Gatherer's Garden



Located at various points in the game, a Gatherer's Garden is a vending machine that allows the player to purchase Plasmids, Gene tonics, Health upgrades, and EVE upgrades. ADAM is used as currency for these purchases. When Jack is rewarded by Brigid Tenenbaum for rescuing three Little Sisters, the Gatherer's Garden is the location where the gift is left, stuffed inside a teddy bear.

Later Gatherer's Gardens offer more plasmids and tonics, as well as upgraded versions of older ones. However, some Gatherer's Gardens do not offer the lower level tonics found in earlier levels, which are needed to get the Tonic Collector achievement and the Tonic Collector trophy in the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game. If a Gatherer's Garden offers an upgrade of a plasmid the player doesn't own or has a much lower level of, it automatically replaces it (with the exception of Sonic Boom), which could save ADAM in the long run (i.e. if the player doesn't own Insect Swarm, if they buy it when level three is sold, one save ADAM due to not buying levels one and two). Unlike other machines found in Rapture, the Gatherer's Garden cannot be hacked.

Note: The player cannot use a Gatherer's Garden when suffering from Lot 192's side effects.

Trivia
Jardin des Glaneuses Gatherer's Garden
 * It has been theorized that the reason ADAM is used as payment is that, when raw ADAM is inserted, the machine then modifies the normally blank stem cells to give the desired effect of the specific plasmid or tonic the recipient wants. The Gatherer's Garden then converts the proper dosage of raw ADAM into making the plasmid or tonic to prevent an overdose.
 * Lit signs around several Gatherer's Gardens feature items that cannot be purchased by the player at the time. These include tonics such as Booze Hound and SportBoost. Since they still do exist, it can be presumed that they are simply out of stock.