===============================================================================
Chris Lee's
Bioshock Infinite 1999 Mode and Item Guide v1.27
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
The officially latest (as well as latest, official) version of this FAQ/Guide
can be found at www.gamefaqs.com.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Table of Contents !-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To navigate to the different sections, simply use the shortcut key sequence to
the right of each section/subsection in whatever "find" mechanism you're using
in your browser or text editor. Section references later on in the text ignore
the '!' so that you don't end up jumping to the middle of a random paragraph,
so always be sure you start with a '!' when jumping around.
The pattern behind shortcut key sequence is simple: the first three letters
(more, if necessary to be unambiguous) of each related section, separated by
commas, beginning with a ! and ending with -.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How To Use This Guide !how-
Notes on 1999 Mode !not-
Burial at Sea Part 1 !not,bur1-
Burial at Sea Part 2 !not,bur2-
Special Vocabulary !spe-
Stats and Infusions !sta-
Consumables !sta,con-
Lockpicks !sta,loc-
Money and Upgrading !mon-
Totals !mon,tot-
Vigors !vig-
Possession !vig,pos-
Devil's Kiss !vig,dev-
Murder of Crows !vig,mur-
Bucking Bronco !vig,buc-
Shock Jockey !vig,sho-
Charge !vig,cha-
Undertow !vig,und-
Return to Sender !vig,ret-
Weapons !wea-
Tables !wea,tab-
Pistols/Machine Guns !wea,pis-
Rifle/Shotgun !wea,rif-
Explosives !wea,exp-
Special !wea,spe-
Gear !gea-
Hats !gea,hat-
Shirts !gea,shi-
Boots !gea,boo-
Pants !gea,pan-
Strategies !str-
General !str,gen-
AI Quirks !str,aiq-
Firemen !str,fir-
Patriots !str,pat-
Handymen !str,han-
Lady Comstock !str,lad-
Final Fight !str,fin-
Big Daddy [BaS] !str,big-
Bestiary !bes-
Vigor Effectiveness !bes,vig-
Normal !bes,nor-
Automatons !bes,aut-
Heavy Hitters !bes,hea-
Special !bes,spe-
Appendix !app-
Special Thanks !app,spe-
History !app,his-
All Works !app,all-
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
How To Use This Guide !how-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This guide serves two purposes. One, to discuss various weapons, vigors, and
gear in a rigorous way. Second, relatedly, to discuss all of this from the
perspective of 1999 Mode, which is by far a challenge worthy of its name.
What this guide is not: a walkthrough. If you want a walkthrough, there are
plenty of resources for that. If however, you want to see the various merits
of various aspects of Bioshock Infinite's gameplay analyzed, all within a
helpful context of beating 1999 Mode (with the no-Dollar Bill achievement),
then you're at the right place.
NOTE: this guide is written taking into without any of the
pre-order/collector's edition extra content taken into account.
If you have any tips, feedback, or corrections, feel free to contact me. As
people who have contacted me on other guides know, I try to respond to any
correspondence, and I will take seriously any suggestions you may have to
offer. Simply toss me an email at (with the subject beginning "Bioshock
Infinite guide"):
s___i_m___u_l__c_r_a@uchicago.edu
WITHOUT the underscores (that's just to prevent auto-parsers from grabbing my
email for spam purposes).
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Notes on 1999 Mode !not-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In case you aren't aware about 1999 Mode, you can either unlock it by beating
the game, or by starting a new game and--when selecting a difficulty--entering
the Konami Code:
up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, [cancel], [confirm]
Though, if you haven't beaten the game yet, I highly recommend doing that first
before doing 1999 Mode. It'll give you a lot of advanced metagame knowledge
for your second time around. Plus, doing so will let you enjoy the
mind-blowing narrative of Bioshock Infinite without making you pound your head
into a wall in frustration.
The following changes take place when in 1999 Mode:
- All damage you take from enemies is doubled.
- All damage you deal is halved.*
- Death costs $100, versus $50 on hard and $25 on medium.
- Enemies revive almost to full health upon your death (versus limited
levels at lower difficulties.)
- If you don't have enough money to cover death, you are bumped back to the
main menu.
- It takes 4 seconds before your shield starts to regenerate, versus 3
seconds on hard and 2 seconds on medium.
- Your shield regenerates at a rate of 16.67% per second (or 100% over 6
seconds), versus 20%/sec on hard and 25%/sec on medium.
- There appear to be fewer checkpoint restart points.
- Navigation arrow is turned off.
- Aim assistance is turned off.
- Enemies drop loot less commonly and in smaller amounts (for ammo and $).
* All damage numbers listed throughout the guide are their values for 1999
Mode and so already take into account the 50% penalty.
Because enemies hit you much harder (and there are fewer reload checkpoints
while death is much more expensive), strategy in 1999 Mode revolves around
being more evasive and keeping distance between you and your foes. As such, a
lot of the analysis in this guide is centered around this central strategy.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Burial at Sea Part 1 !not,bur2-
This guide now offers coverage for 1999 Mode in Burial at Sea Part 1. Because
Burial at Sea Part 1 (hence BaS1 or BaS from now on) features several
significant balance changes, I will be making notes as appropriate in the
proper sections.
Here is a quick, top-level summary of the changes you'll encounter in Burial at
Sea 1999 Mode (most of these changes are not exclusive to 1999 Mode but to
Burial at Sea in general):
- Comesmetic: "Salt" is now "Eve," "Vigors" are now "Plasmids," and "Silver
Eagles" are now just "Dollars."
- Skyline travel speed is _much_ slower.
- Possession re-balanced to be less obscene (read: it was nerfed).
- Possession only has one upgrade.
- Devil's Kiss has no upgrade.
- Bucking Bronco and Shock Jockey have altered upgrades.
- A new Vigor/Plasmid, Old Man Winter, is introduced.
- Undertow, Return to Sender, Charge, and Murder of Crows are not
available.
- Once you pick up a weapon, you can now switch to it whenever (though you
have two you can quick-switch between, like how Vigors/Plasmids works).
- All available weapons have significantly reduced ammo capacity.
- A new weapon, the radar range, is introduced.
- Only available weapons: hand cannon, machine gun, carbine, shotgun, and
the aforementioend radar range.
- Weapons other than the radar range have no upgrades.
- All upgrade costs are sigificantly scaled down in terms of $.
- Availability of $ through drops and loot is significantly lower.
- Gear is no longer randomized.
- All new gear, which all have a significantly higher power curve than the
normal game (generally achieved by combining the effects multiple similar
gear from the base game). Main exceptions are the Better Mousetrap shirt
and the Surprise element hat which appear to use completely new effects.
- Big Daddies from Bioshock are back! And they use mechanics better suited
to a world where skylines (erm, whatever they are called in Rapture) are
prevalent. Read: pretty hard.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Burial at Sea Part 2 !not,bur2
In case you haven't figured it out by now, but I'm never going to update this
guide with information re: Burial at Sea Part 2. For two major reasons: first,
it's so radically different from the other DLCs and the main game, I can't just
add a few addendum here and there. Second, I hate hate _hated_ it. I'm never
wild about stealth games, and this was a stealth game that _also_ happened
to retcon both Bioshock and Bioshock: Infinite (two of my favorite games) in a
way that made both of them worse. So yeah, I only played it twice to get all
the achievements, and I'm never touching it again.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Special Vocabulary !spe-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be deliberate with my word choice. In particular, there are some
words and phrases that I use repeatedly throughout this guide (as does Bioshock
Infinite) that carry specific meaning.
"Briefly Invulnerable"
For sources other than Charge, ice forms around your health and shield bars
and you are immune to non-fire damage.
BaS Note: this is officially referred to as a "Winter Shield."
"Chain"
When an effect jumps to another target. Most notably I talk about this in
terms of an "Overkill chain," wherein while equipped with Gear, severe
damage to one enemy cause them to die with an Overkill effect, which makes
nearby enemies vulnerable. Killing another one of this will cause Overkill
to occur again, etc. Bioshock Infinite also uses this word regarding
specific effects.
Combo
A deliberate mix of two different effects produces a final effect greater
than the sum of its parts. Generally refers to Vigor combos, but weapons
and gear that emulate Vigor effects can also cause combos (such as shooting
someone lifted with Bucking Bronco with a Heater).
Critical Hit
Most enemies have a weak point. Shots against an enemy's weakpoint will do
"critical" damage, which pops up as red numbers and are essentially your
weapon's base damage times its critical multiplier (plus any extra damage
from being vulnerable).
Vulnerable
When an enemy is vulnerable, they take twice as much damage from attacks
(indicated by yellow numbers). However, damage over time effects are
_not_ affected, even though their numbers turn yellow while the target
is vulnerable.
If an enemy is vulnerable through an electrocution attack (such as Shock
Jockey) they actually take three times as much damage from melee
attacks. This is probably a callback to the original Bioshock where
electrocuted enemies were greatly vulnerable to melee.
Weak Point
Most enemies have a specific part of their bodies which, when hit, will
trigger a critical hit. All humanoids have their heads as weakpoints.
Patriots' backs are weak points though as they become more damaged their
head and then neck become a weak point. A Handyman's heart is his
weakpoint. Lady Comstock's weak point is her head and somewhere in her
upper body, though she is easier to critically hit when she floats up into
the air.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Stats and Infusions !sta-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are 24 Infusions (not counting the one special Infusion that gives you
the Shield), and each of your stats--Health, Shield, Salts--can be upgraded ten
times (for a * rating). If you have the Collector's or Season Pass edition of
Bioshock: Infinite, then you get an additional 5 infusions near the start of
the game (just one shy of maxing out all your stats).
I only have rough estimates about Health and Shield details, based purely on
getting myself hit repeatedly by enemies (for the sake of SCIENCE!). It
appears your Health starts at 1500 points and increases by 225 per Infusion.
Your Shield starts at 300 points and increase by 45 per Infusion. Simply
looking at those numbers it appears Health, pound for pound, is a better choice
for Infusion for maximum survivability, but Shield regenerates without the need
for consumables which means each point of Shield has greater impact. In
reality, you need closer to a balance; without investing in Shield, you will
have next-to-no-capacity to shrug off incidental damage in combat. Without
investing in Health, you will have no way of surviving massive single-hit
attacks (like a Handyman's ramming attack or a sniper's shot).
In contrast to my estimates, I am 99% certain that my numbers on Salt are
accurate, based on doing some math and induction. Your maximum Salts start at
100, and each upgrade increases that by 15, up to a potential maximum of 250.
In contrast to Health and Shield, Salts are less fundamental to your survival
in 1999 Mode, though the ability to regularly use disabling Vigors can extend
your life in a way simple Health/Shield cannot.
Compared to lower difficulties, in 1999 Mode (and to a lesser extent in Hard)
you should invest in Health/Shield a bit more aggressively early on. It so
significantly helps your survivability that you should wait until you upgrade
them twice each before pursuing any specific Infusion specialization related to
your particular playstyle. Due to the way stat upgrades work, low-level
upgrades are proportionally more important than high-level upgrades anyway. To
use Salt as an example, going from 9 to * is 235 to 250, or a 6.4% increase.
By comparison, going from 0 to 1 is a 15% increase, more than twice as
effective. So you want to get all your survivability stats up a point or two
just to maximize your early benefit.
Burial at Sea Part 1: there are only 4 Infusions, so you should be much more
deliberate about your choices. Rather than a blanket recommendation for one
strategy or another, you have to decide early on whether or not you are going
to be a heavy Vigor user. If you are, then you may only want to spend one
Infusion on Health/Shield. Otherwise, you probably do not want to bother with
infusing Salt at all, as you then do not want to sacrifice your survivability.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Consumables !sta,con-
From what I can ascertain, consumable goods restore a _percentage_ of your
total Health or Salts instead of a fixed absolute number. This is even though
Salt vials in particular state that they bestow +25, +50, or +100 Salt whereas
Health Kits explicitly state a percentage (e.g. 20/80%). In reality, the
various Salt vials restore 25%, 50%, and 100% of your total Salts.
This percentage-based restoration includes Cigarettes and--as far as I can
tell--miscellaneous food like Oranges and Popcorn. The only downside is that I
believe the _cost_ of using things like Alcohol (which drains Salt) and
Cigarettes (which drains Health) is also a percentage, however minor. The only
exception to the percentage-based-recovery-rule is when you try to drink a
Vigor that you already have; you get back a fixed amount of Salt (50) instead
of restoring a percentage of your total Salts.
In particular, infusing your way to max Salts pays significant dividends;
smoking a Cigarette won't do much when you have 0 infusions in Salt, but
smoking a Cigarette when you have * in Salt will give you an extra blast of a
Shock Jockey.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lockpicks !sta,loc-
In general, judicious exploration means you will be flush with lockpicks for
much of the game. However, this is _not_ true for the part of the game before
you take the elevator down from the Fink Worker Induction Center. There are
many safes and locked doors leading up to that moment and you will barely have
enough lockpicks to open them all; plus, once you hit a plot point after going
down the elevator, you won't even be able to backtrack up to the Worker
Induction Center which itself contains several locks. It's absolutely crucial
that you are particularly judicious about exploring areas for lockpicks, inch
by inch up until this point, because otherwise you are missing out on infusions
and hundreds of Silver Eagles.
Some further notes:
- There are enough lockpicks to open every safe and door in the game
without needing to buy any from a Dollar Bill, though you may have to do
a bit of backtracking.
- You cannot backtrack past certain points in the game. Notably, you
cannot backtrack past these early points:
1. Boarding the Gondola from Soldier's Field.
2. After trying to chase Elizabeth from Fort Franklin Pier.
3. Shortly after taking the elevator down into Finkton from the Worker
Induction Center.
4. Opening the tear in Fink's holding cells.
As a result, it is _absolutely imperative_ that you fully explore areas
before you get to these points of no return. Not only will you find
enough lockpicks to open everything prior to these points of no return,
but you will also find lockpicks that you don't need immediately but are
necessary for opening everything in future areas.
Note that right after #2, you will see a Dollar Bill vending machine
that sells lockpicks. If you're really desperate (and not going for the
Scavenger Hunt achievement), you can drop $100 or so to open the locks in
the Worker Induction Center.
Additionally, here are some lockpick counts (so you can be sure you have picked
up all you need):
1. Soldier's Field: +6 lockpicks -1 door -5 safe = no net.
2. Hall of Heroes: +17 lockpicks -1 door -3 door -10 safe = +2 net.
3. Return to Soldier's Field: +4 lockpicks = +4 net (6 total).
4. Lady's Airship: +1 lockpick = +1 net (7 total).
5. Finkton Docks: +2 lockpicks = +2 net (9 total).
6. Fort Franklin Pier: -5 lockpicks = -5 net (4 total)
7. Worker Induction Center: +5 lockpicks -5 door -1 safe = -1 net (3
total).
8. Finkton: +4 lockpicks -1 door = +3 net (6 total).
After your first arrival in Finkton you will be generally flush with lockpicks,
so don't worry too much about it after that.
Burial at Sea Part 1: your lockpick count will be just as constrained as in
the early parts of the base game, so do be judicious in your exploration.
However, like in the base game, you will eventually start finding a lot of
lockpicks in the late game even though there are not that many locks left to
pick.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Money and Upgrading !mon-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Compared to many other modern action-RPGs, you don't have a special
"experience" stat, some kind of skill tree, or anything like the original
Bioshock's "Adam", so you may think you are pretty unlimited in your character
development as both equipment and character upgrades are purchased with
currency (Silver Eagles).
However, in 1999 Mode, Silver Eagles are so much rarer than in earlier
difficulties that you are _forced_ to specialize, since you can't possibly
afford even a majority of upgrades at your disposal. In fact, if you aren't
pursuing the no-Dollar Bill achievement, you actually have an interesting
tension between upgrading your character or outfitting him with ammo/health
kits/salt vials since all come from the same finite pool.
(I say finite, because while enemies can drop $ and Elizabeth can toss you $,
enemies very rarely drop $ and only in limited quantities in 1999 Mode, enemies
generally do not respawn, and Elizabeth's $-tossing seems significantly
dependent on you actually looting and buying things. As a result, $ as a
function of time reveals that there there is an asymptotic limit on the total
supply of Silver Eagles in 1999 Mode.)
By looking at my most recent character and reversing his upgrades, I can say
that just as you reach the Roof of Comstock's House, you will have accumulated
about $13,000; by the time you are about to do the final battle, you will
have earned an additional $1,000. However, these numbers are based on several
assumptions:
- You never die (each death costs you a whopping $100).
- You possess every vending machine (which causes them to cough up between
$1 and $40 a piece).
- You crack open _every_ locked door and safe (safes generally contain $100
to $300).
- You do not buy _anything_ at a Dollar Bill vending machine.
If you are planning on being less aggressive with using Possession on vending
machines, I would say that $11,500 is a safe target to use for determining
whether or not you can afford upgrades. If you want to leave some buffer room
for deaths, a target of $9,500 will let you die up to 20 times without being
derailed. If on top of that you want to leave yourself an allowance to buy
health/salt/ammunition at a Dollar Bill, reduce that target to $8,750.
Note 1: I do realize that there are a few big fights left after the Roof of
Comstock's House so using that as the goalpoint may seem odd, but the point of
planning ahead is to make sure you hit the peak of your character's power while
there are still fights left to fight. Plus, the last fight is _super_ hard, so
I would leave buffer room in your checking account so you can take a few deaths
(or use the Dollar Bill vending machine) without being bumped back to the main
menu in failure.
Note 2: Because dying in 1999 Mode is super expensive (losing $100 in addition
to your enemies being healed to virtually full health), I recommend simply
reloading your game from the last checkpoint instead of eating the death.
However, this can be pretty frustrating for some areas and fights (notably Lady
Comstock), so feel free to just build in the buffer room for several deaths
throughout the course of your adventure.
Burial at Sea Part 1: The total dollar count is much, much lower; in general
all upgrades are also scaled down in cost, which means the trade-off made
between upgrades and buying supplies/reviving is much more significant. I do
not have an estimate for total dollar amount yet, but it is an order of
magnitude less: in the vicinity of ~$1000 or so, I was only able to fully
upgrade Possession, Old Man Winter and get one Bucking Bronco upgrade and
unintentionally ended the game with about $500 in tow (I was saving up,
unknowing how long the DLC actually is). Moreover, Elizabeth does not toss you
$ in Burial at Sea, so upgrading Possession just to use it to extract money
from vending machines (which are also less common) is less effective due to a
lack of compounding returns.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals !mon,tot-
For ease of calculation, here are all the totals for upgrading. (Note: Burial
at Sea numbers not included yet.)
Total available by Comstock House Roof: $13,000
Total available by final fight (see note 1): $14,000
Penalty for not possessing vending machines: ($ 1,500)
Penalty for dying up to 20 times*: ($ 2,000)
Allowance for Dollar Bill spending*: ($ 750)
* adjust to your needs, but leave yourself some wiggle room.
Vigors Weapons
Possession $1,703+ Pistol $1,077
Devil's Kiss $1,907 [Golden`] $ 878
Murder of Crows $2,030+ Machine Gun $1,375
Bucking Bronco $1,198 [Golden`] $1,139
Shock Jockey $1,840 Hand Cannon $1,902
Charge $2,169 Repeater $1,694^
Undertow $1,449 Shotgun $1,332
Return to Sender $2,185 Carbine $1,594^
Old Man Winter (BaS) [n/a] Sniper Rifle $1,640+
Heater $1,778^
Burstgun $2,340*^
RPG $1,919
Volley Gun $2,320
Hail Fire $1,502^
Radar Range (BaS) [n/a]
+ Recommended.
* Not recommended.
^ See note 2.
` See note 3.
Note 1: There aren't upgrade vending machines in the final fight, so you'll
have to stay on the lower levels of the airship and use the vending machines
before you climb to the 4th floor (people who have played the game previously
will know what I'm talking about).
Note 2: Some weapons either have semi-rare ammo or are rather inefficient in
terms of net potential damage for their reserve size. As such, if you want to
specialize in these weapons, you may want to leave a Dollar Bill budget leeway
for buying ammo. Most explosive weapons are excluded from this calculation
since they are, almost by definition, special use anyway. See the weapon
section (wea-) for more info on Dollar Bill value and ammo plentifulness.
Note 3: With the Collector's/Season Pass version of the game, your pistol and
machine gun become golden versions. Aside from the aesthetic boost, they both
start with a free Damage Boost 1 upgrade, at +35% damage instead of +25%
damage. This is a good enough early advantage in addition to a nice value
proposition that it removes my "not recommended" note from the golden machine
gun.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Vigors !vig-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The various Vigors are generally well-balanced enough that none stand out as
the "best," though there are a couple standouts. In general though, rather
than basing your character solely on what percieved quality a Vigor is, you
should really focus on matching your playstyle. After all, there's no point in
heavily investing in and using the-highly-recommended Possession if you just
can't get the aiming/trapping quite right.
The following recommendation list assumes you fully upgrade the Vigors in
question. Aside from the all-purpose recommended selections, the other Vigors
all generally will have some kind of situation in which they will shine, so
it's difficult to make a bad choice.
Recommended: Possession, Murder of Crows
The Others: Bucking Bronco, Charge, Devil's Kiss, Return to Sender, Shock
Jockey, Undertow
In case it isn't obvious, Vigors--aside from Return to Sender--can also be
"combo"-ed to produce substantially superior effects. To do a combo, you need
to use two Vigors in a specific order; I highlight the various combos available
for each Vigors. In some cases you can substitute an effect similar to a Vigor
and still trigger a combo. The complete list is as follows (ordered by how
early on you can use them):
1. Possession + Devil's Kiss or burning` (or vice versa*)
2. Murder of Crows + Devil's Kiss or burning` (or vice versa)
3. Possession + Shock Jockey or electrocution^ (or vice versa*)
4. Murder of Crows + Shock Jockey or electrocution^ (or vice versa)
5. Bucking Bronco + Devil's Kiss or burning` (or vice versa)
6. Bucking Bronco + Charge
7. Devil's Kiss or burning` + Charge
8. Shock Jockey or electrocution^ + Undertow (or vice versa)
* While order doesn't matter, Possessed allies may stagger when hit by a
follow-up Vigor, so I recommend starting up with Devil's Kiss/Shock Jockey
and then Possessing them to avoid wasting your Possession duration.
Moreover, the game normally "auto-aims" Shock Jockey to help you hit
enemies, but will _not_ auto-aim Shock Jockey towards a possessed ally. As
such, it is much easier to use Shock Jockey and then Possession, whereas if
you use Possession first you may find yourself having a very hard time
trying to electrocute your new friend.
` Burning effects come from:
active oil slicks
Burning Halo (gear)
Fire Bird (gear)
Pyromaniac (gear)
heater
^ Electrocution effects come from:
tesla coil
Electric Touch (gear)
Electric Punch (gear)
Overkill kill effect (gear)
I also provide all Silver Eagle upgrade costs, so you can help plan in advance
what Vigors you will be able to afford (see section mon- for specific $
counts).
The Vigors below are listed in the order in which you find them.
Burial at Sea Part 1: I have not updated this section to reflect Burial at
Sea-specific tweaks. A quick summary for the impatient: Possession is
rebalanced for Burial at Sea to be less exploitive, Bucking Bronco/Shock
Jockey have better upgrades, Devil's Kiss has no upgrades available, and the
other Vigors are not available. Costs in this section do not reflect Burial at
Sea costs.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Possession !vig,pos-
Highly Recommended Vigor! (Not in Burial at Sea, though.)
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,703
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 50
Effect: an automaton becomes your ally for the duration. Patriots are
only affected for half as long while turrets are affected for twice as
long. If you target a vending machine, it will drop a varying amount
of Silver Eagles, though each vending machine can only be affected
once.
Burial at Sea: affects automatons _or_ humans.
Duration: 10 seconds
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 100
Effect: sets a trap. When triggered, all in the explosion are affected by
Possession (though see footnote *). Note that you need the "Possession
Aid" upgrade before you can do this alternate effect.
Burial at Sea: automatically available without the need for an upgrade.
However, the mechanics of Possession are different so really only one
target in the explosion is affected (though for a much longer
duration).
Duration: 20 seconds
Upgrades
"Possession Aid" [Not in Burial at Sea]
Cost: $50
Effect: humanoids are also affected; at the end of the effect,
humanoids kill themselves. Firemen and Crows are only affected for
half duration and do not suicide at the end. Also unlocks the
alternate effect.
Burial at Sea: Possession automatically affects humans from the start,
however in Burial at Sea humans _DO NOT_ suicide at the end of the
effect.
Location: You can get this from the first Vigor vending machine you
find.
"Possession For Less"
Cost: $1,653
Effect: halves the Salt cost to 25 for the primary effect and 50 for
the alternate effect.
Location: Hall of Heroes before fighting Slate.
Combos
Devil's Kiss/burning: Combine Possession with burning. They will
emanate waves of fire, igniting everything in range and doing periodic
damage/disruption, though at a much closer range than the Shock Jockey
combo.
Shock Jockey/electrocution: Combine Possession with electrocution.
They will become a mobile tesla coil, periodically electrocuting (as per
Shock Jockey) every target in range, stunning them and making them
vulnerable. In case it isn't clear, you can affect Patriots, too (a
Patriot that is electrocuting nearby enemies will clear out a room
quite quickly).
Anti-Combo
Bucking Bronco and Possession do not mix well; the former will just waste
the duration of the latter.
Footnote *
You can only possess one target at a time. If you possess a second target,
the effect on the first target immediately ends. If the first target was
not a Fireman or Crow, they immediately kill themselves. This has the
ramification that if you set a Possession trap and multiple humans trigger
it, all but one will immediately suicide, and the survivor will be your
ally until he or she kills themself at the end of the effect.
Unfortunately, it's rather hard to predict who will be your ally and who
will suicide.
Discussion
My personal favorite; immensely useful. Long story short: Possession gives
you dramatically increased survivability and a lot of ways to turn the
tides of battle against your foes, in addition to having an incredible
auxiliary use.
At its basic level, if you have the Salt to spare, this Vigor is a
money-maker, responsible for a non-trivial amount of the total $ available
for your character-building. Early on, this also lets you transform those
early turrets (which are a bit too strong for being so early in the game)
into valuable assets.
The first upgrade is an amazing value proposition; for $50 you unlock
the ability to insta-kill any non-heavy-hitting human, in addition to
gaining an ally for a few seconds. And while in effect, your
enemies will want to attack your new ally, and any bullet/explosive that
isn't going towards you is a Good Thing(tm). For $50 you also unlock the
trap alternate effect; the trap is very effective when you can anticipate
an ambush or strike first. For example, when you enter the "chapel" area
of the Fraternal Order of the Raven, if look down from the balcony you can
see around 6 enemies arranged around a podium. Drop a trap in the middle
of them, and you will instantly kill most of them, and whoever is missed
will be slaughtered by your ally.
Even if you aren't in a position to get more than one target at a time,
the trap is still effective to use if only just for the extra duration.
This is especially true for heavy-hitters, who are only possessed for half
the normal duration and also the most likely to survive the entire duration
without being killed by their (former) allies. They will generally waste
most of the default 5 second duration just standing up/getting into
position; the additional 5 seconds from the trap effect can mean them
wreaking much more than twice the havoc, especially if you've trapped a
slow-moving Patriot.
On top of all this, Possession combos _extremely_ well. Hitting your
possessed ally with Shock Jockey is an immensely powerful effect. You can
follow behind and clean up all the vulnerable enemies; your ally also gains
a damage bonus against the zapped foes. Moreover, the electrocution effect
is near-constant, so even if you aren't able to finish off a vulnerable
foe, your ally will most likely re-shock them immediately. Hitting your
ally with Devil's Kiss gives you a mobile firestorm. Unfortunately, the
range of this effect isn't as nice as the Shock Jockey combo, so you're
best suited using this on an enemy who is likely to charge against your
foes (generally someone wielding a bat or a shotgun). Moreover, nothing is
stopping you from doing _both_ combos on the same ally. You can easily
clear a room with one ally running around shooting, electrocuting, and
burning enemies.
Unfortunately, unless you get the "Possession For Less" upgrade,
Possession is _so_ expensive to use that even with maximum Salt infusions,
you will only be able to use the trap effect twice. In fact, even if you
just use the primary effect, 50 Salt is a steep price even for an effective
insta-kill (especially if you end up missing). This means that whereas all
other Vigors are pretty much useable right off the bat, if you want to make
any significant use out of this Vigor you _have_ to plan on spending the
$1,653 upgrade. Note that if you're only planning on using this to squeeze
change from vending machines, the upgrade may not be worth it, since I'm
not sure you actually end up making back the $1653 up-front cost. On the
other hand, if you _do_ plan on aggressively using Possession, then the
ability to readily possess vending machines helps defray the cost of this
necessary upgrade.
Special Note
The projectile for Possession tries to home in on targets. While generally
helpful, this homing does mean you need to give a little breathing room
when you launch it, as otherwise your projectile might immediately try to
curve towards someone but then run into a doorway.
Burial at Sea Note
Possession is significantly re-balanced in Burial at Sea; in effect is is
no longer insanely broken post-Possession-for-Less upgrade. The major
change is that humans do not kill themselves at the end, which means the
trap is no longer a mass insta-kill against normal enemies and you have to
be careful to not be caught offguard by your friend shooting at you after
the effect ends.
The economics of Burial at Sea dictate though that despite this nerf,
Possession is still a valuable survival tool (if not as relatively good as
it was in the core game); especially with the Possession for Less upgrade,
getting a temporary ally can do worlds for your survivability and breathing
room.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Devil's Kiss !vig,dev-
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,907
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 23
Effect: tosses a fire grenade which sets enemies (and oil slicks) within
the area of effect aflame. Burning enemies are very briefly vulnerable
(about 1 second) and may be distracted.
Damage: 250 (on average, randomly varies about 20% per attack);
approximately half is done instantly upon detonation, the remainder is
dealt over 3 seconds.
Damage (Oil Slick): ~200 per second.
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 46
Effect: sets a trap. When triggered, all in the explosion are set aflame.
Burning enemies are very briefly vulnerable (about 1 second) and may be
distracted.
Damage: 1,050 (on average, randomly varies about 20% per attack);
approximately half is done instantly upon detonation, the remainder is
dealt over 5 seconds.
Damage (Oil Slick): ~200 per second.
Upgrades
"Devil's Kiss Mod" [Not in Burial at Sea]
Cost: $1,241
Effect: after the initial explosion, 5 additional Devil's Kiss
grenades are launched in specific directions (see Mechanics #5
below), which after a short dealy detonate for damage similar to a
regular use of Devil's Kiss, though with a shorter explosion
radius.
Location: Pretty much any vending machine after the Possession Aid one
(earliest is in Monument Island).
"Devil's Kiss Boost" [Not in Burial at Sea]
Cost: $666
Effect: increases damage done by about 25%.
Location: vending machines starting with Finkton Docks.
Combos
Possession: Possess a target and then hit them with Devil's Kiss or
possess a target that's on fire. They will emanate waves of fire,
igniting everything in range and doing periodic damage/disruption,
though at a much closer range than the Shock Jocky combo.
Murder of Crows: Combine a burning target with Murder of Crows. All the
crows will catch fire, dealing an additional ~37 damage/second while
the crows are around (on par with Burning Halo's effect).
Bucking Bronco: Combine a burning target with Bucking Bronco. The lifted
enemy will drop Devil's Kiss grenades.
Charge: Charge a burning target. They will expel Devil's Kiss grenades
that explode at close range.
Special Combo
Bucking Bronco and Murder of Crows can both be applied simultaneously to
enemies. This means that a burning effect can and will trigger _both_
Bucking Bronco and Murder of Crows combos at once. (And you can vary the
order, such as Murder of Crows, add burning, then Bucking Bronco.)
Mechanics
Devil's Kiss has several eccentricities in how it functions, so before I
move on to Discussion I'm going to touch on a few points. All of this
information came from tedious analysis of my own self-recordings of using
Devil's Kiss.
1. As mentioned above, about half the total damage is dealt
instantaneously. This damage functions like any other explosion
and drops off the further away a target is from the initial
detonation.
2. The remaining half is dealt over 3 (primary) or 5 (alternate)
seconds. Like #1, the total amount dealt is based on how far the
target was from the initial detonation. In fact, if you have
"Floating Combat Text" enabled in some cases you may see a curious
cascade of 0's fly out from a target that was sufficiently far from
the detonation.
3. Both the instant damage and durational damage vary randomly from a
given average and they do so pseudo-independently: it is entirely
possible for the initial detonation to do a very low amount
(70-ish) but then each "tick" be quite high (22 per tick).
However, the net total will still average out to be a base of 250
(primary) or 1,050 (alternate).
4. In case it isn't clear, Devil's Kiss stacks, so an enemy afflicted
by multiple Devil's Kiss explosions will feel each one.
5. The additional grenades from Devil's Kiss Mod pop out outwards and
"upwards" from the initial impact (in physics terms, imagine a
normal vector to the plane of impact; that's the rough direction I
mean by "upwards"). After a short delay they detonate, but under
certain circumstances that I don't comprehend, they don't always
detonate (possibly if no one is nearby to be affected by them).
6. It's possible for your initial target to be caught in the blast
radius of the smaller grenades from Devil's Kiss Mod, provided that
they were triggered by someone who was sufficiently close by or a
wall bounced a grenade back. Otherwise the additional grenades are
launched far enough away (most of the time) to not affect the
primary target.
7. Occasionally one of the extra grenades from Devil's Kiss Mod will
erroneously immediately hit your initial target as it pops out,
effectively causing Devil's Kiss to do double damage to the
intended target. It's somewhat hard to predict when this happens,
just treat it as a lucky "critical hit" of sorts.
8. A corrolary to #5 and #6 is that against a single target or in
wide-open fights, you won't gain much benefit from Devil's Kiss
Mod; your extra grenades will simply disappear and not do much.
However, when targets are grouped together are are within tightly
enclosed spaces (like a hallway) you will do a dramatically
increased amount of damage.
9. Another corrolary to #5 and #6 is that at the very least, Devil's
Kiss Mod makes aiming a bit forgiving; while the main projectile
might miss, the follow up grenades may hit your intended target.
10. The initial explosion damage of Devil's Kiss can be doubled from
prior vulnerability, but the damage-over-time component will _never_
be doubled.
Discussion
Devil's Kiss is much more effective on lower difficulties, where the
damage-to-Salt ratio is much better. As it stands, Devil's Kiss is on the
underpowered side until you get at least one of the upgrades, though once
you have both upgrades Devil's Kiss comes into its own; not only will a
fully-upgraded primary effect kill most normal enemies in the game in one
hit (provided one of the follow up grenades hits something close by), but
you'll find that with both upgrades Devil's Kiss has the rare feature of
becoming better the more you use it. Why? For one, there are all sorts of
oil slicks throughout Columbia that you might not have bothered to take
advantage of, but more frequent use of Devil's Kiss will find you
accidentally igniting areas. For two, Devil's Kiss synergizes with various
Gear (such as Storm or Ghost Posse). For three, Devil's Kiss combos rather
well.
Not that there aren't problems. Whereas in Bioshock, the
Devil's-Kiss-equivalent Incinerate instantly ignited your target, Devil's
Kiss launches in a medium-speed parabolic trajectory; moreover, when using
the primary effect, if you don't immediately hit a target the projectile
will bounce around for a bit before detonating. While this lets you hit
targets around a corner or behind cover, it also means that glancing shots
or missing entirely is all-too easy to do. Not to mention that hitting
far away targets on equal or higher elevation is all but impossible.
That being said, let's get back to why Devil's Kiss can be very good.
The official combos are quite good. Possession followed up by Devil's Kiss
gives you a mobile firestorm, and is a great way to make charge-prone melee
users and shotgun wielders sow mayhem amongst enemy ranks (though do note
that when upgraded, your possessed ally will probably die from the Devil's
Kiss effect itself before getting much of a chance to do anything).
Devil's Kiss with a Charge can quickly punish clusters of enemies, and
works great if you've also fully upgraded Charge and also are wielding a
high-impact close range weapon like a heater. Crows followed by Devil's
Kiss is a great way to layer on additional damage, especially later in the
game when enemies are tougher and take more time to shoot down even when
rendered vulnerable; not to mention this also helps you trigger the Crows
Trap Mod effect. Bucking Bronco with Devil's Kiss is like a merge between
the Crows combo and the Charge combo, giving you the effect of a disable
but also wide damage.
Even outside the "official" combos, Devil's Kiss works well with other
Vigors, since in some cases guaranteeing a vulnerability effect will ensure
your enemy dies quickly (e.g. using Undertow to pull an enemy into a
Devil's Kiss trap). In particular, Shock Jockey--while not an official
combo--synergizes with Devil's Kiss through the Storm Gear; an enemy that
is electrocuted and hit by a Devil's Kiss is virtually guaranteed to die
quickly, and in so doing will chain *both* the Shock Jockey and Devil's
Kiss effect, all but guaranteeing widespread mayhem. (This also applies to
the official Bucking Bronco combo, since Storm will also chain Bucking
Bronco.)
Even without upgrades or synergistic solutions, Devil's Kiss can still
be situationally useful. It's a cost-effective solution early on in the
game for dispatching Turrets and small groups of enemies. It also adds an
extra source of damage against early-game Patriots. Moreover, the
alternate effect's trap is still very good even unupgraded and on its own.
If you are anticipating an ambush (and if you've played through the game
before, you should know when to expect them), you can pre-emptively clear
the room by dropping a few traps. Moreover, it doesn't bounce around, so
if you aren't confident in your aim, you can launch the trap and it'll just
stick to whereever you shot it like a proximity mine, which may mean a shot
that would've bounced past an enemy will instead detonate and catch them in
the explosion. Moreover, due to the Salt economics of the alternate effect
(four times the damage for only twice the Salt, not to mention potential
synergies with Ghost Posse), in many situations it is strictly better to do
one use of the alternate effect rather than potentially two or more uses of
the primary effect.
Burial at Sea Note
You can't upgrade Devil's Kiss, so against even basic enemies you will need
to use the trap effect to guarantee a kill. Still, there are enough oil
slicks and Possession is nerfed enough where using your precious Eve to do
a Devil's Kiss trap is the omst effective option you have at your disposal.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Murder of Crows !vig,mur-
[This Vigor/Plasmid is completely removed in Burial at Sea.]
Highly Recommended Vigor!
Total Upgrade Cost: $2,030
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 28
Effect: launches crows that, upon hitting a wall or enemy, start pecking
away at enemies nearby, doing minor damage and rendering them
vulnerable.
Damage/Stun Duration: 30 over ~4 seconds.
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 56
Effect: sets a trap. When triggered, crows launch out at everyone neaby,
doing minor damage and rending them vulnerable.
Damage/Stun Duration: 150 over ~9 seconds.
Upgrades
"Crows Trap Mod"
Cost: $1,485
Effect: anyone who dies while under the effects of Murder of Crows
turns into a Murder of Crows trap.
Location: Pretty much any vending machine after the Possession Aid one
(earliest is in Monument Island).
"Crows Boost"
Cost: $545
Effect: increases the stun duration by a few seconds.
Location: vending machines starting with the Factory.
Combos
Devil's Kiss/burning: Combine a burning target with Murder of Crows. All
the crows will catch fire, dealing an additional ~37 damage/second while
the crows are around (on par with Burning Halo's effect).
Shock Jockey/electrocution: Combine electrocution with Murder of Crows.
All the crows become electrified, dealing an additional ~12
damage/second while the crows are around. In addition, the stun effect
is slightly longer (an additional second or so).
Special Combo
Bucking Bronco and Murder of Crows can both be applied simultaneously to
enemies. This means that a burning effect can and will trigger _both_
Bucking Bronco and Murder of Crows combos at once. (And you can vary the
order, such as Murder of Crows, add burning, then Bucking Bronco.)
Discussion
Don't pay much mind to the damage numbers, the damage efficiency per Salt
is too low to really pay it much heed. What Murder of Crows is good at
though, is mass disable/vulnerability. In fact, unless you upgrade Shock
Jockey or Bucking Bronco, Murder of Crows is really the only mass disable
Vigor in the game; Bucking Bronco _can_ affect more than one enemy at a
time, but the flotation effect is harder to really take advantage of.
Where Murder of Crows really gets bonkers is with the "Crows Trap"
upgrade. Getting enemies to die while having crows on them is not that
hard for most of the game, since while vulnerable they're taking twice as
much damage. So with one well-aimed blast of crows and follow up attack,
you can quickly make it so that you disable an entire battlefield via a
non-stop stream of free Crows traps. The sheer Salt efficiency of this
mayhem cannot be understated. Combo this with burning effects and you can
spread massive mayhem and damage.
Murder of Crows also has the special distinction of being one of two
disabling Vigors that has full effect on Handymen; the other is
Undertow and Murder of Crows is more efficient (costing a little bit less
Salt but lasting potentially much longer thanks to the Crows Boost
upgrade). Automatons are immune to Murder of Crows otherwise.
The one drawback to Murder of Crows is that its range is limited and
the crows as a projectile fly slower than, say, Bucking Bronco or Shock
Jockey.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bucking Bronco !vig,buc-
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,198
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 15
Effect: creates a wave of force that lifts (human) enemies up into the
air, rendering them vulnerable and able to be knocked around. Armored
enemies become easy to hit for full damage.
Duration: ~3 seconds.
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 30
Effect: sets a trap. When triggered, all nearby (human) enemies are
launched into the air. Armored enemies become easy to hit for full
damage.
Duration: ~6 seconds.
Upgrades [changed in Burial at Sea, not yet listed here]
"Bronco Aid"
Cost: $777
Effect: the flotation effect can chain to nearby enemies.
Location: vending machines starting with Finkton Docks.
"Bronco Boost"
Cost: $421
Effect: increases the flotation duration by a significant amount of
time and lifts enemies much higher.
Location: vending machines starting with the Factory.
Combos
Devil's Kiss/burning: Combine a burning target with Bucking Bronco. The
lifted enemy will drop Devil's Kiss grenades.
Charge: Lift someone up with Bucking Bronco and then Charge them. They
will go flying far away, though the main use for this combo is to
propel someone over railings for an instant death.
Anti-Combo
Bucking Bronco and Possession do not mix well; the former will just waste
the duration of the latter.
Moreover, the Bronco Boost upgrade makes the burning combo much, much
worse (see discussion below).
Special Combo
Bucking Bronco and Murder of Crows can both be applied simultaneously to
enemies. This means that a burning effect can and will trigger _both_
Bucking Bronco and Murder of Crows combos at once. (And you can vary the
order, such as Murder of Crows, add burning, then Bucking Bronco.)
Discussion
Bucking Bronco's primary strength is that it's the most Salt-effective
disabling effect for much of the game (in addition to being really cheap to
fully upgrade). Enemies that are launched in the air also move around
depending on how you shoot them. This is a double-edged sword; on the one
hand, if the enemy is spinning around, it becomes hard to land critical
hits; in fact, if you like using critical-hit-friendly weapons like
carbines or hand cannons, you may hate Bucking Bronco. On the other hand,
if the enemy is near a railing, a few solid hits or a single whack with
your sky-hook could be enough to knock them over the edge for an
insta-kill.
Moreover, against armored enemies (who are wearing some kind of helmet)
Murder of Crows and Shock Jockey will stun them and make them vulnerable,
but you still be having to deal with their heavy armor (so you will be
doing twice damage but your base damage will still be very low). With
Bucking Bronco on the other hand, perhaps because of the way they are
twirling in the air, you will easily hit armored enemies for full damage,
making them much easier to dispatch.
However, Bucking Bronco is held back by the fact that it cannot affect
Patriots or Handymen (whereas Shock Jockey and Murder of Crows respectively
do). It _can_ lift enemies who are hiding behind cover, but not ones
hiding behind walls.
Chaining the area of effect is a modest upgrade; even with heavy use
you won't see too much benefit compared to Shock Jockey's chain benefit (in
part this is because Bucking Bronco could already affect more than one
enemy if they were close together). The "Bronco Boost" upgrade is quite
good, however, being very $ efficient and disabling enemies for a very long
time.
The Charge combo is decent if situational. It can be a way to instantly
kill heavy hitters by knocking them completely off the map. However, you
can also do this with Undertow or repeated melee/gun hits, so you have to be
pretty far from the edge to make it work.
The burning combo is quite powerful, especially in narrow areas or
crowded fights. In solo fights, the bonus Devil's Kiss grenades will
explode close enough to hit your lifted target for lots of bonus damage
and extra burning damage over time. In larger fights, you could potentially
chain multiple combos as the secondary grenades light other lifted targets
on fire. However, the Bucking Bronco Boost mod will make the combo _worse_.
The Boost mod will significantly increase the duration you keep enemies
helpless, but it also lifts enemies much higher than before. This actually
means that they are almost completely pushed out of range of the secondary
grenades from the burning combo. Combined with the area of effect of
Bucking Bronco and any chaining, you could be doing very little with the
burning combo because very nearly everyone around will be out of range of
any of those extra grenades. Plus, the extra height means enemies are no
longer in range for you to melee them if you're trying to trigger the combo
with the Burning Halo gear. All this is to say if you're using Bucking
Bronco for its burning combo potential to _stay away_ from the Boost mod.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shock Jockey !vig,sho-
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,840
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 16 [much higher in Burial at Sea]
Effect: shoots out a bolt of electricity. If it hits an enemy, it does
minor damage and stuns them, which makes them vulnerable. If it hits
water (or hits an enemy in water), significant damage is dealt to
everyone touching the water. If it hits a power conduit, a door is
opened (though these doors are only in Hall of Heroes and Soldier's
Field).
Damage: ~25
Special Damage: wet targets with sufficiently low health take an
instantaneous blast of ~1000 damage; otherwise they take ~200 damage
per second for the duration of the stun or wetness (see Combo).
Stun Duration: ~3 seconds.
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 32 [much higher in Burial at Sea]
Effect: launches a crystal, which upon hitting a surface shatters. The
shrapnel grows into several full-size crystals and then every crystal
is connected by arcing electricity. If an enemy touches the
electricity or a crystal, a crystal shatters and they are electrocuted
and stunned. You can also manually destroy a crystal that's been set
near an enemy by firing at it, which will cause an explosion that deals
damage.
Damage: ~50 over the stun duration
Explosion Damage: ~200
Special Damage: wet targets with sufficiently low health take an
instantaneous blast of ~1000 damage; otherwise they take ~200 damage
per second for the duration of the stun or wetness (see Combo).
Stun Duration: ~4 seconds
Upgrades [changed in Burial at Sea, not yet listed here]
"Shock Chain Aid"
Cost: $1,265
Effect: if the electricity hits an enemy, it arcs to nearby targets as
well.
Location: vending machines starting with the Factory.
"Shock Duration Aid"
Cost: $575
Effect: increases the stun duration by a few seconds.
Location: vending machines starting with Downtown Emporia.
Combos
Possession: Combine Possession with electrocution. They will become a
mobile tesla coil, periodically electrocuting (as per Shock Jockey)
every target in range, stunning them and making them vulnerable. In
case it isn't clear, you can affect Patriots, too (a Patriot that is
electrocuting nearby enemies will clear out a room quite quickly).
Murder of Crows: Combine electrocution with Murder of Crows. All the crows
become electrified, dealing an additional ~12 damage/second while the
crows are around. In addition, the stun effect is slightly longer (an
additional second or so).
Undertow: Electrocute a target with Shock Jockey and then hit them with
Undertow. The target takes a significant amount of damage until the
Undertow effect wears off (about 200 damage per second).
Alternatively, use Undertow's alternate effect to bring a foe to you,
then hit them with Shock Jockey for either an immediate electrical
execution (if their health was low enough) or ~200 damage per second.
Special
Remember that electrocuted enemies take 3x melee damage (instead of the
standard 2x from vulnerability).
Discussion
For a while Shock Jockey stands behind Murder of Crows and Bucking Bronco
as a disabling Vigor since it can only affect one target. However, it
possesses a bunch of nice utility and auxiliary uses that helps make it its
own.
For one, Shock Jockey finally provides you a decent answer to
automatons, disabling and rendering them vulnerable for a significant
amount of time.
For two, Shock Jockey becomes ultra-efficient damage if you can hit
someone in water. Not terribly common, but there are a couple of water
spill hazards (either as part of a level or via a Tear) that you can take
advantage of.
For three, Shock Jockey's alternate effect is very different from the
other disabling Vigors, whose alternate effects are basically just slightly
bigger triggered versions of the primary effect. Instead, you basically
are able to do territorial control; each use sets up a way to thwart anyone
who would try to charge you, even if it's the Fireman doing his otherwise
unstoppable suicide dash. In fact, if you like to sit back and snipe away
at enemies, one way to protect yourself from charges and being flanked is
to set up a network of crystals near you. Not only will it halt enemies in
their tracks, but if you have Combat Text enabled you will be alerted by
their presence by a sudden string of numbers appearing on your screen.
For four, Shock Jockey comboes very well (even if I'm not positive on
what Murder of Crows + Shock Jockey does); see the earlier Vigor sections
for more discussion.
"Shock Chain Aid" is almost mandatory if you plan on regularly using
this Vigor. The upgrade takes away its major drawback, its lack of area of
effect (though unlike Murder of Crows or Bucking Bronco you still have to
actually hit an enemy for the effect to chain at all). In fact, with the
upgrade, Shock Jockey's efficiency becomes on par with the super-efficient
Bucking Bronco.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charge !vig,cha-
[This Vigor/Plasmid is completely removed in Burial at Sea.]
Total Upgrade Cost: $2,169
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 25
Effect: instantly launches you at a target, doing impact damage and
briefly disrupting them, making them vulnerable. Not all enemies are
vulnerable to being stunned (notably Handymen are immune).
Damage: 175
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 25
Effect: launches you at a target, doing impact damage and briefly
disrupting them, making them vulnerable. Not all enemies are
vulnerable to being stunned (notably Handymen are immune).
Damage: 350
Upgrades
"Charge Aid"
Cost: $1,614
Effect: upon impact, you become very briefly invulnerable and your
shield immediately starts recharging.
Location: vending machines starting with the Factory.
"Charge Boost"
Cost: $555
Effect: upon impact, you create a small explosion that adds ~100
damage or so.
Location: vending machines starting with Downtown Emporia.
Combos
Devil's Kiss/burning: Charge a burning target. They will expel Devil's
Kiss grenades that explode at close range.
Bucking Bronco: Lift someone up with Bucking Bronco and then Charge them.
They will go flying far away, though the main use for this combo is to
propel someone over the railing for an instant death.
Discussion
Charge's power curve over the course of the game is shaped like the letter
U. Very high power early on, when you can sometimes straight out kill
enemies with a Charge and a follow up attack. Then Charge's power level
drops when Charging becomes suicidal--appearing right next to several
enemies who can all hit you is a surefire way to losing $100. Once you get
at least the Charge Aid upgrade, the power curve climbs up again as now
Charge is both an offensive and survival move.
In fact, even with the "Charge Boost" upgrade and some serious
close-range upgrades (a fully upgraded Heater for example), I would venture
to say that Charge becomes mostly useful as a quick survival/travel Vigor.
Really tough enemies in the end game are enormously resilient, so you
should never truly anticipate being able to dispatch your target. Instead,
use it to give yourself a brief reprieve, recharge your shield, and have a
follow up Vigor ready (even if just to Charge away from the situation
towards a different foe).
Note that a strike using Charge counts as a melee attack, so any and
all equipped gear you have that triggers off melee attacks can also trigger
off a Charge.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Undertow !vig,und-
[This Vigor/Plasmid is completely removed in Burial at Sea.]
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,449
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 31
Effect: shoots a gush of water which knocks enemies back about 20 feet
(~6 meters). Moving your aim very quickly when you trigger the
effect can let you affect enemies in a wider cone than just directly in
front of you. Enemies are briefly vulnerable while they stand up
again, though some enemies are immune to being knocked back.
Damage: incidental damage from hitting obstacles.
Special Damage: Patriots take ~200 damage per second for the stun
duration. Turrets take ~80 damage per second for the stun duration.
Handymen take a reduced amount of damage per second for the stun
duration, but are not stunned.
Stun: 3 seconds; for humanoids this includes the time they are being
launched (i.e. not just the time spent standing up again), for
automatons this is the total time (as they are not launched back).
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 31
Effect: holding the button down creates a watery tentacle that
auto-targets a faraway target. Upon releasing, the tentacle pulls in
the enemy to be right next to you, doing some damage from collision
with the ground and briefly incapacitating them, making them
vulnerable.
Damage: ~50 from impact with the floor
Special Damage: Patriots take ~200 damage per second for the stun
duration. Turrets are immune to the alternate effect. Handymen take a
reduced amount of damage from the impact and are _fully_ stunned
(unlike the primary effect).
Stun: 3 seconds (uniform across vulnerable targets).
Upgrades
"Undertow Aid"
Cost: $306
Effect: lets you grab up to two additional enemies with the alternate
effect; while holding down the "use Vigor" button, sweep your
targetting reticule over the additional targets you want to grab.
Location: vending machines starting with Emporia.
"Undertow Boost"
Cost: $1,143
Effect: doubles the range of both the primary and alternate effects.
Location: vending machines starting with Downtown Emporia.
Combos
Shock Jockey: Electrocute a target with Shock Jockey and then hit them
with Undertow. The target takes a significant amount of damage until
the Undertow effect wears off (about 200 damage per second).
Alternatively, use Undertow's alternate effect to bring a foe to you,
then hit them with Shock Jockey for either an immediate electrical
execution (if their health was low enough) or ~200 damage per second.
Discussion
Previously I considered Undertow to be rather underpowered for 1999 Mode.
Now that I realized through some experimentation that the alternate
effect of Undertow does not cost 62 Salt (as most Vigors' alternate effect
costs twice their primary), I have to say that this is a serviceable Vigor
with several use cases where it can really shine.
The primary effect on its own is quite weak; the disabling effect is
very short against humanoids, especially since for the first part of it you
can't really target them since they're busy being knocked back. Rather,
the primary effect's strength is in fighting Patriots/turrets (which take
significant damage _and_ are stunned/vulnerable for the duration) or
humanoids who are near railings. Even heavy hitters can be instakilled so
long as you blow them off the edge of the map, and even if you aren't near
the edge of the map, a long fall can still do (most of) the work for you.
And while the primary effect + Shock Jockey combo isn't the most efficient
damage in the world one on one (31 + 16 Salts when you consider just 16
Salt + a few bullets can do the same thing), anytime you have a group of
electrocuted enemies the primary effect combo can shine (e.g. Tesla Coils,
Shock Jockey with chain upgrade, an Overkill chain, a Shock Jacket chain,
or even just a group of foes near a fallen Patriot).
The alternate effect can be a bit suicidal if you're not careful. Much
of your 1999 Mode survival depends on evasion and range, not by trying to
do as much damage as possible at point-blank range. So just willy-nilly
pulling in a far away target to close quarters is potentially a way to
screw yourself over, as even a sniper can hit you with the butt of their
gun for significant damage (wiping out your shield and part of your
health). Instead, use the alternate effect as the setup to a more
devastating finisher. Even after you see the tell-tale watery tentacle
that indicates you've hooked an enemy, you can move around so long as you
don't exceed the maximum range. Thus, you can move and turn to face a
railing, release to pull in your foe, and then hit them with the primary
effect to immediately blow them off the map.
Of course, doing this costs 62 Salt (31 to pull + 31 to blast), so it's
not very efficient when you consider an unupgraded Possession will also
effectively insta-kill most humanoids for only 50 Salt (though you can do
this Undertow trick just fine with heavy hitter humanoids, so this is
probably the most efficient way to dispatch Firemen and Crows). In
general, you should seek ways to make the pull combo efficient. For
example, the Undertow Aid upgrade plus a railing will let you instakill
three far-away foes in a more efficient manner than three individual hits
of a fully upgraded Possession (62 Salt versus 75).
You can also try your Undertow-pulling luck with the Shock Jockey
combo. A direct blast from Shock Jockey on a suspended foe will outright
electrocute many foes, and many others will be reduced to within headshot
health. Alternatively, if you setup a Shock Jockey trap in advance, then
you can squeeze a bunch of efficiency out of the whole deal; just keep
Undertow-pulling foes into your Shock Jockey trap. Combined with the
"Overkill" Gear and the Undertow Aid upgrade you can potentially cause
multiple levels of electrocution: one foe will die, trigger an Overkill
effect, which will electrocute all nearby enemies, who will take extra
damage again, which may in turn cause another Overkill to occur, etc. I've
actually managed to bring a Patriot down solely with an Undertow combo that
built up to ~600 damage/second thanks to the initial ~200 damage/second
plus two humanoids who triggered Overkill effects upon death. Moreover, if
you use the "Ghost Posse" Gear, this combo has the nice side effect that
you may be spawning helpful gun allies in the process.
You can also try other Vigor traps or simply a good shot or two from a
close-up weapon. Undertow-pulling a foe or foes onto a trap that would
otherwise not get used (e.g. because there are no more charging foes left,
see str,aiq-) is a good way to make sure your Salt doesn't go to waste.
And repeatedly Undertow-pulling a foe or foes into range of an upgraded
heater, volley gun, shotgun, or hail fire blast can be a satisfying, quick,
and safe way to clear an entire room (especially if you are low on ammo for
your "at range" weapon).
Aside from all this, the alternate effect is also notable because its
stun is 100% effective against Handymen. Moreover, whereas Murder of Crows
causes a Handyman to flail about, batting away at birds, Undertow keeps the
Handyman completely stationary. This makes him a prime target for critical
hits in the heart (and this is also an easy way to get the Heartbreaker
achievement). The stun from Undertow won't last as long as Murder of
Crows', but then again you may get so much more damage out of it as to make
it worth it.
Lastly, the alternate effect is also useful for just taking advantage
of the shape of the battlefield. You can pull Patriots into suicidal or
far-away locations (to minimize their danger). You can also pull myriads
of foes into various map hazards, notably Tesla Coils but also oil slicks.
These are less common a use case than all the others mentioned above, but
when they occur, they can be abusive. Notably, the big fight in Grand
Central Depot can be reduced into a degenerative match of just constantly
pulling all your foes into a Tesla Coil, whereupon they become electrocuted
to death.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return to Sender !vig,ret-
[This Vigor/Plasmid is completely removed in Burial at Sea.]
Total Upgrade Cost: $2,185
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 20
Effect: creates a blue shield, which stops all damage.
Shield Duration: 3 seconds.
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 20
Effect: creates a trap; when triggered, it propels enemies away, dealing
damage and rendering them vulnerable while they stand up.
Damage: 450
Alternate 2 (hold)
Salt Cost: 20 to start, 10 per second
Effect: holding the button down creates an orange shield which holds onto
any incoming bullets. Releasing the button launches the orange shield
(and any absorbed ammunition) as a trap; upon impact or when triggered,
it deals damage and renders nearby targets vulnerable.
Damage: somewhat dependant on absorbed ammunition, at least 450 but I
generally can do at least ~900 after absorbing a few bullets.
Upgrades
"Send for Less"
Cost: $898
Effect: increases blue shield duration to 5 seconds, halves Salt
consumption rate to 5 per second for the second alternate effect.
Location: vending machines starting with Downtown Emporia.
"Sender Aid"
Cost: $1,287
Effect: absorbed ammunition is added directly to your stock (though
see Mechanics #4 below for how this actually works).
Location: vending machines starting with Downtown Emporia.
Combos
None
Mechanics
Like Devil's Kiss, Return to Sender has a few tricky aspects to it that
bear mentioning before moving on to Discussion.
1. When using the primary effect, the blue shield lasts only so long
as you do not switch to another Vigor; switching Vigors causes the
effect to end prematurely.
2. If you accept health, salts, or ammo from Elizabeth while using
either the primary effect or a prolonged use of the alternate
effect, the entire effect will end prematurely (which can be quite
annoying if you had a lot of ammo collected in the orange shield).
3. When you create a trap using either of the alternate effects, the
enemy AI will sometimes treat it as an actual target, firing at it
until it is completely saturated with bullets (the trap continues
to absorb ammo like the orange shield). This has two
ramifications: one, a Return to Sender trap can function as a
minor distraction in mid-fight (though you probably have to be out
of sight for enemies to focus on it instead of you); two, a Return
to Sender trap that doesn't detonate immediately when set (due to
proximity) may reach full power for when it does detonate, doing
well over the average of 450.
4. The Sender Aid upgrade _only_ works if both of the following
conditions are met:
A. You are using the primary effect (blue shield).
B. The weapon you have out is the same weapon as the one being
blocked by the blue shield.
However, when you successfully gain ammunition, you gain more than
you would normally expect: a few absorbed machine gun shots may
result in 30ish additional ammo.
5. The shield stops virtually _all_ sources of damage, even from
sources that cannot be otherwise absorbed (like a Handyman's melee
attack). However, the only exception is fire damage, notably from
a Fireman's Devil's Kiss.
Discussion
A wonderful survival tool. The primary effect can be used to give yourself
brief defense while you hop from cover to cover, or if you need to pop out
and shoot at a sniper without getting shot yourself. It can also be used
to get the heck out of dodge when your Shield breaks. The primary effect
also has an excellent synergy with Urgent Care: without Send For Less, you
have enough time to start regenerating your shield; with Send For Less, you
not only buy yourself enough invulnerability to start regenerating your
shield, you also have time to get 2/3 of your shield back, which is just
bonkers for your survivability.
The first alternate effect isn't terribly great; the vulnerability is
short and the damage minimal (though oddly, still better and more efficient
than a non-fully-upgraded Devil's Kiss), but it can be used to give
yourself quick breathing room in a pinch, either because of the momentary
knockback from the explosion or the distracting effect it provides as
described in Mechanics #3. Interestingly, it does more base damage (and
with greater Salt efficiency) than Devil's Kiss's primary effect, but it
has very tricky aiming (since it's effectively a trap with minimal area of
effect, you have to be on-target or shoot it with a weapon).
The second alternate effect is quite good. In addition to making you
invulnerable to normal shots, you steadily build up a powerful retaliatory
attack. Even with a small amount of caught bullets you can do upwards of
1,000 damage. Unfortunately, enemies tend to be smart and will fire less
at you when you start popping out that orange bubble.
While the Send For Less upgrade is virtually mandatory for anyone who
uses this Vigor, Sender Aid is much more situational. You basically have
to be specializing in a weapon that is commonly used by enemies,
that is absorbable by Return to Sender, and has sufficiently uncommon ammo
or low reserve where you actually would benefit from replenishing your ammo
mid-fight. To that end, I would venture to say that people who like to use
the following weapons would benefit from Sender Aid: machine gun, hand
cannon, repeater, shotgun, heater, and to a certain extent crank gun
(basically limitless offense and defense against Patriots). Other people
should stay away from this upgrade.
In short, you probably don't want this sitting as one of your two main
Vigors all the time, but always be ready to switch out for this at a
moment's notice. Some playstyles will benefit enormously from regular
usage as well as the upgrades, others will be better off with other Vigors.
But for everyone, the boost to your potential survivability from using this
Vigor even situationally is amazing.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Weapons !wea-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Not going to be updated for Burial at Sea.]
As a general rule, you should focus on having one "at range" weapon and one
"close-up" weapon that you upgrade and use to a fair amount. At lower
difficulties you have much more flexibility about what weapons to upgrade and
use, but in 1999 Mode you need to make sure a) you aren't spreading yourself
thin and b) that you will have fully upgraded weapons to use in the game's
final fights.
The "at range" weapon selection is important since this is really the meat of
how you should conduct your fights in 1999 Mode. Enemies can quickly pummel
you to death in close quarters and you won't always have a luxurious amount of
Salts to use on disabling Vigors.
Top tier "at range" weapons: sniper rifle, carbine.
The "close-up" weapon is both a finisher as well as an "oh-shit!" response.
Enemies wielding shotguns and bats will love to charge you, and you need
something with good stopping power to make sure they don't prematurely end your
run. Note that your skyhook does _not_ count as a close-up weapon, since even
a highly inaccurate Heater can still hit enemies without having to get right
next to them.
Top tier "close-up" weapons: hand cannon, repeater.
In the lists below, I use two terms: "spread" and "recoil." They sound similar,
but refer to distinct aspects of a weapon. "Spread" is how far apart the
ammunition scatters every time you fire them out of the weapon. "Recoil" is
how far your weapon moves away from your target after each shot and mainly
impacts zoomed-in aiming. A high spread can be good or bad; for a weapon that
fires its bullets one at a time, you generally want a low spread, while for a
weapon that fires a mass of ammo with one shot (like a Shotgun or Heater) a
high spread is good. A high recoil is always worse than low recoil, though.
In general, a high spread weapon is great for a "close-up" role, while you need
a low spread weapon for ranged fighting. Assume that if I do not explicitly
mention spread or recoil for a weapon that it has low amounts of both.
I provide all Silver Eagle upgrade costs, so you can help plan in advance what
weapons you will be able to afford to specialize in.
I also provide a few metrics to help you to gauge the relative effectiveness of
various weapons:
1. DPS (Normal): the amount of damage you can output per second before
having to reload. This metric only assumes body shots.
2. DPS (Critical): the amount of damage you can output per second before
having to reload. This metric assumes a number of your shots are
critical hits: slow/medium-fire weapons with a 75% critical hit rate
and fast-fire weapons with a 50% critical hit rate rate.
3. Burst Damage Potential: a semi-subjective measure of how much damage
you can output in a very short amount of time. This metric is
presented because DPS alone may not capture weapon effectiveness:
sustained damage is less useful if you pop out of cover, quickly
try to kill someone, and then pop back into cover.
For fast-fire weapons, I assume a perfect critical rate over half a
second (or the closest time duration to fire a whole number of
shots). For slow-fire weapons, I assume one shot with a critical
hit.
You'll note that because of this metric, some weapons look like they
have one performance given their DPS, but another performance
implied given by their burst damage potential. This is
intentional; for example, it doesn't matter that a Heater's
sustained DPS is very low if you can blow up everyone with one
shot.
4. Estimated Total Damage Potential: the total amount of damage you can
output from full clip/reserve to empty. This is a relative measure of
weapon efficiency; a weapon with very low total damage potential means
you may be running low on ammo constantly. To account for certain
weapons having a higher critical damage multipler than others, this
total assumes a 50% critical hit rate.
5. Value (damage per $): how much damage you get for every $ you spend
on ammo at a Dollar Bill (you pay $8 for a standard clip size of ammo).
While Total Damage Potential measures how much you can do in a fight,
Value measures how effectively you can replenish in between fights.
(If you're focused on the non-Dollar Bill achievement, you should ignore
this metric.)
6. Ammo Plentifulness: a subjective analysis of how frequently you can
find ammo for this weapon throughout the game, either as loot or from
enemies. A high Total Damage Potential isn't going to do you any good
if you never find ammo for your gun, in other words. Sometimes this
varies based on where you are in the game, and I'll spell that out.
Weapons that have upgrades that affect any of the above metrics will list
multiple values for each of them.
Final note: unlike the Bullet Boon gear, clip size upgrades for weapons
actually let you carry more ammo. That is because with Bullet Boon, the extra
clip size comes straight out of the reserve (e.g. a repeater would go from 20
clip 60 reserve to 30 clip 50 reserve). However, clip size upgrades directly
increase the clip size without decreasing the reserve (e.g. a repeater with the
clip size upgrades would go from 20 clip 60 reserve to 40 clip 60 reserve).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tables !wea,tab-
Before I dive into the individual weapons, I want to put all the metrics into
perspective, since simply looking at the stats for one weapon at a time may not
give you a good picture of its overall relative effectiveness. Here are
various tables that rank weapons by various metrics (all numbers below use
fully-upgraded assumptions).
Weapons by DPS+ Weapons by DPS for People Who Aim Well+
1. Volley Gun 924 1. Sniper Rifle 1,240
2. Repeater 583.33 2. Hand Cannon 937.5
2. Sniper Rifle 583.33 3. Volley Gun* 924
4. Carbine 500 4. Repeater 875
4. RPG 500 5. Carbine 812.5
6. Machine Gun 400 6. Pistol 562.5
7. Hand Cannon 375 7. Machine Gun 500
8. Shotgun 337.5 8. RPG* 500
9. Pistol 250 9. Shotgun 464.0625
10. Burstgun 220.83 10. Burstgun 288.75
11. Heater ~200 11. Heater 275
+ Both the crank gun and hail fire are excluded from these lists due to their
variability and/or situationality.
* Neither the volley gun nor RPG can critically hit so normal DPS numbers are
used here.
Weapons by Burst Potential+ Weapons by Total Potential+
1. Hail Fire 1,386 1. Pistol 20,250
2. Heater 1,200 2. Carbine 18,687.5
3. Hand Cannon 900 3. Volley Gun 18,480
4. Sniper Rifle 875 4. Hail Fire 15,246
5. RPG 750 5. Sniper Rifle 14,700
6. Shotgun 675 6. Hand Cannon 14,400
7. Repeater 600 7. Repeater 13,500
8. Carbine 562.5 7. Shotgun 13,500
9. Burstgun 550 9. Burstgun 10,500
10. Pistol 525 10. Machine Gun 8,750
11. Volley Gun 462 11. Heater 9,000
12. Machine Gun 300 12. RPG 8,250
+ Crank gun is excluded due to its rarity/situationality.
Weapons by Overall Value
A combination of total potential, value (damage per $ at a Dollar Bill), and
my perception from multiple playthroughs of how common the ammunition is
in-game. I add notes on what causes their shift up or down in ranking from
the "Weapons by Total Potential" table.
1. Machine Gun (+9: extremely common ammo)
2. Pistol (-1: poor Dollar Bill value even if common ammo)
3. Volley Gun
4. Carbine (-2: uncommon ammo in start and end of game)
5. Shotgun (+2: common ammo)
6. Hand Cannon
7. Sniper Rifle (-2: uncommon ammo)
8. Repeater+ (-1: inconsistently un/common ammo)
9. Burstgun
10. RPG (+2: better value and ammo prevalence than #11/12)
11. Heater (-1: poor Dollar Bill value)
12. Hail Fire (-8: extremely rare ammo)
+ Repeater is a gun that definitely benefits from using Sender Aid. If you plan
on deploying this Vigor and Vigor upgrade, bump it up into a tie with Sniper
Rifle.
Overall Weapon Effectiveness+* ...excluding explosive weapons
1. Sniper Rifle 1. Sniper Rifle
2. Hand Cannon 2. Hand Cannon
3. Carbine 3. Carbine
4. Repeater 4. Repeater
4. Volley Gun 5. Shotgun
6. Shotgun 6. Pistol
7. RPG 7. Heater
8. Pistol 8. Machine Gun
9. Heater 9. Burstgun
10. Hail Fire
10. Machine Gun
12. Burstgun
...only "at range" weapons` ...only "close up" weapons`
1. Sniper Rifle 1. Hand Cannon
2. Carbine 2. Repeater
3. Repeater (w/Recoil Mod) 3. Shotgun
4. Pistol 4. Heater
5. Machine Gun (w/Accuracy Mod) 5. Machine Gun
6. Burstgun
+ Crank gun is excluded due to its rarity/situationality.
* Calculated by adding up the ranks for each weapon on the DPS, DPS who aim
well, burst damage, and overall value tables, with burst damage weighted 1.5x
and the DPS tables weighted at half. Lower scores are better. Hail fire was
given a score of 12 (worst) for the two categories it was not listed.
` Categories determined by spread/recoil/presence of scope.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pistols/Machine Guns !wea,pis-
These are weapons characterized by a high rate of fire.
Pistol
Damage: ~50
...on critical hit does x3.5
Clip: 12 Reserve: 108
Fire Rate: 400 rpm Reload Speed: Fast
DPS (Normal): 333.33 (realistically 250)*
DPS (Critical): 749.25 (562.5)* (50% critical hits)
Burst Damage Potential: 525
Est. Total Potential: 13,500 or 20,250 w/upgrades
Value (damage per $): 75-168.75 (0-50% critical hits)
Ammo Plentifulness: high
* It is _very_ unlikely that you will be to physically press your fire
button at 400 times per minute; really you will be closer to 300 times per
minute, so the "realistic" numbers will be closer to your in-game
performance.
Damage Boost 1: $199, +25% damage.
[Golden]: free, +35% damage.
Damage Boost 2: $199, +25% damage.
Ammo Increase: $404, +50% reserve size (to 162).
Clip Increase: $275, +50% clip size (to 18).
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,077
Discussion: the pistol is the first non-melee weapon in the game and for
most players the experience is that of it becoming quickly obsoleted by
the machine gun and every other future weapon. Though interestingly,
given its high fire rate, quick reload time, good accuracy, and high
critical hit bonus, the damage per second output of a pistol can easily
match or beat later and ostensibly better weapons in the game, with
more common ammo to boot (I can personally attest to the successful
viability of using a pistol as your main weapon for 1999 Mode).
However, if you don't have good aiming for criticals, it could take
you two clips just to clear out one enemy in the later stages of the
games. 1999 Mode isn't a great place to be messing around, so don't
waste money here unless you are _very_ confident in your shooting
skills.
Machine Gun
Damage: ~40
...on critical hit does x1.5
...moderate spread
Clip: 35 Reserve: 105
Fire Rate: 600 rpm Reload Speed: Fast
DPS (Normal): 400
DPS (Critical): 500 (50% critical hits)
Burst Damage Potential: 300
Est. Total Potential: 7,000 or 8,750 w/upgrades
Value (damage per $): 175-218.75 (0-50% critical hits)
Ammo Plentifulness: very high until late-game, medium afterwards
Damage Boost 1: $236, +25% damage.
[Golden]: free, +35% damage.
Damage Boost 2: $236, +25% damage.
Accuracy Increase: $512, -75% spread.
Clip Increase: $391, +100% clip size (to 70).
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,375
Discussion: also available rather early on and isn't that great. It fires
faster than a pistol, so it effectively does more damage than a pistol,
but its low accuracy and low critical hit bonus mean that it's
ill-suited for distance attacks or consistently landing criticals. As
a result, you may actually do worse with this weapon than with a
straight-up pistol. Also note that for having such a high fire
rate and low damage, the machine gun does not have a large reserve,
which means that later in the game you could easily empty out your
entire ammo supply just to kill one enemy, though ammo is relatively
plentiful since virtually every Founder fight involves machine guns.
Note that the Accuracy Increase upgrade is quite strong of a bonus;
it essentially eliminates one of the Machine Gun's weakpoints and makes
it capable for moderate to long-range shooting (provided you can handle
squinting at your screen since the iron sights zoom on this weapon
isn't very strong).
Hand Cannon
Damage: ~300
...on critical hit does x3
...moderate recoil
Clip: 6 Reserve: 18
Fire Rate: 75 rpm Reload Speed: Moderate
DPS (Normal): 375
DPS (Critical): 937.5 (75% critical hits)
Burst Damage Potential: 900
Est. Total Potential: 14,400
Value (damage per $): 225-562.5 (0-75% critical hits)
Ammo Plentifulness: medium
Damage Boost 1: $448, +25% damage.
Damage Boost 2: $448, +25% damage.
Reload Increase: $656, -50% reload time.
Recoil Decrease: $350, -20% recoil.
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,902
Discussion: basically a pistol's take on the shotgun. Roughly similar
damage profiles, great close-up stopping power. The shotgun does a bit
more damage and has a spread, but the hand cannon is faster to reload,
has much better accuracy, and a whopping 3x critical hit multiplier,
making consistent criticals possible and lethal. In a pinch, you can
also use the hand cannon to snipe moderately distanced enemies.
Repeater
Damage: ~100
...on critical hit does x2
...moderate spread
...moderate recoil
Clip: 20 Reserve: 60
Fire Rate: 350 rpm Reload Speed: Moderate
DPS (Normal): 583.33
DPS (Critical): 875 (50% critical hits)
Burst Damage Potential: 600
Est. Total Potential: 9,000 or 13,500 w/upgrades
Value (damage per $): 250-375 (0-50% critical hits)
Ammo Plentifulness: low against Founders, medium against Vox
Damage Boost 1: installed by default, +25% damage.
Damage Boost 2: $423, +25% damage.
Recoil Decrease: $822, -50% recoil.
Clip Increase: $449, +100% clip size (to 40).
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,694
Discussion: much better than the machine gun (the repeater is effectively
a Vox-modified machine gun, hence the default damage boost mod). Very
high damage rate, reasonably easy to critical with, though you will
still need some Vigor usage to weaken tougher enemies in order to make
the damage per total carry ammo ratio a bit more efficient. The only
downside to this weapon is that it has such a low reserve that you
basically are only able to use this in prolonged fashion when actually
fighting Vox (who tend to drop this in spades).
The volatility of how common Repeater ammo is makes this a prime
candidate for benefiting from Sender Aid. Put up a blue shield when
fighting Vox in the mid-late stages of the game while using your
repeater and you may find yourself finishing the fight with more ammo
than when you entered it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rifles/Shotguns !wea,rif-
Rifles are great for distance shots, while shotguns are high-impact close up
area of effect damage.
Shotgun
Damage: ~450
...on critical hit does x1.5
...high spread
...high recoil
Clip: 4 Reserve: 20
Fire Rate: 45 rpm Reload Speed: Slow
DPS (Normal): 337.5
DPS (Critical): 464.0625 (25% critical hits)
Burst Damage Potential: 675
Est. Total Potential: 13,500
Value (damage per $): 225-253.125 (0-25% critical hits)
Ammo Plentifulness: high
Damage Boost 1: $255, +25% damage.
Damage Boost 2: $255, +25% damage.
Reload Increase: $462, -50% reload time.
Spread Increase: $360, +20% spread.
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,332
Discussion: from the moment you get this until the end of the game, the
shotgun is an able performer. Good hits, frequently able to hit more
than one enemy at a time, and literal stopping power (pretty much every
shot is guaranteed to cause a stagger). To balance this out, it is
very difficult to land a critical on anyone with a small weak spot
(human enemies's heads or the Handyman's heart), each shell has to be
loaded individually during a reload, and the clip size is very low. In
fact, this means that you might see a better overall damage rate
increase if you go for the reload upgrade first versus the actual
damage boosts.
Carbine
Damage: ~125
...on critical hit does x2.25
...moderate recoil
Clip: 8 Reserve: 80
Fire Rate: 240 rpm Reload Speed: Moderate
DPS (Normal): 500
DPS (Critical): 812.5 (50% critical hits)
Burst Damage Potential: 562.5
Est. Total Potential: 17,875 or 18,687.5 w/upgrades
Value (damage per $): 125-203.125 (0-50% critical hits)
Ammo Plentifulness: medium mid-game, low early and late
Damage Boost 1: $375, +25% damage.
Damage Boost 2: $375, +25% damage.
Clip Increase: $484, +50% clip size (to 12).
Recoil Decrease: $360, -60% recoil.
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,594
Discussion: basically a cross between a pistol and sniper rifle. As such,
it is much better than a sniper rifle at hip shooting and much better
than a pistol at distance combat. Ammo is relatively plentiful, so for
a versatile weapon you can't go terribly wrong with specializing in a
carbine.
Sniper Rifle
Damage: ~350
...on critical hit does x2.5
...very high recoil
Clip: 4 Reserve: 20
Fire Rate: 50 rpm Reload Speed: Slow
DPS (Normal): 291.66 or 583.33 w/upgrades
DPS (Critical): 620 or 1,240 (75% criticals)
Burst Damage Potential: 875
Est. Total Potential: 14,700
Value (damage per $): 175-371.875 (0-75% critical hits)
Ammo Plentifulness: low
Damage Boost 1: $349, +25% damage.
Damage Boost 2: $349, +25% damage.
RoF Increase: $654, +100% fire rate.
Recoil Decrease: $288, -50% recoil.
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,640
Discussion: if you like killing things from across the battlefield, this
is your pick. The zoom-in for this weapon is the best in the game and
will make it almost trivial to critical enemies from far away, which
more than doubles this weapon's damage rate. Above all other weapons,
I recommend that you seriously consider this as one of your 1999 Mode
specialties, as the ability to slay your foes without ever exposing
yourself to any real danger is an incredible boon for your survival.
As a side note, the fire rate increase upgrade almost makes the
sniper rifle on par with a shotgun or hand cannon for hip shooting
enemies (though ammo for a sniper rifle is suitably rare that you
should only do this in emergencies).
Heater
Damage: ~800
...on critical hit does x1.5
...very high spread
...very high recoil
...catches enemies on fire
Clip: 1 Reserve: 8
Fire Rate: 35 rpm Reload Speed: Very Slow
DPS (Normal): roughly 200, up to 466.66*
DPS (Critical): 275 up to 642* (75% critical hits)
Burst Damage Potential: 1,200
Est. Total Potential: 9,000
Value (damage per $): 100-137.5 (0-75% critical hits)
Ammo Plentifulness: low
* Because the reload speed is very slow, this DPS is only attained with the
help of Bullet Boon.
Damage Boost 1: Installed by default, +25% damage.
Damage Boost 2: $554, +25% damage.
Spread Increase: $467, +20% spread.
Reload Increase: $757, -50% reload time.
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,778
Discussion: if you hit an enemy even moderately on-target with this
weapon, they are going to almost assuredly die. Even heavy hitters
will succumb rather quickly if you made them vulnerable beforehand.
However, this weapon is _slow_. Even if you use the Bullet Boon shirt
to increase the clip size to 2, you'll realize that half of the slow
reload time is actually just the weapon's incredibly slow rate of fire:
you are literally waiting for the weapon to cool down. Coupled with
the rarity of the ammo, you have to make each shot count. Great for a
show-stopping close-up weapon, but not very reliable.
Special: the "catch on fire" effect functions somewhat like a Devil's
Kiss, which means you can combo this weapon much like Devil's Kiss
(with Bucking Bronco or Charge). It also benefits from Storm.
Burstgun
Damage: ~50
...on critical hit does x2.25
...moderate spread
...moderate recoil
Clip: 30 Reserve: 120
Fire Rate: 265 rpm Reload Speed: Moderate
DPS (Normal): 220.83
DPS (Critical): 288.75 (25% critical hits)
Burst Damage Potential: 550*
Est. Total Potential: 12,187.5 or 17,062.5 w/upgrades
Value (damage per $): 187.5-246 (0-25% critical hits)
Ammo Plentifulness: low, medium late game
* Because this gun fires in bursts and is inaccurate, this assumes that
one out of every burst of three shots will not critical hit.
Damage Boost 1: $423, +25% damage.
Damage Boost 2: $423, +25% damage.
Recoil Decrease: $822, -50% recoil.
Ammo Increase: $672, +50% reserve.
Total Upgrade Cost: $2,340
Discussion: basically a carbine that shoots in bursts of three instead of
one at a time. This has the side effect of making it overall less
accurate than a carbine (and makes the recoil a necessary upgrade), but
this is still a rather versatile weapon, functioning for normal combat
purposes like a machine gun while still having the ability to snipe
(complete with a sniper-rifle-style scope).
Unfortunately, while the scope of this weapon is better than the
normal carbine, the base accuracy is much, much worse, so this is
better suited for moderate distances, not long.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Explosives !wea,exp-
High-impact weapons that have no finesse (and thus no critical hit bonus).
Note that for all these weapons, your DPS/Burst Damage/Total Damage potentially
will be higher if you can hit more than one target per shot. However, this is
somewhat counter-balanced by the fact that targets not hit directly will take a
significantly reduced amount of damage, so your performance may not diverge
significantly from the listed numbers. However, this may be a different case
with Gear/Upgrades that improve area of effect.
RPG
Damage: ~750
...high recoil
Clip: 2 Reserve: 8
Fire Rate: 40 rpm Reload Speed: Very Slow
DPS (Normal): 500
Burst Damage Potential: 750
Est. Total Potential: 7,500 or 8,250 w/upgrades
Value (damage per $): 187.5
Ammo Plentifulness: low
Damage Boost 1: $385, +25% damage.
Damage Boost 2: $385, +25% damage.
Clip Increase: $816, +50% clip size (to 3).
RPG Speed Increase: $333, +100% projectile speed.
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,919
Discussion: able to clear out enemies with abandon. The major downsides
are that enemies closer to the edge of the effect will take--at
best--minor damage and the rocket itself moves slowly enough that you
have to significantly lead your targets. The projectile speed upgrade
will mitigate this to a slight degree, but the point still stands that
the RPG occupies a weird spot where it can't be used at distance, but
neither can it be used in close range (unless you like blowing yourself
up). However, the RPG is still worth a consideration for
specialization, as many hard fights feature an RPG that you can readily
use (whether strewn somewhere or via a tear), so being able to maximize
this free gift every time it shows up can be worth it.
Special: while the RPG does not really catch enemies on fire like a
Heater (though it will ignite oil slicks), the RPG nonetheless benefits
from Storm, so enemies that die from an RPG shot will propagate a
Devil's Kiss effect.
Volley Gun
Damage: ~112 from shell, ~300 from explosion
Clip: 8 Reserve: 24
Fire Rate: 120 rpm Reload Speed: Slow
DPS (Normal): 924
Burst Damage Potential: 462
Est. Total Potential: 14,784 or 18,480 w/upgrades
Value (damage per $): 412
Ammo Plentifulness: low
Damage Boost 1: $522, +25% damage.
Damage Boost 2: $522, +25% damage.
Radius Increase: $536, +50% explosion radius.
Clip Increase: $740, +100% clip size (to 16).
Total Upgrade Cost: $2,320
Discussion: high rate of fire coupled with a tricky parabolic trajectory
that, once you get the hang of, can be used to circumvent enemy cover.
Unfortunately, a significant amount of the damage comes from the shell
itself, and it's rather hard to actually hit someone with that.
Moreover, there is a steep drop off in the area of effect damage, so
even with upgrades you may find yourself hitting foes for around 100
damage or so. However, unlike the RPG you barely have to worry about
hitting yourself with the explosion, and the relatively high rate of
fire and reload time means that the volley gun works really well for
taking advantage of large groups of disabled enemies. Plus, like the
RPG, many hard fights feature a volley gun you can bring in via a tear.
One perk that doesn't show up on paper is that each shot of a
volley gun staggers enemies in its explosion; while this is true of the
RPG as well, the volley gun has a sufficiently large clip size and fast
reload/fire rate as to be capable of stunlocking virtually any enemy.
Hail Fire
Damage: ~112 from shell, ~350 from explosion
...if you delay the detonation of the shell (by holding down the attack
button) but still hit someone with the shell, you will still do the
base ~112 damage
Clip: 5 Reserve: 25
Fire Rate: 545 rpm* Reload Speed: Slow
DPS (Normal): very low to 4,196.5 (realistically 2,310)**
Burst Damage Potential: 462 to 2,312.5 (1,386)**
Est. Total Potential: 13,860 or 15,246 w/upgrades
Value (damage per $): 288.75
Ammo Plentifulness: very low
* Theoretically this weapon has a fast fire rate, but if you take advantage
of the tricky firing mechanism (holding down the attack button to launch
and then releasing to manually detonate the projectile) the effective fire
rate is much, much slower.
** It is _very_ unlikely that you will be to physically press your fire
button at 525 times per minute; really you will be closer to 300 times per
minute, so the "realistic" numbers will be closer to your in-game
performance.
Damage Boost 1: Installed by default, +25% damage.
Damage Boost 2: $688, +25% damage.
Radius Increase: $415, +100% explosion radius.
Clip Increase: $399, +50% clip size (to 8).
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,502
Discussion: honestly, most of you should give this weapon a pass in 1999
Mode. The firing mechanism is tricky but not damaging enough to
warrant mastering. Ammunition is quite uncommon, so you either have to
plow precious $ into stocking up at a Dollar Bill (which is a no-go if
you're going for the Scavenger Hunt achievement) or have to live with
the fact that you're plowing lots of money into specializing in a
weapon that you'll hardly ever use. This is made worse by the fact
that there are very few actual hail fire weapons in the game (less than
five, if even that), so if you switch out your hail fire for something
else, you probably won't find another hail fire to use for quite a long
time (if ever).
On the plus side, if you have a target that is relatively
stationary--so you don't care about having to do a trick shot with
manual detonations--then the sheer damage output of the hail fire
cannot be matched by any other weapon in the game: the hail fire will
spit out explosive shells basically as fast as you can mash your fire
button. You will drop Patriots and even Handymen with surprising
speed.
Like the volley gun, one perk that doesn't show up on paper is that
each shot of a hail fire staggers enemies in its explosion; while this
is true of the RPG as well, the hail fire has a sufficiently large clip
size, fast reload, and potentially fast fire rate as to be capable of
stunlocking virtually any enemy.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special !wea,spe-
Skyhook
Damage: ~112
Fire Rate: Moderate
Discussion: there are plenty of Gear that specifically enhances this melee
weapon, but for the most part the damage output is so low and enemies
so hazardous that if you ever are in a situation where you have to
seriously melee, you should either go ahead and restart from the last
checkpoint or just get it over with and die.
Crank Gun
Damage: ~50
...on critical hit does x1.5
...moderate spread
...no zoom
Clip: 100 Reserve: 100
Fire Rate: 1500 rpm Reload Speed: Very Slow
DPS (Normal): 1,300
DPS (Critical): 1,625 (50% critical hits)
Burst Damage Potential: 812.5
Est. Total Potential: 12,500
Ammo Plentifulness: very low
Discussion: the crank gun is really good early on, but quickly becomes
more and more of a novelty. You can't upgrade it, there's no
consistent source for ammo, and in addition to a wind-up time, your
movement speed slows down dramatically while firing away. This is
pretty much a recipe for death in later fights.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Gear !gea-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note that Gear is semi-randomized (not in Burial at Sea). While the locations
are set in stone, when you activate a piece of Gear you get a semi-random
result. As such, if you reload the game from your last checkpoint, you may get
completely different Gear. There are a few places where aggressively reloading
may be a worthwhile pursuit, to try and get some of the better Gear:
1. Right after you take the elevator up in the Fraternal Order of the
Raven, there is a piece of Gear behind a bookshelf. The checkpoint is
right after the elevator, so it's a quick jog.
2. Right before you enter the Arcade in Battleship Bay (when Elizabeth
tosses you your first batch of $), there are two Gears, one in a closet
and one in a hallway or in the arcade proper (based on what you did at
the Raffle). The checkpoint is right before Elizabeth tosses you the
$, so it's a very quick jog.
3. Right when you wake up at Finkton Docks, you can run across the first
area to an "Employees Only" shed where a Gear is sitting next to a
desk; the checkpoint is rigth when you wake up. Do note that entering
the "Employees Only" shed will trigger a fight, so if you get some good
Gear, don't end up dying shortly afterwards (as you'll either lose
money or be forced to reload and probably not get the same Gear again).
Some Gear are not randomized and are always in the same location. Those Gear
are (in chronological order):
Burning Halo (right after killing your first Crow)
Spare the Rod (room right before you see Fitzroy and Fink's showdown,
behind a vending machine)
Spectral Sidekick (in the Bank)
Health for Salts (in the Asylum)
Rising Bloodlust (in the Asylum after you open the main door)
In addition, if you have the Collector's/Season Pass upgrade, early in the game
you are guaranteed to get the following four gears:
Electric Punch (hat; like Electric Touch but 70% chance and vulnerable for
four seconds)
Ammo Advantage (shirt; like Bullet Boon but 75% clip size increase)
Eagle Strike (shoes; like Death from Above but 50% damage)
Ghost Soldier (pants; like Ghost Posse but 70% chance)
Also note that while there are 41 Gear (though see footnote*), of the 36 that
are randomized, they can only spawn in 25 locations (though see foonote**).
That means that you will never see all the Gear in one game. In fact, you
could get extremely unlucky and miss out on all the top tier and better middle
tier Gear, which could hurt your 1999 Mode run. This might be an argument in
favor of reloading at a checkpoint, though I can personally attest that 1999
Mode is perfectly possible with even the stupidest bad luck in Gear selection.
Note that there's nothing stopping you from changing out your gear mid-fight.
A lot of Gear is situation-dependent, so to maximize your 1999 Mode success, be
ready to switch out your Gear at a moment's notice. Like Vigors, a lot of Gear
is well-balanced enough that even if I tier a piece of equipment as "Bottom
Tier," it may still have situations where it will shine (though unlike Vigors,
there are definitely a few that are unabashedly bad).
Just as a reminder - all damage numbers here are showing the 1999 Mode
versions, which differ from the stated numbers in-game.
Footnote *: With early bird and various collector's edition stuff, the total
Gear count can go up to 53. Ironically, because you can still get the gear
that the Collector's/Season Pass versions are upgrades of, you actually make the
average gear find _worse_. This is because of the 36 randomized gear, four are
now completely worthless because you have strictly better versions already.
Footnote **: There is a particularly nasty bug regarding Handymen; at the end
of virtually every Handyman conflict a piece of Gear flies off the Handyman
corpse. However, sometimes this process glitches out and _no_ Gear appears,
leaving only a Handyman corpse to loot. This is a particularly nasty bug and
the only way around it is to restart from the last checkpoint and re-fight the
Handyman until he actually drops the Gear.
Burial at Sea Note: As mentioned earlier, unlike in the core game Gear is
completely nonrandom (i.e. fixed locations), so there's no chance that you'll
miss out on any given piece of equipment. There's a total of ten, and if
you're judicious about your exploration you'll find them in roughly this order:
1. Filthy Leech (pants)
2. Evil Eye (hat)
3. Ticket Puncher (hat)
4. Magic Bullet (shirt)
5. High and Mighty (boots)
6. Better Mousetrap (shirt)
7. Death Benefit (pants)
8. Quick-Handed (pants)
9. Surprise Element (hat)
10. Roar to Life (shirt)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hats !gea,hat-
Top Tier: Evil Eye [BaS], Hill Runner's Hat, Sheltered Life
Middle Tier: Ammo Cap, Electric Touch, Spare the Rod, Rising Bloodlust,
Storm, Surprise Element [BaS]
Bottom Tier: Burning Halo, Gear Head, Quick Handed, Throttle Control, Ticket
Puncher [BaS]
Ammo Cap
Tier: Middle
Effect: 40% chance that you instantly reload when you run out of ammo.
Discussion: while using this Hat, don't play sub-optimally and stop
reloading until you run out of ammo, that's a recipe for disaster.
Instead, what this Hat does is in frantic situations (or for
low-clip-size and slow-reload weapons) give you a quick boost in
emergency power.
Burning Halo
Tier: Bottom
Effect: 70% chance that a melee target will take 150* damage over 4
seconds.
Discussion: modestly useful early in the game, but relying on melee to
kill your foes is a recipe for death in 1999 Mode. However, Burning
Halo is a salt-free way to trigger burning combos, so can fill a niche
case especially with Deadly Lungers for the extra melee range.
Remember that Charge can trigger Burning Halo. In fact, Charge can
self-combo with Burning Halo; the burning effect triggers in the correct
time frame for Charge to register a combo and drop Devil's Kiss
grenades.
(* takes into account 1999 Mode penalty.)
Electric Touch
Tier: Middle
Effect: 50% chance that a melee target is electrocuted and vulnerable for
3 seconds.
Discussion: if you're in a dire situation (someone has ambushed you from
behind), then two quick taps to stun them (on average) could be the
difference between a death/reload or surviving to the next checkpoint.
Note that since this is electrocution, this will also combo with
wet foes (Undertow or otherwise) and do ~200 damage per second (less
for automatons).
Remember that Charge can trigger Electric Touch.
Remember that electrocuted enemies take 3x melee damage.
Electric Punch [only from Collector's/Season Pass extras]
Effect: 70% chance that a melee target is electrocuted and vulnerable for
4 seconds.
See Electric Touch.
Evil Eye [only in Burial at Sea]
Tier: Top
Effect: Weapon damage increases while looking down the sights and after
each successive kill (up to five).
Discussion: In effect this combines the better part of the Tunnel Vision
boots (25% damage bonus while looking down sights but no damage penalty
when not) as well as the Bloodlust hat. Needless to say, very very
good Gear with the side effect of making your ammo more efficient (a
must in the more resource-starved world of Rapture.)
Gear Head
Tier: Bottom
Effect: makes you harder to detect by automatons, zeppelins, and Patriots.
Discussion: _very_ situational. Makes it easier to shoot Patriots in the
back, and makes it easier to shoot away at turrets, though eventually
Shock Jockey makes both of these easier anyway. Can be very handy
when up against multiples of either, however, and especially against
multiples of the "barrage" automaton found on zeppelins or in front of
the Shantytown PD.
Hill Runner's Hat
Tier: Top
Effect: when your shield breaks, your movement speed is 50% faster for 5
seconds.
Discussion: when your shield breaks is precisely the moment when you need
to get the heck out of there, and a 50% movement speed boost is
_significant_. My life has been saved innumerable times because of
this Hat.
Quick Handed
Tier: Bottom
Effect: decreases weapon reload speed times by 30%.
Discussion: it's not a _bad_ Hat, it's just not that great of an effect,
especially since for some slow weapons the crux of why they are slow is
independent from their reload times (like an RPG's crank or a Heater's
literal cool down time).
Rising Bloodlust
Tier: Middle
Effect: every enemy you kill within a span of 10 seconds (up to five) will
increase your damage.
Discussion: an otherwise solid hat, but as I've mentioned before, evasion
and survivability are tantamount in 1999 Mode and this Hat encourages
the wrong kind of behavior.
Sheltered Life
Tier: Top
Effect: every time you eat a snack or use a health kit, you gain brief
invulnerability.
Discussion: to maximize this effect, you need to adjust your playstyle
instead of ravenously devouring everything you see; keep a mental map
of where goods are stashed and be sure to immediately loot fallen foes
(they may have Chips or something on them).
Spare the Rod
Tier: Middle
Effect: 30% chance that a melee target is possessed.
Discussion: the effect is great and, like Electric Touch, gives you an
oh-shit-I'm-about-to-die button you can quickly tap. Unfortunately,
30% is a very low chance, which keeps this from being top tier.
Remember that Charge can trigger Spare the Rod.
Storm
Tier: Middle
Effect: when an enemy dies while under the effect of Devil's Kiss, Shock
Jockey, or Bucking Bronco, the effect chains to nearby enemies.
Discussion: Basically, when an enemy dies, they explode in a wide, colored
explosion that spreads the normal effects of whichever of the three
vigors they were affected by in a moderate radius.
Note that for Devil's Kiss, Storm functions like one gigantic
Devil's Kiss explosion instead of a true "chain" effect. So in
addition to not causing many smaller grenades to drop off affected
enemies (as would be expected if you upgraded with Devil's Kiss Mod),
damage drops off the further away an enemy is from the initial Storm
explosion, which can mean potentially piddling amounts of chained
damage.
Most useful in prolonged fights against packs of enemies, as
otherwise the enemies aren't close enough or numerous enough to be
mutually affected by other death-explosions. Note that an amazing
combo is to prep an enemy with Bucking Bronco or Shock Jockey, then
follow up with Devil's Kiss and perhaps a few shots. Upon death, the
enemy will propagate *both* the disabling Vigor and the Devil's Kiss
effect, potentially causing a mass chain effect, especially if you keep
shooting at the newly affected enemies to ensure they die before the
effects wear off.
Note that weapons that have a fire-type effect (namely the Heater
and the RPG) will also benefit from Storm: if an enemy dies from a
shot, they will propagate a Devil's Kiss effect.
In short, for playstyles that can take advantage of it, Storm is
almost abusively good. For other playstyles, it is almost literally
useless. Situationally fantastic, but a bit too situational to be top
tier.
Surprise Element [only in Burial at Sea]
Tier: Middle
Effect: bullets have a 50% chance to do fire, electric, or ice damage.
Discussion: most effective for a heavy Plasmid user who doesn't plan
on using the radar range. Why a Plasmid user? Because on its own the
elemental damage doesn't do much (except potentially doing a minor stun
effect); this hat's value comes from triggering free Devil's Kiss or
Shock Jockey-style combos with either the appropriate Plasmid (Bucking
Bronco or Possession) or environmental effects (oil or water). Because
the radar range does not shoot bullets, it does not trigger this Gear.
Throttle Control
Tier: Bottom
Effect: better braking and throttling on skylines.
Discussion: gweh? The only Gear I really see no point for.
Ticket Puncher [only in Burial at Sea]
Tier: Bottom
Effect: melee attacks have 3x range and do 2x damage but also cause you to
lose 20% of your shield with each swipe.
Discussion: combines Deadly Lungers with a pretty powerful melee damage
boost, but then cancels that all out by having a terrible downside.
This could be a vaguely plausible hat for someone on a lower difficulty
who puts all their Infusions into Health, but as it stands in 1999 Mode
this is needlessly suicidal.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shirts !gea,shi-
AMAZING Tier: Winter Shield
Top Tier: Better Mousetrap [BaS], Blood to Salt
Middle Tier: Bullet Boon, Coat of Harms, Drop Cloth, Magic Bullet [BaS], Nitro
Vest, Roar to Life [BaS], Scavenger's Vest, Shock Jacket
Bottom Tier: Executioner, Pyromaniac, Sky-Line Accuracy
Ammo Advantage [only from Collector's/Season Pass extras]
Effect: increases clip size for weapons by 75%.
See Bullet Boon.
Better Mousetrap [only in Burial at Sea]
Tier: Top
Effect: traps have a greater effect (25% more) while costing less (25%
less, i.e. only 1.5x normal Eve use instead of 2x).
Discussion: this effect gives you such an efficiency boost for your Eve
that virtually anyone who moderately uses Plasmids in Burial at Sea
should keep this on.
Blood to Salt
Tier: Top
Effect: slain enemies have a 40% chance of instantly restoring 50 Salt.
Discussion: absolutely bonkers for anyone who uses Vigors with any
regularity. A 40% chance may not seem like a lot, but the difference
is being flush with Salt and spamming Vigors or scrambling around with
a "Low on Salt!" notice before the fight is even half done.
Bullet Boon
Tier: Middle
Effect: increases clip size for weapons by 50%.
Discussion: most noticable for weapons like the Heater (which rounds up to
having a clip size of 2) that are both slow to reload and have tiny
clip sizes. Combined with an Ammo Cap hat, your ability to mete out
punishment will increase dramatically. Interestingly, shotguns don't
get as much of a benefit out of this since each extra shell has to be
reloaded on its own, so you get an increased clip size but also an
increased reload time.
Coat of Harms
Tier: Middle
Effect: enemies are easier to execute.
Discussion: an enemy you manage to execute is one that doesn't use up
precious ammo/Salts, plus you're invulnerable while the cutscene is
taking place. Synergizes with Kill to Live, which rewards executions.
Drop Cloth
Tier: Middle
Effect: when you dismount from a sky-line, your movement speed is
increased by 50%.
Discussion: can be situationally useful for sprawling fights or if you
need to put distance between yourself and a Handyman. In general
though, simply the act of dismounting will be enough to put space
between your enemies and yourself; you don't need the extra help.
Executioner
Tier: Bottom
Effect: a 60% chance to critically hit vulnerable enemies. 25% increased
damage.
Discussion: while this effectively makes melee-ing a bit more attractive,
you still don't want to be in a situation where you have to rely on
meleeing. For comparison, against an armored non-heavy-hitter in
Comstock House, taking him down took repeated Shock Jockeys and more
than a clip of fully-upgraded Shotgun blasts (each doing roughly 1000
damage). Do you really think that a slight damage boost and a critical
hit chance is going to go over well against such resilient enemies?
Magic Bullet [only in Burial at Sea]
Tier: Middle
Effect: increases critical hit damage by 50% (in the vein of the Head
Master boots, see its special note) and shots that do a critical hit
have a chance to not use a bullet.
Discussion: not a bad effect by any means and can be very good for anyone
with decent aim, but frankly I would take Better Mousetrap's
significant Devil's Kiss boost (which will effectively result in mass
instakills) over this regardless of aim.
Nitro Vest
Tier: Middle
Effect: boosts area of effect for explosive weapons
Discussion: very situational, but is gangbusters when you can take
advantage of it.
Pyromaniac
Tier: Bottom
Effect: when struck, 50% chance of burning nearby enemies for 200* damage
over 3 seconds.
Discussion: don't rely on having to be struck for your damage output.
(* takes into account 1999 Mode penalty.)
Roar to Life [only in Burial at Sea]
Tier: Middle
Effect: when your shield breaks, your weapon damage and movement speed are
boosted (50%) for 5 seconds and your ammo clip is immediately refilled.
Discussion: Hill Runner's Hat was really good in the core game, but
despite getting a lot extra boosts attached to it, those extra boosts
don't add much (since you should be fleeing during those few seconds,
not fighting). Moreover, aside from being really useful against
the Big Daddy, the greater emphasis on survival horror in Burial at Sea
means you should be stalking and ambushing your enemies (and making
better use of a hat slot with Better Mousetrap or Magic Bullet via
traps or sniping, respectively) than doing all-out war.
Scavenger's Vest
Tier: Middle
Effect: slain enemies have a 40% chance of directly restoring some ammo.
Discussion: not quite as good as Blood to Salt, but by the end game you
may be scrambling for ammunition, especially if you're avoiding Dollar
Bill vending machines. So in particular for weapons with small
reserves or rare ammo, this could be a situational godsend.
Shock Jacket
Tier: Middle
Effect: when struck, 50% chance of shocking nearby enemies for 25* damage
and stunning them for 2 seconds.
Discussion: unlike the very similar Pyromaniac, stunning an enemy that's
in position to hit you can be a lifesaving effect.
Note that since this is electrocution, this will also combo with
wet foes (Undertow or otherwise) and do ~200 damage per second (less
for automatons).
Remember that electrocuted enemies take 3x melee damage.
(* takes into account 1999 Mode penalty.)
Sky-Line Accuracy
Tier: Bottom
Effect: your shots are more likely to hit enemies when on a sky-line.
Discussion: in general, shooting straight off a sky-line isn't the
greatest of ideas, but if you're really good at doing that, perhaps you
can benefit more from this. Pretty much the only reason why I ever
shot weapons off a sky-line was just to get the achievement.
Winter Shield
Tier: "So good there probably will be a patch to weaken it"
Effect: jumping on or off a sky-line or sky-hook grants you brief
invulnerability (NOTE: sometimes it doesn't trigger, just immediately
dismount or re-attach to trigger it).
Discussion: absolutely, positively, insanely good. A happy coincidence is
that every Handyman fight tends to involve hooks and sky-lines; with
aggressive attaching and dismounting you can spend the entire encounter
invulnerable. Even when Handymen aren't involved, doing a sky-line
strike, gaining the invulnerability, laying a Vigor or firing some
shots at other enemies, then immediately re-attaching to refresh your
invulnerability will render many encounters easy.
This Gear is so good that the difference in 1999 Mode with it and
without it is night and day. Don't leave it on all the time,
obviously, since sky-lines and hooks aren't everywhere. If there is
only one Gear that you will probably want to aggressively reload for,
it's this.
I do fully anticipate that the developers will find a way to weaken
this somehow; it's just way too good.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Boots !gea,boo-
Top Tier: Overkill, Tunnel Vision, Newton's Law
Middle Tier: High and Mighty [BaS], Kill to Live, Nor'Easter, Vampire's
Embrace
Bottom Tier: Death from Above, Fit as a Fiddle
Death from Above
Tier: Bottom
Effect: weapon damage increased by 30% on sky-lines.
Discussion: a very situational effect; I generally spend more of my time
doing sky-line strikes than shooting from sky-lines, but if you're the
type of person who likes gunning down/exploding foes via rail, you will
definitely want this.
Eagle Strike [only from Collector's/Season Pass extras]
Effect: weapon damage increased by 50% on sky-lines.
See Death from Above.
Fit as a Fiddle
Tier: Bottom
Effect: when revived, come back with full health.
Discussion: you _really_ can't afford to die that much on 1999 Mode. On
Hard, this was definitely one of my oft-used Gears, but on 1999 Mode
you need to be a lot more prudent, since enemies regain a _lot_ of
their health when you revive (virtually all of it). Because you need
to be a lot more prudent, you will be dying less. Because you will be
dying less, this Gear will see less use. And in my runs at least
(where I don't die), this Gear bestows zero benefit.
High and Mighty [only in Burial at Sea]
Tier: Middle
Effect: basically Winter's Shield.
Discussion: a tier ranking is moot because this is the only pair of boots
in Burial at Sea. That being said, there are far less opportunities to
hop around in Rapture so--aside from being very useful in the final Big
Daddy fight--is less useful overall (also because the Big Daddy can
shatter your Winter Shield effect).
Kill to Live
Tier: Middle
Effect: melee executions have a 65% chance of bestowing health.
Discussion: the health gain is modest (roughly like a small health kit).
But, melee executions are rather painless to pull off; regardless of
your preferred weapon, so long as you are good at noticing the little
skulls you get an unstoppable attack for which you are briefly
invincible. So not bad at keeping your health topped off.
Newton's Law
Tier: Top
Effect: landing from a sky-line or hook knocks nearby enemies away.
Discussion: as the game advances, rather than individual enemies you can
strike down upon, you will be in awkward situations where you will jump
into a fray of multiple enemies, all of whom will be quick to shoot at
the guy who just killed their friend. This counters that, giving you a
brief moment of reprieve to either escape or to launch some disabling
Vigors.
Nor'Easter
Tier: Middle
Effect: killing an enemy from a sky-line gives you a 50% chance of brief
invulnerability.
Discussion: much more effective than Death from Above, as generally when
you are able to stably attack enemies from a sky-line, they are also
able to attack you. Giving yourself invulnerability while launching a
rocket at enemies is quite good.
Overkill
Tier: Top
Effect: killing with excessive damage electrocutes nearby enemies
(stunning them like Shock Jockey).
Discussion: you don't need _that_ much excessive damage to trigger the
effect, just a couple hundred, which later in the game with upgraded
weapons and disabling Vigors is not that hard. And in effect, since
stunned enemies are themselves vulnerable, you can quite possibly chain
the Overkill effect from foe to foe.
Note that since this is electrocution, this will also combo with
wet foes (Undertow or otherwise) and do ~200 damage per second (less
for automatons).
Remember that electrocuted enemies take 3x melee damage.
Tunnel Vision
Tier: Top
Effect: aiming down your weapon's sights increases your damage by 25%, but
aiming from the hip reduces it by 25%.
Discussion: for anyone who likes to use pistols, rifles, or really
anything other than a Crank Gun, this is a god-send. You'll have to
get used to rapidly switching in and out of zoomed-in-aiming mode, but
this is a rather significant boost in your damage output.
Vampire's Embrace
Tier: Middle
Effect: melee kills (but not executions) bestow a little bit of health.
Discussion: you may think that this is better than Kill to Live (which
rewards executions and only 65% of the time), but the difference is in
the playstyle they encourage. Kill to Live fits in seemlessly with a
1999 Mode mindset; Vampire's Embrace encourages you to just whack at
enemies even though you do not have an execution possibility. An
execution is a guaranteed kill. A melee strike, even if the enemy has
but a sliver of health left, is not, especially when you're up against
normal enemies who can withstand many tens of melee strikes. You're
much better off shooting your foe with a high-powered weapon rather
than hoping your melee strike kills them.
However, the saving grace for this Gear is that skyline strike
kills and kills from Charge count as "melee kills," so these easy-kill
situations can be sources of free heatlh should the need arise.
* Special Note: it appears that deaths caused independently of a weapon
(I'm mainly thinking of environmental deaths) are treated as "melee"
kills, and will thus bestow health.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pants !gea,pan-
Top Tier: Death Benefit [BaS], Filthy Leech [BaS], Head Master, Urgent Care
Middle Tier: Angry Stompers, Fire Bird, Ghost Posse, Health for Salts, Last
Man Standing, Sky-Line Reloader
Bottom Tier: Brittle-Skinned, Deadly Lungers, Quick Handed [BaS], Spectral
Sidekick
Angry Stompers
Tier: Middle
Effect: when extremely low on health, do 2x damage.
Discussion: obviously don't keep this on all the time, only when you are
extremely low on health. It might give you the edge you need to turn
that period of near-death into a victory. Note that this rewards
players who heavily infuse their Health as the threshold appears to be
a percentage, so players with more health will still have more absolute
health.
Brittle-Skinned
Tier: Bottom
Effect: melee targets are vulnerable for 5 seconds.
Discussion: if you're out of Salts, this might be the only way you can buy
yourself some extra damage, but don't go around just swiping at people
just because you can. Ironically, this would be way better if you
could also somehow wear Deadly Lungers.
Deadly Lungers
Tier: Bottom
Effect: 3x normal melee range.
Discussion: coupled with Burning Halo, Electric Touch/Punch, Spare the Rod,
or Coat of Harms, this could be quite serviceable, but aside from
niche or situational uses, your melee attack is by far your worst
attack, so you should generally just shoot the damn enemy.
Death Benefit [only in Burial at Sea]
Tier: Top
Effect: melee kills grant health, melee executions grant even more health.
Discussion: combines Vampire's Embrace and Kill to Live in one nice
package. Because Burial at Sea is more resource-starved, you will be
doing a lot more melee, which means that this pair of pants becomes
very, very good.
Filthy Leech [only in Burial at Sea]
Tier: Top
Effect: kills via a Plasmid grant some Eve.
Discussion: a slightly nerfed version of Blood to Salt, but still amazing
for your Plasmid-using efficiency. Combined with Better Mousetrap you
may never need to worry for Eve ever again.
Fire Bird
Tier: Middle
Effect: dismounting from a sky-line or hook will burn nearby enemies for
200* damage over 3 seconds.
Discussion: a nice little damage boost, especially when combined with
Winter Shield and Newton's Law. It also functions as a mini-Newton's
Law (in that it disrupts foes when you land), so it can function as a
weaker fallback in case you are unlucky about getting Newton's Law.
(* takes into account 1999 Mode penalty.)
Ghost Posse
Tier: Middle
Effect: enemies slain by a Vigor trap have a 50% chance that their guns
turn into floating allies for a few seconds.
Discussion: can be very good with the right setup; do note that it has to
be a Vigor _trap_ and it has to be a directly-caused death; for
example, Possession-induced group suicide or manually killing someone
who is vulnerable from a Shock Jockey trap don't count.
In 1999 Mode with much lower damage numbers, the likely ways you
can trigger this is with Return to Sender's alternate fire, Devil's
Kiss alternate fire, or a Shock Jockey trap you pull someone into via
Undertow. That being said, in the right set up you can quickly spawn a
miniature army of helpers.
Ghost Soldier [only from Collector's/Season Pass extras]
Effect: enemies slain by a Vigor trap have a 70% chance that their guns
turn into floating allies for a few seconds.
See Ghost Posse.
Head Master
Tier: Top
Effect: increases critical hit damage by 50% (see special note *).
Discussion: incredible for good aimers. If you're not a good aimer,
practice until you are. The sheer increase in damage output is
immense.
* Special Note: it appears that the way this Gear is implemented, it's not
actually a 50% bonus of your total critical hit damage, it's instead an
increase in the critical hit multiplier of your weapon by .5 (if it has
one). In other words, normally if you're using a sniper rifle a
critical hit will do 2.5x normal damage. With this Gear, rather than
doing 3.75x normal damage on a critical hit (2.5x increased by 50%), it
does 3x normal damage (2.5x plus .5x). Still a great effect, and even
moreso for weapons with lower critical hit multipliers.
Health for Salts
Tier: Middle
Effect: lets you use Health to use Vigors when out of Salts.
Discussion: when used carelessly, this Gear is a recipe for suicide.
However, for heavy Vigor users you do have a 31% chance* of
having a game where you do not get Blood For Salts as a Gear, so this
Gear can be an important backup since you are guaranteed to find it in
the Asylum.
And for anyone in general, sometimes if you are unable to use a
Vigor _right now_ (like to stun a Handyman) you are as good as dead, so
sacrificing a non-trivial amount of health to actually finish the fight
successfully instead of restarting is not to be understimated. So
don't go crazy with this using up your Health, but for emergencies this
Gear can shine.
(* 31% is the odds that Blood For Salt is one of the 11 Gear you do not
see in a normal game. The odds of this happening actually increase for
the worse if you have extra Gear unlocked through add-ons.)
* Special Note: there is a severe penalty for using Health instead of Salt
in terms of Vigor cost. Multiply Salt costs by 20 to get how much
Health you need to spend to get the same effect; this means that a
Possession Trap will obliterate most of the Health of even someone who
has fully infused Health.
Last Man Standing
Tier: Middle
Effect: when very low on health, killing an enemy grants you health.
Discussion: the health gain is modest (roughly equivalent to a small
health kit), but it's way better than nothing. You don't always need
to have this gear equipped, just swap into it when you are in a dire
situation.
Quick-Handed [only in Burial at Sea]
Tier: Bottom
Effect: decreases weapon reload times by 30%.
Discussion: even if you don't plan on melee-ing much, Death Benefit is
still a way better choice: actually aiding your survivability is a much
more important effect than a marginal decrease in the time you have to
spend hiding behind an obstacle. Plus, given that all your weapons
have significantly diminished ammo capacities, you won't be doing much
reloading anyway.
Sky-Line Reloader
Tier: Middle
Effect: jumping onto or off a sky-line reloads your current weapon.
Discussion: surprisingly effective. Especially in frantic fights
involving Handymen, being guaranteed a full clip everytime you dismount
is a significant weight off your shoulders.
Spectral Sidekick
Tier: Bottom
Effect: when you drop a weapon, that weapon becomes an ally for a few
seconds.
Discussion: sounds great on paper, but I had an extremely hard time
getting this to be effective. Trouble is, you generally are holding
onto weapons you _want_ to use (and have been upgrading). And if
you want to swap out in the middle of a fight, the weapon you're
switching with rarely ever tends to be in a great spot, either nestled
away in a corner or in the middle of a frantic battlefield that would
be suicide to run to just to get an ally. Your mileage may vary, and I
happily accept any advice or suggestions to the contrary.
Urgent Care
Tier: Top
Effect: decreases delay before Shield recharge by 1 second (to 3 seconds)
and doubles the regeneration rate (to 33%/sec or 100% in 3 seconds).
Discussion: 1999 Mode is all about survivability, and this gives you that
in spades. The normal delay rate is 4 seconds, so this is a
significant boost. Thanks to the reduced delay and increased
regeneration rate, this could actually mean an exponential increase in
your overall survivability: frequently you might be about to
regenerate your Shield, but a stray bullet hits you, which resets the
delay and hurts your health. With Urgent Care, you would have already
started regenerating your Shield, and there would have been enough of
it to absorb the bullet entirely.
Because of the way this Gear works, players who heavily infuse
their Shield stat benefit the most. With a significant Shield stat,
you may almost never take normal damage.
This Gear also has an amazing synergy with Return to Sender. The
reduced shield delay time means even an unupgraded use of Return to
Sender buys you enough invulnerability to start regenerating your
shield. Combined with a use of Return to Sender that has the "Send for
Less" upgrade (which buys you 5 seconds of invulnerability), not only
will you have enough time to start regenerating your shield, but you'll
have regenerated 2/3 of your total shield before being able to take
damage again.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Strategies !str-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General !str,gen-
Pretty much the general strategy to keep in mind throughout all of 1999 Mode
can be summed up with one word: "prudence." In lower difficulties, you have
much more leeway to go charging in to the fray, blasting enemies away. In 1999
Mode, that's a surefire recipe for death.
Instead, think of fighting in 1999 Mode as a numbered series of tactics, that
you progress down only as you exhaust each previous one.
1. Pre-empt a fight in advance with Vigor traps or certain tears.
2. Use an "at range" weapon to take out opposition from afar, while
staying behind cover and using nearby Vigor traps as defense.
3. If no more enemies are able to be shot at (due to distance or cover) OR
a new front has opened (from an ambush/charge that couldn't be stopped
by nearby traps or tears), find the next suitable bit of cover and run
to it.
4. Repeat, going from 2-3, until you are very close to your enemies. Then
use Vigor Traps and/or an "up close" weapon to finish off the remaining
opposition.
The progression has to be very methodical. In 1999 Mode, you will spend a
_lot_ more time peeking out from behind a pillar, just to assess the state of
the battlefield and to be 100% absolutely sure that the next bit of cover
you're going to run to is a) actually safe and b) close enough so that you
don't die in transit (Hill Runner's Hat helps out a lot for this).
Moreover, among possible tears, you'll find that all sorts of automated allies
are significantly diminished in relative effectiveness. Even the rare
Motorized Patriot will be destroyed by your enemies with relative ease. That
doesn't mean you shouldn't use them (a shot fired at an ally is a shot that
isn't fired at you). But it does mean that you should make sure you have a
quick follow-up--such as opening up a bit of cover or dashing to higher
ground--as once your automaton is dispatched all those bullets will be flying
at you.
Aside from this, encounter-specific strategies follow below.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AI Quirks !str,aiq-
Enemies you fight can be broadly categorized into three behavior groups:
1. Ones who charge you.
2. Ones who will advance towards you or use area of effect weapons.
3. Ones who will try to kill you from afar.
Enemies sometimes switch gears from one behavior to another, but some enemies
are bound to a specific strategy. For example, any enemy you see with a melee
weapon or a shotgun is _guaranteed_ to fall into group #1. Snipers are always
going to be in group #3.
While pursuing your general strategy (see above discussion in section
str,gen-), you should also assess which enemies are in which behavior group.
Enemies in group #1 should be higher priority than enemies in group #2, and
enemies in group #2 should be higher priority than enemies in group #3. That's
because an enemy who sits back and snipes you is not going to try to flush you
out of your cover, so you can take your time with them. An enemy in group #2
will pose an increasing threat as they get closer to you, but you still have
reasonable amounts of time before your current position is no longer safe. An
enemy in group #1 will single-mindedly try to usurp any secure, defensible
position you may have.
In fact, because of the way enemies tend to come out in waves, what may happen
is that as you dispatch enemies, a new wave of enemies will appear to fill in
the gaps. If you keep dispatching charging enemies, while the general absolute
number of your foes isn't really changing, the overall threat level of your
enemies _is_. Whereas if you were to immediately snipe away all the ranged
threats and trigger a new wave of enemies, you might find yourself overwhelmed
by charging, shotguns-blazing, heavily armored foes.
So in general, proper threat assessment of what behavior pattern your enemies
are using is important. In fact, it will also teach you when to use traps and
when to not. If there are still charging AI, setting up a trap near yourself
is worth the Salt. If however you are only left fighting enemies trying to
take potshots at you while hopping laterally from cover to cover, setting up a
trap would be a guranteed waste of time and Salt.
Though do note that whatever the behavior pattern, getting too close to an
enemy will force them to charge and melee you, which is a rather dangerous
prospect for your survival. Unless you have a solid exit plan involving a
great defense or a solid finishing move, keep a respectable distance!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firemen !str,fir-
Firemen have one rather special trait about them. See, virtually every time
you become "briefly invulnerable" (with the exception of Charge), you get a
little frozen graphic over your Health/Shield bars that slowly goes away. In
fact, Gear that provides brief invulnerability are even "cold" themed, whether
in the name (e.g. "Nor'Easter") or by the imagery (e.g. a snowflake in the
middle of Sheltered Life's icon).
These little touches aren't just for show. Any and all fire-based sources of
damage will instantly cancel out your invulnerability (except for Charge's).
So save yourself the trouble and don't bother trying to do Sheltered
Life/Nor'Easter/Winter Shield tricks with the Fireman, he'll just wipe it out
with one hit.
That being said, Firemen are otherwise straightforward to dispatch. They're
basically souped-up versions of flak cannon enemies, launching Devil's Kiss
instead of explosive shells. As would be expected, Firemen are immune to
Devil's Kiss and other fiery effects. They can be briefly possessed (at half
normal duration) so in crowded fights a Possession trap a) can get the
Fireman to dispatch a lot of your enemies AND/OR b) let your other foes do some
of the damage to the Fireman for you.
The only major gotcha is that once at low health, a Fireman will charge at you
and then explode suicidally. Vigor traps can stop this from happening, but
don't underestimate just how far a Fireman is willing to run just to chase you
down (though with enough distance you could manually kill him before he gets
too close).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patriots !str,pat-
Early Patriots are a major pain. It's unlikely you have any decent ammunition,
and their weak point (the back) is extremely hard to hit. They are immune to
Murder of Crows and at least for a short while, you don't have Shock Jockey.
That being said, Devil's Kiss does do damage to them, so you can supplement
your ammunition with a Devil's Kiss trap or two; since the trap does more than
twice normal damage for only twice the Salt cost and since Patriots have very
predictable movement patterns, it's more efficient to use the alternate effect
than the primary effect.
Also note that as a Patriot gets damaged, their head starts to fall apart.
Once it's down to a basic skeleton, their head becomes a critical hit point.
Once it's blown off, their neck becomes a critical hit point. Make sure to
exploit these.
Later on, Shock Jockey gives you the umph you need to help trivialize these
fights; for a while it's the only disabling Vigor that works on them. Even
with the stun duration upgrade though, Shock Jockey won't provide enough time
for you to flank the Patriot and start shooting them in the back, so you're
better off just unloading at them from wherever you are. (Unless of course,
you're already behind them or very nearly behind them, at which point knock
yourself out.)
Much later on, Undertow provides an immensely powerful weapon against Patriots.
While it won't stun them for as long as a Shock Jockey with a duration upgrade,
you will quickly destroy Patriots thanks to the combined vulnerability and ~200
damage per second electrocution. With a quick wave of your targetting
reticule, you can even target multiple Patriots with one blast.
You can possess Patriots to good effect, and if you have the Salts, doing a
Possession Trap followed up with a Shock Jockey will turn your Patriot into a
riddling-vulnerable-enemies-with-bullets machine of destruction (for 10
seconds). This is an especially effective maneuver when you have two Patriots
near each other; in all likelihood they'll start trying to fight each other,
except one will constantly be electrocuted by the other, allowing the other to
do a significant amount of damage.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Handymen !str,han-
These guys are tough as nails. There are two ways to really effectively
dispatch them, a cheesy way and the insane way.
Cheesy way: equip Winter Shield and constantly mount and dismount from
sky-lines and hooks so that you are only fighting the Handyman while
invulnerable.
Insane way: use Murder of Crows/Undertow to land in a shot or two, but
then otherwise keep moving; use sky-lines and hooks for a brief second
or two to run away, but not long enough to get electrocuted.
The cheesy way is self-explanatory. Pretty much if you have Winter Shield,
Handymen are actually rather easy (if requiring constant, panicky fleeing)
since Irrational Games has made sure that every encounter with a Handyman takes
place near plenty of sky-lines and hooks for you to use. Note that sometimes
mounting/dismounting won't trigger the invulnerability, so you'll need to
dismount/mount immediately in order to trigger it. For this reason, it's worth
starting your escape when you still have half your invulnerability left, so
that you aren't accidentally caught flat-footed without any protection.
It is possible to kill Handymen without Winter Shield and without dying, but it
is much harder. Between the two Vigors that actually disable the Handyman,
Murder of Crows is more efficient, especially if you have the stun duration
upgrade. However, Undertow keeps the Handyman still, which makes him easier to
critical hit (though also brings him right next to you). If you have good aim
and a decent critical hit weapon, Undertow is probably your best bet, but
otherwise go with Murder of Crows. Regardless of which you use, it's not worth
combo-ing the Vigors with anything as any extra damage you get out of them
pales in comparison to simply saving your Salts.
Without the Murder of Crows stun duration upgrade, you really only have time to
land one or two good shots before you need to start high-tailing it out of
there; the moment Murder of Crows/Undertow ends the Handyman is going to ram
you. The stun duration upgrade for Murder of Crows buys you an extra shot or
two, but you still need to make sure you are well on your way to a new location
before the effect wears off.
Even if you do not have Winter Shield, you need to still aggressively use hooks
and sky-lines. Jumping on or off gives you a very brief amount of
cutscene-related-invulnerability, and attaching onto a hook/riding a sky-line
and then dismounting as far as you can is one of the fastest ways to travel.
Plus, by aggressively jumping on/off hooks and sky-lines, you're not giving the
Handyman a chance to electrocute you, which could spell instant disaster
(especially if there are still other non-Handymen that you need to dispatch).
If you don't have any Salts for Murder of Crows; well, then hopefully Elizabeth
tosses you some soon. Otherwise, I hope you're really good at hip shooting
from a far distance, as your strategy then becomes escaping via hook/sky-line,
then immediately dismounting and trying to shoot the Handyman while he's
jumping to you, which is a brief window of about a second or so.
Whatever you do, do not try to hit Handymen in the back. They are heavily
armored, so unless you're striking his heart or the front of his body, you will
not do much damage at all.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lady Comstock !str,lad-
Whew, if there's any one type of fight in the game that poses a huge threat of
ending your 1999 Mode run, Lady Comstock is it. You may be overwhelmed at
first, but trust me; with some practice Lady Comstock will actually be much
easier than a Handyman. The specific tactics vary a bit based on which
location you're in (graveyard, vault, or plaza), but the three best overall
strategies are:
1. Return to Sender plus sniping.
2. Use Shock Jockey, Devil's Kiss, Burning Halo, or Electric Punch/Touch to
disintegrate many of her minions and just go toe-to-toe with her
directly (thanks to nocturbulous and endersgame33 for pointing this
out!)
3. Hail fire her to smithereens, with Charge/Devil's Kiss backup.
For strategy 1, it is absolutely imperative that you are well-stocked with your
"at range" weapon of choice. If you go into the graveyard or vault with a
Shotgun and Crank Gun, you may find yourself irrevocably screwed. (Fortunately,
in the plaza there is a Sniper Rifle tear.) For strategy 2, having an "at
range" weapon is less important and in fact, as endersgame33 pointed out, you
can even just equip a lot of melee-based Gear and just keep Charging the minions
over and over again (though the shield regeneration upgrade for Charge is highly
recommended). Or, you can also just Undertow-pull-into-a-Shock-Jockey-trap
combo all the minions.
For strategy 1, what you're basically doing is finding some kind of cover
reasonably far away from Comstock and her minions. Stay behind it until you
are reasonably sure where Comstock is, at which point you should pop out,
trigger Return to Sender's primary effect, and then snipe at Lady Comstock's
head until your blue shield is almost gone (this will protect you from the
many, many bullets that will be flying towards you). Duck back behind cover,
reload your weapon, and repeat. If you do this right, you can wipe her out
before or even after she revives all her minions.
Strategy 2 revolves around the fact that enemies that die under the effects of
Shock Jockey and Devil's Kiss will be disintegrated. Doing so will prevent
them from being revived. You need to come prepared to use up a lot of Salt,
but if you lack any decent "at range" weapon or are lacking ammo you can take
this approach to the battle. Note that the gear-based options are a little
less consistent for disintegration compared to Devil's Kiss and Shock Jockey.
For Devil's Kiss you will want to have at least one of the upgrades (preferably
the extra grenades mod).
Strategy 3 works best with a hail fire, but can work well with any set up that
maximizes burst damage (such as Tunnel Vision & Head Master gear paired with
a repeater). Use Charge/Devil's Kiss to do some initial damage (and also
ensure that you're within range) and render her vulnerable. During this
vulnerability window, let loose as fast as you can with your weapon. With a
hail fire, you can dish out so much damage during this window that you can
probably kill Lady Comstock before she has a chance to do another revival (and
the minions from the first revival would have been annihilated by the hail fire
area of effect).
Other than for strategy 2, you generally shouldn't waste your ammo/Salts/time
fighting Lady Comstock's minions since she will just make more. However,
sometimes killing a minion is necessary because when Lady Comstock is busy
making more allies, she will rise up into the air very slowly. This is a
perfect time to shoot her repeatedly in the head, though make sure that you are
far enough away from her that her post-revival explosion doesn't hit you (it
immediately wipes out your shield, which can mean certain death). You can also
kill minions to try to coax her into specific locations.
Lady Comstock is also vulnerable to being Charged, so if you desperately need a
survival boost and you've upgraded Charge, you can ram her, let off a shot at
close range, and then high-tail it out of there (and as alluded to, you can
make Charge a central part of pursuing strategy #2).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Final Fight !str,fin-
If you've made it this far, the final fight is actually not that bad, as far as
1999 Mode conflicts go, if only because by now you are at the peak of your
power. Just one thing to keep in mind:
Once you gain the objective to destroy all Vox zeppelins, enemy Vox and
Patriots will keep being summoned until you destroy all the zeppelins in
the wave.
This means that if you're _too_ quick at killing off all the foes, another wave
of Vox and Patriots will appear before you have a chance to summon Songbird.
This means that ways to harmlessly delay the fights (to buy you time for
another Songbird) are golden. Three suggestions:
1. When you're down to your last Vox, simply use Possession on them (maybe
even a trapped version). They will wander around for 10/20 seconds
doing nothing, during which your Songbird cooldown finishes and you
have noone to worry about.
2. Use a fully upgraded Bucking Bronco judiciously. It has a sinfully
long duration (in addition to being dirt-cheap to use repeatedly) and
while your enemies are just floating around, they aren't attacking your
ship's core.
3. Use Undertow to pull a Patriot (or two!) to an awkward part of the
sniper's nest at the top of the ship. Their ability to hurt your
ship's core will be cancelled out, which buys you plenty of time to
deal with other foes and take out the zeppelins with Songbird. Note
that frequently Patriots you pull up to the sniper's nest will
disappear (do they just jump off to their doom?) so this is not a
fool-proof way to stall for Songbird time. Though at the very least,
this is still a painless way to dispatch up to two Patriots at once.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Big Daddy [Burial at Sea] !str,big-
It's back!
Some quick notes:
- Like in Bioshock, the Big Daddy will love to charge at you from across
the room.
- Like in Bioshock, the Big Daddy does have a "slow time" effect that makes
it very difficult to dodge its attacks.
- New in Burial at Sea, the Big Daddy can now jump around and even fire its
drill to harpoon you back to it (for you other old-timers, think Scorpion
from Mortal Kombat).
- Unlike basically every other enemy in the game, the Big Daddy can shatter
through your Winter Shield with its harpoon attack.
Note that while the Big Daddy can negate your Winter Shield, it will still
absorb much of the damage, so aggressively hop around on the skyline to keep it
up whenever you can. Depending on your playstyle the specific strategy will
vary, but I was able to make good use of repeated Devil's Kiss traps (via
Better Mousetrap) to take away a significant chunk of health. And even though
Skyline travel speed is slower, it is still the best way to put distance
between you and the Big Daddy so continue to make use of it. Though don't stay
on too long, as you just become a sitting duck for the harpoon (though as a
side effect of jumping on and off repeatedly you will be triggering your Winter
Shield more frequently).
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Bestiary !bes-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't pretend to have come up with any of this data on my own. It is pulled
from the Brady Games official strategy guide, though some of its accuracy is
dubious.
The official Brady Games talks about "ranks" of enemies that are tied to
successive areas of the game. This is much like the original Bioshock, where
splicers would become tougher after you hit certain geographic checkpoints. In
1999 Mode, enemies are pulled more liberally from higher ranks. In the
interest of avoiding copyright infringement, I won't list when the different
ranks theoretically occur (since that's all just straight from the strategy
guide), but if you have the guide itself, do note that you will easily be
fighting enemies 1-2 ranks higher than you should be.
All damage numbers are adjusted for 1999 Mode. As you'll be able to
ascertain, enemies _hurt_ when they hit you. Moreover, enemies that have a
ranged weapon will still have a melee damage listed; if you get too close, they
will whack you with their weapon and this damage is just as intense as a
straight-up melee-er's atack.
In the listings below, rather than provide enemies by rank--as Brady Game
does--I merely provide the range of their health and damage. In general, the
earlier you are in the game, the more likely you will be fighting enemies on
the lower end of the spectrum; the opposite is true for later in the game.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vigor Effectiveness !bes,vig-
Various Vigors have differing effects against different enemies. This table is
shamelessly pulled from the official strategy guide and is provided here for
reference.
If an enemy has an effectiveness multipler of at least x1, then the enemy is
also rendered vulnerable by the Vigor.
P DK+ MoC^ BB SJ^ C U
Normal x1 x1 x1 x1 x1 x1 `
"Armored" x1 x1 x1 x1 x1 x.5 `
Automaton x2 x1 -- -- x1 !! `
"Barrage" A. -- x1 -- -- x1 -- --
Fireman x.5* -- x1 x1 x1 x1 `
Zealot x.5* x1 -- x1 x1 x1 `
Patriot x.5 x1 -- !! x1 x.75 `
Handyman -- x1 x.75 -- x.1 -- `
Lady Comstock !! x1.5 !! !! !! !! !!
Legend:
+ Damage only, not duration.
^ Duration only, not damage.
-- Immune.
!! Brief weakness/stun only, no other effect.
* Also do not suicide, unlike other humanoids.
` Undertow has very varying effects against enemies. See vig,und- for
more details.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Normal !bes,nor-
Normal foes are grouped by what weapon they use. In general, lower-end weapons
occur earlier in the game, while they start to get replaced with much better
equipped foes later in the game. All normal (aka "humanoid") foes have their
heads as weak points for critical hits.
Police (only at the start of the game)
Health: 150
Damage (melee only): 200
Special: Right at the start of the game, in Raffle Square, there is one
special Police Officer that has 100 Health, does slightly less melee
damage, and has a Pistol that does 50 damage. This is where you get
your first non-skyhook weapon.
Melee
Health: 705 - 1,191
Damage (melee only): 374 - 646
Pistol
Health: 295 - 648
Damage: 100 - 176 ranged, 374 - 646 melee
Hand Cannon
Health: 499 - 648
Damage: 1,150 - 1,382 ranged, 540 - 646 melee
Special: You can easily distinguish these chaps from normal
pistol-wielders because these guys wear little "Statue of Liberty"
masks.
Machine Gun (only Founders)
Health: 354 - 777
Damage: 82 - 142 ranged, 374 - 646 melee
Special: may be "armored" in later stages of the game (see "armored" note*
below).
Repeater (only Vox)
Health: 777
Damage: 312 ranged, 646 melee
Carbine (only Founders)
Health: 460 - 777
Damage: 360 - 518 ranged, 450 - 646 melee
Shotgun (only Founders)
Health: 642 - 1,085
Damage: 1,250 - 1,800 ranged, 450 - 646 melee
Special: may be "armored" in later stages of the game (see "armored" note*
below).
Heater (only Vox)
Health: 1,085
Damage: 2,902 ranged (!!), 646 melee
Special: as you can ascertain, this guy is definitely an argument for
prioritizing charging foes (in section str,aiq-): the damage is
immense, able to take you down in one hit unless you are heavily
Health/Shield-infused. But, this damage drops off exponentially at any
decent range, so the further away you engage this guy, the better.
Sniper
Health: 460 - 777
Damage: 1,846 - 2,658 ranged (!!), 450 - 646 melee
Special: while the ranged damage is immense, Elizabeth tends to yell out
if there are snipers anywhere, so it's unlikely you'll be caught
off-guard. This means you'll have the benefit of taking your time in
taking these guys out.
Burstgun (only Vox)
Health: 598 - 777
Damage: 346 - 414 ranged, 540 - 646 melee
RPG (only Founders)
Health: 1,743 - 3,830
Damage: 2,224 - 3,203 ranged (!!), 450 - 646 melee
Special: are always armored (see "armored" note* below).
Volley Gun
Health: 1,743 - 3,830
Damage: 1,334 - 2,401 ranged (!!), 374 - 646 melee
Special: are always armored (see "armored" note* below).
* Note on "armored" foes: some foes are heavily armored. This means that they
take significantly reduced damage and cannot be critically hit, at least until
you hit them in the head enough to knock off their helmet. However, despite
Brady Games listing only "Beasts" as heavily armored, heavily armored foes are
_not_ heavy-hitters, so will kill themselves just fine after the effects of a
Possession.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Automatons !bes,aut-
Automatons do not have critical hit weak points, though they have special
vulnerabilities to Shock Jockey and Undertow.
Machine Gun Automaton
Health: 1,742 - 3,828
Damage: 61 - 108 ranged, 480 - 818 from explosion upon death
Rocket Automaton
Health: 1,472 - 3,828
Damage: 1,080 - 1,258 ranged, 690 - 818 from explosion upon death
Barrage "Automaton"
Health: 4,394
Damage: 864 ranged
Special: These "automatons" are those gigantic cannon like things that you
see at specific plot points, such as the police impound entrance or
attached to gunships in the final fight. They can be effectively hit
with Shock Jockey, but for the most part you'll just have to rely on
lots of weapons.
Mosquito
Health: 1,132 - 1,914
Damage: 74 - 108 ranged
Special: Mosquitos are listed as having an explosion damage like other
turrets, but in practice since they float around in the air, no one
will ever be impacted by it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heavy Hitters !bes,hea-
All Heavy Hitters are only affected at half-strength by Possession and do not
kill themselves at the end of the effect.
Fireman
Health: 1,430 - 4,833
Damage: 480 - 1,658 Devil's Kiss, 600 - 2,074 melee, 720 - 2,488 suicide
explosion
Special: immune to Devil's Kiss and other fire-like effects. Their
Devil's Kiss cancels out all invulnerability effects (other than
Charge's). It's possible to prevent a Fireman suicide charge by
holding them in place with a Vigor and manually bringing them to 0
health yourself. Upon death, guaranteed to drop decent consumables and
generally also a lockpick. See str,fir- for further discussion.
Crow
Health: 2,356 - 5,175
Damage (melee only): 1,064 - 1,842
Special: teleports around by turning into a murder of crows. Is
completely invulnerable during this effect.
Patriot
Health: 5,053 - 8,540
Damage: 144 - 208 ranged, 846 - 1,244 melee
Special: see str,pat- for a full discussion on Patriots. Guaranteed to
drop a crank gun upon death.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special !bes,spe-
These fellows are so special that they follow their own rules of vulnerability,
combat, and how they are affected by Vigors.
Handyman
Health: 9,952 - 12,938
Damage: 1,600 - 1,920 ranged (only used if you are dangling on a hook),
2,764 - 3,318 melee
Special: weak point is his heart; he is heavily armored from the back. If
you stay on a sky-line for too long, he will jump on it and electrocute
the entire thing, which deals ~4000 damage per second to you if you're
still on it (in general if you don't jump off as soon as you start
taking damage, you will probably die). He also can recklessly attack
other enemies, though if you still have lots of enemies around when a
Handyman shows up, you may be in bad shape. See str,han- for further
discussion.
Lady Comstock
Health: 15,994
Damage: 1,970 melee
Special: will try to maintain a given size of raised minions; if the
number of minions drops below this amount, she will rise up into the
air and create more (unless those minions were disintegrated). At the
end of the resurrection effect, she emanates a wave of energy which
instantly wipes out your shield if you are caught in it. She will
generally not try to charge you for her actual up-close attack unless
you are camping out somewhere in the graveyard or she has no one left
to raise. See str,lad- for further discussion.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Appendix !app-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special Thanks !app,spe-
rarityguide.com for somehow having specific numbers to various elements of
Bioshock Infinite's gameplay.
BradyGames for the details on 1999 Mode's changes.
Other Bioshock Infinite fans who have contributed to this guide:
endersgame33
nocturbulous
...and others who preferred to stay anonymous.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History !app,his-
2017.04.13 - v 1.27
vig-: fixing & references to &.
str,aiq-: removing incorrect references to Return to Sender.
gea,shi-: removing incorrect percentage recovery note in Blood to Salt.
2017.04.10 - v 1.26
not,bur2-: note about never adding updates for Burial at Sea 2.
spe-: damage over time effects not increased by vulnerability.
spe-: electrocution vulnerability gives you a 3x melee damage boost.
sta-: get five extra infusions for having the Collector's/Season's Pass
edition.
vig- vig,*-: clarifying that Devil's Kiss and Shock Jockey have non-vigor
alternatives for combos.
vig,mur- vig,dev- vig,buc: clarifying that Bucking Bronco and Murder of
Crows can both be active at the same time, and a burning effect can and
will trigger both combos simultaneously.
vig,dev-: only initial damage boosted from vulnerability.
vig,buc-: Boost mod makes the burning combo much worse.
vig,cha-: Charge counts as a melee attack.
gea-: adding info about special gear and how it interats with looting.
gea,hat-: note for Burning Halo, fixing damage/duration numbers.
gea,hat-: note for Gear Head.
gea,hat-: reminder text about Charge and melee gear.
gea,hat-: note for Electric Punch.
gea,shi-: note for Ammo Advantage.
gea,shi-: specific Salt restoration number for Blood to Salt.
gea,boo-: note for Eagle Strike.
gea,pan-: note for Ghost Soldier.
wea- wea,*-: adding various value metrics.
str,lad-: revising section.
bes-: fixed transpose error; Handyman is 10% SJ, not 100%, and immune to
Charge stun.
bes,aut-: barrage automatons can be affected by SJ.
2013.11.25 - v 1.25
In general adding preliminary notes for Burial at Sea Part 1, including new
sections: not,bur- str,big-
...and notes in existing sections: spe- sta- sta,loc- mon- mon,tot-
vig- vig,pos- vig,dev- vig,mur- vig,buc- vig,sho- wea- gea-
gea,hat- gea,shi- gea,boo- gea,pan-
2013.08.09 - v 1.24 (minor)
vig,dev-: corrections to Devil's Kiss mechanics.
2013.08.08 - v 1.23 (minor)
Changing "app,oth-" to "app,all-".
2013.08.07 - v 1.22
vig,mur- vig,sho-: adding details about Murder + Shock combo.
vig,ret-: correcting note about mechanics.
gea,pan-: adding note about how Salt cost is calculated for Health to
Salts.
2013.08.05 - v 1.21
vig,ret-: adding some notes about Return to Sender.
gea,boo-: adding extra note about Vampire's Embrace.
2013.08.05 - v 1.20 (not posted)
vig-: adding note about auto-aim in Possession combos, some copy-editing o
the various discussions.
vig,dev-: adding extensive extra detail about Devil's Kiss mechanics.
vig,ret-: adding extensive extra detail about Return to Sender's
mechanics.
gea,hat-: adding further mechanical notes to Storm.
gea,boo-: upgrading Vampire's Embrace.
wea,exp-: adding notes to Volley Gun and Hail Fire about stun potential.
wea- wea,*-: general copy-editing.
2013.08.01 - v 1.19
vig,ret- gea,pan-: adding notes about Return to Sender synergy with Urgent
Care.
2013.08.01 - v 1.18 (minor)
wea-: fixing minor description issue with Estimated Total Damage
Potential. Adding Machine Gun to "at range" category.
wea,pis-: adding note to Machine Gun about accuracy upgrade.
2013.08.01 - v 1.17
vig,ret-: removing extraneous tier rating.
str,pat-: clarifying note about Undertow and Shock Jockey.
mon,tot- wea-: modifying recommendations based on wea,tab-.
wea,tab-: new section.
gea-: adding footnote about potential Handyman Gear drop bug.
2013.07.31 - v 1.16
app,his-: fixing all timestamps to be 2013, not 2012.
mon,tot-: changing the recommended Vigors.
vig-: removing "tier" system with a more general recommendation system.
vig-: adding "vice versa" to certain combos that don't care about order.
vig,pos-: note that turrets are affected at 2x strength.
vig,pos- vig,dev- vig,sho-: clarifying text to indicate order doesn't
matter for Possession combos.
vig,dev-: revising discussion, adding note about damage for Alternate
effect.
gea,hat-: revising discussion about Storm.
gea,hat- wea,rif- wea,exp-: adding note about the interaction with Storm.
bes,vig-: new section.
2013.07.12 - v 1.15
-: removing listing for a section I never bothered to write ("An Aside on
Exploits").
vig-: fixing typo.
Adding new metrics to wea- section: damage per second (per clip), burst
damage potential, and total damage potential.
2013.07.01 - v 1.14
New sections: spe-.
vig- vig,ret-: downgrading Return to Sender to middle tier.
vig,pos-: clarifying that only Firemen and Crows do not suicide.
bes,hea-: adding commas.
2013.04.23 - v 1.13
vig-: for all Vigors, re-organization effect sections to be clearer about
what the Vigor's primary effect actually is.
vig,sho-: separating out combo/special damage from normal damage.
vig,cha-: fixing mistake of showing a combo between Charge and Charge
instead of Charge and Bucking Bronco.
vig,und-: rewriting discussion because it still carried undertones of when
I thought it sucked.
wea,pis-: cleaning up some awkward writing.
str,han-: cleaning up typos.
str,lad-: clarifing strategy 3.
str,fin-: reworking the Patriot suggestion.
2013.04.22 - v 1.12
vig,und-: more discussion on combo.
wea,pis-: more discussion for the pistol.
wea,exp-: more discussion for the hail fire.
gea-: adding various notes about Undertow combos to appropriate Gear,
including Electric Touch, Shock Jacket, and Overkill.
gea-: re-ordering Pants and Boots to reflect in-game ordering.
gea-: adding location for Burning Halo.
gea-: there are 41 Gear, not 40, though this number varies. Clarifying
the 25 spawn number and adding a note for unlucky people who unlocked
extra Gear.
gea,pan-: adding more notes about Fire Bird.
gea,pan-: downgrading Ghost Posse and adding more specifics.
gea,pan-: upgrading Health for Salts and adding more specifics.
str,han-: clarifying Undertow strategy.
2013.04.16 - v 1.11 (minor update)
Miscellaneous grammar fixes affecting the following sections:
sta,loc-
vig,pos-
vig,und-
2013.04.16 - v 1.11
Miscellaneous grammar fixes affecting the following sections:
vig,pos-
bes,nor-
Significantly revising discussions about Undertow, since its alternate
effect only causes 31 Salt, not 62. This includes changes to the following
sections:
vig-
vig,mur-
vig,sho-
vig,und-
Fixing references to "Combo X" where X is a number; these references were
left behind after the significant reworking of sections following v1.9.
This includes changes to the following sections:
vig,mur-
vig,sho-
mon,tot-: vending machines can drop up to $30, though not frequently.
2013.04.15 - v 1.9
Grammatical/spelling/copy fixes in the following sections:
gea,shi-
str,gen-
str,fir-
str,lad-
sta,loc-: fixing lockpick running totals.
vig-: cleaning up all formatting for improved readability/skimming.
vig,buc-: fixing formatting.
vig,cha-: additional damage is about 100.
wea-: fixing formatting.
wea,rif-: heater combos.
str,pat-: adding Undertow interaction.
str,lad-: giving nocturbulous credit for strategy #3, adding
Charge/Burning Halo interactions from endersgame33.
bes-: new section.
2013.04.15 - v 1.8
mon,tot-: Undertow is no longer not recommended, but Devil's Kiss is.
vig,buc-: Bronco Boost _really_ helps the duration.
vig,und-: fixing damage numbers for turrets.
str,lad-: adding note that Shock Jockey can disintegrate foes to prevent
revive.
str,fin-: adding strategy.
2013.04.15 - v 1.7 (not posted)
vig,und-: more notes about Handyman stun effect and Shock Jockey combo,
fixing Undertow Boost to mention that it also affects the primary
effect.
wea-: adding note about clip size upgrades.
wea-: tiering best "close-up" and "at range" weapons.
wea,pis-: adding more notes about repeater.
wea,exp-: adding volley gun fire rate (d'oh!).
str,han-: adding Undertow strategy.
str,lad-: adding cheesy repeater strategy, removing personal "easiest"
story as it should now be apparent that the repeater was the personal
easiest version.
2013.04.13 - v 1.6 (not posted)
sta,con-: drinking vigors yields 50 Salt.
sta,loc-: detailed lockpick counts.
mon-: safes yield 100 to 300, not 100 to 250.
mon,tot-: adding disclaimer about certain weapons.
mon,tot- vig,sho-: fixing Shock Jockey total $ cost.
vig-: fixing ordering for several combos.
vig- vig,ret-: upgrading Return to Sender to top tier.
vig,pos- vig,buc-: adding anti-combo note.
vig,buc-: Bucking Bronco disability does not combine well with criticals.
vig,sho-: adding damage note for undertow targets
vig,und-: more documentation about its effects.
wea,rif-: grammar fix for shotgun.
wea,rif-: adding more negativity to burstgun.
wea,rif-: fixing carbine reserve amount.
wea,exp-: hail fire shell also does damage (like volley gun).
gea,shi-: adding Drop Cloth.
2013.04.12 - v 1.5
not-: enemies revive more health, too.
not-: smaller loot quantities don't apply to consumables (which always
restore the same amount on difficulties).
sta,loc-: more information about lockpicks.
wea,rif-: missing info about sniper rifle rate of fire, changing reload
speed to "slow"
2013.04.11 - v 1.4
Grammatical/spelling/copy fixes in the following sections:
sta-
wea,pis-
gea,shi-
not-: note about reduced drops in 1999 Mode.
sta-: adding estimates about Health and Shield.
mon-: adding provisions for buying things at vending machines.
vig,dev-: notes about vulnerability, oil slick damage.
2013.04.11 - v 1.3 (not posted)
Grammatical/spelling/copy fixes in the following sections:
vig,pos-
vig,buc-
vig,sho-
wea,pis-
not-: specific details about 1999 Mode.
vig-: correct damage/duration numbers to all vigors.
wea-: correct damage numbers to all weapons.
wea-: rates of fire and critical multipliers to all weapons.
wea,pis-: adding clarification and disclaimer to pistol.
gea-: adjusting all damage numbers for 1999 Mode.
gea,pan-: clarifying Head Master mechanics.
gea,pan-: giving exact numbers to Urgent Care.
2013.04.10 - v 1.2 (not posted)
Lowering estimated amount of $ from vending machines.
2013.04.10 - v 1.1b (not posted)
Fixing date format for updates.
Modifying header to be a bit more SEO.
2013.04.10 - v 1.1
Miscellaneous grammatical and spelling fixes.
how-: adding contact info.
how-: moving konami code to not-.
New sub-section in mon-: totals (mon,tot-).
vig,ret: adding comparison to Devil's Kiss.
New sub-section in str-: ai quirks (str,aiq-).
app,his-: fixing release date for 1.0.
2013.04.09 - v 1.0
Initial release. Still missing some data, but important to get out there.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All Works !app,all-
1999 Mode Guide (Bioshock Infinite)
Clash in the Clouds Guide (Bioshock Infinite: Clash in the Clouds DLC)
Heart of Fury Guide (Icewind Dale 2)
Party Creation Guide (Baldur's Gate)
Party Creation Guide (Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition)
Populous II Guide (Populous II)
Thief Guide (Baldur's Gate 2)
Ultimate Analysis (System Shock 2)
Ultimate Oblivion FAQ (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion)
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
The Stinger
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"When I was a girl, I dreamt of standing in a room looking at a girl who
was and was not myself, who stood looking at another girl, who was and was not
myself. My mother took this for a nightmare. I saw it as the beginning of a
career in physics."
- Rosalind Lutece
===============================================================================