Bioshock > Provision > Vending

Vending

Andrew Ryan intended free enterprise to be the foundation of Rapture. That means nothing — well, hardly anything — is free in Rapture. Scrounging ammo and goodies from dead aggressors, Big Daddies and the odd container is not enough. You will have to spend money at any of the various vending machines throughout the city.

True Vendors

These are true vending machines: You give them money; they give you products in return. These machines are hackable with varying degrees of difficulty. If you are successful, you not only get cheaper prices but a greater variety of products.

Circus of Values

You really want to kick in this vending machine, if only to shut up that annoying clown voice. (Thanks, Ken!) Unfortunately, the vendor can take a lot of abuse and still keeps on working. The vendor dispenses various consumables, like ammo and hooch.

A handful of Circus of Values vendors are tricks. One in Fort Frolic charges outrageous amounts for its potato chips and Pep bars; you are meant just to buy film from it. Another, in Hephaestus, has been rigged by a disgruntled prole into dispensing lit grenades; but you can use Telekinesis to treat the vendor like a stationary nitro splicer; and the bombs are free!!.

El Ammo Bandito

Bienvenido a El Ammo Bandito! A sideline of Fontaine Futuristics, this machine sells only ammunition, and gives you only so much before running out. As the motif implies, the machine babbles at you in Spanish.

Other Moneytakers

These take your money but sell you services instead of products.

Health Station

There are health, or first-aid, stations throughout the city. There are three ways you can use the stations.

• By itself a first-aid station restores you to full health for R$16. But splicers can use it, too.
• If you hack the station, you pay only R$10 to use it. The station will also poison (usually to death) any aggressor who uses it. In areas of likely conflict, this is the best option.
• If you destroy the station, it ejects one or more first-aid kits. After that nobody can use the station. Use this option only if you are desparate for healing, or have little or no money, or are in an area that you will not pass through again.

Security Bot Shutdown

If you linger too long in front of a camera, provoking security bots after you, you can shut down the bots at this station. Then you can hack the bots to serve you. You will need R$20 for the privilege.

Gambling Machines

Whereas Rapture offer you chances to lose your life, Fort Frolic offers opportunities to lose your money as well. And while the two casinos are no longer in business, the gambling gaming machines, exclusive to Fort Frolic, are still functional. You deposit R$10, and if you are lucky and get three of the following, you get a payout.

You should be able to get $25 on the very first gaming machine you pull. I have read, also, that cooking a gaming machine with napalm or Incinerate will make it dish out money with every pull. But I have never gotten that to work.

Resist the temptation to plug all your money into the bandits when you ought be doing Cohen's will.

Swami Epstein

A Jewish fortune-telling machine? Fort Frolic has 'em! The Epstein the Swami boxes have a metal bust of a old man with a grey beard and wearing a turban. They have the stereotypical charm of an old Jew from out of New York, tired of life now that it is almost over. The box asks for one Rapture dollar, but grabs two. Then it gives you your fortune: That is, if by fortune you mean prophesy of impending doom.

• Believe me when I tell you I wouldn't want to be in your shoes.
• Darling, just close your eyes and hope it's over quickly.
• Eh. Perhaps in a past life you did something terrible to somebody.
• Hmmm, no, I don't think so.
• Let me tell you this: I wouldn't bet on you.
• Look at the bright side: Maybe it'll be quick and painless.
• So, better luck next time.
• So, uh, you have a plot picked out yet?
• So, you think you're getting out of here?
• Uh. It won't go well. It won't go well at all.
• Well, I hope you have somebody to carry on your family name.
• Sweetheart, maybe you should ask somebody else for advice.

Thanks, Eppie, I appreciate all you do on my behalf!

Pseudo-Vendors

They are not really vendors, as these do not take money at all; but they provide services.

U-Invent

This is a crafting machine described in the Inventables page.

Gene Banks

Gene banks let you swap plasmids and gene tonics with those you have in storage. This allows you to choose a particular set of plasmids and tonics according to your needs.

For example, you can swap in vending tonics if you have lots of moolah but are low on ammo. Or you can stoke up on wrench tonics if you feel like using the local citizenry for batting practice.

These gene banks — which early in the game's development were called plasmi-quiks and did take money — become more common as you progress in the game.

Power to the People

This sideline of Fontaine Futuristics (A gun in every home and peace on every street, quoth Frank Fontaine) lets you get one upgrade for one weapon for free before it shuts down for good. There are upgrades for every weapon except the wrench and the camera. You will find at least one of these vendors on every level, starting with Port Neptune below Fontaine Fisheries.

The P2P vendor provides greater damage ability for your weapon. It also enhances your pistol (capacity: your six-shooter becomes a 24-shooter), shotgun (faster rate of fire, making it semi-automatic), machine gun (reduced kick on firing), crossbow (better odds of recovering steel and fire bolts), chemical thrower (reduced rate of consumption) and bomb launcher (immunity from splashback).

Gene tonics make up for the lack of P2P augment for the wrench and the camera.

Gatherers Garden

You have to spend Adam (obtained from Little Sisters) instead of money. But for that Adam it dispenses plasmids, gene tonics, and open slots for both. It also sells extensions to your first aid and Eve, allowing you to fight longer without needing a first-aid station, a Eve hypo, or a Vita-Chamber.

Jukeboxes

Old-style jukeboxes, found in Fort Frolic and other watering holes, play short fragments of three songs: (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window? by Patti Page, Papa Loves Mambo by Perry Como and Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away) by Django Reinhardt. It costs nothing to get the jukes to cough up the fragments.

Phones

There are red rotary-dial pay telephones in various places in the city. They do not work. (Who would you call, anyway?) The card in front provides the numbers for the three most common calls: