Bioshock - Big Daddy Strategies?

In the Medical Pavillion or in Neptune’s?

Neptune’s, sorry.

Bite your tongue. The pistol never stops being useful. It is an accurate weapon at range, capable of great things with the right ammo (particularly when upgraded for damage – the clip upgrade is unnecessary, though).

If I’ve mostly finished off a Daddy with specialty shotgun rounds, I’ll switch to the pistol and AP to finish him.

Don’t underestimate telekinesis. Throwing a burning gas tank can really mess shit up, and it’s cheaper (in eve) than making a fireball from scratch.

I like to keep flying bots with me, because them suddenly opening fire keeps me posted on where he’s resurfaced. Once the tracers mark his position, I shock, take a picture, then empty one round of buckshot into his face.

Also, keep track of oil puddles as you want to stay near but not in them. On at least two occasions they’ve lit themselves on fire and died from that.

After you take enough pictures, you will get the ability to predict where the houdini is going to teleport, giving you a few seconds to see him start reappearing before he actually fully reappears. So move right up there and shotgun him in the face as soon as he pops out :).

Houdini splicers – pistol headshots. Shotgun if necessary. I’m told you can also use telekinesis to grab their fireballs and throw them back.

Hell yes, telekinesis is hands down my favorite power in the game. There’s nothing more satisfying than catching a grenade and hurling it back at the splicer who threw it.

Back on topic: I’ve been fighting Big Daddies using grenades, for the most part.

Once you get the grenade launcher, Big Daddies get easier. My favourite tactic is lacing the ground with proximity mines and then making the Daddy run through them. If you place 'em right, that usually ges rid of about 2/3rds of his hit points - a couple of shock rounds from the shotgun and he’s pretty much meat.

My other hilariously entertaining thing to do is unload a crapton of electric gel from the chemical thrower, which is a sorely underappreciated weapon I think, and just fry him on the spot. That’s deeply satisfying.

Hands down, the most effective anti-Big Daddy weapon is the electro-shock gel from the chem thrower. It’ll drain pretty much your entire supply (at least it did when I was playing through on hard) but it paralyzes them and drains their health faster than any other weapon. It’s very Ghostbusters proton-pack!

Alternatively, set up a line of about five electric tripwires with the crossbow at head-level. Nail the big daddy once, then round a corner and crouch under the tripwires. He’ll chase you, and the tripwires will bring him down, or at least soften him up for your armor-piercing machine gun rounds.

Electro gel is the best once you can make it.
A pile of trip-mines is the 2nd best (maybe followed by a electro-buck-shot blast).

+1 for the grenade launcher. I save my grenades for Big Daddy use only, but it serves me well.

Also, for fighting Bouncers (the run-at-you-and-punch-you-through-a-wall types), I found that using electric buck is my best bet for getting out of the run-smash-knockdown-smash death factory.

Yes, they do, though it’s in an easily overlooked audio log.

I’m not very far into the game, but it seems to me your best bet is to lay an ambush for Big Daddies: hack turrets and bots, lay proximity mines or tripwires, etc. Remember that he won’t attack you until you attack him or his Little Sister, so you have time to scout around for a good location to set your trap.

Some specific questions:

  • Which ammo types work best on Big Daddies? Armor piercing? Electric? Explosive?
  • Which plasmids are they most vulnerable to? In my last BD fight, I used freeze on him, then shot him, but he didn’t seem to take any damage while frozen; so rather than softening him up, I was just wasting ammo. Can anyone confirm that’s the case, though? [Even if true, freezing is still useful for buying yourself a breather to reload, heal, etc. Just need to know if I’m wasting bullets while he’s frozen.]

For damage armor piercing is the best, but electric will stun it. Explosive is a close second, shocking then hitting them with a grenade is great in the early game. I don’t think it’s possible to shatter a big daddy, I tried that later on and never got it down enough.