BioShock/Hephaestus

Vita-chambers

1. In the room you start in.
2. At the other end of the platform when you first enter the circle.

Normal Sequence

Flip the switch to Ryan's office.

Search the first corpse on your left when you face away from the switch.

Wait for the recording to finish playing.

Can be skipped by playing the recording, then playing any other recording.

Wait for the splicers to cut through the door.

Go to Heat Loss Monitoring.

Can be skipped with no tricks.

Find recording describing the EMP bomb.

Wait for the recording to finish.

Can be skipped by switching to a different recording.

Collect 2 ionic gel, 4 items from Big Daddies, and 1 nitroglycerin.

Put them into the EMP bomb.

Go to geothermal control and turn the wheel until all the lights are lit.

Wait until the elevator shows up.

The last two steps can be skipped with some out-of-bounds jumping. See here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTpvtjGHZqY

Use the EMP bomb on the core.

Return to the switch to Ryan's office and flip it again.

Proceed to exit.

Useful Death Warps

Warping after getting the glycerin if you need to get more stuff upstairs.

Warping after searching the corpse in the water room.

Warping after planting the EMP bomb.

Door codes

Room with the glycerin: 0126

Optimal Gathering Route

1. Return to the room with the turrets and use Security Bullseye on the Big Daddy there.
2. Open the door with 0126.
3. Grab the corpse on the floor with Telekinesis and use it to get through the trap bolts.
4. Press the button on the desk to get the glycerin.
5. Death warp using the remaining trap bolts.
6. Return to the water room to search the Big Daddy there.
7. Death warp using the splicers there.
8. Collect the ionic gel next to the machines on the same platform as the Vita-chamber.
9. Kill and search the Big Daddy roaming the circle.
10. Collect the ionic gel near the bottom of the stairs leading from the Vita-chamber, going toward Geothermal Control.
11. Search the Big Daddy in the turret room.
12. Search the Big Daddy in the room with the crawlspace leading to the EMP bomb.
13. Build the EMP bomb.

Notes

"I imagine in a place like Hephaestus Core that you'd want to keep [Security Bullseye] on hand when the Alarm triggers after you fire off the EMP Bomb - Chuck it at the first shmuck you see and just run. Bonus points if it's a Big Daddy." - psychochild

Immediately after placing the EMP bomb, you are invincible until the gate behind you opens, and thus, need to wait until after that to death warp.