BioShock/Welcome to Rapture

Vita-chambers

1. Right outside the Bathysphere
2. First room after Electro Bolt
3. Right outside the Footlight Theater
4. In the lobby/trap between Medical and Neptune's Bounty

Normal Progression

The Bathysphere to Kashmir Restaurant

Leave the bathysphere, listen to Atlas' directions, watch the spider get chased off, pick up the wrench.

* Don't waste time skipping any of the radio messages here. They don't affect anything - 

all the events with gameplay effects are on timers.

Stand between the debris and the wrench, then spin quickly once you pick up the 
wrench to save a half a second.

Kill the thuggish splicer, go up and get Electrobolt 1, watch the cut scenes.

You have to kill that first splicer; otherwise the debris blocks you from 
going up and getting Electrobolt 1. One of the splicer's attacks is a lunge towards you;
you can luck-manipulate this fight to get him to use this attack more often so you kill
him while as close to the stairs as possible.

Zap the door, pass the plane wreckage, bunny-hop on the water to retain speed, and battle the two thuggish splicers.

The triggers here are complicated, for unclear reasons.
You first have to hit a trigger which is activated by moving into either the area down
the stairs to the left, or the area down the stairs to the right.
Once this trigger has been activated, you then have to activate one of four look triggers - 
one located down each of the foor sets of stairs - to spawn the splicer. However, these
triggers can only be activated while you are standing close to the centre of the room.
Each of the four triggers spawns the splicer in a slightly different location in the room.
We think the optimal way to handle the room is to go down the closest stairs on the left
just far enough to hit the first trigger, then back off until the look trigger fires, then
head forward and kill the splicer who spawns in front of you.
It is possible to totally break the triggers in this room so the splicer never spawns.
There may be other peculiarities to the triggers that have not been discovered.

See flaming dude, use the elevator, listen to Atlas spin a tale about his family, see the momma splicer.

You don't need to wait for the elevator to stop before leaving it - you can jump out
when it's near the top.

Ignore the flaming dude and the momma splicer - just grab the gun on the way 
by.

Footlight Theater to Medical

Drop down to Footlight, watch the "cut scene".

360 only: 
* "Lower Weapon" - let play.
* "Little Sisters" - radio skip with any message as soon as you drop down the broken stair.
  The splicer will come out as soon as you begin playing the new message.
* Watch the splicer get pwned (waits for "Little Sisters")
* "Big Daddy" - let play
Note: Tremalkinger was unable to replicate this on the PC version. The map won't come up
once Atlas asks you to lower your weapon.

Make you way to the lobby between Medical and Neptune's, trigger the trap, fight the 5 splicers.

Jump over the railing to get to the trap rather than running down past the Big Daddy.
You must kill the splicers before Atlas will open the gate out of the trap.  This includes
one that spawns near the bathrooms and two waves of Leadheads and Thugs.  Immediately after
triggering the trap, kill the one in the bathroom, then jump onto the pillar across the room
from where that splicer was so you can look back up the stairs you just came down and see
the splicers as they approach. Headshot them quickly, then shoot the last two as they
spawn inside the hole in the wall.

Listen Atlas' speech, head to Medical.

You can skip Ryan's and Atlas's speeches by avoiding the trigger in that room. There are non-trigger
paths along both walls of the room, but you really have to hug the walls. Taking the right path
is faster since you have to jump twice on a bench to take the left path.
The area of the floor between the gates is clear, so feel free to waltz right across the
room to the closed gate.  The tightest spot is the door frame of the closed gate, which
you must hug, or you'll hit the trigger.  Make the first step, and you're in. (It warrants
some practice.)You could also skip Atlas's "Andrew Ryan" with "Electro Bolt in Water",
but there's no point. Ryan's speech is unskippable and long.  Use the non-trigger path
instead.

Useful Death Warps

None. All the Vita-Chambers are placed "upstream" from where you want to go.

Note that you're invincible between getting Electrobolt 1 and the battle with the 2 thuggish splicers.

Notes

There are no useful radio skips on this level.

Cauldrath's notes on his first run: [1]