the door to the next
area won't open until you do. This is the only Little Sister you HAVE
to interact with in the game, although failing to harvest or rescue the
other 20 found throughout Rapture will impede your ability to upgrade
your character.
Most Little Sisters you encounter are found randomly wandering the
game's levels, accompanied by a Big Daddy protector and harvesting the
corpses scattered around the city for ADAM. These Little Sisters, who
you can harvest or rescue after dealing with their Big Daddy protector,
are your sole source of ADAM as well as the determinator of which
ending you receive.
Finally, on the game's very last level, you'll have to protect a Little
Sister as she navigates a gauntlet of obstacles to harvest 3 dead
corpses before opening for you the locked door that leads to the game's
final battle. This Little Sister has had her sea-slug removed by Dr.
Tenenbaum, and thus she is vulnerable to damage, and can be killed by
attacking Splicers. Your job is to keep the Splicers away from her so
that she makes it to final door alive, so she can open it for you. This
particular Little Sister has 800 health, but will be attacked by every
Splicer, turret, and security camera on the level.
**************
*MINI-BOSSES:*
*******************************************************************************
These are unique enemies that only appear once in the entire game. They
typically have more health, better attacks, and somewhat unique
behavior when compared to the game's standard Splicers, but as
characters they have little or no actual bearing on the game's plot,
and thus don't really qualify as full-scale bosses.
===============================================================================
Rose:
Appearance: Female Spider Splicer wearing orange mechanics' coveralls.
The right side of her face is gone except for exposed brains.
Health:
Welcome to Rapture: 1200
Fisheries Ambush: 4500
Final Fight: 2400
Attacks:
Slash: 60 damage
Leap: 80 damage
Dropkick: 80 damage
Hook Throw: 35 damage
Quote: "My youth! My rose! I want it back! I want it back!!"
DESCRIPTION:
Although this Uber Spider Splicer is never mentioned by name in the
game's story or dialogue, she plays a significant role in the game's
first few missions. Rose is the first Splicer you see in Bioshock, and
(oddly enough) is also one of the most powerful Splicers in Rapture,
with more health than almost any other Splicer in the game. In fact,
Rose has almost as much health as a Big Daddy.
Rose greets you when you first enter Rapture, killing Johnny and
briefly threatening you before Atlas summons a couple Security Bots to
chase her away. Rose reappears in Neptune's Bounty, where she makes
several appearances in the level and finally attacks you a couple of
times. She can often be heard crawling in the airducts above you, and
her appearances are often preceeded by a shower of rose petals. A
promiscuous gal who enjoyed multiple partners during Rapture's heyday,
Rose can often be heard lamenting the loss of her beauty and youth as
she takes her frustrations out on you.
APPEARANCES:
Rose first ambushes you at the entrance to the Fontaine Fisheries
freezer, in the middle of your first conversation with Peach Wilkins.
At this point, Rose is the first Spider Splicer you've encountered. She
also has an insane amount of health, and is impossible for you to kill
with your weapons. Instead, you need to avoid her attacks for a dozen
seconds or so, after which Peach will rescue you by summoning a
Security Bot to chase her off.
Rose reappears to fight you for real near the end of Neptune's Bounty,
after you've finished your mission to photograph 3 Spider Splicers for
Peach Wilkins. She'll appear near the Gather's Garden in front of the
entrance to Fontaine's Fisheries on your way back to Peach after
finishing your mission.
KILL STRATEGY:
Rose behaves the same as a standard Spider Splicer, but she has an
incredibly high amount of health, especially for so early on in the
game. Rose is also much more resistant to Electrobolt than the other
Spider Splicers you fight at this point in the game, and she'll recover
from being stunned much more quickly.
You can kill Rose using any of the standard tactics you've been using
against Spider Splicers, although she'll take a lot more hits to bring
down. She's extremely tough, and can take 25 wrench strikes (even with
WRENCH JOCKEY equipped) or almost 60 bullet hits to put down. You can
also ignore her and run straight to Fontaine's Fisheries; you don't
need to fight her to progress through the game, although she does drop
a decent supply of loot (2 autohack tools, 1 Spider Splicer organ, and
3 EVE hypos).
Rose also has a habit of running off to heal at a nearby health station
when she's seriously injured. She's very fast, and it can be tough
to catch up to her and finish her off before she heals. It's a good
idea to hack or destroy the health stations to prevent her from
using them to restore her health.
One amusing thing to do with Rose is to get her to chase you to where a
Big Daddy is, then use Enrage on her to get her to attack the Big
Daddy. Sit back and watch the fun. The Big Daddy makes short work of
her, but she lasts longer than any other Splicer would.
===============================================================================
Magic Splicer:
Appearance: Male Splicer Pagan cultist wearing pinstripe suit
splattered with white paint, and a wicker mask.
Health: 400
Attacks:
Fireball: VS PLAYER: [40 + 40 ] damage
VS AI : [60 + 60 ] damage
Quote: "They're everywhere!"
DESCRIPTION:
This somewhat unique Splicer is the first Houdini Splicer you meet in
Bioshock. He appears at the beginning of the Arcadia level, where you
can hear him calling for help from inside a nearby building. He'll
teleport around and lead you on a merry chase, all while calling for
your assistance. He'll eventually ambush you at a weird alter, after
which he'll don a Pagan wicker mask, run off, and begin attacking you as
soon as you follow him.
Anyway, this weirdo is a member of "the Saturnine", an ADAM-madness-
induced Pagan cult that has taken up residence in the Arcadia. He
behaves the same as any other Houdini Splicer, but has somewhat more
health, as well as unique dialogue. Kill him using the standard
strategies for dealing with Houdini Splicers.
===============================================================================
Plaster Splicers:
Appearance: Female Spider Splicers entirely covered in white plaster.
Health: 600
Attacks:
Slash: 60 damage
Leap: 80 damage
Dropkick: 80 damage
Hook Throw: 35 damage
Quote: "...."
DESCRIPTION:
Fort Frolic is "decorated" with many slain Splicers coated with white
plaster and posed in strange positions, the work of the deranged artist
Sander Cohen. In the Sinclair Spirits store in the Fort Frolic Plaza,
you'll notice a series of plaster-coated female Spider Splicers
standing against the wall. Also inside Sinclair Spirits is a button
behind the bar which opens a secret door that leads to the basement,
and a Power to the People machine. Activate the Power to the People
machine, and the plaster Spider Splicers will "awaken" and begin
wandering the Fort Frolic Plaza area, constantly respawning and
replacing the regular Spider Splicers as your main enemies in
that area.
These Plaster Splicers are tougher than normal Spider Splicers, able to
take almost 3 times as much damage before dying. They are also much
more resistant to electrobolt than other Splicers on the same level,
being stunned for a shorter period of time. What makes them really
impressive, however, is their unusually stealthy and quick behavior.
These Plaster Splicers are practically mutant ninjas on crack, and one
of the game's creepiest foes.
Another fun fact to consider is that these Splicers are not actually
one of the 9 standard Splicer models, but are instead female corpses
coated in white plaster.
BEHAVIOR:
Unlike regular Splicers, who talk to themselves constantly and thus are
always giving away their location, Plaster Splicers are completely
silent. They never make a sound, even when they're running up behind
you. You can only tell they're in the area by the clicking sound their
hooks make when they walk on the ceiling.
Plaster Splicers are also much more active than regular Splicers. While
normal Splicers tend to leisurely stroll around the level, gathering
junk and beating up on vending machines, Plaster Splicers are
constantly wired and spend all their time running back and forth in
search of victims. This makes them much more likely to find and attack
you while you're casually walking around.
Their stealth and hyperactivity allows them to sneak up behind you
quite often, since they'll make a beeline straight for you once they
spot you, and won't make any sounds to alert you that you're being
attacked. As Spider Splicers, Plaster Splicers are extremely fast,
and can run up behind you from seemingly out of nowhere.
Plaster Splicers are also hyper-aggressive, and will attack and murder
all other Splicers on sight. They are, however, smart enough not to
fight a Big Daddy unless provoked.
KILL STRATEGY:
Plaster Splicers can be killed just like any other Spider Splicer, but
their stealthiness often allows them to run up behind you and get in a
couple free hits before you notice them and attack back. Their health
is higher than normal, so it helps if you've researched the Elite
Bouncers and obtained WRENCH JOCKEY 2. With WRENCH JOCKEY 1 + WRENCH
JOCKEY 2, you can kill Plaster Splicers with just 3 wrench strikes
(whereas you would need 5 to 7 wrench strikes with just WRENCH JOCKEY
1, depending on how many research damage bonuses you've acquired).
The NATURAL CAMOUFLAGE gene tonic you receive as an early research
reward from Houdini Splicers also helps considerably. NATURAL
CAMOUFLAGE causes you to turn invisible whenever you stand still for
about 2 seconds; when you're exploring an area, this helps you to hide
from any Plaster Spiders that might be running around the area without
your knowledge.
===============================================================================
Martin Finnigan:
Appearance: Male Splicer wearing a pink waistcoat vest and a colored bird mask.
Health: 800
Attacks:
Icicle Assault: 150 damage
Quote: "I can see your breath..."
DESCRIPTION:
A former disciple of Sander Cohen, Martin Finnigan fell victim to his
master's random whims and mood swings, and ended up locked in a freezer
along with several other of Cohen's Splicers. A bit mad himself,
Finnigan preyed on his fellow victims, stealing ADAM from some to
transform himself into "the Iceman", then freezing the rest alive and
posing them in funny positions (in imitation of Sander Cohen's own
habit of murdering people, covering them in white plaster, and putting
them in amusing poses).
In any case, Martin Finnigan is one of three disciples that Sander
Cohen has sent you to murder for him. Finnigan is the first disciple
you fight, since you need to pass through his freezer to reach the Fort
Frolic Plaza where the other two disciples hang out.
Soon after you enter the freezer, Finnigan freezes you solid and poses
you as yet another ice statue, but somehow you manage to break free.
You'll find the freezer lined with two rows of frozen Splicer statues.
Martin Finnigan is actually hiding among these frozen Splicers; he's
the final statue on the left-hand row. As soon as you shoot or approach
him, he'll thaw himself out and begin attacking you.
One interesting and unique thing about Cohen and his disciples is that
damage bonuses from research don't affect them. They always take normal
damage, and ignore any extra damage bonuses against their Splicer type
that you've earned using the research camera.
BEHAVIOR:
Martin Finnigan has dubbed himself "the Iceman". Indeed, in order to
survive in his frozen prison, he's spliced himself into an ice-based
Houdini Splicer, the first one you encounter in the game. Finnigan
teleports around inside the freezer, and throws 3 or 4 icicle shards at
you each time he appears. His attacks do heavy damage, and can kill
you in 3 or 4 hits, but can also be dodged by strafing sideways.
You can also use the pillars or frozen Splicers in the room as cover
to block Finnigan's attacks.
Finnigan is also completely immune to Electrobolt and Winter Blast;
thus, he can't be stunned or immobilized. He can't be paralyzed with
electric buck or electric gel either, although they still damage him.
He also has more health than standard Houdini Splicers, and is also
immune to research damage bonuses.
On the plus side, Finnigan only teleports around inside the freezer;
since it's such a relatively small, open single room, it should be
pretty easy to keep track of where he's disappearing and reappearing.
He does follow you if you try to run outside the freezer into the
Atrium or Plaza; however, he still teleports around very close to you,
making him easy to track.
KILL STRATEGY:
The best way to kill Finnigan is to shoot him in the head with the
crossbow Sander Cohen gave you just prior to this fight. 1 bolt to the
face or 2 to the torso should drop Finnigan; you can even shoot him
while he's posing as a frozen statue for an easy kill.
A stream of napalm from the chemical thrower can burn down Finnigan
extremely quickly. The Incinerate! 2 plasmid also works reasonably
well against him.
You can also run up to Finnigan as he materializes and beat him to
death with the wrench, but you'd need to hit him 9 times to kill him
(at this point in the game, you only have access to WRENCH JOCKEY 1,
and your wrench only does 90 damage). If you do decide to wrench
Finnigan to death, be sure to circle strafe around him while beating
him up to dodge his plasmid attacks.
To the right of where you thaw at the start of this fight are a pair of
frozen fuel tanks. You can thaw the tanks by using Incinerate on the
ice on the ground near them, then toss them at Finnigan using
Telekinesis.
A fun (but not particularly useful or effective) move you can pull is
to thaw the frozen Splicers using Incinerate, then using Enrage on them
to get them to attack Finnigan and each other.
Finally, you can shoot Finnigan to death with your standard firearms,
although he has a decent amount of health and can take quite a few
hits. 3 frag grenades, 3 shotgun blasts, 20 machinegun shots, 5 pistol
headshots, or 4 pistol antipersonnel rounds should bring him down.
===============================================================================
Silas Cobb:
Appearance: Male Splicer wearing a pink waistcoat vest and a colored bird mask.
Health: 1000
Attacks:
Molotov VS PLAYER: 90 damage + (1 dmg per second )
VS AI :150 damage + (1 dmg per second )
Quote: "My kittens! You murdered my kittens!"
DESCRIPTION:
Another former disciple of Sander Cohen with a distinct Southern
accent, Silas Cobb hangs out in his store, Rapture Records, on the
second floor of the Fort Frolic Plaza area. Cobb seems to have
developed an unhealthy fascination with fire; he talks about spending
all his time burning Sander Cohen's records, and when you enter his
store you find it a burned out shell.
At the rear of Rapture Records you'll find a fireplace with a figure
sitting in front of it. Approach the figure, and you'll find it's a
corpse with a bomb strapped to it. Dodge back as the bomb goes off, and
Silas Cobb will appear on the balcony above you. He'll send his pet
"kittens" to attack you (oddly, he does this by setting the ceiling of
his store on fire), then runs out the store's entrance into the Fort
Frolic Plaza.
Anyway, Silas Cobb's "kittens" (3 Baby Jane Spider Splicers wearing cat
masks) will drop down from the ceiling to attack you. They have more
health than the standard Spider Splicers you've been fighting, but are
also on fire, causing their health to slowly burn away. Kill the 3 of
them, then search the rear of the store for a vent leading out of the
store. Exit Rapture Records, and you'll find Silas Cobb waiting to
fight you in the Fort Frolic Plaza.
One interesting and unique thing about Cohen and his disciples is that
damage bonuses from research don't affect them. They always take normal
damage, and ignore any extra damage bonuses against their Splicer type
that you've earned using the research camera.
BEHAVIOR:
Silas Cobb is essentially a Molotov Nitro Splicer, and will attack by
throwing molotov cocktails at you. He also has a decent amount of
health; although Cobb actually has less health than the standard
Molotov Nitro Splicers in Fort Frolic, he is immune to research damage
bonuses, and thus takes more hits to bring down. Cobb will fight you
throughout the Fort Frolic Plaza area, and may even retreat into some
of the other stores if you damage him.
Unlike regular Molotov Nitro Splicers, Cobb is also incredibly resistant
to Electrobolt to the point that he's essentially immune to it; he cannot
be stunned with Electrobolt, nor can he be paralyzed with electric buck
(although a steady stream of electric gel should paralyze him). However,
Winter Blast works perfectly fine against him if you want to freeze him
instead. As a Molotov Nitro Splicer, Cobb is also resistant to heat-based
attacks; he only takes 50% damage from heat-based attacks, and only
burns for a second or so.
KILL STRATEGY:
Silas Cobb can be killed using the same strategies you'd use against a
standard Molotov Nitro Splicer. The easiest way to kill him is to grab
his molotovs with Telekinesis, and throw them right back at him. A few
hits should leave him a smoking corpse. You can also shoot him in the
head with the crossbow; a single crossbow headshot should be fatal (for
a better shot, you can freeze him with Winter Blast; he won't shatter
when killed, so you can still photograph and loot his corpse).
Sometimes, an Elite Bouncer is wandering around the Plaza area nearby.
For some fun, you can cast Enrage on Silas Cobb or the Elite Bouncer to
get them to attack each other; the Bouncer will make short work of
Cobb.
===============================================================================
Hector Rodriguez:
Appearance: Male Splicer wearing a pink waistcoat vest and a colored bird mask.
Health: 2000
Attacks:
Molotov VS PLAYER: 90 damage + (1 dmg per second )
VS AI :150 damage + (1 dmg per second )
Quote: "The things that man made me do... Fuck you! Who does he think he is?"
DESCRIPTION:
Another of Sander Cohen's disciples, Hector Rodriguez hangs out in the
Eve's Garden strip club, getting plastered at the bar. You won't see
him immedietely when you enter the club, however. Instead, you need to
go inside Jasmine Jolene's room for some major plot exposition. Once
you're done with that, you should see Hector at the bar once you leave
Jasmine's room.
Like Silas Cobb, Hector Rodriguez is a Molotov Nitro Splicer. However,
Hector has twice as much health, and is also extremely flighty; once he
spots you, he'll run the hell away, and NEVER stops running.
One interesting and unique thing about Cohen and his disciples is that
damage bonuses from research don't affect them. They always take normal
damage, and ignore any extra damage bonuses against their Splicer type
that you've earned using the research camera.
BEHAVIOR:
Hector Rodriguez's behavior is rather unique. He constantly runs away
from you, tossing molotov cocktails over his shoulder to cover his
escape. Hector will flee throughout the entire level; I've often had to
chase him all the way back to the Fort Frolic Atrium. Because Hector
never stops to fight you, you'll have to constantly chase him while
damaging him with your weapons or plasmids. He has a lot of health, and
can be annoying to bring down.
Hector is also completely immune to Electrobolt and Winter Blast. He
cannot be stunned or slowed with plasmids, nor with electric buck or
liquid nitrogen/electric gel from the chemical thrower. He will continue
running away no matter what you hit him with. He even ignores the effects
of Enrage, Cyclone Trap, Insect Swarm, and Sonic Boom (although he still
takes damage from Cyclone Trap and Insect Swarm). Finally, as a Molotov
Nitro Splicer, he takes 50% damage from heat-based attacks, and can
only be set on fire for a second.
KILL STRATEGY:
If you're fast and have a powerful wrench (you need SPORTSBOOST as well
as WRENCH JOCKEY 1 and WRENCH JOCKEY 2) you can actually beat Hector to
death at the bar. Just run out of Jasmine's room and head straight for
Hector as he starts to get up from the bar. If you're quick enough, you
should be able to corner him; block him with your body, and he won't be
able to run out the club's exit door and escape. Quickly bash him to
death with several wrench strikes.
If Hector gets away, you need to chase after him. You can try grabbing
the molotovs he tosses over his shoulder with Telekinesis, then
throwing them back at him. You can also shoot him in the back with either
the grenade launcher or the crossbow. Whatever you do, Hector has very
high health, and will take multiple hits to bring down.
*********
*BOSSES:*
*******************************************************************************
"Kill my boss? Do I dare live out the American dream?" - Homer (Simpson)
In Bioshock, the game's "bosses" are bosses in the true sense of the
word; they are the individuals in charge of the various sectors of
Rapture, and typically must be killed or confronted at the end of a
sector in order to progress to the next sector. Bosses have
significantly more health, and better/more advanced attacks than
standard Splicers, but generally their behaviors are identical to those
of one of the standard Splicer types.
Other than the final boss (who is covered in a seperate section of this
guide), there are actually only 3 "boss fights" in Bioshock. Each
"boss" plays a significant role in the plot and atmosphere of their
individual level, and the level culmulates in a confrontation between
them and the player.
===============================================================================
Dr. Steinman:
Appearance: Doctor Splicer wearing an orange surgical coat and mask.
Health: 1800
Attacks:
Tommy Gun: 6 damage
Melee Attack: 60 damage
Quote: "What's this, Goddess? An intruder! He's ugly! Ugly! UGLY!! UGLY!!!!"
DESCRIPTION:
Dr. Steinman is the master of the Medical Pavilion, and the first "boss
battle" that you face in Bioshock. A skilled if somewhat perfectionist
plastic surgeon during Rapture's heyday, ADAM-induced madness has
transformed him into a beauty-obsessed maniac who mutiliates unwilling
"patients" in search of "asymmetrical aesthetics". As a boss, Steinman
is better armed and significantly tougher than the standard Splicers
you've met up until now, but other than his extremely high health,
fighting him really isn't all that different than fighting the game's
regular mooks.
Unlike early standard Splicers, who carry melee weapons or pistols, Dr.
Steinman carries a machinegun, and will unload on you with a steady
stream of automatic fire once he notices you. The bullets from his
machinegun aren't very damaging, but this early in the game you don't
have much health either, so his constant gunfire can drain your health
at a reasonable rate. He also has a LOT of health, and will take a
considerable amount of weapons fire to bring down.
It should be noted that Steinman is somewhat more resistant to
elemental damage than normal Splicers. He only takes 40% damage from
explosives (although exploding fuel tanks still do significant damage
to him), and is also only stunned 1/4th as long by Electrobolt.
BEHAVIOR:
Dr. Steinman will basically run around the surgical room, chasing you
in circles around the raised central operating table platform while
constantly shooting you with his machinegun. When seriously injured,
Steinman will run off into the sunken, flooded area behind the stairs
in order to reach the health station and restore his health to full
before resuming his attempt to murder you.
Like the Machinegun Leadhead Splicers you'll encounter later in the
game, Dr. Steinman is pretty agile, and will constantly dodge and
strafe around to make himself a more difficult target for your shots.
BOSS FIGHT AREA:
The area in which you fight Dr. Steinman is essentially a large open
surgical room, with a raised platform in the center containing
Steinman's operating table. Behind the entrance to the area is a
sunken, flooded office containing a health station that Steinman will
retreat to in order to heal himself whenever he takes significant
damage. There's also an oil-slick in the middle of the room that you
can set on fire with Incinerate, and an orange fuel tank near the
operating table (perhaps an oxygen tank?) that you can toss with
Telekinesis.
KILL STRATEGY:
Probably the fastest way to kill Dr. Steinman is to toss heavy objects
at him using Telekinesis. In the right-hand corner of his surgical room
is a heavy metal slab door that has broken off and is laying on the
floor. You can grab and toss this at Steinman for massive damage (it
hits for 1500 damage, so you'll take off almost all of Steinman's life
with a single toss). You can also toss the explosive fuel tank in the
room at Steinman for decent damage, but not quite as much damage as the
slab door does.
You can also set Dr. Steinman on fire with Incinerate; this won't do
much damage to him, but it should cause him to run into the flooded
section of the surgical room to douse himself. When he steps into the
water, zap it with Electrobolt to electrocute him. A few zaps should
kill him nicely (if you look very closely during the cutscene when you
meet Andrew Ryan, electrocution appears to be the way the developers
expect most players to kill Steinman).
If you hacked the Security Bot that Steinman sent to kill you just
prior to this boss fight, it'll be a big help to you, shooting up
Steinman and distracting him, allowing you to get good hits on him
while he's busy fighting the Bot.
Finally, you can just shoot Dr. Steinman to death with firearms, but
his considerable health means you'll use up a lot of ammo in the
process (it takes 45 bullets to kill him, and you'll use up more than
that because not every bullet you fire will hit him since he dodges so
much). It's much quicker and more efficient to beat him using
plasmids and the environment.
===============================================================================
Peach Wilkins:
Appearance: Nervous man wearing orange suspender overalls and metal welding
mask.
Health: 1500
Attacks:
Molotov VS PLAYER: 90 damage + (1 dmg per second )
VS AI :150 damage + (1 dmg per second )
Quote: "Atlas! He was ours!! Ours!!!"
DESCRIPTION:
Peach Wilkins, the most major character you encounter in Neptune's
Bounty, is a former employee of Frank Fontaine and currently an ally of
Atlas. He's a bit snarky and seems rather nervous (perhaps even
paranoid) but at least he appears to be sane, and possibly even human.
Hiding from Ryan's roaming Splicers, he's barricaded himself and his
crew inside the Fontaine Fisheries walk-in freezer, and you need to
negotiate with him to pass through the freezer and the secret passage
to Smuggler's Hideout. At first, Peach seems decent enough, sending you
on a mission to retrieve a research camera and photograph 3 Spider
Splicers, giving you a grenade launcher to boost your firepower, and
even sending a Security Bot to save you from an attack by Rose the
Super Splicer.
However, once you finish his task and he admits you inside the
Fisheries, Peach will turn on you, claiming that you're an agent of
Fontaine. He'll fill the room with a thick mist, practically blinding
you. Once the mist clears, Peach proceeds to attack you with molotov
cocktails, along with his crew of Leadhead Splicers. Peach has
considerable health, making him significantly tougher than the enemies
you've fought up until now.
To make matters worse, Peach requires you to give up all your weapons
(except for your wrench) before he allows you into the Fisheries, and
as a result you'll have to fight both him and his buddies with only
your wrench and your plasmids.
BEHAVIOR:
In combat, Peach behaves the same as a Molotov Nitro Splicer. He'll run
around tossing molotov cocktails at you, and if injured will run away
while tossing molotovs over his back to cover his retreat. He'll also
ocasionally drop a smoke bomb at his feet to obscure your view of him.
Peach has significantly more health than normal early-game Splicers.
He also cannot be stunned by Electrobolt, and stops burning
after only a second (making Incinerate! ineffective against him).
Otherwise, however, he isn't actually that tough.
The main challenge you face in this boss fight are the fact that all
your weapons have been taken away from you, and also the fact that
Peach is assisted in this fight by a security camera, a machinegun
turret, and several Leadhead Splicers (fortunately, the Leadhead
Splicers only attack you 1 or 2 at a time, although new ones will
appear to replace the ones you kill).
BOSS FIGHT AREA:
You fight Peach in the huge walk-in meat freezer inside Fontaine
Fisheries. The fight takes place in an O-shaped area, with a couple
doors leading off to side rooms (currently frozen shut with ice) as
well as a gate at the back that leads to the lower level, but which
won't open until Peach is dead.
On the right-hand wall from where you enter the freezer is a security
camera that will trigger an alarm and summon Bots if it spots you.
Also, at the back of the area is a raised platform where a Gun Turret
will pop out and start shooting you once Peach finishes his little
warm-up speech.
On the wall in the center of the room is a health station, a bot
shutdown panel, a Circus of Values vending machine, and a Gene Bank for
switching plasmids/gene tonics. You can heal at the health station, but
watch out because Peach may try to do the same if he becomes seriously
injured.
An oil slick you can set on fire with Incinerate can be found near the
entrance to the freezer. Near the oil slick are several explosive
barrels you can throw with Telekinesis or set off with incinerate.
KILL STRATEGY:
When Peach floods the area with mist and starts accusing you of working
for Fontaine, you'll have several seconds to prepare before any actual
fighting starts. It's a good idea to use this time to run over to the
right-hand wall and hack the security camera. Once hacked, the camera
should summon Bots against Peach and his Splicer buddies, helping to
even the odds. If possible, you should zap/freeze the Gun Turret as
soon as it pops up, and hack that too.
Once Peach appears and starts throwing molotov cocktails at you, the
easiest way to kill him is to just grab the molotovs with Telekinesis
and toss them right back at him. If he appears standing in the oil
slick (which happens quite often if you hang around near the freezer
entrance), you can kill him in 1 hit as you throw the molotov back at
him, setting the oil on fire and causing all the explosive barrels to
explode and blow Peach to kingdom come. Even if you don't nail Peach
with a massive explosion, you can still kill him by tossing a few of
his own molotov cocktails back at him with Telekinesis. You can also
try to grab and toss one of the explosive barrels at Peach for
significant damage.
A few seconds after Peach shows up, his Leadhead Splicer buddies will
also start show up to help him in the fight (fortunately, they only
appear 1 or 2 at a time). If you have the WRENCH JOCKEY gene tonic (and
you really should), you should be able to kill each of them with 2
strikes of the wrench (1 strike if you've managed to max out your
research damage bonuses against Leadhead Splicers). Wrench the Leadhead
Splicers as they come, while keeping an eye on Peach and his molotovs.
Alternatively, you can use the Enrage plasmid on Peach and his Leadhead
Splicers to get them to attack each other instead of you. Enrage is
cheap, and you can use it on Peach and all his buddies without using up
too much EVE.
Once Peach dies, the gate at the back of the freezer will open,
allowing you to proceed to the lower level and the exit to Smuggler's
Hideout. You can also retrieve your weapons from the pneumo tube behind
the gate, but you'll find most of your ammo is gone (you'll just have
to find more to replace it).
===============================================================================
Sander Cohen:
Appearance: Splicer with pencil moustache, wearing white facepaint and black
tuxedo. Occasionally dons an ornate black rabbit mask with
gold trim.
Health:
Fort Frolic: 2500
Olympus Heights: 1750
Attacks:
Fireball: VS PLAYER: [40 + 40 ] damage
VS AI : [60 + 60 ] damage
Quote: "I'm Sander FUCKING Cohen!"
DESCRIPTION:
Sander Cohen; confidante of Andrew Ryan, artist, musician, mass murderer,
psychopath, child killer, super-genius. He's the absolute master of
Fort Frolic, and one of the craziest and funniest characters in the
game. The entire Fort Frolic level revolves around you attempting to
please this basket case so he'll open up the path to the next level.
Interestingly, Sander Cohen and Andrew Ryan himself are the ONLY 2
characters in the entire game with their own unique character model.
All other characters (even Atlas and Tenenbaum) are merely re-skinned
versions of standard Splicer models (i.e. Tenenbaum is just a Lady
Smith Splicer with different colored clothes and without the
bloody/mutated skin).
One interesting and unique thing about Cohen and his disciples is that
damage bonuses from research don't affect them. They always take normal
damage, and ignore any extra damage bonuses against their Splicer type
that you've earned using the research camera.
APPEARANCES:
You first meet Sander Cohen in person at the end of Fort Frolic. Once
you've finished Cohen's tasks and helped him complete his "masterpiece"
the Quadtych (by assassinating his 3 mini-boss disciples, natch),
Sander Cohen will reveal himself to congratulate you and swoon over his
own artistic genius. He'll reward you by opening a display case
containing a gene tonic, and (surprisingly) will honor his end of the
agreement and open the path to the next level. That's right, the
craziest man in Rapture is also the only guy who doesn't either attack
you on sight or betray you and attack you once you meet him face-to-
face.
Anyway, you can start a fight with Sander Cohen if you want (shoot
him, and he'll teleport away, then reappear with full health and
wearing his black bunny mask to fight you). BUT it's actually in your
best interests NOT to attack him. If you let him live, you'll meet him
again later in the game, and gain access to a Power to the People
station that you otherwise couldn't reach.
If you leave Cohen in peace in Fort Frolic, you'll meet him again in
his apartment in Olympus Heights. Inside Cohen's luxury apartment,
you'll find 2 Houdini Splicers dancing to victrola music. Cohen radios
you, welcoming you to his apartment but warning you not to interrupt
the dancers. If you kill the dancing Splicers, Cohen will become
enraged and burst out of his bedroom to attack you. Kill him, and you
can enter his bedroom and use the Power to the People machine inside
(Cohen's bedroom door is locked, and unless you get him to open it, you
can't go inside).
Interestingly, if you kill Cohen in Olympus Heights, you can go back to
Fort Frolic and attack his Quadtych with your weapons. If you do this,
Sander Cohen will re-emerge, seemingly back from the dead, and fight you
once again. This is probably a level design oversight by the game's
programmers, or perhaps Sander Cohen's status as Andrew Ryan's closest
lieutenant allows him to use the Vita-Chambers and come back from the
dead.
BEHAVIOR:
Sander Cohen is essentially a Houdini Splicer, but he has an incredibly
high amount of health. If you fight him in Fort Frolic, he has more
health than any other Splicer in the game. He has somewhat less health
in Olympus Heights, but his health is still "boss-level", and he's
much, much tougher than any other Houdini Splicer in the game.
Cohen is also extremely resistant to Electrobolt; Electrobolt 1 won't even
phase him, and Electrobolt 2 and 3 as well as electric buck only stun
him for a split second. He can still be paralyzed by a steady stream
of electric gel, and can also be frozen with Winter Blast. Unlike other
Houdini Splicers, Cohen is also completely immune to the Cyclone Trap
and Sonic Boom plasmids.
Overall, Cohen is probably the most powerful Splicer in Rapture,
although he can still be killed straightforwardly with standard tactics.
Like any other Houdini Splicer, Cohen attacks by tossing 3 or 4
fireballs at you, then teleporting to another location to attack you
from a different angle. If you fight him in the Fort Frolic Atrium, he
can teleport anywhere on the first or second floors, forcing you to
hunt him down in a very large area. He can even teleport up on top
of the large billboards at the top of the level where you can't reach
him, and toss fireballs at you from there. If you fight him in Olympus
Heights, he generally limits himself to teleporting inside his
apartment, but can still appear anywhere on the first or second floor.
When seriously injured, Sander Cohen usually runs to a nearby health
station to restore his health. He may even teleport away from you to
escape your attacks. Thus, it helps if you hack the health stations so
that they'll poison and kill him instead.
BOSS FIGHT AREA:
If you attack Cohen in the Fort Frolic Atrium, he'll lock down the
Atrium, turning the lights dark red and closing all the exit doors,
forcing you to fight him to the death if you want to leave. The Atrium
is a wide-open plaza area with a double staircase in the middle. The
first floor contains a health station, and a Circus of Values vending
machine guarded by a security camera. The second floor contains a Vita-
Chamber, and a Gather's Garden flanked by 2 health stations. Cohen can
teleport anywhere in the Atrium (including the second floor), but if
you just stay in one area, he'll eventually come to you.
If you attack Cohen in Olympus Heights, you'll fight him inside his
luxury apartment. There's not much on the first floor of the apartment
(a library/dancing room, a kitchen, and a wrecked dining room), but the
second floor contains Cohen's bedroom, and a Power to the People station.
KILL STRATEGY:
Cohen's significantly high health and immunity to research damage
bonuses makes him very tough. Additionally, because he's a Houdini
Splicer, he'll teleport around and use hit-and-run tactics, making it
difficult to attack him constantly. As a result, standard weapons like
the machinegun or shotgun aren't very effective against him. It's a
good idea to hit him with fast, high-damaging weapons. Ironically, the
crossbow he gave you as a gift earlier is the ideal weapon for killing
him; 5 steel-tip bolts to the chest or a single bolt to the head should
be enough to bring an end to his reign of nuttiness. Exploding buck
from the shotgun or frag grenades from the grenade launcher also work
well, but the crossbow is the best choice.
If his constant teleporting makes him hard to hit, you can freeze him
with Winter Blast, then shoot him in the head with the crossbow. Cohen's
corpse won't shatter, so you can still loot him even if you kill him
while frozen.
You can also chase Cohen and whack him with the wrench, if you really
want to. If you have WRENCH JOCKEY 1 and WRENCH JOCKEY 2, you should be
able to kill him with several wrench strikes. SPORTSBOOST 1 and
SPORTSBOOST 2 help make you faster so you can chase him down and strike
him before he teleports away.
Finally, if you fight Cohen in the Fort Frolic Atrium, there's often an
Elite Bouncer wandering around nearby. Use Hypnotize Big Daddy or Enrage
on the Elite Bouncer, and it'll attack Cohen for you. The resulting fight
is a sight to watch.
*****************
*THE FINAL BOSS:*
*******************************************************************************
"Die Monster! You don't belong in this world!" - Oscar Wilde (maybe)
****************************
*WARNING! MASSIVE SPOILERS!*
*WARNING! MASSIVE SPOILERS!*
*WARNING! MASSIVE SPOILERS!*
****************************
Fontaine:
Appearance: 10-foot tall muscular human with stone-grey skin and no
hair, looks a lot like an Art Deco statue of Atlas the Titan.
Health: 4000
Attacks:
Energy Blast: VS PLAYER: [30 + 30 ] damage
VS AI : [12 + 12 ] damage
Charge Attack: 100 damage
Punch: 80 damage
Quote: "Come and get it, mook!"
Damage Modifiers:
Armor-Piercing: 40%
Antipersonnel: 200%
Bludgeoning: 50%
Heat: 40%
Cold: 40%
DESCRIPTION:
Criminal mastermind, sociopath, nihilist, con-artist turned anti-
Christ, and the source of all of Rapture's woes... while a lengthy
description of who and what Frank Fontaine is would be far too
spoilerish and irrelevant to the purposes of this guide, suffice it to
say that he's the Big Bad, and you need to kill him to save the day and
end the game. So, to paraphrase Dr. Tenenbaum: "What is this you wait
for? Go and kill this idiot!"
In any case, by the time you catch up with him, Fontaine has strapped
himself into a massive, Frankenstein-like ADAM-infusion chamber, and
injected himself with massive quantities of ADAM, transforming into a
towering 10-foot-tall super-powered super-being.
Fontaine is in many ways an old-school FPS final boss. He's big and has
impressive-looking attacks and extremely high health, but follows a
simple attack pattern and is fairly easy to bring down once you know
what his moves are. He even has the traditional "3 different forms",
transitioning from fire, ice, and electrical energy as you battle him.
Like Big Daddies, Fontaine takes no extra damage from headshots. He
also only takes 60% damage from arm shots, and 80% damage from leg
shots. He's also highly resistant to a number of your attacks; he takes
50% damage from wrench strikes, 40% damage from armor-piercing bullets
and heat-based or cold-based attacks, is essentially immune to
Electrobolt (being stunned for less than a millisecond), can only be
frozen for 1/6th as long as normal, and takes almost no damage from
being electrocuted in water.
BEHAVIOR:
Fontaine has 3 basic attacks:
First, he'll throw a huge energy ball at you, similar to but much
larger than the plasmids fired by the Houdini Splicers. Unlike Houdini
Splicers, Fontaine only fires one energy ball at a time. He can throw
fireballs, icicle crystals, or lightning balls, depending on what
elemental form his body currently is in.
Second, he'll charge at you with a fast dash attack that allows him to
zoom several dozen feet in a split second. This attack is similar to
the dash attack used by the Bouncer Big Daddies. However, Fontaine's
version is extremely easy to dodge; Fontaine always telegraphs when
he's about to dash at you by punching the ground, giving you an obvious
cue when to dodge. Also, unlike Big Daddies, Fontaine uses his dash
attack at long range instead of running at you and using it randomly
when he gets close. This makes it fairly easy to see it coming and to
dodge it as long as you keep a decent distance from him.
Finally, Fontaine can punch you with his huge fist, sending you flying
backwards `a couple dozen feet. He'll only do this if you're standing
right next to him, however. If you walk too close to Fontaine, he'll run
at you and try to punch you. Also, if he slams into you with his dash
attack, he'll often follow up with a punch to your face. As long as
you keep your distance from him, however, he'll never try to run up
to you and punch you.
Fontaine's attack pattern is extremely simple. He'll throw an energy
ball at you, then punch the ground and use his dash attack to charge
through you. After he slows down from his dash attack, he'll turn
around and throw another energy ball at you, followed by another dash
attack. Other than his dash attacks, Fontaine never really tries to get
close to you, although he does attempt to run at you and punch you if
you walk too close to him.
All of Fontaine's attacks are easy to dodge simply by strafing
sideways. This is particularly true if you have the SPORTSBOOST and
SPORTSBOOST 2 gene tonics to increase your movement speed. The arena in
which you fight Fontaine is also very large, so you have plenty of open
space to manuever around. Try to keep your distance from Fontaine, to
make it easier to dodge his attacks. His energy balls have a decent
splash damage radius, though, so make sure there isn't a wall directly
behind you or anything like that.
PHASES:
The final battle has 3 "phases" to it, in which Fontaine will attack
you in a different elemental form. Once you deplete Fontaine's health,
he'll teleport back into his ADAM-infusion table, where he'll begin to
heal himself with a massive dose of ADAM. Once Fontaine teleports back
onto the table, you need to run up to him and stick him with the Little
Sister's needle to drain his ADAM and force him into the next phase of
the fight. If you fail to act, Fontaine will be restored to full health
after several seconds, and you'll have to repeat the previous phase of
the fight all over again.
In the first phase of the battle, Fontaine's body pulses with flames,
and he throws large fireballs at you. This is the simplest phase of the
fight, since it's just you vs. Fontaine. Get used to his attack
patterns, and take him down however you see fit.
In the second phase of the battle, Fontaine's body becomes living ice,
and he throws massive icicle crystals at you. Fontaine also triggers a
60-second alarm at the beginning of this phase, summoning an endlessly
respawning supply of Security Bots to attack you. As soon as this phase
of the fight begins, you really should run over to the Bot Shutdown
Panel on the left-hand wall and turn off the alarm to get the Bots to
stop attacking you. You can then hack the deactivated Bots to give you
some fire support, or you can concentrate on fighting Fontaine.
Alternatively, you can tag Fontaine with the Security Bullseye plasmid
as soon as this phase begins to get the arriving Bots to fight him
instead.
In the final phase of the battle, Fontaine's body becomes electrified,
and he throws huge balls of electrical energy at you. Fontaine also
summons several Thuggish, Leadhead, and Nitro Splicers to help him
fight you. These Splicers have relatively low health (they appear with
the default health levels for their Splicer type), but will continue to
re-appear until Fontaine is defeated once and for all.
It should be noted that, although Fontaine has a fire form, an ice
form, and an electrical form, there really isn't that much difference
between his 3 forms besides having different visual effects. He can't
be set on fire in his fire form, and he can't be frozen in his ice
form, but that's pretty much the only real significance his different
forms have. In all 3 of his forms, he's resistant to heat damage (such
as napalm or incendiary bolts), resistant to cold damage (although this
really doesn't matter since none of your attacks actually do cold
damage), and immune to being stunned by Electrobolt (although he can
still be stunned and will take electrical damage from the chemical
thrower's electric gel).
BOSS FIGHT AREA:
The game's final showdown takes place in a large, open arena-like area
dominated by a massive ADAM-infusion table on a raised platform in the
center of the room. To the left and right of the ADAM-infusion table
are two walls of computer consoles. Behind the consoles are side-
passages containing several piles of explosive barrels. At the rear of
the arena, behind the ADAM-infusion table, is a flooded area with a
shallow pool of water.
A Bot Shutdown Panel is on the left wall. A health station can be found
behind the left wall, in the left side-pasage. Finally, a Gene Bank can
be found behind the right wall, in the right side-passage. The Bot
Shutdown Panel is very useful for disabling the Security Bots Fontaine
summons to help him in the second phase of the battle. The health
station can be used to heal your health if you run low on first aid
kits, and the Gene Bank is useful if you decide to swap plasmids or
gene tonics in the middle of the final boss fight.
KILL STRATEGY (WHAT DOESN'T REALLY WORK):
Fontaine has an incredibly high amount of health (on par with Elite Big
Daddies), and research damage bonuses don't apply to him since he's
unlike any previous creature you've encountered before in Rapture. He
can take a lot of punishment, but you can kill him surprisingly quickly
with the right weapons.
First, let's talk about what doesn't work. The pistol, machinegun,
shotgun, and chemical thrower (using napalm or liquid nitrogen) are all
fairly ineffective against Fontaine. They simply don't do enough damage
to harm Fontaine quickly enough (it takes 100 standard bullets from the
machinegun or pistol to kill one of his forms, for example).
Many of your plasmids are also ineffective against Fontaine; he is
resistant to heat-based attacks (Incinerate), cannot be stunned by
Electrobolt, and is too large to be affected by Cyclone Trap or Sonic
Boom. You CAN stun him with Winter Blast (unless he's in his ice form),
and Insect Swarm will distract him, even though it doesn't do much
damage to him. Finally, you can toss explosive barrels at him using
Telekinesis, but there are more effective ways of fighting him.
Fontaine actually resists armor-piercing rounds, and only takes 2x
damage from antipersonnel rounds. As a result, antipersonnel auto
rounds from the machinegun actually do LESS damage than standard
machinegun rounds. Fontaine is also resistant against wrench attacks,
only taking 50% damage from wrench strikes. Finally, Fontaine is highly
resistant against heat-based attacks, and thus napalm from the
flamethrower, incendiary bolts from the crossbow, and the Incinerate
plasmid are all highly ineffective against him.
KILL STRATEGY (WHAT REALLY, REALLY WORKS):
With that said, there are a number of weapon loadouts that can beat him
rather easily:
Probably the easiest (and most cheesy) way to defeat Fontaine is to use
electric gel from the chemical thrower. The electric gel does decent
damage against him, and the electric beam will constantly stun him and
prevent him from moving or attacking. With the ammo consumption weapon
upgrade, you should be able to beat one of Fontaine's forms with 3/4ths
of a fuel tank of electric gel. It even works on his final electrical
form. However, you can only carry a maximum of 2 tanks (200 units) of
electric gel, so you don't have enough to kill all 3 of his forms with
electric gel alone.
The grenade launcher also works rather well against Fontaine. It takes
7 frag grenade hits (or 6 frag grenades + a few bursts of machinegun
fire) to defeat each of his 3 forms (assuming you have the weapon damage
upgrade). Proximity mines and RPG rockets also do significant damage
against Fontaine.
Each of Fontaine's forms can also be defeated with 7 steel-tip crossbow
bolts + a burst of machinegun fire (again, assuming you have the weapon
damage upgrade).
Finally, one interesting thing to note about Fontaine is that he ALWAYS
takes extra damage from WRENCH LURKER and WRENCH LURKER 2, despite the
fact he's clearly aware of you and occupied with fighting you. So,
while Fontaine is resistant to wrench attacks, if you equip WRENCH
JOCKEY + WRENCH JOCKEY 2 + WRENCH LURKER + WRENCH LURKER 2, you can
actually kill Fontaine in just 9 wrench strikes. You can either just
run up to Fontaine and bash him with the wrench, or you can freeze him
with Winter Blast 3, then bash him while he's frozen.
KILL STRATEGY (DEALING WITH FONTAINE'S MOBS):
Besides battling Fontaine, you'll also have to deal with the assorted
enemies he summons to help him in the second and third phases of the
final showdown.
When the second phase of the fight first begins, Fontaine will trigger
a 60-second alarm and summon Security Bots to help him. Run over to the
Bot Shutdown Panel on the left wall, and activate it to shut down the
Bots, leaving it just down to you and Fontaine. Alternatively, you can
tag Fontaine with Security Bullseye to get the Bots to attack him
instead.
In the third phase of the fight, Fontaine will be assisted by Thuggish,
Leadhead, and Nitro Splicers. It's a good idea to distract these
Splicers so they stop bothering you while you're busy fighting
Fontaine. Three good plasmids to achieve this are Insect Swarm 3,
Enrage, and Target Dummy. You can summon a couple swarms of bees with
Insect Swarm to attack and distract the Splicers, you can cast Enrage
on all the Splicers and Fontaine to get them to fight each other (they
won't do much damage to Fontaine, but will at least be shooting at him
instead of you), or you can use Target Dummy and have all your enemies
attack the dummy instead of you.
In any case, once Fontaine's final form is beaten, just run over to the
ADAM-infusion table and stab Fontaine with the Little Sister's needle
one final time. You can ignore any leftover Splicers still shooting at
you; you effectively win the game as soon as you jab Fontaine with the
needle.
END OF TEXT
Copyright 2008 Alan Chan
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