The Thinker (Level)

"Sorry, no visiting to the Rapture Central Computing Mainframe, but you can see Rodin's Masterpiece of Sculpture that shares its name. Come visit The Thinker today!"

- Announced Guidelines

The Thinker is the third and last level of BioShock 2's DLC Minerva's Den. It is here that Subject Sigma reaches The Thinker's Computer Core in order to print out a copy of the machine's code, and finally confront Reed Wahl.

Minerva's Den
As Sigma arrives, Reed Wahl shuts down the door to the Computer Core room, forcing him to detour through the Mainframe Access Shafts while Wahl sets several security devices to hinder his progress. He finally reaches a room where his opponent has been madly writing down equations to find out what secret links together Subject Sigma, Charles Milton Porter and The Thinker. In the middle of his scribblings lies an audio diary Porter recorded before his disappearance from Minerva's Den, in which he starts running a new protocol for The Thinker to calculate a way to escape Rapture for itself. In the Computer Core, Porter urges Sigma to go to the console upstairs to confirm his genetic identity and start the printing process of the code, but Wahl shuts down the machine to keep it from interfering in his confrontation with Sigma. Brigid Tenenbaum finally enters in contact with Sigma and warns him that shutting down The Thinker puts in jeopardy the very state of Minerva's Den, which means he will have to defeat Wahl, take his Administrator Punchcard and restart the computer before it is too late. Helped by several reprogrammed Alpha Series, Wahl engages the fight with his mortal foe before being finally defeated.

Sigma then recovers the punchcard and launch back The Thinker, which proceeds in confirming his genetic identity as Alpha Series, and his former one as Charles Milton Porter. Porter's voice is heard once more on the radio, greetings Sigma upon the recovery of his identity, before fading and revealing that it was no more than The Thinker itself running a personality duplication protocol based on its creator. Tenenbaum tells Porter that both the machine and her needed a familiar, comforting voice to guide him through his journey, eventually using his own. She then says that thanks to the machine's code, she will be able to bring him back to normal. She asks Porter to meet her in his private docking station behind his private office near the Computer Core, where a Bathysphere awaits for their escape from Rapture. In his former apartments, souvenirs of his life on the surface with his deceased wife Porter fill in the blanks in his memory. Tenenbaum is sitting inside the submersible, waiting for Porter to pull the lever and return to the surface.

After returning to the surface, Porter rebuilds The Thinker from the printed code, which is then able to process the correct genetic combinations for Tenenbaum's cure to ADAM sickness. She keeps her promise and reverts Porter back to human who then visits o his wife's grave. He leaves a letter to her, finally accepting her death and relived of his grieving.

Map
The Thinker (Level)/L0| Level Zero orig. The Thinker (Level)/L0 extra| Level Zero The Thinker (Level)/L1| Level One orig.||true The Thinker (Level)/L1 extra| Level One The Thinker (Level)/L2| Level Two

New Gene Tonic

 * Fountain of Youth

New Enemies

 * Reed Wahl

Audio Diaries

 * 1) Charles Milton Porter - Rapture Departure Protocol
 * 2) Charles Milton Porter - Pearl

Radio messages can be see in Radio Messages

Bugs/Glitches
On first entering the level, if you stand within the far corner of the open airlock door, the Brute Splicer cannot figure how to reach you even after he just saw you (like to fire at him).