BioShock: Complete Guide

A full guide to the original 2007 BioShock and its 2016 Remastered version: the systems, the best Plasmids and Tonics, a level-by-level route through Rapture, the Little Sister choice and endings, and how to get it running on a modern PC.

Researched September 2026. Current as of the final PC builds of BioShock (2007, app 7670) and BioShock Remastered (2016, app 409710). Both are finished single-player games. Check the linked sources if something differs.

Original vs Remastered: Which One to Play

If you own BioShock on Steam, BioShock Remastered appears in your library as a separate game. 2K gave it free to existing owners when it launched on 15 September 2016. Both versions are still sold on Steam (check the store pages for current prices and bundle deals).

	BioShock (2007)	BioShock Remastered (2016)
Visuals	Original textures	Higher-resolution textures, models and UI, 4K support
Extras	None	Museum of Orphaned Concepts, Challenge Rooms, Director's Commentary: Imagining BioShock (Ken Levine and Shawn Robertson)
Steam achievements	None	65
Controller	Mouse and keyboard focused	Full
Platforms	Windows	Windows, Mac

Recommendation: Play Remastered unless you specifically want the untouched 2007 look or the remaster has problems on your machine. Everything below applies to both versions unless noted.

Quick Start

Carry a one-two punch: Plasmid, then weapon. Electro Bolt stuns enemies, and a wrench or shotgun follow-up finishes them. This combo carries the whole game.
Shoot enemies standing in water with Electro Bolt. It electrocutes everything in the pool. Incinerate! does the same for oil slicks.
Don't attack a Big Daddy until you're ready. They're passive until provoked. Plan the fight, use traps, and bring armor-piercing ammo.
Pick up everything and hack everything. Money buys ammo and health. Hacked turrets, cameras and bots fight for you. Hacked vending machines are cheaper.
Rescue or Harvest decides your ending. Rescuing Little Sisters gives less ADAM up front, but Tenenbaum sends gifts that make it roughly even. See the Little Sister section.
Photograph enemies with the Research Camera. Research unlocks damage bonuses and free Tonics. Snap every new enemy type.
Spend ADAM at Gatherer's Gardens on Plasmid and Tonic slots and new powers, and on health and EVE upgrades.
Vita-Chambers revive you on death. They make the game forgiving. On PC you can turn them off in the options for a harder run.
Switch ammo types. Every gun has three. Armor-piercing for Big Daddies and bots, antipersonnel for Splicers, and elemental rounds for specific weaknesses.

Core Systems

Resources

Resource	Use	Where it comes from
Dollars	Vending machines (Circus of Value, El Ammo Bumpo)	Corpses, containers, safes, register tills
ADAM	Gatherer's Garden purchases	Little Sisters (rescued or harvested), Tenenbaum's gifts
EVE	Fuels Plasmids	EVE Hypos, food and drinks (some cost health)
First Aid Kits	Heal	Found and bought
Components	U-Invent crafting (ammo, tools, Tonics)	Loot around Rapture

Weapons

Each weapon has three ammo types and two upgrades available at Power to the People stations. There's one upgrade per visit, so choose carefully.

Weapon	Roughly when you get it	Ammo types
Wrench	Opening minutes	Melee
Pistol	Welcome to Rapture	Standard, Antipersonnel, Armor-Piercing
Shotgun	Early game	00 Buck, Electric Buck, Exploding Buck
Machine Gun	Early game	Standard, Antipersonnel, Armor-Piercing
Crossbow	Arcadia	Steel-Tip, Incendiary, Trap Bolts
Grenade Launcher	Mid-game	Frag Grenades, Proximity Mines, Heat-Seeking RPGs
Chemical Thrower	Mid-game	Napalm, Liquid Nitrogen, Electric Gel

Weapons are story pickups on the main path, so you won't miss any of them. Their exact spots are in any level walkthrough.

Plasmids

Electro Bolt: Stuns enemies and shocks water. Also breaks some electrical locks. Essential.
Incinerate!: Sets targets and oil on fire, and melts ice. Burning Splicers run for water, which sets up an Electro Bolt.
Telekinesis: Grabs objects and catches grenades to throw back. Great for free damage and grabbing loot from hard-to-reach spots.
Winter Blast: Freezes enemies so you can shatter them with the wrench.
Insect Swarm: Distracts and damages groups.
Security Bullseye: Tags a target for cameras, turrets and bots.
Enrage: Turns Splicers against each other.
Hypnotize Big Daddy: Makes a Big Daddy temporarily defend you.
Cyclone Trap and Target Dummy: Trap and decoy tools.
Sonic Boom: Knocks enemies back.

Most Plasmids have upgraded versions (2 and 3) sold later at Gatherer's Gardens.

Tonics

Tonics are passive perks that come in three trees (Combat, Engineering and Physical), each with its own limited slots. The Gene Bank and inventory screens show which tree a given Tonic belongs to. Useful ones by job:

Melee and damage: Wrench Jockey and Wrench Lurker (the wrench build), Static Discharge (shocks melee attackers), Human Inferno.
Hacking and security: Hacker's Delight, Speedy Hacker, Focused Hacker, Safecracker, Alarm Expert.
Survival and resources: EVE Link, Medical Expert, Booze Hound, Natural Camouflage, Scrounger, Extra Nutrition, Armored Shell.

You can swap Tonics and Plasmids freely at Gene Banks, so experiment.

Hacking

Hacking is a pipe-flow minigame: flip tiles to build a path from start to finish before the flowing fluid reaches a dead end. Alarm tiles and overload tiles punish mistakes. Options:

Auto-Hack Tools skip the minigame.
Buy out machines and devices with money where offered.
Engineering Tonics like Hacker's Delight and Speedy Hacker make the minigame safer and more rewarding.

Always hack health stations. Enemies who use a hacked station get hurt.

Research Camera

Photograph enemies to fill research tracks. Each level grants damage bonuses against that enemy and sometimes a free Tonic. Big Daddies and rare Splicers give the most. Snap a few early photos of each new type instead of saving film.

Enemies

Enemy	Threat	Counter
Thuggish Splicer	Melee rushers	Wrench, shotgun
Leadhead Splicer	Gunners	Take cover, antipersonnel rounds
Nitro Splicer	Throws explosives	Telekinesis to catch and return grenades
Spider Splicer	Ceiling crawlers that throw hooks	Winter Blast, then shotgun
Houdini Splicer	Teleports and throws fireballs	Electro Bolt when they appear, Research Camera for bonuses
Big Daddy: Bouncer	Charging drill attack	Trap bolts, proximity mines, electric buck
Big Daddy: Rosie	Rivet gun at range	Armor-piercing rounds from cover, get close with stun combos
Security bots, turrets, cameras	Alarms and fire support	Hack them, or Electro Bolt and shoot

Beating a Big Daddy

Lay proximity mines or trap bolts in a corridor.
Shoot to aggro it, then retreat through the traps.
Stun it with Electro Bolt and unload armor-piercing or exploding rounds.
Fighting near water works well: Electro Bolt it when it stands in water.
Heal early. They hit very hard on higher difficulties.

Little Sisters and Endings

Once you defeat her Big Daddy, you choose:

Choice	ADAM	Longer-term
Harvest	160	Maximum ADAM now
Rescue	80	Tenenbaum sends gifts with ADAM and rare items after rescues, which evens out the difference

Rescue every Little Sister for the good ending. Harvesting pushes you toward the bad ending. If you want the good one, rescue them all.
ADAM totals end up close either way, so rescuing is the stronger overall choice.
Each level has a set number of Little Sisters. Clear them before leaving the level if you're going for completion.

Level Route Through Rapture

#	Level	Key events
1	Welcome to Rapture	Arrival, Electro Bolt, first Splicers
2	Medical Pavilion	Dr. Steinman, first real Big Daddy fights, shotgun
3	Neptune's Bounty	Machine gun, Peach Wilkins
4	Smuggler's Hideout	Short connecting level
5	Arcadia	Julie Langford, Lazarus Vector quest, crossbow
6	Farmer's Market	Gather ingredients for the Arcadia fix
7	Fort Frolic	Sander Cohen's "masterpiece" quest
8	Hephaestus	Build your way toward Andrew Ryan's office
9	Rapture Central Control	Ryan's office and the game's big twist
10	Olympus Heights	Tenenbaum's help
11	Apollo Square	Toward the finale
12	Point Prometheus	Assemble the Big Daddy suit
13	Proving Grounds	Escort a Little Sister
14	Final confrontation	Final boss

Missable-ish: Sander Cohen's photo quest. Take photos of the four disciples' bodies and place them on his masterpiece. You can also decide how to deal with Cohen himself. Check every level for Power to the People stations and Gene Banks before leaving, because some are easy to miss.

Difficulty and Vita-Chambers

Easy, Medium, Hard are the core settings. Check the difficulty menu in your version for any extra options.
Vita-Chambers respawn you at partial health with enemies keeping their damage. Turning them off makes deaths reload saves, which is the classic self-imposed challenge.
On Hard, plan Big Daddy fights with traps and focus on Tonics that help you survive.

Running It on a Modern PC

Remastered generally runs fine on Windows 10 and 11, but performance tuning is reported to help. If it crashes, try disabling overlays and running in borderless or fullscreen windowed mode.
Original 2007 version: its later patch added a horizontal FOV lock option (for widescreen) and a toggle to disable Vita-Chambers. If it won't launch, run as administrator, disable overlays and check community fix guides.
Mouse and keyboard work in both. Remastered has full controller support. For the original, plan on mouse and keyboard (or Steam Input mapping).

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Ignoring the Research Camera. Its damage bonuses are free power.
Using standard ammo on Big Daddies. Switch to armor-piercing.
Hoarding upgrades. Take Power to the People upgrades and new Plasmids when you find them.
Skipping hacking. Hacked turrets and bots win fights for you.
Harvesting "for the ADAM." The difference evens out, and you lose the good ending.
Forgetting Gene Banks. You can swap your loadout any time you pass one.
Wasting EVE. EVE Link and the Booze Hound Tonic help sustain it.

Advanced Tips

Stun-wrench build. Electro Bolt plus Wrench Jockey and Wrench Lurker makes the wrench one of the strongest weapons in the game.
Environmental combos. Water plus Electro Bolt, oil plus Incinerate!, frozen plus wrench shatter.
Trap Bolts, Proximity Mines and Cyclone Trap turn Big Daddy fights into setups you control.
Security Bullseye turns Rapture's defenses on your enemies.
Use Hypnotize Big Daddy in heavy Splicer fights.
Hack health stations on your route. They heal you for less, and Splicers who use them take damage.

FAQ

Do I get BioShock Remastered free if I own the original on Steam? Yes. Owners got it as a separate library entry when it launched on 15 September 2016.

Does the original BioShock have Steam achievements? No. Remastered has 65.

Should I rescue or harvest the Little Sisters? Rescue them for the good ending. The total ADAM ends up close either way.

Is BioShock scary? It has horror atmosphere and jump scares, but it's primarily a shooter with RPG elements.

How long is BioShock? Typically 12 to 18 hours, depending on how much you explore.

Can I turn off Vita-Chambers? Yes, in the options, on both the original (after its patch) and Remastered.

Is BioShock connected to BioShock Infinite? They're thematically linked, and the Burial at Sea DLC for Infinite returns to Rapture.