Big Daddy



"...he, a lumbering palooka in a foul smelling diving suit..."

- Andrew Ryan

Big Daddies (also known as Protectors) are genetically-enhanced human beings who have had their skin and organs grafted into an enormous diving suit, with Alpha Series being an apparent exception to the grafting process but still heavily spliced. Their primary purpose is to protect Little Sisters while they escort them around Rapture.

Aside from the Alpha Series, Big Daddies communicate by haunting sounds similar to that of whale calls. Alpha Series communicate with low, inhuman screeches. For easier interpretation, lights were added to the helmet to display what state of intention the Big Daddy is in. Big Daddy helmets have three light colors: green indicates the Big Daddy is hypnotized and friendly, yellow indicates awareness of but indifference to his environment, and red indicates a rage towards assailants. If the first few attempts to drive away potential threats prove futile, Big Daddies will become enraged, unlike Alpha Series who always begin enraged.

History
The Protector Program (the project responsible for the creation of Big Daddies) was the brainchild of Dr. Yi Suchong. Knowing that the Little Sisters would be at great risk if they were out on the streets gathering ADAM with no protection, Suchong sought to rectify the problem. With much trepidation, he presented his idea to Andrew Ryan. Knowing that becoming a Big Daddy would be a "one-way street", Suchong fretted about finding suitable candidates despite Ryan's assurances that it would not be a problem. Although the true identities of the candidates are unknown, many were criminals and political dissidents who were prisoners of Persephone. Augustus Sinclair contracted these prisoners out to Ryan Industries as test subjects in the research labs of Fontaine Futuristics and Point Prometheus. After Suchong's accidental death at the hands of a prototype Big Daddy, the Protector Program was placed under the control of Dr. Gilbert Alexander who finally succeeded in bonding a Big Daddy to a Little Sister.

From the time of its founding, maintenance of Rapture required trained divers in reinforced suits to walk outside along the sea floor to repair leaks and reinforce the city's structure. After the end of the Protector Program's tests, the inhabitants of those metal diving suits were genetically altered to become the common mass product Big Daddies. They were genetically conditioned in the research labs of Point Prometheus and trained in the Proving Grounds.

The candidates for induction into the Protector Program went through voice box modification and pheromone application. The pheromones are what attracts the Little Sisters to the Big Daddies. The candidates are then placed in large vats with a substance that effectively turns them into mindless drones. With gene splicing, the humans inside the suits are given enhanced strength and agility. Their steel suit exoskeletons contain life support machinery to keep them alive during their duties, and allow a Big Daddy to lift heavy weights with ease. The suits also give them the ability to resist deep ocean pressure to a depth of six miles. Big Daddies are sometimes assigned and outfitted to do other constructive tasks around Rapture. Big Daddies have been seen doing repairs and other maintenance tasks both inside and directly outside the city.

Bouncer


Bouncers are clad in a very unique heavy diving suit, the entire torso of which is covered by a high-gauge metal carapace. The head protrudes directly forward from the upper chest area, and is encased in a hemispherical helmet studded with eight lit portholes. A large, fully-functional conical drill is attached to the right arm just forward of the elbow, and is used for powerful melee attacks. The Bouncers get their name from an attack they use, in which they strike the ground with their drills, resulting in a tremor that gives close-proximity enemies unstable footing.

The Bouncer is a very offensive kind of Big Daddy, and his charge attack can be both annoying and effective. These Big Daddies focus on brutal close range attacks. With the five-in-a-row technique (five trap bolts in a row) it is very easy to kill this type of Big Daddy.

Both a regular and a red striped Elite version with a harpoon-like drill appear in BioShock and BioShock 2.

Rosie


Rosies are clad in a basic heavy diving suit, the upper torso of which is covered by a high-gauge metal carapace. The head is guarded by a high-gauge metal diving helmet welded to the torso carapace, and has three large lit portholes. They wield large rivet guns and Proximity Mines at long range, and use the rivet gun for powerful melee attacks as well.

The Rosie is both a defensive and offensive type of Big Daddy, so it is a good technique to use armor piercing rounds or rocket propelled grenades (RPG) on it. The proximity mines he throws can also be sent back to him with Telekinesis. These Big Daddies focus on long range attacks and evasive maneuvers.

A red striped Elite version is present in the original BioShock.

BioShock 2
"Big Daddies represent BioShock: They are iconic fixtures in Rapture. In BioShock 2, you step into the shoes of the first Big Daddy and assume the role of one of the most feared beings within the city walls. Designing new Big Daddies posed a significant challenge: Not only did the team have to design a playable Big Daddy, but they also had to create other Big Daddies that would still present a significant threat to you, despite the fact that you now also wield a drill."

- Deco Devolution Artbook - Introduction to Big Daddy chapter

Ten years later after the events of BioShock, Sofia Lamb is on the rise and she and her followers have produced new Big Daddies to help protect the Little Sisters. Bouncers and Rosies return to the sequel, along with two new types.

Rumbler


The Rumbler is the newer type of Big Daddy. It debuts in BioShock 2. His arsenal includes deployable Miniature Turrets and RPGs. This Big Daddy type seems to be more mobile than the other two types, although less armored. Its combat style gives it an advantage in open spaces, unlike its two counterparts, and it seems to fare well in long to mid-range combat. Its attacks are designed to keep the player on the move, and it can quickly turn the environment to its advantage and give the player as little cover as possible.

Alpha Series


Like Subject Delta, other failed prototypes of the Alpha Series of Big Daddies survived. They have long since lost their Sisters, and have devolved into something vaguely like a Splicer. These are barely sentient monsters that attack anything near them. Like Delta, they can use plasmids and regularly emit bursts of Electro Bolt, Incinerate!, and Winter Blast from their malfunctioning suits. They tend to use Launchers and Machine Guns in addition to their plasmids. Their armor is similar to Delta's, but have more decayed armor with part of the arm exposed.

Their bonds are to a single Little Sister, Delta being the first successful. Because of this they are believed to not have undergone some of the modifications modern Big Daddies have such as the ingestion of pheromones since there is no need due to their physically enforced bond to a single sister and they weren't fused to their suits (as Subject Delta could remove his helmet when he was ordered to by Sofia Lamb when Hypnotized). A lot of the Alpha series appear to have had incomplete or otherwise faulty bonds in that instead of slipping into a coma, a lot simply went mad.

Minervas Den Big Daddy
For now very little is known of this Big Daddy. He resembles the art deco Gold Daddy seen as a statue when you play as a Little Sister. He also seems to be carrying Hi-Tech weapons such as the laser gun.

BioShock 2 Multiplayer
In the multiplayer segment of BioShock 2, the player is able to become a Rosie by picking up a Big Daddy Suit. As a Big Daddy, the player has access to the Rosie's Rivet Gun and Proximity Mines, as well as the ability to perform a stomp which stuns nearby enemies. In the multiplayer, Rosies have three different "moods", indicated by the light emanating from their portholes:


 * Blue Light: Indicates that the Rosie is on the player's team, and as such is friendly to them.
 * Yellow Light: Indicates the Rosie is unallied yet hostile. Yellow Lights only appear in free for all games.
 * Red Light: Indicates that the Rosie is a member of the opposite team, and thus hostile to the player.

Videos
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Significant Big Daddies

 * There have been four named Big Daddies so far in the BioShock series: Subject Delta; Knuckles, a friend of Louie McGraff; Mark Meltzer, who became a Rumbler after being captured by Sofia Lamb; and Augustus Sinclair, who was forcefully turned into an Alpha Series.

Trivia

 * It seems that Big Daddies return to Hephaestus periodically to have maintenance check-ups, as revealed in the Running Short on R-34s audio diary.


 * The third Splicer Jack encounters in BioShock refers to an approaching Big Daddy as a "Metal Daddy." Similarly, Grace Holloway refers to Subject Delta as "Tin Daddy" in BioShock 2.


 * In both games, the Big Daddies actually show small signs of emotion. When the Little Sisters talk about Big Sister or say something like "Now, Mr. B, don't make me have to carry you!" then the Big Daddy will hunch over a bit more, walk even more sluggishly, and make his various sounds, also if the player has rescued/harvested all of the Little Sisters in an area then the Big Daddies will bang on the vents but when the little sister does not come out they show signs of disappointment.


 * In BioShock, with the exception of Proving Grounds, the player only encounters one type of Big Daddy per level. This is due to object constraints of the engine, whereas the developers needed to keep below the limit, so they decided Big Daddies could be cut to one per level. In BioShock 2, the developers did not give the option to backtrack, which also let them modify how levels are loaded. As such, this allowed them to put multiple types of Big Daddies on some levels.


 * It is revealed in Alexander's Audio Diary A Father's Love, that the "Big Daddy" isn't their official title, but more of a nickname made up by the scientists in the Protector program. It was actually this nickname that gave Alexander the idea to give the Big Daddy something of a fatherly bond to the Little Sisters.


 * Minerva's Den, the upcoming singleplayer DLC for BioShock 2, will feature a new type of Big Daddy.