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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:
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* *
*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 bo |
