Subject Delta

Subject Delta (a.k.a. the First Big Daddy or Prototype Big Daddy) is the protagonist of BioShock 2. Delta was the first successful Big Daddy subject bonded to a Little Sister, Eleanor Lamb. He is revived by Eleanor in the Adonis Luxury Resort, and manages to make brief radio contact with Dr. Tenenbaum. After this, he is given support by Augustus Sinclair. The presence of flashback sequences over the course of the game will inform the player on Delta's past and his relations with the other main characters in the game.

Features


Delta is shown to have many features of a production Big Daddy, such as the vocal cord modulatory surgery they must all go through. However, unlike his brethren he retains a large degree of free will, in which he is not forced into a protection bond with the Little Sisters. Nevertheless, In order to obtain ADAM, Little Sisters are still the key. To do this, he must kill his Big Daddy brethren, at which point he is given the option to either "harvest" or "adopt" the Little Sister that the Big Daddy was protecting. Harvesting functions the same as it did in BioShock, whereas with the new "adopt" option, Delta puts the Little Sister on his shoulders, forming a temporary bond with the girl. He protects her as she extracts ADAM, and the Little Sister will give him some of the ADAM she harvests from Splicer corpses as a reward. After she has finished, Delta can send her to Tenenbaum through a Little Sister Vent, or he can "harvest" her, gaining an even greater amount of ADAM upon the Little Sister's death. Later on in the game, Delta will be given the option to save the Little Sisters himself.

As a prototype, Delta is granted use of the Bouncer's Drill (which is detachable and goes over the hand), in addition to other weapons, such as the Rosie's Rivet Gun, and a Hack Tool that allows him to remotely hack from a distance. He also has the ability to use Plasmids, and can wield them simultaneously with his weapons. Being less bulky than the production models gives Delta greater speed and agility than other Big Daddies, at the sacrifice of some of the raw strength and endurance they possess. Also, judging from the concept art (see right), First Aid Kits and EVE are fed intravenously to Delta, meaning he can continue fighting while replenishing his EVE reserves.

First Appearance
In a demo of the game, soon after he is awoken, Delta first confronts a Big Sister, and is eventually stuck in a flooded Kashmir Restaurant. While walking to a nearby airlock, Tenenbaum explains the nature of the Big Sister. Soon after, the player encounters a Little Sister being attacked by a Splicer and saves her; she is hesitant at first, but quickly trusts him, due to her mental conditioning (Little Sisters are programmed to see Big Daddies as a whole and seem to be unaware that there is more than one of them). After battling waves of Splicers while the Little Sister extracts ADAM, the lights and electronics in Fontaine Futuristics dim and short out. The Little Sister sings in a worried tone and a Big Sister appears.

Trivia

 * Delta is the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet, following the letters Alpha, Beta and Gamma. This could mean that Delta was the fourth (and the first successful) attempt at creating the Big Daddy.
 * There is a camera on top of Subject Delta's helmet that allows Tenenbaum to watch through his eyes.
 * In a recently leaked video of the level Siren Alley, Father Wales refers to Delta as "The Beast of Ryan."
 * In earlier demos of Bioshock 2, when it first shows Delta awake to Brigid Tenenbaum's voice, Subject Delta's concept was that of a Rosie shown in this video, where in this video he is shown in his final concept.
 * Imprinted on the back of his right hand, there is the Greek letter delta imprinted on his glove.
 * There is some speculation that Subject Delta is the Big Daddy who killed Doctor Suchong (see Protection Bond audio diary). This is proven to be false by the Improving on Suchong's Work audio diary left by Gil Alexander.  In it Alexander states that after Suchong's death they are still working on perfecting the bond apparent in Delta, meaning that Delta would not have been imprinted to protect Eleanor until later.