BioShock 2

I wanted to share this for those who don't care for a challenge or cheating.

**Tutorial**
Get out your scout*. Use it and right away Press A at the Gene-Bank. If it showed the ghost image, before you enter Gene-Bank, you got it! Now replace scout with any perk., leave Gene-Bank and leave scout.
You are now invincible!

*Scout is located in Siren Alley's Little Sister machine. It's in Little Eden Plaza. Right after that it should be super easy all the way!

This has some SPOILERS in it. I tried to mark them all, but there are probably some I missed. If you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read this. If you want it spoiler-free, here’s a walkthrough. Max out your drill, use every drill tonic, the freezing drill especially, max out Winter Blast to Level 3. That’s my tip in a nutshell for those who don’t want minor spoilers.

If you want to cut time on your playthrough, go for this and the Big Brass Balls achievement, but the Big Brass Balls(completing the game without using a Vita-Chamber) can be unlocked on EASY. BioShock's Brass Balls achievement was added later, and you had to be on HARD difficulty; this is not the case in BioShock 2, although they could always do the same thing for BioShock 2. I was able to get every achievement in one playthrough on Easy except for completing the game on hard(and one easy secret achievement I missed). Trying to do the Big Brass Balls achievement on hard will just make your life a lot more miserable.

Now, my advice when going through this game on Hard is this: don't do the Big Brass Balls achievement. Turn on vita-chambers, if you had them off. (Another note: I unlocked the Big Brass Balls achievement with them enabled, I just never died)

Here are a few MAJOR points to follow:

- I recommend saving your human enemies, and harvesting the little sisters. I did about 10 gathers, for the first 5 Little Sisters. After that, I immediately harvested them, and still had 400 ADAM left over when I finished the game, using my method.
- Don’t be afraid to die! In regular combat, dying isn’t so bad. You’ll just spawn in a Vita-Chamber.
- I beat the entire game without touching any weapons other than the drill and Machine Gun. Which means that it could end up being a heck of a lot easier for you(and it was pretty easy for me as it was).
- Make use of the exploits you can find(such as EVE dispensers, which I’ll mention later).
- The Fountain of Youth tonic, for those patient enough to use it, is IMMENSELY helpful.

Avoid spending money on health, unless you absolutely have to, such as to prepare for an instance you know you can’t die during(i.e. gathers, boss fights). Save often, just in case. You don’t want to get caught in a bad spot, or have to reload the entire area because of a glitch. Gather up as many First Aid kits as possible. Unless you are religious against dying, only use one if you find another one lying around and you are carrying the max. If you die with 5 Health Kits, you spawn in a Vita-Chamber with 5 health kits. I started my hard playthrough trying to spend money on both health and EVE and never had enough money to buy everything else. This will save you a LOT of money for keeping your drill fuel up(for reasons explained later), along with special ammo.

In my playthrough, I maxed out the drill and used the other ammo when appropriate, but the Freezing Drill/Winter Blast Tonic and Plasmid work wonders in taking out Big Daddys, and many other powerful foes, for that matter. As long as you take advantage of the opportunities you’re given, hard mode isn’t very hard at all. Of course, that could be said of any game where you can never really “die”.

On the first level, you have an EVE dispenser. The second level also gives you an EVE dispenser(although I can’t confirm this one is infinite), and where you get Telekinesis, an infinite supply of food and EVE-restoring products(I say infinite, but there may be a limit, I only had 50 or so canned items sitting around before I stopped). On Paupers Drop you can use the drill refill to farm big daddies for money and max everything out. In Siren Alley you can use the slot machines and save/load to max your money out, as the slots aren’t fixed like they were in the first game. ***MINOR SPOILER*** Make sure that before you attack Father Wales you have maxed out your money using the slot machines. If you do, you will be able to fly through Dionysus Park and most of Fontaine Futuristics***END SPOILERS***

Almost every level has some exploit to use to get through it. And really, the game isn’t even that difficult outside of using these.

Another key point to beating the game is equipping the right plasmids and tonics, and making use of the right ones. Outside of using different ones for research, the only plasmids I used on a regular basis were EletroBolt and Winter Blast.
I already mentioned the Freezing Drill Tonic. This is one of the main tonics I used, and (***MINOR SPOILERS***) it’s found inside the hotel, at the back on a body on an altar, in which you confront Grace Holloway on Pauper’s Drop***END SPOILERS***. Another tonic which will be important to use is the Fountain of Youth tonic, found for researching the Spider Splicers completely.

At the conclusion of the game, my tonics were(I’ve purchased all available slots):

Careful Hacker 2
Drill Power 1 AND 2
Booze Hound
Sports Boost
Vending Expert 1 AND 2
EVE Saver 1 AND 2
Thrifty Hacker
Medical Expert
Freezing Drill
Fountain of Youth
Armored Shell 2
EVE Expert
Ice Storm
Drill Vampire
Drill Specialist

Now, understand, everyone is a little different. The drill tonics were my way of playing through. If that’s the way you want to play, this is a great way to do it.
If you’ve been following my advice, upgrading the drill, using the drill power ups, etc, you should have no problems flying through Dionysus Park and Fontaine Futuristics, using the Winter Blast/Freezing Drill combo, then using water to refill everything with the Fountain of Youth tonic.

By the end of Fontaine Futuristics, you will probably be running low on money, and will be in a scrap for it. If you are really desperate, you can farm Big Daddies for money. ***SPOILERS***After finding all four ADAM flowers for Gil, you can repeatedly run over to where the final two flowers were, and a Big Daddy will usually spawn there***END SPOILERS*** Never use anything except a melee and slight Winter Blast….and keep attacking until someone dies. You’ll respawn in a VitaChamber. Run at him and keep attacking until he dies, and drops $50 or so, and repeat until you’re ready. Or, you can just continue on and hope for the best.
Remember, it’s the last level. Strategy for using certain things can go out the door. You’re not going to be needed all that extra ammo you’ve been saving up.

As far as this guide goes, if you’re looking here for help, you’re probably going to want to play the finale as conservatively as possible. Don’t go all Rambo just because it’s the last level. It could land you in serious trouble.

I was worried about the last level. But after farming the Big Daddys at the end of Fontaine Futuristics, and upgrading my Winter Blast, I had my money maxed out before the final Boss Fight, and actually didn’t even need to use it. The ONLY problem you’ll run into in the final fight is having to destroy the pipes, which is harder to do without a gun equipped(one of the tonics greatly reduces amount of EVE used but you can only use the drill). Just use Telekinesis and throw stuff at them until they burst.

Again, I was able to beat the game using only the drill(and occasionally the Machine Gun early on) using this method. It may work for you, it may not. But if you take advantage of the Fountain of Youth, this method will work well for you.
There’s not much else to say, but good luck!

SPOILER FREE
This game is not too hard on the hardest difficulty, but just use basic tips like you would on any other game on the hardest difficulty.

1. Take cover often.
2. Don't be afraid to heal when you have 50% health left.
3. Don't worry about your EVE it will reload by itself.
4. If you die, think about what is about to happen and lay A LOT of traps.
5. Save often.
6. Upgrade the plasmids you are good with, don't waste any on ones you don't use.
7. Optional: Consume the little sisters. (This helps a bunch)
8. Explore every spot in every room, plenty of EVE, health items, and cash can be found.
9. Don't rush, it will only get you killed.

And I think that's about all I can say, so good luck!
Message me if anything was not clear or anything.

As the description implies, you must beat the game on the hardest difficulty. It will unlock as the last cutscene before the credits starts to roll, so you have a long journey to go through to unlock it. First and foremost, save often, save smartly. (Just as if you were earning the Big Brass Balls Achievement)

My personal combo for the game is upgrading the Rivet gun fully as soon as you can. Great gun throughout the whole game. As for the second weapon, it's a split between your personal preference of the Machine Gun or the Drill. The Machine Gun will get a lot of ammo from the Leadhead Splicers (Plus it's special -ammo for machines and Big Daddy's rips right through them faster than any of the otehr weapons), but a fully upgraded Drill can cause some serious damage otherwise, and great for closing distances.

Lastly, I'd suggest you work on this achievement at the same time as the Big Brass Balls Achievement. You'll be saving a lot anyways, and it'll take that many less playthroughs to 100% complete it.

Save often, especially before gathers and entering new areas.

Make sure to research everything (get the extended reel and the other tonic for research, dump them when you are done researching) and get the research boost tonic (more damage from research). Also get all the weapon upgrades. Upgrade your rivet gun asap, then your shotgun, then your machine gun (lots of ammo around for this gun but it isn't that strong).
Try to line up headshots (maybe get the headshot damage tonic).

Get Winter Blast as soon as you can and make it a priority to upgrade it. This way you can freeze enemies and take no damage.

As far as tonics go... Get all hacker tonics, you can't afford to set off an alarm and you'll need the extra health packs and money from safes. Don't forget the tonics for 1 more healthpack/eve hypo. Eve saver tonics are also a must.
Don't destroy the health machines for that extra pack yet, do so when you really need them and have cleared the area.
Track back when you're out of health packs, you can destroy those machines and get a few.

Before gathers, drop down a few mini turrets and trap rivets, this'll make it a lot easier.

By far, the best solution available here for all sorts of players of different skill levels to beat this game on hard, from level 5 onwards, is the "**Tutorial**" one, but unfortunately it's badly written, so I couldn't really grasp it until I read what upindat wrote in the comments of that solution.

Performing this trick will allow you become "invincible" as the original guy described, meaning you will be invulnerable to damage. Unlike he mentions though, you don't necessarily have to see your "ghost" projection to know it worked. Here comes my version of that solution in a more inteligible way:

Make sure you have 40 ADAM credits available when you get to the level called Siren Alley (if you get to this point of the story with only 10 ADAM it can also work IF you collect the 3 sea slugs that are scattered on the ocean at the beggining of this level). As soon as you get to the dry part, watch the fight between the Big Daddy and the Splicers. If the Big Daddy wins (which is more likely) pass through him without picking a fight. At the first Gatherer's Garden machine that you see you must buy the Scout plasmid.

Now, go back to the entrance where you came from the ocean and stand in front of the Gene Bank to switch between plasmids. Before activating it with the A button though, while having the Scout plasmid selected, press the Left Trigger and *almost* immediately press A to enter the Gene Bank screen.

Once there, switch the Scout plasmid for any other available. Press B to get out of the Gene Bank screen and you might be out of your body (just like the Scout plasmid works) or not. In case you are, press B again to go back to your body. Now, let's try and see if the trick worked.

Go on and (save if you want) pick a fight with an enemy. If they shoot or hit you and your health bar doesn't drop, that means it's working. There are only two things, in my experience playing the game, that can disrupt this effect.

You'll stay invulnerable as long as you don't: 1- pick a Little Sister up (you can still kill her Big Daddy) or, 2- after picking one up (and performing the trick again), order her to gather ADAM from a dead body.

Since playing on hard makes you consume more health, eve and ammo, this is a very helpful trick that will demand you to have those 3 things stocked up and ready for combat only when your Lil Sisters are gathering (on those moments you'll naturally be vulnerable if there's no gene bank close enough for you to immediately redo the trick since you can't go too far away from her while she's gathering).

Also, as you'll know, dealing with the last little girl on each level puts you in a major combat. A safe way to prepare for those confrontations is by performing this trick.

It's not difficult at all to perform this trick. Even if you don't get it first try I'm sure you can do it with little practice.

If this solution helped you in any way, give it a thumbs up and leave a comment.

In addition to what everyone else is saying.This one really is pretty easy compared to the first game because you can use vita chambers. The only time i saved was when i turned the game off, but save as often as you feel necessary. Best thing is to keep max health kits and eve. Dont use a health kit unless you find another or getting low on health. Also be sure to hack every health machine, when you do it sets a trap that splicers and others will use and die. Dont be afraid to spend 9 dollars to refill health after its hacked instead of a health kit. As far as weapons i strongly agree to max out drill and use all drill tonics, including the one that only lets you use the drilll. I did this and it was a breeze. And finally, dont harvest the final little sister in each level until you are about to leave, if you are quick you wont have to fight the big sister. Good Luck

Caution------- Spoilers------ throughout this, this is how I was able to do it, and I will do my best to give what information I can. and the ---Spoilers start now---

First if your going for the Big Brass Ball Achievement, this won't help. I died several times myself while playing.

I Harvested every Little Sister, but spared the people. At the end of the game I had 190 ADAM left. I bought Health and Eve boosts from each one of the Gatherer's Garden first before buying or upgrading my plasmids.
Plasmids I got and maxed are Electro Bolt, Incinerate!, Security Command, Winter Blast. I left Telekinesis at the first level.

I used the research camera till everything was maxed, it makes the game toward the end, Fontaine Futuristics and on ward, a lot simpler. This will get annoying because you will die, due to lack of health packs or money. I recommend hacking everything, more so the health stations for free health packs and the chance of killing splicers.

As for Weapons, I used and maxed out the Drill, Machine Gun, Shotgun and the Launcher. In Dionysus Park don't use the Power to the People Machine until you have the Launcher. It was a great help in this map and even more so when you have full upgraded it.

Tonics I had at the end of the game were
Sports Boost, Hardy Machines, Eve Link, Eve Saver 1 and 2, Head Hunter, Cure All, Medical Expert, Electric Flesh, Handyman, Fountain of Youth, Natural Camouflage, Eve Expert, Vending Expert 2, Thrifty Hacker, Drill Vampire, Elemental Vampire,Walking Inferno and Booze Hound.

I'm going to strongly agree with Bonkekook on the Fountain of Youth tonic, though it works best along side the Natural Camouflage tonic.

The quickest way I was able to get Fountain of Youth tonic was when putting in the door code* at Siren Alley, when all of the Spider Splicers come out to attack you. You have the use of the turret chair gun and any Mini-Turrets, as well as a Health station at the bottom of the stairs. At the end of all the fighting I was at level 3 and half. It was then maxed when i was protecting my little sister while she was gathering ADAM.
*I didn't go after the code in The Pink Pearl, the door just took the code. But I did visit it for the body that has ADAM.

I hope that what Information I have given will be helpful.

Edit: To the two trueachievement users who gave my solution a negative. Sorry it did not help, would be great to know what issue's you two had with it so a possible fix can done.