This guide will walk you through “Arcadia”, the fifth section of Bioshock. We will go through how to complete each area, as well as any optional items you can find along the way.
Map
Arcadia
1 – Arrival
Apparently, you cannot escape the eyes of Andrew Ryan in this place. The bastard has killed Atlas’ wife and child, Myra and Patrick, leaving you with an obligation to stick around long enough to help your would-be guide exact his revenge. After listening to Andrew Ryan’s threats concerning the air you breathe (he’s obviously planning something), Atlas tells you to get to the bathysphere in the Rolling Hills for direct transport to “the devil himself.”
It’s also worth mentioning that you’re going to start finding invention components on corpses and in containers from now on. Stash these away for later use at a U-Invent vending machine.
2 – Vita-Chamber
Another one of Rapture’s resuscitative wonders.
3 – Sealed Crypt
See that burned-out torch on the right side of the crypt doors? Light it up using your Incinerateplasmid and the doors will swing open, granting you access to the otherwise inaccessible chamber. Inside you’ll find four smuggler crates to loot for invention components, a couple of Proximity Mines, a Machine Gun, some Machine Gun Auto Rounds, and some Liquid Nitrogen (for a new weapon you haven’t found yet). You can also find some cash on the corpse inside the casket.
4 – Audio Diary #42
Resting next to some overturned chairs is a new audio diary. This one is labeled “Seeing Ghosts” and is narrated by McDonagh. As it turns out, you’ll see another ghost yourself as you move to the east.
5 – Audio Diary #43
Sitting next to the ghost-infested bench is another audio diary. This one is labeled “Big Night Out” and is narrated by one Dieter Sonnekalb.
6 – Audio Diary #44
Underneath an overturned table is another audio diary. This one is labeled “Mass Producing Adam” and is narrated by Tenenbaum.
7 – Strange Splicer
You’ll hear someone calling out for help behind the door in the northeast corner of the Tea Garden. When you investigate, the strange man will run off and beckon for you to follow him. If you get close enough to him and are quick about it, you can snap a picture with your research camera to learn that he’s a Houdini Splicer. Keep following him up to the second floor.
8 – Houdini Splicer
The Houdini Splicer grows tired of running at the top of these stairs and will begin launching fireballs in your direction. These can actually be caught with Telekinesis and fired back, though you have to be pretty quick as you’ll typically be hit with a barrage all at once. Regardless of which method you use to kill him, you’ll find some cash, a bottle of Chlorophyll Solution, and a First Aid Kit on his corpse.
9 – Audio Diary #45
Sitting on the worktable next to the Gene Bank is another audio diary. This one is labeled “Arcadia Closed” and is narrated by a new woman named Langford.
10 – Machine Gun Turret
While you’re dealing with the Leadhead and Thuggish Splicers in this room, you’ll be dodging bullets from the machine gun turret in this corner. Run up, snap a picture, then hack or destroy the damn thing. There’s a crawlspace door behind it that will take you to a lootable corpse and a Proximity Mine.
Through the crawlspace door, you’ll discover a Pistol, some Pistol Rounds, a couple of Bandages, and a safe. Hack the safe for five Antipersonnel Auto Rounds, forty Napalm, and some Kerosene.
12 – Malfunctioning Door
Electro Bolt will get you past this malfunctioning door, after which you can loot some Electric Buck, a First Aid Kit, and various invention components in the small storage room beyond.
13 – U-Invent Vending Machine
Here you’ll stumble upon your first U-Invent vending machine. You’re going to want to hack any of these machines before using them, as it reduces the number of invention components required to create an item. At this point, you should have enough components to build a couple of Automatic Hack Tools, some Armor-Piercing Auto Rounds, some Exploding Buck, or some Antipersonnel Pistol Rounds. If you don’t need any of those items, then just save your components for later.
14 – Vita-Chamber
Another one of Rapture’s resuscitative wonders.
15 – Big Daddy and Little Sister
Patrolling the area around this Gatherer’s Garden vending machine is this level’s first Little Sister and her Rosie protector. Prepare yourself for the upcoming battle, then fill the Big Daddy full of lead so you can harvest or rescue the little Adam-hungry orphan. If you’ve rescued every Little Sister up to this point (six in all), then Tenenbaum will send you another gift. Approach the Gatherer’s Garden vending machine and loot the teddy bear for two hundred Adam, the Safecrackerengineering tonic, and twelve Electric Buck.
You should have a considerable amount of Adam stashed away now, so go ahead and pick up some of the character upgrades at the machine. You can also upgrade to Electro Bolt 2 here and purchase the Cyclone Trapplasmid if you’re looking for a new way to kill all the damn Splicers.
16 – Houdini Splicer
This should be your second encounter with a Houdini Splicer. If you snapped a couple of photos of the previous one, then you should be able to grab another picture or two from this one to earn the Natural Camouflage physical tonic. This will make you invisible when standing still, which can come in very handy for when you set off security alarms or just need to take a breather during battle.
17 – Who Is Atlas?
You’ve probably been noticing a lot of “Who Is Atlas?” posters throughout Arcadia. This whole wall is plastered with them, and Atlas pipes up on your shortwave radio to tell you that he used to care about Rapture and its politics. Now, though, he just wants to see the sunlight again.
18 – Safe
The safe at the end of this crawlspace contains twenty Antipersonnel Auto Rounds, six Electric Buck, and some cash.
22 – Trap Bolts, Machine Gun Turret, and Security Camera
This walkway is filled with obstacles. Trigger the trap bolts prematurely with Incinerate or something similar, then destroy the security camera at the end of the hall before dealing with the turret. If you work on the turret first, the security camera will likely sound the alarm.
Once the way is clear, grab all the Frag Grenades that have spilled out of the overturned Circus of Values vending machine.
23 – Audio Diary #47
Beyond the malfunctioning door lies a few goodies, including another audio diary. This one is labeled “Heroes And Criminals” and is narrated by Diane McClintock.
24 – Machine Gun Turret
Wipe out this annoying turret, then grab the Proximity Mines scattered on the ground nearby.
Several roses flourish on the viny growth around this water wheel. Once you’ve been asked to retrieve a rose specimen for Julie Langford at area #36, you can pick one of these roses to complete the goal.
Additionally, perched on a crate below the water wheel is another audio diary. This one is labeled “Early Tests Promising” and is narrated by Langford.
27 – Flame Turret
Stationed in this back hallway is a turret capable of blasting you with searing flames. Dismantle it with your favorite explosive, then search the corpse, handbag, and smuggler’s crate for some useful items.
28 – Andrew Ryan Speaks
Your arrival in the Rolling Hills is met with a radio transmission from Ryan. “God did not plant the seeds of this Arcadia. I did.”
29 – RPG Turret
Toss an Electro Bolt at this turret and run up quick to hack it. It will be very useful against the Big Daddy that approaches from the west.
30 – Big Daddy and Little Sister
If you stick around this area for a bit, a Rosie should lumber up from the stairs to the west and beat on the wall to summon up a Little Sister. If you hack the nearby RPG turret rather than destroy it, this battle should be much quicker than usual.
31 – Audio Diary #50
Resting on the bench here is another audio diary. This one is labeled “Shouldn’t Have Come” and is narrated by Mariska Lutz.
32 – Plant Toxin
When you reach the lower level of the Rolling Hills, Andrew Ryan releases some sort of toxin in the air that starts killing off the trees and other vegetation in Arcadia. This prompts a message from Atlas, where he describes the obvious connection between trees and the oxygen you’re breathing. He tells you to find Julie Langford, the researcher who had originally planted the trees for Ryan. She may know of some way to keep the plantlife alive.
It’s also worth mentioning that the toxin has now exposed previously inaccessible areas that were covered with vines and other obstructions. The first one is just off to the east.
33 – Audio Diary #51
Until you’ve reached area #32 and triggered Andrew Ryan’s airborne toxin, you won’t be able to enter this cave. Just beyond the cave entrance lies another audio diary. This one is labeled “The Saturnine” and is narrated by Langford.
34 – Houdini Splicer
This Houdini Splicer might be a member of the Saturnine, but that doesn’t mean he’s any tougher. Snap a photo or two, then crush his skull and take the Chlorophyll Solution and other loot from his corpse. There’s another vial of Chlorophyll Solution over by the altar, too.
35 – Houdini Splicer
Until you’ve reached area #32 and triggered Andrew Ryan’s airborne toxin, you won’t be able to enter this cave. The flooded chamber is inhabited by another Houdini Splicer, so stick to the same methods you used in the previous cave to put him face-down in the water. Two more Chlorophyll Solutions can be found here – one on his body and one on a bench in the southeast corner.
36 – Langford’s Request
As you approach this door, two monitors light up with the scrolling face of Julie Langford. The professor realizes that it was Ryan that poisoned the trees, but she thinks that she might be able to create a genetic vector that can help save them. Before she lets you in to discuss the matter, though, she requests that you find her a rose specimen. This can be found down in the Waterfall Grotto at area #26.
Once you have the rose specimen, drop it in the pneumatic tube and Langford will open the door and ask that you come speak with her in her office.
37 – Security Evasion Tonic
On your way back down to the Waterfall Grotto to retrieve the rose specimen for Langford, you’ll stumble upon the Security Evasionphysical tonic lying on the ground surrounded by angry Splicers.
After you’ve begun the deployment of the Lazarus Vector to the Misting Machine in Langford’s office at area #41, you’ll be returning here to activate the nearby lever to seal the laboratory’s main entrance door. The Splicers will start cutting through it with a torch, so grab Atlas’s gift in the pneumatic tube (cash, an Automatic Hack Tool, and six Proximity Mines) and prepare for battle. You may want to start by setting a mine or two in front of the door before they break through.
Once they’re through, you’ll have to survive three separate waves of Splicers before the Lazarus Vector will be ready for full deployment. Once it’s ready, head back up to Langford’s office.
39 – Security Turrets Disabled and Audio Diary #53
As you enter this area, Langford will come over the loudspeaker to let you know that she’s hacked the security turrets between you and her office so that you won’t have to deal with them on your way. You have 3 minutes to get there before they become active again.
Also, check the shelf just inside the room to find another audio diary. This one is labeled “Teaching An Old Hound” and is narrated by Langford.
When you first reach Langford’s office at the top of the stairs, Andrew Ryan comes over the loudspeaker and recites some lines of a contract Julie had signed with Ryan Industries over rights to the Lazarus Vector. As he finishes, toxic fumes begin to pour into the room and Julie grabs at her throat as the poison fills her lungs. During her last few moments of life, she smears the number “9457” in the toxic film that has collected on her office window. With the professor dead, the door to her office opens up and you’re free to poke around.
Check Julie’s corpse for a new audio diary labeled “The Lazarus Vector” and narrated by Langford herself. This will explain what, exactly, the Lazarus Vector is meant to do. Next, grab the new Chemical Thrower weapon lying on her table and the Liquid Nitrogen ammunition that goes with it.
With that out of the way, check behind the Botanical Illustration at the back of the room to find a safe with a keypad. Thanks to Julie’s dying scribbles, you can key in “9457” and retrieve the cash, Market Key, and audio diary inside. This particular diary is labeled “Lazarus Vector Formula” and, as expected, is narrated by Langford. In it, the professor reveals the components necessary to build the Lazarus Vector – Distilled Water, Chlorophyll Solution, and Enzymes extracted from honeybee spit.
It’s time for a multi-part retrieval mission. The seven samples of Chlorophyll Solution are easy enough, as you’ve already discovered that Houdini Splicers carry them. You have yet to see any Distilled Water or Enzyme Samples yet, though. As Atlas will suggest shortly, you should pay a visit to the Farmer’s Market to begin your search for these two components.
Be careful on your way out of the Research Laboratories, as the place is now infested with Splicers and the security camera and turrets are no longer disabled. You may even run into a Big Daddy, which may or may not be accompanying a Little Sister (depending on whether or not you’ve harvested/rescued the two on this level or not). Either way, make sure you take some more research photographs.
When you finally return with the Lazarus Vector, deploy it into the Misting Machine sitting along the eastern wall of windows. Apparently it’s going to take a while, and in the meantime you’re hit with new radio messages from Atlas and Andrew Ryan. Ryan will have dispatched Splicers to Langford’s office to put an end to you once and for all, so Atlas suggests that you seal up her office to keep them from tampering with the Misting Machine before it can finish its work. To accomplish this goal, return to the Research Laboratories entrance and hit the lever at area #38.
After surviving three waves of Splicers, you’re ready to return here and his the Misting Deployment lever. Doing so will send a blue mist into Arcadia, restoring all the trees and plantlife to their former oxygen-producing ways.
42 – Audio Diary #56
Check next to this sack of fertilizer for another audio diary. This one is labeled “Arcadia And Oxygen” and is narrated by Langford.
43 – Power to the People
This Power to the People station should feature the same upgrades you’ve seen previously, in addition to the two new ones for the Chemical Thrower (assuming you’ve already been to Julie Langford’s office). Personally, I’d take the Shotgun Damage Increase, but you may want to opt for the Chemical Thrower Range upgrade if you intend to use your new weapon on a regular basis.
44 – Safe
Hack this safe for some cash, two First Aid Kits, and twenty Antipersonnel Auto Rounds.
45 – Audio Diary #57
Lying at the top of these stairs is a new audio diary. This one is labeled “Maternal Instinct” and is narrated by Tenenbaum.
46 – Exit
After a few flashes of your home cascade across your screen, you’ll be able to open this bulkhead door to reach the Farmer’s Market.
47 – Return to Arcadia
Once you’ve constructed the Lazarus Vector and have returned to Arcadia, Andrew Ryan will come across your shortwave radio to issue another threat while he sounds a 60-second alarm that calls a wave of security bots upon you. Deal with the bots as usual until the timer is finished, then continue heading to Langford’s office at area #41.
48 – Rapture Metro Entrance
With the Lazarus Vector fully deployed and all of Arcadia’s plantlife restored, you’ll be able to enter this previously sealed door to reach the bathysphere beyond.
