Little Sister Gift

Every time a certain amount of Little Sisters are rescued, a girl will leave a teddy bear with valuable gifts at a Gatherer's Garden. In BioShock, each of these gifts is preceded by a radio message from Brigid Tenenbaum thanking Jack for his kindness to the "Little Ones." In BioShock 2, Subject Delta also receives teddy bear gifts from rescued Little Sisters and is notified of this by a message from Eleanor Lamb.

BioShock Gifts

Main article: BioShock

Gifts are awarded for every third Little Sister rescued. They are delivered to the first Gatherer's Garden machine Jack comes across after the rescue. There are seven Gifts in total. They will be awarded in order and at the level and specific Little Sister within it listed below, assuming the players rescues every Little Sister in each level before continuing to the next. Harvesting Little Sisters or rescuing extra Little Sisters appearing due to glitches will alter the timing or even location at which each Gift is received, but it still follows the total count (3rd, 6th, 9th…). Each gift contains 200 ADAM, plus the following items. "LS" stands for "Little Sister":

1. Neptune's Bounty (1st LS): Hypnotize Big Daddy Plasmid; 12 Armor-piercing Pistol Rounds.
2. Arcadia (1st LS): Safecracker Tonic; 12 Electric Buck.
3. Fort Frolic (1st LS): Hypnotize Big Daddy 2 Plasmid; 4 First Aid Kits.
4. Hephaestus (1st LS): 4 EVE Hypos; 6 Proximity Mines.
5. Olympus Heights (1st LS): Armored Shell 2 Tonic; 12 Incendiary Bolts.
6. Apollo Square (2nd LS): Prolific Inventor Tonic; 150 Liquid Nitrogen.
7. Point Prometheus (3rd LS): 100 Antipersonnel Auto Rounds; 4 First Aid Kits.

Strategy and Trade-Offs

Players receive 160 ADAM per Little Sister if they Harvest, or 80 if they Rescue. Since Tenenbaum's Gifts appear at every third rescue, Jack would have had 480 ADAM if he harvested the three (3x160), but will get 440 ADAM for rescuing them (3x80 + 200). Therefore, each Gift costs 40 ADAM, though the extras (especially the Plasmids) more than make up for it, not to mention having a clean conscience. Over the course of the game, the player only loses 280 ADAM (compared to harvesting) and, based on the price of other Plasmids/Tonics, the five awarded in Gifts are worth 2-4 times as much (depending on play style).

Note that unlike other containers, gifts disappear when any of their contents are taken. ADAM and Plasmids of course the player can always take more of, but if all the ammo, First Aid Kits, or EVE Hypos inside are not taken then they will be lost. Therefore, if the player searches the gift and finds something of interest that he/she does not have room for -- such as if the player already has Proximity Mines -- the gift can be left alone. The Mines can be laid for free before searching the gift. One can also use the above list to plan ahead and, for example, not worry about getting low on EVE Hypos or First Aid Kits if they'll be gifted to the player soon.

If the player rushes out of a level before picking up a gift earned there, it will appear at the Garden on the next level.

BioShock 2 Gifts

Main article: BioShock 2

Instead of Tenenbaum supplying the gifts, Eleanor provides the player with gifts after Little Sisters are rescued. Her messages to notify the player of the gift tell Delta that he is not alone, and that the Little Sisters are there for him. There are a total of three gifts throughout the game; one after every four Sisters saved.

1. Siren Alley (1st LS): 80 ADAM, Proud Parent, 50 Dollars.
2. Dionysus Park (2nd LS): 120 ADAM, Demanding Father, 100 Dollars.
3. Fontaine Futuristics (3rd LS): 250 ADAM, 100 Dollars, 1 Creme-Filled Cake.

In addition to these gifts, Eleanor provides several presents of Plasmids and items of her own throughout the game regardless of what moral path the player takes.

Strategy and Trade-Offs

In the second game, saving is meant to be a much harder choice for the player, since there are several new sources, and the optimal method is far from obvious on the first playthrough. If one adopts all the Little Sisters (gathering twice with each) then harvests them, the total ADAM (not counting any alternate ADAM sources - Big Sisters, slugs and "angels") is 2880, while adopting and saving them all results in 2790 (with Proud Parent, ADAM from the gifts, and the extra 100 the player earns at the end for their choice). The difference is only 90 ADAM. To maximize the ADAM gain, the player can rescue the first 4 Little Sisters to acquire Proud Parent, then harvest the rest, resulting in a total of 2960 ADAM (80 extra from the first gift, and Proud Parent provides the 320 ADAM missed from rescuing the first 4 Sisters).

Help Caption

“	These pink teddy bears contain gifts for saving Little Sisters, placed on the girls' behalf. They can always be found beside the nearest Gatherer's Garden machine. They may have Tonics, ADAM or other useful supplies inside, so be sure to pick them up if someone tells you the Little Sisters have dropped one off.	”

Minerva's Den Gifts

Main article: Minerva's Den

This time, the Little Sister gifts are supplied by Dr. Tenenbaum, and there are only two. Although the player's choices regarding the Little Sisters do not affect the outcome of the game or even the player's interactions with the Doctor, rescuing still rewards the player with slightly better long-term rewards, whereas harvesting will make the player's life much easier in the short run as well as provide a lot more ADAM (140 more). This time, there are only two gifts, rewarded for rescuing three Little Sisters each.

1. Minerva's Den (3rd LS): 100 ADAM, Proud Parent, 100 Dollars.
2. Operations (3rd LS): 120 ADAM, Armored Shell 2, 160 Dollars.

If the player misses the gift in Operations by taking the last Little Sister to the vent nearest the exit, and then finishing the level before the Big Sister turns up, they will find the gift at the Gatherer's Garden in the Thinker instead.

Strategy and Trade-Offs

In the DLC, the rescue/harvest dilemma is closer to the one in BioShock, in that rescuing until the end will provide the player with very useful and otherwise inaccessible rewards (Armored Shell 2, which was also part of the first game's fifth gift). However, the ADAM gap between a Harvester and a Rescuer is much larger than in BioShock 2, forcing the player to choose between more and better powers in the short run and a potentially life-saving bonus in the long term. Rescuing the Little Sisters in Minerva's Den and harvesting the ones in Operations after getting the Proud Parent Tonic isn't recommended this time, as doing so will provide the player with only 460 ADAM, 20 less than for a "pure" Harvester and without the Armored Shell 2 Tonic a Rescuer would receive.

Behind the Scenes

• The Little Sister Gift model (the teddy bear and present) was given a new design in BioShock: The Collection.
• Although Tenenbaum does not give gifts in BioShock 2, audio for her at gift-receiving points are still in the game files. It seems she'd also comment on killing a certain amount of Little Sisters, and there would be 4 gifts total. These can be heard below. (Click "Show")