Re: Survivor mode

me and Oz have some different strategies for beating survivor mode, and you are right to think that the beggining is the hardest part on survivor.

When you come acros you're first big daddy, the best way to kill it is to go back to the beginning of the level, where you will find a circus of value.  from there you can buy electric bucks.  you'll need 12-16 of them.  they will shock the big daddy for just less than a second, which is enough time to reload and shoot again.  you'll also need to be fairly close to do a little bit more damage.  My brother also noted to me (after I had finished the game), that shooting the big daddies in the back does more damage.  you should certainly try this.

now… the shotgun only has 4 rounds total loaded, so once you've exhausted them, you need to run, because the big daddy will be pissed that you've just shot him 4 times.  quickly use your lightning plasmid to shock him for a little big longer and run round the corner.  if the big daddy doesn't see you, then he will keep looking, but he won't charge at you in full speed unless he can see you.

After shocking him, you need to switch back to your shotgun while running away to make time to reload the shotgun fully with 4 more electric bucks.  when aproaching the big daddy, it a good idea to shock him with the plasmid first, so he doesn't charge at you when you're coming back to him.  another good idea to save the energy is to aproach him from behind.

don't get too close to him either, as he will send you flying.  and if you get pinned to a wall, you've lost the fight.

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Once you've killed the first big daddy, you should make sure as to SAVE EVERY little girl you come across.  you get double the ADAM for harvesting them, but the rewards for saving them is far greater in the long run.

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you're choice of weapons and plasmids are entirely up to you as you should feel comfortable playing the way you want to.  but here are a few tips:

you WILL run out of ammo if you don't shoot them in the head.  ergo, a good weapon of choice is the crossbow.  once you get it, you can headshot enemies with deadly precision.

MAX the Research on the Houdini Splicer as soon as possible.  researching the houdini splicer will give you the natural camouflage tonic and is your saviour in this game.  especially in survivor mode as it allows you to become invisible to ALL the enemies, as long as they don't see you move.  

You can see that these two particular tips are mutually beneficial.  you stay cloaked while you line up a good headshot.

Plasmid choice – don't buy plasmids or tonics until you've bought HEALTH; Don't buy EVE until you feel you need a little bit more later on in the game.  the reason?  they become cheaper with each chapter and one part in the game you start losing your health.  on survivor mode, you're gonna need as much health as possible for that particular chapter.

One particular plasmid that I used a whole lot was the Security plasmid. (sorry i forget the proper name of it).  this plasmid allows you to tag an enemy, to which they won't notice you tagging them, but the security cameras pick up that tag, and order the security bots and turrets to start attacking that enemy.  this works wonders with the big daddies later on in the game starting from the 2nd chapter. 

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story wise, if you're a trophy whore, read this because it's important, but if you're not a trophy whore at all, then skip it because it contains a spoiler.

when you meet sander cohen, hell ask you to complete his masterpiece.  once you do, he starts coming down the staires to greet you and look at 'his' finished piece.  at that point, you have the opportunity to kill him and obtain a key to open a lock for a tonic i think.  but DON'T!  if you kill him there and then, you can't enter his apartment later on in the game, which gives you a much better tonic, a safe of items, and a weapon upgrade, not to mention the trophy to finally enetering his personal quarters.

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Oz was also talking about the wrench… THE reason I didnt use the wrench is beacause it's weak.  now sure you can power it up, but think of all those tonics you need to have to power it up in the first place.  just think about what you COULD have there.

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Reseaching tips.  MAX out EVERYTHING, the benefits are far too great to ignore, and also make sure you take 3 or 4 pictures of each enemy.  take them in quick sucession and it's almost the same as taking the picture once, except you get loads more research points for it.  another thing to look out for is photographers eye, and photographers eye 2.  the extra 15% means you can get your research done quickly to get it out of the way.

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final note.  If you're doing it without vita chambers, save every couple of rooms, and at every event (e.g. a boss or suspicious looking room).  also make sure you turn vita chambers off Before you walk out of the pod at the beginning of the game because there is a vita chamber right at the start of the level on the right hand side.  if you walk by it, it will activate.

if you're doing survivor WITH vita chambers, then you've got nothing to worry about… at all!

I hope some of this helps.