1999 Mode Guide - Guide for BioShock Infinite
- Cheats |
- Unlockables |
- Hints |
- Easter Eggs |
- Glitches |
- Guides |
- Trophies
Scroll down to read our guide named "1999 Mode Guide" for BioShock Infinite on PlayStation 3 (PS3), or click the above links for more cheats.
===============================================================================
Chris Lee's
Bioshock Infinite 1999 Mode and Item Guide v1.9
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
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-
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-
Pistols/Machine Guns !wea,pis-
Rifle/Shotgun !wea,rif-
Explosives !wea,exp-
Special !wea,spe-
Gear !gea-
Hats !gea,hat-
Shirts !gea,shi-
Pants !gea,pan-
Boots !gea,boo-
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-
Bestiary !bes-
Normal !bes,nor-
Automatons !bes,aut-
Heavy Hitters !bes,hea-
Special !bes,spe-
Appendix !app-
Special Thanks !app,spe-
History !app,his-
Other Guides !app,oth-
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
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"):
[email protected]
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.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
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).
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 -15 safe = +1 net.
3. Return to Soldier's Field: +4 lockpicks = +4 net (5 total).
4. Lady's Airship: +1 lockpick = +1 net (6 total).
5. Finkton Docks: +2 lockpicks = +2 net (8 total).
6. Fort Franklin Pier: -5 lockpicks = -5 net (3 total)
7. Worker Induction Center: +5 lockpicks -5 door -1 safe = -1 net (2
total).
8. Finkton: +4 lockpicks -1 door = +3 net (5 total).
After your first arrival in Finkton you will be generally flush with lockpicks,
so don't worry too much about it after that.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
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 $20 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: 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals !mon,tot-
For ease of calculation, here are all the totals for upgrading.
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* Machine Gun $1,375*^
Murder of Crows $2,030 Hand Cannon $1,902
Bucking Bronco $1,198 Repeater $1,694
Shock Jockey $1,840 Shotgun $1,332
Charge $2,169 Carbine $1,594
Undertow $1,449 Sniper Rifle $1,640+
Return to Sender $2,185 Heater $1,778
Burstgun $2,340^
RPG $1,919
Volley Gun $2,320
Hail Fire $1,502^
+ Recommended.
* Not recommended.
^ See note 2.
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 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.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Vigors !vig-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With the exception of Undertow, the various Vigors are generally well-balanced
enough that none stand out as the "best," though there are relative "tiers" of
quality. In general though, rather than basing your character solely on what
tier a Vigor is, you should really focus on matching your playstyle. After
all, there's no point in heavily investing in and using Possession if you just
can't get the aiming/trapping quite right.
The following tier list assumes you fully upgrade the Vigors in question. Also
note that even bottom-tier Vigors such as Undertow are still incredibly useful
in certain fights, so every Vigor can shine given a certain situation.
Top Tier: Possession, Murder of Crows, Return to Sender
Middle Tier: Bucking Bronco, Charge, Shock Jockey
Bottom Tier: Devil's Kiss, 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. The complete list is as follows (ordered by how early on you
can use them):
1. Possession + Devil's Kiss
2. Murder of Crows + Devil's Kiss
3. Possession + Shock Jockey
4. Murder of Crows + Shock Jockey
5. Bucking Bronco + Devil's Kiss (or vice versa)
6. Bucking Bronco + Charge
7. Devil's Kiss + Charge
8. Shock Jockey + Undertow (or vice versa)
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Possession !vig,pos-
Tier: Top
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,703
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 50
Duration: 10 seconds
Effect: an automaton becomes your ally for the duration . Patriots are
only affected for half 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.
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 100
Duration: 20 seconds
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.
Upgrades
"Possession Aid"
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.
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
Shock Jockey: Possess a target and then hit them with a Shock Jockey.
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).
Devil's Kiss: Possess a target and then hit them with Devil's Kiss. They
will emanate waves of fire, igniting everything in range and doing
periodic damage/disruption, though at a much closer range than Combo 1.
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 a
non-heavy-hitter human, 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 (combo 1) 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 (combo 2) gives you a mobile firestorm.
Unfortunately, the range of this effect isn't as nice as Combo 1, 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Devil's Kiss !vig,dev-
Tier: Bottom
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,907
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 23
Damage: 250 over 3 seconds.
Damage (Oil Slick): ~200 per second.
Effect: tosses a fire grenade which sets enemies (and oil slicks) within
the area of effect aflame. Burning enemies are very briefly vulnerable
and may be distracted.
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 46
Damage: 1,050 over 5 seconds.
Damage (Oil Slick): ~200 per second.
Effect: sets a trap. When triggered, all in the explosion are set aflame.
Burning enemies are very briefly vulnerable and may be distracted.
Upgrades
"Devil's Kiss Mod"
Cost: $1,241
Effect: after the initial explosion, smaller fire grenades are
expelled, which also explode for damage.
Location: Pretty much any vending machine after the Possession Aid one
(earliest is in Monument Island).
"Devil's Kiss Boost"
Cost: $666
Effect: increases the damage done.
Location: vending machines starting with Finkton Docks.
Combos
Possession: Possess a target and then hit them with Devil's Kiss. They
will emanate waves of fire, igniting everything in range and doing
periodic damage/disruption.
Murder of Crows: Hit a target with Murder of Crows and then Devil's
Kiss. All the crows will catch fire, dealing extra damage.
Bucking Bronco: Lift someone up with Bucking Bronco and then hit them with
Devil's Kiss OR hit someone with Devil's Kiss and then lift them with
Bucking Bronco. The lifted enemy will drop smaller grenades.
Charge: Hit a target with Devil's Kiss, then Charge them. They will
expel little grenades that explode at close range.
Discussion
Devil's Kiss is much more effective on lower difficulties, where the
damage-to-Salt ratio is much better. As it stands, by the end of the game,
even with the two upgrades, you will still have a hard time effectively
clearing out areas. This is made worse by the fact that Devil's Kiss has a
limited parabolic trajectory, so it's not well suited for dispatching far
away foes (a necessity for 1999 Mode).
That being said, Devil's Kiss still has some situational effectiveness.
First, it's an incredibly cost-effective solution early on in the game for
dispatching Turrets and small groups of enemies (versus dying or using up
lots of precious ammo). It also adds an extra source of damage against
early-game Patriots.
Second, Devil's Kiss combos quite well. 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. Devil's Kiss with a Charge can quickly punish clusters of enemies,
and works great if you've also upgraded Charge and 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 you need more than one shot of Crows by itself to take down
enemies. 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.
Finally, the trap is still passable, even unupgraded. 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Murder of Crows !vig,mur-
Tier: Top
Total Upgrade Cost: $2,030
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 28
Damage/Stun Duration: 30 over ~4 seconds.
Effect: launches crows that, upon hitting a wall or enemy, start pecking
away at enemies nearby, doing minor damage and rendering them
vulnerable.
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 56
Damage/Stun Duration: 150 over ~9 seconds.
Effect: sets a trap. When triggered, crows launch out at everyone neaby,
doing minor damage and rending them vulnerable.
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: Hit a target with Murder of Crows and then Devil's Kiss.
All the crows will catch fire, dealing extra damage.
Shock Jockey: Hit a target with Murder of Crows and then Shock Jockey.
All the crows become electrified. I, uh, don't know what this really
does (aside from interacting with water spills), but it is counted as a
combo by the game. Just from my own experience using this on Handymen,
I believe it might increase the amount of damage the crows do.
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 disable an entire battlefield and continue to produce more
traps to disable new entrants or existing, tougher entrants. The sheer
Salt efficiency of this mayhem cannot be understated. Combo this with
Devil's Kiss and you can spread massive mayhem and damage (Shock Jockey to
a lesser extent, if only I more clearly understood its use case).
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 (since you need to use
Undertow's alternate effect--62 Salt!--to disable Handymen). Don't bother
trying to combo with it though since you probably want to spend those
previous few seconds trying to shoot the Handyman in the heart rather than
aiming and launching another Vigor. 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-
Tier: Middle
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,198
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 15
Duration: ~3 seconds.
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.
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 30
Duration: ~6 seconds.
Effect: sets a trap. When triggered, all nearby (human) enemies are
launched into the air. Armored enemies become easy to hit for full
damage.
Upgrades
"Bronco Mod"
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.
Location: vending machines starting with the Factory.
Combos
Devil's Kiss: Lift someone up with Bucking Bronco and then hit them with
Devil's Kiss OR hit someone with Devil's Kiss and then lift them with
Bucking Bronco. The lifted enemy will drop smaller 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.
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 combos are decent if situational. Enemies need to be clustered
together for you to really take advantage of comboing with Devil's Kiss.
Bucking Bronco and then Charge is alright, but eventually Undertow
obsoletes this except in the most extreme of cases (where the enemy is very
far from the railing). The benefit to comboing with Charge over simply
using Undertow though, is that you could theoretically give yourself some
breathing room (from the lift), insta-kill a heavy-hitter (by ramming them
off the map), and recharge your shield (from a Charge upgrade), all in a
quick coordinated move.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shock Jockey !vig,sho-
Tier: Middle
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,840
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 16
Damage: ~25 (~1000 for wet targets, ~200 per second for Undertow-launched
targets, see Combo 3 below.)
Stun Duration: ~3 seconds.
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).
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 32
Damage: ~50 over time (~1000 for wet targets)
Stun Duration: ~4 seconds.
Explosion Damage: ~300
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.
Upgrades
"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: Possess a target and then hit them with a Shock Jockey. They
will become a mobile Tesla Coil, periodically electrocuting (as per
Shock Jockey) every target in range, stunning them and making them
vulnerable.
Murder of Crows: Hit a target with Murder of Crows and then Shock Jockey.
All the crows become electrified. I, uh, don't know what this really
does (aside from interacting with water spills), but it is counted as a
combo by the game. Just from my own experience using this on Handymen,
I believe it might increase the amount of damage the crows do.
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 an instant blast of damage (~1000).
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. In fact, with the upgrade, Shock Jockey's efficiency becomes on
par with the super-efficient Bucking Bronco.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charge !vig,cha-
Tier: Middle
Total Upgrade Cost: $2,169
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 25
Damage: 175
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).
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 25
Damage: 350
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).
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: Hit a target with Devil's Kiss, then Charge them. They will
expel little grenades that explode at close range.
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 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).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Undertow !vig,und-
Tier: Bottom
Total Upgrade Cost: $1,449
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 31
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 is the time while they are being
launched and standing back up, for automatons this is the total time
(as they are not launched back).
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.
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 62
Damage: ~50 from the impact.
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).
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.
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 an instant blast of damage (~1000);
this doesn't work on Handymen.
Discussion
Alas, Undertow is a tad underpowered Vigor, especially for 1999 Mode. Its
power can be defined in one word: situational.
The disabling effect from the primary mode is incredibly weak for its
cost, relying almost solely on situational use cases to shine: when your
targets are near a railing or when you are fighting a Patriot. Don't get
me wrong, those are some pretty great use cases, just not _that_ common.
The alternate effect, however, can be a bit suicidal. 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. 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). You may be able to
properly prep for using this by dropping a trap right in front of
you, preparing a Shock Jockey blast for electrocution, or having a
high-impact close-up weapon, but still... Moreover, it doesn't help the
fact that while you're trying to swoop around and grab extra foes with the
Undertow Aid upgrade, you are heavily exposing yourself to extra damage,
though the Undertow Boost will let you do this from an inherently safer
distance.
The alternate effect does have situational moments, too: its stun is
100% effective against Handymen and--unlike Murder of Crows--the Handyman
is stationary while stunned, making him a prime target for critical hits in
the heart, an easy way to get the Heartbreaker achievement. It does bear
mentioning that the alternate effect is 62 Salt versus 28 for the primary
effect of Murder of Crows, so you'd better be really good at taking
advantage of the stun (and have a weapon that critical hits well) or else
you are just burning through your Salt much faster.
In certain fights, you can also use the alternate effect to move foes
into a position where they don't really pose a threat, such as pulling a
Patriot onto a ledge at the edge of the battlefield or a Fireman next to a
Tesla Coil. Again, primarily situational.
The combo is mediocre or inefficient depending on how you do it. Doing
a primary effect blast of Undertow on an electrocuted foe is
semi-efficient in terms of damage, but if you've got an electrocuted foe
don't you just want to headshot them a few times? Doing an alternate
effect and then following up with a Shock Jockey is potentially useful, but
in 1999 Mode the electrocution may not be enough damage to kill your foe,
and did you really just want to spend 78 Salt (62 from Undertow and 16 from
Shock Jockey) plus some bullets to kill a foe? Keeping in mind, of course,
that for 25 Salt you could have done the same thing with an upgraded
Possession, and you would've gained a temporary ally in the process. Note
that upgrading Shock Jockey helps the efficiency problem out, as you could
theoretically grab three far away foes and then electrocute them all in one
hit.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return to Sender !vig,ret-
Tier: Top
Total Upgrade Cost: $2,185
Primary (tap)
Salt Cost: 20
Shield Duration: 3 seconds.
Effect: creates a blue shield, which stops all bullets from hitting you.
Alternate (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 20
Damage: 450
Effect: creates a trap; when triggered, it propels enemies away, dealing
damage and rendering them vulnerable while they stand up.
Alternate 2 (hold & release)
Salt Cost: 20 to start, 10 per second
Damage: somewhat dependant on absorbed ammunition, at least 450 but I
generally can do at least ~900 after absorbing a few bullets.
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.
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.
Location: vending machines starting with Downtown Emporia.
Combos
None
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. Do note that this
only stops _bullets_, so Return to Sender won't do anything against
rockets, flak cannon shells, or a Fireman's Devil's Kiss.
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. Interestingly, it does more base
damage with greater efficiency than Devil's Kiss primary effect, but it has
very tricky aiming (it's effectively a trap, so you have to be on-target or
shoot it with a weapon) and you can't upgrade the damage effect or combo it
like you can with Devil's Kiss.
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.
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 the
upgrades, though interestingly you may not need both since each upgrade
accomplishes something quite different. In general, the boost to your
survivability from regularly using this Vigor is amazing.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Weapons !wea-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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: shotgun, hand cannon.
Honorable mention: repeater with all upgrades.
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 also provide all Silver Eagle upgrade costs, so you can help plan in advance
what weapons you will be able to afford to specialize in.
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).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
Damage Boost 1: $199, +25% 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: you get this as your first weapon and for the most part it
is rapidly obsoleted. Its only saving grace is that, given its
fast rate of fire (in fact only beaten by the machine gun and crank
gun) and reload rate, its damage per second output is actually quite
comparable to better weapons, except with low spread. However,
even with damage upgrades, if you don't have perfect 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
Damage Boost 1: $236, +25% 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 much of an
improvement over the pistol. It fires faster, so it effectively does
more damage than a pistol, but its low accuracy means 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 despite having such a high fire
rate, 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.
Hand Cannon
Damage: ~300
...on critical hit does x3
...moderate recoil
Clip: 6 Reserve: 18
Fire Rate: 75 rpm Reload Speed: Moderate
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: now we're talking. 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 and has much better accuracy, making consistent
criticals possible. 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
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).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
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. Very powerful 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
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
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
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).
Burstgun
Damage: ~50
...on critical hit does x2.25
...moderate spread
...moderate recoil
Clip: 30 Reserve: 120
Fire Rate: 265 rpm Reload Speed: Moderate
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).
RPG
Damage: ~750
...high recoil
Clip: 2 Reserve: 8
Fire Rate: 40 rpm Reload Speed: Very Slow
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.
Volley Gun
Damage: ~112 from shell, ~300 from explosion
Clip: 8 Reserve: 24
Fire Rate: 120 rpm Reload Speed: Slow
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.
Hail Fire
Damage: ~350
...if you delay the detonation of the shell (by holding down the attack
button), then the impact of the shell on an enemy will also do ~112
damage
Clip: 5 Reserve: 25
Fire Rate: 545 rpm* Reload Speed: Slow
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
* Theoretically this weapon has a fast fire rate, but to take full
advantage of the weapon itself, you have to hold down the attack button
to launch, and then release the attack button to explode the
projectile, which is significantly slower than if you were just
rapidly mashing the attack button.
Discussion: honestly, you should give this weapon a pass in 1999 Mode.
The firing mechanism is tricky but not damaging enough to warrant
mastering. Ammunition is incredibly rare, 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special !wea,spe-
Skyhook
Damage: ~112
Fire Rate: Moderate
Discussion: there are plenty of Gear that specifically enhances this melee
weapon, too, 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
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. 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
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)
Also note that while there are 40 Gear, there are only 25 locations, so you
will never see all the Gear in one game (in fact, since some are fixed, you
really have 35 randomized Gear in 20 locations plus the 5 fixed Gear). In
fact, you could get extremely unlucky and get a bunch of Gear poorly suited for
1999 Mode, which might be an argument in favor of reloading at a checkpoint.
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hats !gea,hat-
Top Tier: Hill Runner's Hat, Sheltered Life
Middle Tier: Ammo Cap, Electric Touch, Spare the Rod, Rising Bloodlust, Storm
Bottom Tier: Burning Halo, Gear Head, Quick Handed, Throttle Control
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 200* damage over 3
seconds.
Discussion: modestly useful early in the game, but relying on melee to
kill your foes is a recipe for death in 1999 Mode.
(* 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.
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.
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.
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 gives a weaker version of the "Crows Trap Mod"
upgrade to other Vigors. Unfortunately, the range is rather limited,
so you might not get as much use out of it as you might hope.
Throttle Control
Tier: Bottom
Effect: Better braking and throttling on skylines.
Discussion: Gweh? The only Gear I really see no point for.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shirts !gea,shi-
AMAZING Tier: Winter Shield
Top Tier: Blood to Salt
Middle Tier: Bullet Boon, Coat of Harms, Drop Cloth, Nitro Vest, Scavenger's
Vest, Shock Jacket
Bottom Tier: Executioner, Pyromaniac, Sky-Line Accuracy
Blood to Salt
Tier: Top
Effect: slain enemies have a 40% chance of instantly restoring a
percentage of your total Salts.
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. Because
the recovery is a percentage of your total Salts, this Vigor heavily
rewards players who invest their infusions in Salt.
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?
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.)
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.
(* 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pants !gea,pan-
Top Tier: Ghost Posse, Head Master, Urgent Care
Middle Tier: Angry Stompers, Fire Bird, Last Man Standing, Sky-Line Reloader
Bottom Tier: Brittle-Skinned, Deadly Lungers, Health for Salts,
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 Electric Touch, Spare the Rod, or Coat of Harms,
this could be quite serviceable, but aside from situational uses, your
melee attack is by far your worst attack, so you should generally just
shoot the damn enemy.
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.
(* takes into account 1999 Mode penalty.)
Ghost Posse
Tier: Top
Effect: enemies slain by a Vigor trap have a 50% chance that their guns
turn into floating allies for a few seconds.
Discussion: do note that it has to be a Vigor _trap_. That being said,
combined with stuff like Murder of Crows, you can quickly turn a
battlefield into an orgy of destruction on your side.
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 is implemented, it's not
actually a 50% bonus of your total critical hit damage, it's an
increase in the critical hit multiplier by .5 (if there is one). In
other words, if you're using a sniper rifle, a critical hit does 2.5x
normal damage. However, with this Gear, rather than doing 3.75x normal
damage on a critical hit (2.5 increased by 50%), it does 3x normal
damage (2.5 plus .5). Still a good Gear though.
Health for Salts
Tier: Bottom
Effect: lets you use Health to use Vigors when out of Salts.
Discussion: generally a recipe for suicide. Situationally, it could be a
life or death scenario where swapping into this Gear can mean using
an oh-so-crucial Murder of Crows or Possession. But in general, if
you're out of Salts, you should wait for Elizabeth to toss you more or
at least take solace in the fact that "well, at least I'm not about to
die."
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.
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Boots !gea,boo-
Top Tier: Overkill, Tunnel Vision, Newton's Law
Middle Tier: Kill to Live, Nor'Easter
Bottom Tier: Death from Above, Fit as a Fiddle, Vampire's Embrace
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.
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.
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.
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: Bottom
Effect: melee kills 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.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
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. Moreover, if you like to use Return to Sender, Return
to Sender can protect you against group #3 just fine, but less so against group
#2 (since either they're using explosives or are steadily getting within
rifle-butt range), and Return to Sender is almost useless against group #1
(except for shotgunners).
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; 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.)
Ever 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, much harder. Between the two Vigors that actuall disable the
Handyman, Murder of Crows is much more efficient (the primary effect of
Undertow doesn't do anything, so you _have_ to do the much more expensive
alternate effect). It's not worth combo-ing the Vigors with anything as any
extra damage you get out of it pales in comparison to the fact that you're
better off just shooting the Handyman and saving your Salts to do more
disables.
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 ends the Handyman is going to ram you. The
stun duration upgrade 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.
Since there's no stun duration upgrade for Undertow, you have to be in a
position to really take advantage of the Handyman's stillness, such as pounding
away at his heart with a hand cannon.
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. Find a sweet spot and snipe her.
3. Use Shock Jockey, Devil's Kiss, or Burning Halo to disintegrate many of
her minions and just go toe-to-toe with her (thanks to nocturbulous and
endersgame33 for pointing this out!).
For strategies 1 and 2, 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 3, having an "at range" weapon is less important and in fact, as
endersgame33 pointed out, you can just equip on a lot of melee-based Gear and
just keep Charging Lady Comstock over and over again (though the shield
regeneration upgrade for Charge is highly recommended).
Also note that for the graveyard, you have one extra strategy that I would
consider the best of the best:
4. Use a fully upgraded repeater with at least 40 shots in reserve plus
Head Master and Tunnel Vision and kill her before she has a chance to do
anything.
For strategy 1, what you're basically doing is finding some kind of cover
reasonably far away from her 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 she
revives all her minions.
For strategy 2, you're taking a similar approach, except now you're trying to
find a specific place you can camp out where you will be relatively unharassed.
The graveyard is by far the hardest location to find such a spot and it's
really contingent on the AI; a spot that was good in one run may not be good in
another. The vault and plaza are both easier to do this; the vault gives you a
nice bottleneck that sometimes her minions are loath to cross, and the plaza
gives you plenty of hiding spots plus a Mosquito tear that you can use to
distract aggressive minions.
The main difference between those two strategies is that strategy 1 is a bit
more consistent at the cost of having stricter prerequisites. Consistent,
because you don't need to find a sweet spot to trick the AI. Stricter, because
you need to have enough Salts for repeated uses of Return to Sender and a high
enough ranged damage output to slay Lady Comstock before the opposition becomes
insurmountable.
Strategy 3 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
(either to use those aforementioned Vigors or to Charge enemies with the
Burning Halo Gear equipped), but if you lack any decent "at range" weapon or
are lacking ammo you can take this approach to the battle.
As for strategy 4, if you have a fully upgraded repeater and the requisite
Gear, the moment you open the gate to start the graveyard fight zoom in and
fire away at her at full auto. It doesn't have to be at her head; as long as
you're in the general vicinity of the top half of her body, you will critical
hit her a lot. Disable the first two minions she raises with Murder of Crows,
an upgraded Shock Jockey, or an upgraded Bucking Bronco (or simply turn on
Return to Sender) and continue to fire away; if Elizabeth offers you more ammo,
don't take it, just reload your weapon when you run out. After Lady Comstock
raises her first two minions, she'll stand around a bit, and then charge you.
If you've done everything right, you will kill her before she reaches you (this
is by far the easiest way to dispatch her). You can sort of do the same thing
in the vault and the plaza, though without using a Dollar Bill machine you may
not have scavenged enough repeater ammo during your explorations to pull it off
again.
Other than for strategy 3, 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 #3).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 your 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 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 severly hampered (if not cancelled out), which buys
you plenty of time to deal with other foes and take out the zeppelins
with Songbird.
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 - 1382 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 cannot be affected by
any Vigor, so your best bet is to just wail on them with ranged
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 - 1658 Devil's Kiss, 600 - 2074 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-
2012.04.16 - 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.
2012.04.15 - 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.
2012.04.15 - 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.
2012.04.13 - 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.
2012.04.12 - 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"
2012.04.11 - 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.
2012.04.11 - 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.
2012.04.10 - v 1.2 (not posted)
Lowering estimated amount of $ from vending machines.
2012.04.10 - v 1.1b (not posted)
Fixing date format for updates.
Modifying header to be a bit more SEO.
2012.04.10 - 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.
2012.04.09 - v 1.0
Initial release. Still missing some data, but important to get out there.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Guides !app,oth-
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
===============================================================================
