Drill

The iconic weapon of the Bouncer, the Drill is the melee weapon for Subject Delta in BioShock 2. To be able to function to its fullest potential, it must be supplied with Drill Fuel. This is the first weapon available to the player, and is on Delta's person at the start of the game.

Attack Types
Delta can use the Drill to perform three different attacks:


 * He can bore directly into an enemy until they die. This consumes fuel, but it quickly depletes the enemy's health with a speed similar to an improved fire attack. Additionally if the player has the Drill Vampire tonic equipped, the drill will quickly replenish Health and Eve. If the player has Freezing Drill tonic equipped then each "hit" by this drill attack will have a chance to freeze and re-freeze the enemy, making even the toughest opponents into drill-bait.


 * Alternatively, he can perform a quick-melee attack, dealing an uppercut with the Drill. Although this does not consume fuel, it deals less damage than by direct boring and leaves Delta momentarily defenseless. With the Drill Lurker tonic equipped, this melee attack will kill virtually any unaware Splicer in the game in one hit, and also deal significant damage to larger enemies.


 * "Drill Dash": This is used by combining a rev up with a quick-melee attack. This not only gives Delta a speed boost, but it also finishes the charge with a powerful slam (to the point where it can kill Splicers in one shot). This attack is not immediately available to Subject Delta; he must research the ability off of Brute Splicers first.

Basic Upgrades
Augers on the side of the Drill increase the damage.
 * Side Augers
 * This upgrade increases the Drill's damage output.

Cooling nozzles lubricate the Drill, reducing the speed of fuel consumption.
 * Lubricating Nozzle
 * This upgrade decreases the Drill's fuel consumption rate.

Final Upgrade
A large electromagnetic dynamo is powered by the Drill's rotation.
 * Reflector Plate
 * This upgrade causes every shot and projectile to be reflected back at the attacker when spinning the Drill.

Ammunition Types - Drill

 * Drill Fuel - Base Ammo: Drill Fuel is the resource consumed by the Drill. It comes in the form of gas cans which can be picked up or bought by the player.

General Strategies

 * No weapon in the game will consume ammo faster than the drill, even with the Lubricating Nozzles upgrade. For this reason its recommended that players try to avoid wasting drill fuel on cannon-fodder enemies that will easily die with one or two melee attacks (eg: Thuggish Splicers or Leadhead Splicers), instead saving it for moderate or strong enemies, or for situations when the player is fighting hordes of enemies (i.e. protecting a Little Sister.)
 * If possible, avoid fighting out in the open with this weapon, especially against Leadhead Splicers. Use corners or bottleknecks to your advantage. If you must fight in an open enviornement against these enemies, use the Drill Dash to close the distance, but be mindful of your fuel.
 * It is highly suggested that the player upgrade the drill with lubricating nozzles first because the drill does a lot of damage on its own, especially in the early parts of the game, and a gene tonic that increases drill damage is found early on. Equipping both the drill damage upgrade gene tonic and the upgraded drill won't reduce the amount of hits it takes to kill a regular splicer.

Recommended Plasmids

 * The Decoy plasmid can draw your enemy's attention away from you, buying you time to get on top of your opponent for a kill. This is especially usefull with Drill Lurker, as it makes the enemy unaware in the process, provided they aren't looking directly at you.
 * Telekinesis will allow you to use objects as shields while you approach your enemies. Even with the Reflector Plate upgrade this plasmid is still useful for this purpose considering that it takes less EVE (none if you don't throw the object) than the Reflector Plate does fuel in its use.
 * The Electro Bolt plasmid is useful when used in conjunction with the Drill. Shocking an enemy and then hitting it with the Drill acts in much the same way as it did in the previous Bioshock with Electro Bolt and the Wrench. This combination has been called the "One-Two Punch" and can substantially increase the amount of damage granted by melee weapons. The Drill Lurker line of tonics is especially useful as a shocked enemy counts as an unaware enemy.

Recommended Tonics

 * The Drill Power line of tonics greatly increases Drill damage.
 * Freezing Drill gives each hit of the Drill a chance of freezing the target, as well as increasing freeze times.
 * Damage Research increases the effect of damage bonuses earned through research.
 * Drill Vampire causes dealing damage with the drill to give the user Health and EVE.
 * Drill Specialist, while not having any direct effect on the Drill, is a useful tonic for a dedicated Drill user. It limits the weapon selection to Drill, Hack Tool and Research Camera, and greatly decreases the EVE cost of plasmids.
 * Drill Lurker, will greatly increase the drill's power against any enemy that is unaware. Especially usefull when combined with Natural Camouflage and/or Decoy.
 * Sports Boost will allow you to more easily dodge your enemy's attacks and sneak up behind them for a kill.

Trivia

 * In the 'Hunting the Big Sister' trailer, Subject Delta was able to scare off enemies by revving the drill. When done, it would not consume fuel. Whether this was intended to be in the final version or was just for trailer purposes is unknown.