Vigor



Vigors are the primary abilities that Booker DeWitt acquires in BioShock Infinite. Similar to Plasmids, they grant the user access to extraordinary abilities, and are powered by a single resource: Salts. Vigors were made by Jeremiah Fink after witnessing Dr. Suchong experiment with ADAM to create Plasmids. Fink stole these Plasmids and realized that by placing an oxidizing agent through them he could make them drinkable rather then needing to be injected by the user. However, Fink needed to collect ample sea slugs via "underwater expeditions" to Rapture, and the fact that they required 10 times as much ADAM put strain on Fink.

As with Plasmids, Vigors do cause notable side effects, visible on the user's arm. Every Vigor has an alternate use activated by charging the Vigor, ranging from enhanced attacks to stationary traps (it should be noted that offensive Vigor Traps deal about 4x normal damage). There are a total of eight Vigors, each of which can be upgraded twice over the course of the game at the Veni! Vidi! Vigor! vending machines scattered throughout Columbia.

Burial at Sea ep.1 Plasmids
Several Vigors reappear as Plasmids in the Burial at Sea DLC. While Yi Suchong had observed and documented the sudden appearance of Tears in Rapture revealing Columbia, he discovered that his own formulas for Plasmids were stolen by Fink, who modified the formula with an ingestable oxidation agent to create Vigors. In returning the favor, Suchong would steal Fink's modified Plasmid formula.

Sold as drinkable Plasmids, these would be marketed as a substitute choice for citizens that did not like injections. Suchong would also use this modified Plasmid formula to create Old Man Winter, a new drinkable Plasmid that would have similar but different affects from its injectable counterpart, Winter Blast. While being similar to Vigors, the defensive affect of these Plasmids are not as potent or as lasting against Splicers due to their ADAM-enhanced bodies. The mental and physically altering side-effects from overdosing on drinkable Plasmids were much more severe then those caused by injectable ones, such as those seen on Frosty Splicers. These side-effects appear to be brought on solely by over-consumption, rather then ADAM withdrawal.

Behind The Scenes

 * These abilities are ingested, unlike their Plasmid counterparts, which are injected. Vigors also have no recorded negative side-effects. However, there is concept art in The Art of BioShock Infinite containing Vigor-abusing workers known as "Vigor Junkies", suggesting they were originally intended to degenerate their users as did their predecessors.
 * If the player does not pick up Vigor bottles when they first appear, they can purchase them later for 150 Silver Eagles or pick them up in other areas.
 * It wasn't until the 2012 Beast of America trailer that a BioShock Infinite trailer showed heavily physical side effects to the player's flesh while using Vigors during gameplay, while the previous trailers and gameplay demos only had a normal arm with minimal Vigor effects.
 * An early concept in The Art of BioShock Infinite shows small modules attached to the player's hands which were used to inject the fluids of the various Vigors into the user when casting them. One appears to have a hummingbird dipping into a small vessel containing the Vigor. Another shows a mosquito-like construct injecting it into the user.
 * Using all eight Vigors against at least one enemy grants the player the "Well Rounded" Achievement/Trophy.
 * There are eight official Vigor Combinations. Performing each of them unlocks the "Combination Shock" Achievement/Trophy.
 * In a early version of the game, the system for Vigor usage was originally limited to the Vigor bottles themselves, as disposable and unreloadable powers, or mentioned comparatively as "Plasmids and EVE combined". This version was not only meant for each Vigor ability to have their own numbered quantity, but each of these Vigor quantities would have been scattered thorough the game, such as on corpses and in stores. This was supposed to force the player to conserve each different Vigor towards their own strategy, rather than reusing the same abilities. However, in late 2012, this system was revised with the usage of EVE-like Salts, which would have Vigor abilities work equally from a single bar meter. Ironically, the system for finding similar Vigor bottles would work similar as the previous system before, only as Salts.
 * In the downloadable content Clash in the Clouds, the Vigors Undertow, Possession, Devil's Kiss and Bucking Bronco can be collected as free samples. The other Vigors must be purchased from the vending machines in the Columbian Archeological Society.
 * Vigors are often referred to as Plasmids in the in-game files of BioShock Infinite. Devil's Kiss is in some places named Incinerate!, and there are several references to the Enrage Plasmid instead of the Possession Vigor (also called Mesmerize).
 * Vigors, like Plasmids, are powered by ADAM. Fink gained the ADAM he needed through contact with Suchong, as well as "underwater expeditions" to Rapture. However, the expeditions, as well as the fact that each Vigor needed to have 10 times the amount of ADAM for ingestation, put financial strain on Fink.
 * In an early 2010 demo shown at E3, there was an unnamed vigor with the power of levitation . It was soon scrapped, but the main function of it soon evolved into Return to Sender (repelling enemy fire) and Undertow (the abillity to grab assestments such as enemy weapons and other objects).