BioShock

BioShock

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Historian

Historian

The player has found every audio diary.

50

How to unlock the Historian achievement in BioShock - Definitive Guide

After all of the comments about maps, I looked on the interwebs and found the following site with a very good workup of the maps:

http://www.visualwalkthroughs.com/bioshock/maps/maps.htm

I did not make these maps, rather just found a need to share them as the text can be difficult to follow. The maps are from visualwalkthroughs.com by Mike Mangold.
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31 Dec 2009 14:59

24 Comments
Eventually you are able to go back to places you've been to collect anything missed yeah?
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By OldMateClown on 25 Jan 2011 03:14
Everything but the very first area, I had to play through the entire game again because i missed an audio diary there. :[
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By Greggie Smallzz on 26 Jan 2011 13:04
^ I feel your pain missed the HOLE IN THE WALL diary in my first playthrough. Thanks for the guide, helped me find my last 2 diaries. Would have been goin crazy to find them!!!
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By Atomic Clutch X on 01 Feb 2011 23:47
Those maps are great I'll be using them for sure.
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By Avrexid on 29 Mar 2011 02:50
I think i missed out on the New Years Eve Alone diary, on the 'welcome to Rapture' part...
So i have to do it all over? (can it be done on easy?
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By ChrissieXX on 20 Jun 2011 12:38
You've got to get all of the diaries in one play-through I'm afraid, so you have to it all over, easy is fine.
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By Greggie Smallzz on 20 Jun 2011 22:31
Great maps...madd props!
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By Solario32 on 20 Sep 2011 17:26
The maps are fantastic. True dat!
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By SUZZA2014 on 01 Jul 2012 13:00
You can also miss audio logs in "Rapture Central Control". I just noticed that I'm missing one from there. :/
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By TRAPCHAW on 11 Jul 2012 23:36
I don't remember if you can go back one you are a big daddy, but I don't think you can. Also, if you reload a chapter, you will have to play the whole game gathering all the diaries from that point. Basically you need to have all of the diaries in your inventory at one time.
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By Greggie Smallzz on 25 Aug 2012 13:21
You are still able to go back as a big daddy
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By H3avyArms666 on 16 Sep 2012 00:20
The visual walkthrough on that site is excellent. It's a lot more work to make a visual walkthrough than a text walkthrough so I've noticed the visual ones are always missing some details, but this is the first one I've used that was perfect.
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By olde fortran 77 on 17 Nov 2012 16:30
I can't find number 3 in farmers market..
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By STx SHROOMS on 02 Jan 2013 17:50
Is there a way to check in game which ones you have already?
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By VCS 2600 Atari on 06 May 2013 21:29
Has anyone heard of a glitched achievement in this game? I'm showing I have them all but no wonderful bong noise. :/
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By JadosStalin on 12 Dec 2013 15:26
I also got them all in one save but haven't got the achievement, any ideas to what could have happened? This is really bothering me
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By CowgirlFromHell on 29 Apr 2014 01:21
I just reached Fort Frolic level and saw this guide. I'm really happy I did collect those missable ones.
I have only missed one in Medical Pavillion
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By Mr FORTY SEVEN on 10 Oct 2014 01:06
I also can't find #3 in the Market...
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By iamrobertkrogh on 31 Mar 2015 00:12
Dead link.
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By Haseo ATC on 25 Jan 2019 05:06
The maps can now be found archived here: https://web.archive.org/web/20080118130628/http://www.v....htm
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By GeneralJazza on 08 Jan 2020 21:21
I have missed about ten audio diaries, but i'm near the end of the game. I still need to find the last couple of audio diaries in the area, where I am, where you become a big daddy and then fight Frank Fontaine. Can I go back to other areas to get these audio diaries? Is it possible to collect audio diaries that you missed, if you re-load a chapter? Would you have to collect all of those diaries in the chapter again?
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By Grotesque Fiend on 10 Aug 2012 10:03
Hit the back button to bring up the map. Then bumper past goals and you'll see a list of areas you've been with audio logs you've picked up (in the order you picked them up).

If one is missing check the logs listed under other areas before scouring the map for it, e.g. First Encounter in farmer's market shows up in smuggler's for some folks and others have reported similar glitches but supposedly they still count, they're just listed in the wrong section.
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By Reron on 17 May 2013 06:02
Using the visual maps was the single greatest asset to getting all the collectibles, thank you for posting it.
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By Lispless on 29 May 2013 17:25
# 3 in the market is glitched. When you pick it up, it appears under the Neptune’s Bounty audio logs. Was driving me crazy until I googles it.
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By Irvinman on 22 Jul 2021 22:01
View all 24 comments Show less comments
For This you need to collect all 122 audio diaries. Most of these you can hunt down at any time, but 5 of this are missable and would require a previous save or restart to get, those are the first two in Welcome to Rapture, and the three in Rapture Control Room(Ryan's office) once leaving these areas you cannot return to them.

Here is a list of all the audio diaries, organized by the area they are in.

Welcome to Rapture - 2
1. New Year's Eve Alone
2. Hole In The Bathroom Wall

Medical Pavilion - 17
3. ADAM's Changes
4. Released Today
5. Higher Standards
6. Love For Science
7. Parasite Expectations
8. Limits of Imagination
9. Vandalism
10. Freezing Pipes
11. Surgery's Picasso
12. Enrage Trial
13. Useless Experiments
14. Testing Telekinesis
15. Plasmids Are The Paint
16. Symmetry
17. Aphrodite Walking
18. Not What She Wanted
19. Gatherer Vulnerability

Neptune's Bounty - 19
20. Bathysphere Keys
21. Timmothy H. Interrogation
22. Fontaine Must Go
23. Finding The Sea Slug
24. Picked Up Timmy H.
25. Masha Come Home
26. Watch Fontaine
27. Have My Badge
28. Adam Discovery
29. Eden Leaking
30. Fontaine's Smugglers
31. Death Penalty In Rapture
32. Meeting Ryan
33. Rapture Changing
34. Working Late Again
35. Smuggling Ring
36. Saw Masha Today
37. Arresting Fontaine
38. Putting The Screws On

Smuggler's Hideout - 3
39. Meeting with Fontaine
40. Kraut Scientist
41. Offered a Deal

Arcadia - 17
42. Seeing Ghosts
43. Big Night Out
44. Mass Producing Adam
45. Arcadia Closed
46. Shouldn't Have Come
47. The Market Is Patient
48. Offer A Better Product
49. Early Tests Promising
50. Heroes And Criminals
51. What Won't They Steal?
52. Teaching An Old Hound
53. The Lazarus Vector
54. Lazarus Vector Formula
55. The Saturnine
56. Arcadia And Oxygen
57. Maternal Instinct
58. The Great Chain

Farmer's Market - 8
59. Bee Enzyme
60. First Encounter
61. Hatred
62. Desperate Times
63. Pulling Together
64. Water in Wine
65. Adam Explained
66. Functional Children

Fort Frolic - 15
67. Come To The Record Store
68. The Wild Bunny
69. Artists' Feud
70. Fancy Cigarettes
71. Stood Up Again
72. Musical Insult
73. The Doubters
74. The Iceman Cometh
75. Fontaine's Army
76. Bump Culpepper?
77. Guns Blazing
78. Pregnancy
79. It's A Gift
80. Ryan's Stableboy
81. Requiem For Andrew Ryan

Hephaestus - 17
82. Ryan Takes F Futuristics
83. Scoping The Gate
84. Going To Heat Loss
85. Stopping Ryan
86. A Man Or A Parasite
87. Fontaine's Legacy
88. Running Short On R-34s
89. Assassin
90. Kyburz Door Code
91. Genetics Arms Race
92. Getting A Break
93. Market Maintenance Code
94. Device Almost Finished
95. The Dream
96. Assembling The Bomb
97. A Great Chain Moves Slowly
98. Impossible Anywhere Else

Rapture Central Control - 3
99. The Vita Chamber
100. Baby Status
101. Mind Control Test

Olympus Heights - 6
102. Mozart Of Genetics
103. Fontaine's Human Jukebox
104. Mind Control Antidote
105. Fontaine's Breakup
106. Artist Woman
107. Sad Saps

Apollo Square - 6
108. What's Happening Here?
109. Atlas Lives
110. Protection Bond
111. Meeting Atlas
112. The Longest Con
113. Today's Raid

Point Prometheus - 9
114. Why Just Girls?
115. Changing Employers
116. Extra Munitions
117. Marketing Gold
118. Cheap Son Of A Bitch
119. Missing Boots
120. Protector Smell
121. Mistakes
122. Protecting Little Ones
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5

31 Jan 2011 07:44

23 Comments
#60 First Enounter... I have that listed under Neptune's Bounty -- Smuggler's Hideout in the in-game Message Menu. So that being said, when you're playing the game looking for First Encounter, it IS in Farmer's Market. But for some reason, it is listed under Neptune's Bounty -- Smuggler's Hideout (at least in my game that is). I don't know if this is a glitch, or what.
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By Vulker707 on 28 Feb 2011 21:46
I had that issue with a later one that I got in Point Prometheus, it showed up in the Apollo Square list. Idk whats up with that.
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By Maniac Thanatos on 04 Apr 2011 11:10
I have got to the end of the game (just about to go up to fight fontaine) but am missing quite a few audio files, 1 of which is in the medical pavillion. Am I able to get all the way back there to find it? As I seem to be stuck at apollo heights and cant find a way back to the earlier levels! I have found the sewers where tenebaums safehouse is, but cant get in. Any help would be appreciated.
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By Slithe on 12 Aug 2011 09:10
Great solution! I simply printed the page and crossed them off as I got to them. Thanks!
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By DillionDay on 06 Nov 2011 00:50
Correct me if I'm wrong, but is it true that you can always collect them, no matter how far you're in the game (except for the one in Ryan's office and "Welcome to Rapture")? Because I am kind of confused.
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By Meneer Wietse on 13 Nov 2011 00:34
Yeah with the exceptions you mentioned you can back track for all the rest.
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By Maniac Thanatos on 13 Nov 2011 03:59
Until you get to Point Promethius you can go back and get them all apart from

Welcome to Rapture - 2
1. New Year's Eve Alone
2. Hole In The Bathroom Wall

Rapture Central Control - 3
99. The Vita Chamber
100. Baby Status
101. Mind Control Test

You must get those 5 on your first visit to those locations as you can't go back to them.
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By x RepoUK x on 16 Dec 2011 17:23
**SPOILERS** I just got the Historian Achievement and I was a Bid Daddy. I didn't noticed that I missed 56. Arcadia And Oxygen, and I was already escorting the Little Sister. I left her behind and went to the Bathyshere and traveled to Arcadia and scooped up the last Audio Diary along with the achievement. So I don't know if getting to Point Promethius stops you but it didn't stop me.
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By IcarusPain on 22 May 2012 23:25
I just got them all using your list and no achievement.
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By Homunculus Fury on 27 Aug 2012 04:53
Are you sure you got the five RepoUK mentioned above. My first two playthroughs I missed 1 or 2 because they are so early in the game
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By Maniac Thanatos on 27 Aug 2012 08:10
I missed The Vita Chamber audio log. Bloody 'ell! facepalm
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By Hanx on 14 Nov 2012 11:52
I missed the very first one and no way to get it. :(
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By Shadow XBL on 05 Mar 2013 06:38
Yes missing the first two is something I did my first play through as well. Which is why I went to the trouble of making this guide. GL on your next run!
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By Maniac Thanatos on 05 Mar 2013 20:52
Ok. So, I purposely replayed the game to get this achievement, I've used the guide so I know where they all are. Get to my last one, achievement doesn't pop up. Turns out I missed 'First Encounter' on Farmers Market. But, when I went back to get it, it's not there? I went round the whole map could not find it, resorted to a video, wasn't where the video said it was. Does this mean I may have to re-do the game AGAIN, to get this achievement? This sucks.
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By xhannaaa on 28 Jun 2013 22:55
My only suggestion is that you check all of them again and hope that the one you missed isn't that one or that its not glitched. Outside of you looking for the wrong one IDK what to say. I haven't heard of this glitching or audio diaries not spawning so I really think you must be looking for the wrong one some how. I hope you find it!
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By Maniac Thanatos on 29 Jun 2013 09:02
Read comment one for first encounter
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By Watty8883 on 29 Aug 2013 01:43
Just for those who don't know, if you go to messages, it lists the logs by order of collection, so using this guide helped me find the last log with ease (Genetics Arms Race). Plus for me!
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By TrimSkink on 20 Apr 2014 17:36
A word of warning on 95 - I went back later in the game and his body wasn't there so I couldn't collect it. So make sure you grab it on your first run
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By NegativeCreep08 on 06 Sep 2014 16:58
I recently started the game and I noticed I missed the first two... so, can get all the rest and then restart to get the first two, or I would have to get them all again?

So what I'm asking is, should I restart now and get them all (I'm still pretty early in the game)?
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By Galarzaa90 on 03 Aug 2015 22:51
Restart now you need them all on one save.
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By Homunculus Fury on 04 Aug 2015 08:34
This was so helpful! Missed “putting the screws on” right at the end of Neptune’s Bounty. Would never have known it was this one missing without this list. Thank you
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By Mightyb1ue on 14 Mar 2022 02:21
The "First Encounter" one isn't in the Arcadia menu, but in the Neptune's Bounty menu.
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By Shawn#5403 on 05 Jul 2014 04:27
@TrimSkink3471 Thank you for that! I followed collectibles guide but achievement didn't pop, I read what you put and took me 5 minutes to find the last one, then the achievement unlocked :) which my last one was in Neptune's Bounty (Adam Discovery).
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By Inferno9209 on 28 Sep 2014 19:16
View all 23 comments Show less comments
I no this is an old game but i have done an collectible guide for the

Audio Diary's
All Plasmids (Tonics)
Power To The Power (Upgrade stations)

All in videos with voice over the video to help you get what you need

Click Here For More Guides

http://www.youtube.com/needtoachieve

Hope these helps
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09 Dec 2012 07:41

14 Comments
great guide!!! thks man.
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By on 04 Jan 2013 15:24
Thanks.
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By Tony Soprano on 05 Mar 2013 20:17
REALLY helpful guide - many thanks for taking the time...
+1
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By DrShoe1976 on 17 Mar 2013 10:29
Thanks a lot!
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By Elibidation on 10 Apr 2013 21:34
fuckin love u, thanks
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By DeadGreg84 on 25 Jul 2013 11:59
Easy guide to follow, thanks for making the videos! +1
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By liljrSanchez on 22 Dec 2013 03:07
Pretty good guide, but it would've been nice if you mentioned in the original post about your mistakes and the spending of adam as you go, had to back track a couple times.
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By Ace Phoenyx on 02 Dec 2014 17:36
Absolutely magnificent! I'd +1000 this if I could. Thank you very much. I only.missed 5 diaries and 2 tonics. Without this solution I never would had found them. Awesome!
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By Darkness727420 on 08 Mar 2015 20:36
Great guide but he's missing a few things
4 combat tonic
2 engering tonic
2 physical tonic
And missing some audio diary
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By shagyx on 23 Jul 2016 17:26
Thanks for the guide.
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By on 14 Jan 2017 12:57
Great Guide brother! (2017)
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By Shizim83 on 05 Apr 2017 04:10
love this guide helped me get those annoying diaries
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By SONofGIANTS610 on 18 Oct 2018 20:42
Garbage, this guide misses a few items, therefore is incomplete....do NOT use this if you are playing on JP or KR stacks and don't have the additional DLC tonics, etc. Thumbs Down!
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By XBox Assassin83 on 30 Mar 2024 20:32
+1 👎👎
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By dANk Whiskey83 on 30 Mar 2024 20:39
View all 14 comments Show less comments
I used this videoguide, tidy and well made, it helped a lot because of its simplicity and clarity.


Author video: Shadow21Gaming

Locations for all 122 audio diaries in Bioshock.
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27 Jul 2013 12:58

One of my Youtube followers told me that i shall try this site. I have a "Start to finish" guide on the Historian achievement. Level for Level.

In the beginning the sound and quality is a bit shady, But after i while I found a good editing program and also bought an nice computer.
So the quality is better and better as you go!

Something in my head tells me that it shuold be 122 diaries total? But this is 123 diaries. So i dunno :P But i promis! Fwollowing this guide will give you Historian Achievement - 50G
(Recorded with El Gato GameCapture HD)

Lvl 1 - Welcome to Rapture (2 Diaries)
Lvl 2 - Medical Pavilion (18 Diaries)
Lvl 3 - Neptune's Bounty (19 Diaries)
Lvl 4 - Smugglers Hideout (3 Diaries)
Lvl 5 - Arcadia (16 Diaries)
Lvl 6 - Farmers Market (9 Diaries) (Missed one Power to the People station, In the basement, half coverd i water.
Lvl 7 - Fort Frolic (15 Diaries)
Lvl 8 - Hephaestus (17 Diaries)
Lvl 9 - Rapture Controlroom (3 Diaries)
Lvl 10 - Olympus Heights (6 Diaries)
Lvl 11 - Apollo Square (6 Diaries)
Lvl 12 - Point Prometheus (9 Diaries)
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17 May 2013 08:48

Here's a guide I made for all of the collectibles in Bioshock including all of the audio diaries, all of the weapon upgrade stations, all of the tonics and the few plasmids you can find around Rapture. Hopefully it helps some of you out.
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11 Jan 2020 19:56

There are 122 Audio Diaries in the game. You must collect them all during one save. If you save before going up the elevator to fight the final boss, you can return to almost any location in the game. In the thread linked below, Diaries marked with an asterisk (*) are ones that must be collected while you are in the area because you can not return to it later.

Check this thread for locations and maps.

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There are 122 Audio Diaries in the game. You must collect them all during one save. If you save before going up the elevator to fight the final boss, you can return to almost any location in the game. In the thread linked below, Diaries marked with an asterisk (*) are ones that must be collected while you are in the area because you can not return to it later.
 
Check this thread for locations and maps.
 
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This achievement is highly missable!

This achievement requires you to collect all 122 Audio Diaries that are spread throughout Rapture. This achievement is highly missable due to the fact that you cannot return to the Welcome to Rapture (2 Audio Diaries), Smuggler’s Hideout (3 Audio Diaries), or Rapture Central Control (3 Audio Diaries) areas. These areas contain a grand total of eight Audio Diaries that you cannot go back and collect once you move past them. It's a good idea to print a list of these collectables and compare them to your in-game log in order to make sure that none were missed before continuing to another level.

You can view which Audio Diaries that you’ve collected by pressing and then twice.

For a detailed text guide for all Plasmids, Tonics, Power to the People Stations, Audio Diaries, and Little Sister locations, please refer to Fizzmatix’s guide that was created for the Xbox 360 version of the game but is compatible with this remastered version. All credit for this guide should go to Fizzmatix. This is the guide that I used for my Xbox 360 and Xbox One playthroughs:

BioShock: Plasmids, Tonics, Upgrades, Diary's & Little Sister Guide by Fizzmatix

NOTE: Audio Diaries that you collected on your first playthrough will carry over to a New Game+ playthrough. If you did not collect all Audio Diaries during your first playthrough, you can collect whatever you missed on a New Game+ playthrough. However, you must know which Audio Diary or Diaries that you missed since all Diaries will be re-populated on the New Game+ playthrough.

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