Possession

"With POSSESSION, the free will of your enemies matters no more. Make your foes blindly fight and die for you."

- Fink Manufacturing advertisement

Possession is a Vigor featured in BioShock Infinite, granting Booker DeWitt the ability to control machinery, causing vending machines to spit out a bounty in Silver Eagles and combat automatons to temporarily fight for Booker. Though initially ineffective on organic enemies, Possession can be upgraded to turn humans into temporarily allies, causing them to commit suicide upon breaking from the Vigor's effects. With this upgrade, Possession can also be charged and deployed as a stationary trap at double the cost, possessing an enemy and forcing the others to kill themselves. Firemen, Zealots of the Lady and Handymen will not kill themselves at the end of the Vigor's effects, and Possession is entirely ineffective on the Siren.

BioShock Infinite


Possession is the first Vigor the player obtains in the game: at the Columbia 1912 Raffle and Fair, in order to pass through an automated gate Booker needs to take a sample of the Vigor from the nearby vendor.

Official

 * Igniting a possessed enemy with Devil's Kiss will infuse them with fire, causing them to ignite all other enemies around them for increased damage.
 * Shocking a possessed enemy with Shock Jockey will infuse them with electricity and cause them to electrify all other enemies around them, damaging them, stunning them and temporarily doubling their damage intake.

Combat Strategy

 * Only a single enemy of any type can be possessed at a time, meaning that one must choose their victim carefully due to the Vigor's relatively high usage cost.
 * Following the above, possessing a new target while the previous one is still under the Vigor's effects will cause the latter to commit suicide if they're human, allowing for a quick kill.
 * Though Possession traps can only possess only one enemy at a time, they will cause all other victims to commit suicide if they are liable to do so.
 * The duration of Possession is highly variable:
 * Fighter automatons (save for Motorized Patriots) will remain possessed for the full duration of Possession's effects.
 * Standard enemies and Beasts will be possessed for half the above time and will commit suicide at the end of the Vigor's effects.
 * Firemen, Zealots of the Lady and Motorized Patriots will remain possessed for only a quarter of the standard time. Moreover, they will not kill themselves at the end of Possession's effects.
 * Handymen and the Siren are completely immune to the Vigor's effects.
 * Possessed enemies are seen controlled by a ghostly female figure, which will disappear as the effects fade, as indicated by a sound effect. However, enemies will still remain possessed for a few seconds after the ghost disappears, and will continue glowing green.
 * When casting Possession, the player sends out a ghost which travels out to whichever target the player aimed at when casting the Vigor. The ghost will home in on the target, which can be used to possess moving enemies over long distances. However, the ghost will disappear if it hits a portion of the scenery beforehand.
 * Possession is extremely useful on Beasts, as they will inevitably kill themselves at the end of its effects. If Possession is fully upgraded, this is by far the cheapest way to dispose of them. Furthermore, they are capable of downing several enemies before taking their own life.
 * Despite the drastically shorted duration of Possession on Firemen, it is still a viable choice, as they are capable of decimating groups of enemies in the short time they remain possessed. Zealots and Patriots, on the other hand, will break out of the Vigor's effects before they can actually attack.
 * Using Possession on a machine anywhere other than the Columbia 1912 Fair will count as a hostile act.
 * As enemies increase both in health and damage on the higher difficulties, Possession does not lose any of its effectiveness, making it a very palatable choice in most fights.
 * Possession will wear off prematurely if the player attacks the possessed target for too much damage.
 * Possession Aid, for its extremely low cost and huge added functionality, is essentially a mandatory upgrade to Possession, especially when playing on the higher difficulties.
 * Possession Boost is one of the most expensive upgrades in the game, but also one of the most useful, as it will halve the cost of Possession. On the higher difficulty levels, where Possession plays a more important role, this can save the player a great deal many Salts refills.

Recommended Gear

 * Blood to Salt will partially refill the player's Salts as possessed targets kill other foes (and themselves), amortizing the Vigor's initially exorbitant cost.
 * Betrayer is tailor-made for Possession, letting the player finish off a crowd of enemies by shooting a possessed target as the effects fade.
 * Ghost Posse/Ghost Soldier will let the player instantly summon a group of weapon allies if multiple enemies are caught by a single Possession trap.
 * Health for Salts can help compensate for Possession's large cost when low on Salts, though the health cost will be equally high.
 * Overkill will give the player a chance to shock enemies with their possessed target, especially when possessing Heavy Hitters. The resulting bursts of electricity will also either infuse the possessed foe with the effects or electrify them, making it easier to finish them off.
 * Spare The Rod can help keep enemies possessed if the effects wear off.
 * Storm will propagate the effects of Devil's Kiss and Shock Jockey if the possessed target has been infused with either of the two Vigors.

Behind the Scenes

 * Possession is the successor to BioShock 2's Hypnotize, also blending in the hacking mechanic from the first two installments.
 * Possession's name in the E3 Demo, Mesmerize, is defined as: "to hold someone as if spellbound or hypnotized". The demo also credits the Vigor's invention to a person named Dalton.
 * The green female ghost manifested by possession bears resemblance to "The Green Fairy" a hallucination thought to be brought about by drinking absinthe, an alcoholic beverage.
 * As evident in 'The Art of Bioshock Infinite', the earliest name for 'Possession' was 'Ghost Touch' as it bears a similar colour scheme to one of the early vigor concepts which shows a small green vase attached to a bird-like module. The bottle is also marked as a Plasmid meaning the name may not have been changed from BioShock in the early development cycle of the game.
 * The whispers when using Possession Vigor is dialogue from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet being played in reverse. Romeo and Juliet Act 3, Scene 2: "Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-browed night, Give me my Romeo. And when I shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars." The quoted lines are in a different order in the whispers.
 * Despite the fact that the Possession ad depicts the Vigor being used on an Automated Stallion, using it on one in game has no effect.