Sections marked with a * require updating to the latest techniques.

Tricks/Glitches

Radio Skipping

Some events are triggered when a radio message stops playing. Instead of waiting for them to finish normally, you can stop them playing by selecting another message from the message archive and this will trigger the event. ("radio skip")

If you have several radio messages queued up, you can speed the queue up by playing a shorter one than the one currently playing. Then the next message will play as soon as the shorter message finishes.

Diary Skipping

Some triggers wait just until there isn't a radio message playing to fire. If you start an Audio Diary playing, these triggers will be able to fire as if all your queued radio messages had finished. ("diary skip")

Diary skipping is generally better, if you can pull it off. Triggered radio messages important to the plot will interrupt any diary message. The only time you don't want to do a diary skip is when it's the last message and you'd have to wait for the diary to finish for the next trigger. Diaries tend to take a long time.

Note I didn't want to take the bit above out yet because perhaps I'm mistaken, or perhaps there's a console/pc version difference, but as far as I can see, every single trigger in the game fires normally when a diary is playing. The only time when you want to use a radio skip instead of a diary skip is when you need to START a radio message playing (because it needs to play to fire a trigger), which is ALREADY in the radio queue (that is, the backlog of radio messages which have ALREADY been triggered. If there's a sequence of radio messages, they probably won't all be in the queue at once, because each one's completion or cancellation will trigger the next). This is because QUEUED radio messages WON'T interrupt a playing message, but NEWLY TRIGGERED radio messages WILL interrupt a playing audio diary when triggered (but not, usually, a playing radio message).

Notes

"I suspect you'll have to identify the shortest radio message there is on each level (there might even be levels where you'll want to go out of your way to acquire a really short message, though I doubt it) and then when you get a big dialogue build up, start that short message playing every time a new message starts. That way, the next message in the queue will only have to wait for a short message to finish before playing, rather than for the (long) message that was in the queue before it.

Alternatively, I haven't checked whether radio messages that get queued up are added to the message archive before they start to play. If they are, you might be able to manually select a trigger message to start it playing and fire its trigger instead of waiting for it to play automatically. This too warrants research.

I also think - I'm not sure about this - that when you start an audio diary playing manually, it will finish before radio messages that are already queued start to play, BUT any new radio message will interrupt it. This means that when you have a long queue of radio messages but really need to play one that you're just about to get, you could interrupt the queue by starting a diary playing and then trigger the radio message you need, and because it interrupts the diary it will automatically skip the radio queue. If my observations are right." - ExplodingCabbage [1]

Another Theory

I *think* each event and audio message is marked with flags. These flags can say stuff like:

• Trigger when the player steps in an area, or looks at an entity.
• Wait for any radio messages to complete (eg the "Ah, That's Better" Cohen speech and the "Find the Quadtych" goal completion in Fort Frolic)
• Go to the top/back of the queue.
• Run X seconds after this other event.
• Wait for these other events to start/complete.
• Clear the event queue, first.

Fort Frolic, for example, is just a very complicated arrangement of these flags on events. Certain events will queue up; certain events get triggered at the end of other events; certain other events will clear the queue; certain radio events take forever. Speed running it is just a matter of knowing the graph of trigger relationships, what triggers what, when a clearing event is coming up, and when something's gonna wait for everything to play.

An Explanation of Letting the Radio Queue Play

Every instance of "Wait for all radio messages" I've seen so far has been a situation where the player is between two major events, the player is trapped, anyhow, and the player must experience both events in order to know what to do:

• The "Ah, that's better" speech which introduces you to Cohen is preceded by Atlas' message that gets jammed (explaining why you don't hear from him later). You're trapped in the metro for that time.
• The "Find the quadtych" goal is preceded by Cohen explaining how you fit in to his quadtych plan. You're trapped in the Atrium.
• The two speeches by Atlas/Fontaine at the end of Rapture Central Control are critical. They even hold up leaving the level if the second one isn't done. You're trapped in Ryan's office.
• Tenenbaum's "Go to Suchong's flat" tells you what you're doing that level, and the little girl demonstrates the special doors so you won't be surprised when you see them later. You're trapped in the safe house.

It's all by careful design. The game designers know, plot-wise, the player must hear these two messages, so they trap the player and make the messages hard to interrupt. I think the only reason we *can* interrupt the messages is that the UI would be frustrating otherwise - accessible one moment, inaccessible the next.

Death Warping

Reasoning

"Of course for a speed run you'll be doing a lot of death warps. The Vita Chambers make it way too easy to skip so much content on return trips. Kill yourself when you need to go back to Fountaine's Fisheries after getting the camera, you'll end up right outside Peach's door. Goad the Big Daddy to kill you outside Langhorn's office in Arcadia you'll end up waaaaaaay back at the Gatherer's Garden outside Rolling Hills. Lots of potential in that regard. " -- Psychochild

Since death brings almost no penalty in BioShock, and death teleports you to the nearest active Vita-Chamber, it's sometimes faster to die than to run a given path.

It also lets you skip cut scenes and triggers (eg in the Medical Pavilion).

Preferred Suicide Methods

TODO: Check accuracy

In order from fastest to slowest.

• Falling Damage (very rarely an option)
• Fragmentation Grenades and/or Heat Seeking Rockets (reload canceled)
• Trap Bolts (reload canceled)
• Proximity Mines (reload canceled), triggered with a pistol round
• Electrobolt in water
• Standing in fire

(On Hard, you also go down pretty quickly against a Big Daddy.)

Trigger Avoidance

Floor Triggers

A lot of events are triggered when the player walks on a certain area of floor. In rare occasions, you can avoid those triggers by walking in exactly the right spot.

Look Triggers

BioShock has a few enemies that activate when you look at them - eg Hector Rodriguez and Dr. Steinman (in his first appearance). You can avoid activating them by not looking, which can be handy.

It seems like it acts roughly like taking a picture. You have to have them somewhat centered and close for it to trigger. I'd say it's like a "C" picture.

Melting Ice

Ice is used to block the player at several points. You're supposed to use Incinerate or napalm to melt it, but there are other methods.

You can use exploding buck. This is particularly handy after the Peach battle, because there's some on a corpse in the spider slicer's lair right outside Peach's.

You can also use ordinary fire. This can be transferred from standing flames, flames caused by explosions, or something already alight. But the flames from nitro splicer's, turret's, and security bot's deaths aren't real - they're just graphical.

There's a difficult way of using ordinary fire to melt the ice in the Medical basement. This avoids having to get Incinerate.

Hacking Tricks

We tend to use autohacks and buyouts a lot, but when you absolutely must hack:

"I've just read the thread and are watching the run as far as I got myself. I haven't read it here and it's not used in your run, but you can increase the flow speed while hacking by simply right clicking which should shave off a few frames. If you need to hack later, it might add up." -- xeen

Don't forget to freeze the thing you're hacking, too, if you can

Weapon Tricks

"there's a trick to shoot the crossbow and the grenade launcher faster: shoot, switch to plasmids to skip the reloading/recoil animation and then just switch back to weapons and shoot again." - tri-Ace_Fanboy

Works on the shotgun, too - Marty81

Boosted Jumping

"I've been looking for glitches in the demo of this game and I've found a pretty cool glitch that I'm almost 100% positive will be useful to a speed run of this game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i44GNWq6ERw

It's kind of like the Pressure Jump with the baby stroller glitch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgsFyiYv9RY "

-- fluffy kitten

Horizontal Jumps

They're easier.

Put an ashtray flush - and I do mean *flush* - against a flat wall. Jump onto the middle of the ashtray. You'll get a huge horizontal impulse in the direction you jumped.

Note that it doesn't give a vertical impulse, only horizontal. You're gonna hit the ground again real soon unless the ground falls away from there.

Vertical Jumps

Haven't been able to replicate the video's.

Level by Level

The Crash Site

Normal Progression

Swim towards the stairs.

You can go right through the fire.  You will not be damaged, because you 
have no health bar.  You will sound damaged tho.

Enter the Lighthouse.

You can still move even tho the lights are off (of course).

Descend towards the bathysphere and board it.

It's slightly faster taking the right (counterclockwise) stairs down to the 
bathysphere, because you don't have to clear the door.

Watch the video, see Rapture go by, listen to Johnny and Atlas talk. These are all ambient audio, not radio messages, so you can't skip them.

Notes

This is technically a different level than "Welcome to Rapture" - different saved game names, different load screen (though the load screen calls it "BioShock" where the saved game calls it "The Crash Site").

Not much to do here.

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.

* "Move to higher ground" - let play
* "Smile for the camera" - let play
* "Draw her out" - let play
* "Smile for the camera" - let play (short)
* "Find a weapon" - radio skip with "Smile for the camera" (*slightly* 
  faster if you're quick, I think)

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.

TODO: Any tricky way to skip the cut scenes? :)

Zap the door, pass the plane wreckage, and battle the two thuggish splicers.

The first splicer is triggered when you descent the small staircase to the 
right and look back up into the hallway.  Then he respawns in the room opposite.
So, enter, back down the stairs to the right until he's triggered, and head 
back towards the other room.  Once he's dead, the 2nd one spawns at the door 
out.  It might be fastest just to zap and move around him (if you angle it 
right). (Side note: these dudes stay zapped for a VERY long time.)

cortez has another way to do this.

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

TODO: any way to use that neat jumping trick to skip the elevator ride here?

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

But have the wrench equipped going into the Footlight so you can knock the 
lock off that much faster.

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.

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, run back toward the middle of the room and look into the far bathroom. 
You should reach it just in time to watch the splicer spawn.  Kill that one then just zap 
the two waves of splicers as they land in the water, standing as far under the balcony as 
possible where you can still see the water so the non-spawning splicers don't shoot you while
you wait.

Or - position yourself right at the base of the stairs, beyond the rail to the left as you 
get off them. If you position yourself just right, you can pick off the splicers as they
spawn, like cortez does.

Listen Atlas' speech, head to Medical.

You can skip Ryan's and Atlas's speeches by avoiding the trigger in that room.  The non-
trigger path is along the far wall as you enter (the one with the closed gate on it). 
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

Atlas' message ANDREW RYAN, which controls the trigger to open the gate to the Medical Pavilion, does not get affected by the Radio Skip trick. (TODO: diary skip, tho?)

Cauldrath's notes on his first run: [2]

Medical Pavilion *

Vita-chambers

1. As soon as you enter, on your left.
2. In the room with the shotgun on the floor.
3. In the room where the sign is blown up.

Normal Progression

Grab the first aid kit and machine gun ammo on the desk before running past the splicers, letting them fight each other, and hit the first switch.

Shoot the window out on your way to the second switch. Pull it, and jump out the window.

Trigger ghost.

After ghost is finished, push button to open door.

Go along the left side of the area ahead through the archway with a torch above it, grabbing the EVE Hypo on the ground as you go. Let the splicer at the door blow up, then run past the Nitro Splicer, up the stairs. Crawl into the hole to get Incinerate, turn around and run back out to the arch with the torch.

Can be skipped by using a flaming object instead.

It is possible to grab Doctor Steinmann's grenade that he tosses to destroy the 
sign, although it doesn't stop the sign from exploding. This saves the trouble 
of grabbing a grenade from a Nitro Splicer, but using Steinmann's grenade seems 
very difficult. It only worked about 10% of the time during Tremalkinger's 
attempts, but without any real detectable correlation between time waited or 
angle.

Melt ice downstairs.

Collect Telekinesis.

Use Telekinesis to catch a Nitro Splicer's explosive, then use it on the sign.

Ignoring this guy, going through the closer door, and jumping the counter may
be faster

Run back to the stairs you went down to get here and go through the door up there that is between them, catching an explosive from a Nitro Splicer along the way. Blow up the sign with it.

Pick up the corpse on the ground, not in the chair, and loot it as you run up to the gate, then launch it at the flying bot as soon as the gate opens. Zap the turret as you run forward. Run up to Steinman's window, wait until he starts talking, then loot the room.

Kill Steinman and collect his key. (Telekinesis on propane tanks is advised. Headshots do increase telekenisis damage like anything else)

Optional: Go through break in tunnel to cutscene with Little Sister, rescue or
harvest the Little Sister. Select the Gatherer's Garden to open the exit.Pros: You
gain 80 or 160 ADAM, as well as random loot. Usually includes bandages, 2 First Aid
Kits and an EVE hypo plus some pistol bullets.Cons: You lose about one minute and
fifty seconds.If you chose to skip the cutscene, either die against the far door to
spawn down in Dandy Dentals, or deactivate a bot in the doorway to prop the door open.

Return to the first switch and activate it.

Exit via bathysphere.

Useful Death Warps

If you are skipping the sequence with the Little Sister, go all the way down the broken tunnel and drag some splicers with you. You need to be pressed into the corner of the door on the right side, if you are facing the door. Another possibility is to throw remaining propane tanks at yourself, or electrocute yourself in the water.

If you are not skipping the sequence with the Little Sister, warp as soon as you get Steinman's key. There are propane tanks in that room and one down in the pool of water, not to mention the pool of water itself. You will come out in the room where you blew up the sign and the swarm of splicers won't spawn.

Skipping Incinerate!

Melting the ice at the entrance to Dandy Dentals is necessary, so must be done using normal fire to skip Incinerate! The only sources of normal fire in the level are the Eternal Flame sign, the fire at the entrance to Eternal Flame, the burning body of a splicer who is killed in a scripted sequence when you approach Eternal Flame, and any body killed by an exploding fire extinguisher. The fastest method of melting the ice that is known to be possible is to set a small object (such as a nearby ashtray or the nearby bucket) alight using the burning splicer at Eternal Flame, then to quickly move that object to the ice that needs to be melted by attacking it with weapons or electrobolt.

ExplodingCabbage's notes on it: [3] [4]

Skipping Telekinesis

So far a way has not been found to skip Telekinesis.

The splicer who blows up the sign can not be killed.

The opening under the sign before it is blown up is an invisible barrier.

Explosives that have not been handled with Telekinesis will not blow up the sign.

Skipping Telekinesis is of VERY questionable value, considering how useful it is later on.

Audio Skips

None, surprisingly enough. Every audio message that plays either isn't holding anything up, or is ambient and unskippable. The only two messages worth skipping (at the end of the little Harvest/Rescue drama) are avoided by the death warp.

Notes

"Ran to the bot stuck in the door and hacked it. You can't blow it up - I tried. " - Cauldrath

Cauldrath's notes on his first run: [5]

ExplodingCabbage's notes on propping open a door or two: [6]

Neptune's Bounty*

Vita-chambers

1. At the start of the level
2. Outside Fontaine Fisheries, in the spider slicer's lair
3. In the stairwell up to the offices
4. Just outside the hallway to the camera
5. In the Fighting McDonaugh's, on the right as you enter

Normal Progression

Run through the hallways until you reach a Big Daddy patrolling in an open dock area.

Take a hard right to the area in front of the entrance to Fontaine Fisheries.

Destroy the rocket turret guarding, then run into the Fisheries. Peach then delivers 7 (!) radio messages in the next sequence:

* "Find a Research Camera" (diary skip here to go straight to the spider slicer)
* "What was that?" (unskippable - too fast; don't need to skip)
* "You are fucked" (unskippable - too fast; don't need to skip)
* The spider slicer is look-triggered, make sure to look up at her.
* "Send something fierce" (unskippable?  but maybe "What was that?" works)
* "Look on conveyer" (sic) (radio skip with "what was that?")
* The next Peach message is triggered on picking up the grenade launcher - TK it.
* "Ain't turning my eye" (radio skip with "what was that?")

And you're out.

TODO: Confirm that the splicer from the ceiling here stays out for a set amount
of time, longer on higher difficulty levels. Or does dealing enough damage to him
make him retreat faster?

Travel up into the offices for the research camera.

Spider Splicer one is next to the camera. Snap a picture.

Travel down to the lower T intersection.

At the right door, Spider Splicer two is on the ceiling above you when you peek in. Snap a picture.

At the left door, Spider Splicer three is in plain view for a brief second before he jumps into the pipes. Snap a picture.

There are three ways back to Peachy's from here:* The normal route: back to the Upper
Wharfs, down the stairs, across the  area outside of Peachy's (jump to the stairs below
Peachy's then up)* Jump off the Upper Wharfs down to the large room in the Lower Wharfs,
and  run from there* Death warp, from the base of the stairs between the lower and upper
wharfs eg  via the nitro that hides there, or inside the door from the Lower Wharfs: The
first two are almost identical.  There may be a way to do the last onefaster, but I
couldn't work it out.

Run back to the Fisheries, listen to Peachy babble. There are four messages.

* "Wait just a minute" - Diary skip with anything.
* "Watch out for Peach" - Diary skip with anything.
* Put your weapons in the Pneumo now.
* "Put weapons in the Pneumo" - Diary skip with anything.
* "Can't take away plasmids" - Let play. (?)

Wait around inside the freezer, then listen to Peachy babble more.

* Radio skip his last message with "Back to Fontaine's"

Kill Peachy as he spawns.

The door out of the Fisheries opens a few seconds after Peachy dies. Run out, get weapons back.

Optional: Use Power to the People station to upgrade a weapon.

Melt your way out of the level.

Useful Death Warps

You must be down the double staircase from the Upper Wharfs to warp back to Peachy's door.

The McDonuagh's Vita-Chamber activates the instant you open the door, so it's not useful.

Skipping Incinerate!

There are two spots where you need to melt ice in this stage, as well as an autohack tool which can only be accessed by melting ice. If you skipped Incinerate! you will need to either use a fire-based weapon or normal fire to melt these.

The most reliable way to handle this is to use Exploding Buckshot. You can find enough on a corpse hanging from the ceiling in the room where you first encounter a Spider Splicer. It is the one furthest from the door to Fontaine Fisheries. Make sure that you collect these after getting your weapons back, because your ammo and weapons are not consistent between dropping your weapons off and picking them back up.

TODO: Check if you can pick up the ammo between dropping off your weapons and picking them back up. - CONFIRMED - you can get back in there and get the exploding buck - or better still carry it in with you with TK.

Notes

"Found something on Neptune's Bounty which is interesting but ultimately seems useless. You can get to the upper wharf before visiting Fontaine Fisheries by stacking objects in the big open area where the first Big Daddy of the level is (is that called Lower Wharf?) to climb up there. Atlas even tells you that 'the research camera is just like one you'd see topside' as he normally would when you approach the wharfmaster's office. However, when you get to the interrogation room where the camera is, the door is locked. A pity." - ExplodingCabbage

Cauldrath's notes on his first run: [7]

Idea: maybe the Fighting McDonaugh's Vita-Chamber doesn't activate if you don't enter.

Smuggler's Hideout*

Vita-Chambers

1. At the beginning, in the sunken tunnel.
2. Right outside the room with the switch.

Normal Progression

Traveling through the tunnels until you reach the switch.

PC Only: Slip under the door before it shuts. This works differently on the PC
and the XBox 360. On the PC, you can start to crouch at full speed.  So if your
timing is just right, you can hit the switch, back up and crouch under the door,
and run out of the level (credit goes to ExplodingCabbage [8]).This
is, by far, the fastest way to do the level. You can't do that on the XBox 360. 
The controller won't let you.

Bypass the enemies and get past to the bathysphere. Radio skip to allow yourself to exit the level faster

Death Warps

You can't death warp out of the switch room. You appear to be invulnerable during this time.

Radio Skips

Skipping Ryan and Atlas' speeches in the switch room does not help, as Atlas' movement, the splicers' attacks, and the doors opening are on timers.

At least Ryan and Atlas' last speeches are skippable. Diary skips are preferable, but Atlas' "Splicers!" works pretty well, too.

Arcadia 1

Vita-Chambers

1. At the entrance from Smuggler's Hideout
2. By the Gatherer's Garden
3. Langford's lab

Normal Progress

Note: It is worthwhile to pick up Sportsboost 1 and Sportsboost 2 as fast as possible. Take pictures of every Thuggish Splicer you see, and none of anything else. This takes a bit of memorization, because there are Leadhead Splicers all around too.

Run to the Metro area to trigger the "tree apocalypse".

* "Planting Arcadia" - RADIO SKIPPED - triggered on entering the Rolling Hills

You can stack the sacks inside the front door of Langford's office next to the tree by the 
tree apocalypse floor trigger, and then execute a boost jump from on top of the stack. If
you do it *just* right, you'll reach the door just before it closes. And you'll skip Farmer's
Market and Arcadia 2 entirely. BTW there's also a look trigger somewhere near the door out,
I think, so you have to do it all without looking that way.

Death Warps

None.

Notes

You can get Sportsboost and Sportboost2, quickly, in Arcadia1, by taking shots of the Thuggish Splicers there - makes everything faster. See Tremalkinger's run for more: [9] The run also has a way of triggering the tree-holocaust quickly in Arcadia1 by hitting a close trigger point.

Farmer's Market

Skipped by the high horizontal jump past the look trigger in Arcadia 1

Arcadia 2

Skipped by the high horizontal jump past the look trigger in Arcadia 1

Fort Frolic*

Vita-Chambers

1. At the entrance
2. Facing the door to Poseidon Plaza

Normal Progression

Meet Sander Cohen and Hear Him Yammer

Discover that Cohen has shut down the metro.

* "Bathysphere ahead" - short; let play
* "Sander Cohen" (from Atlas) - radio skip with "Here they come" AFTER ...
* ...triggering the bathysphere door to close
* "That's better" - diary skip to open the metro door earlier. (This will wait
  for whatever message is playing, AND +15sec or so from the door closing)
You can also death warp to escape the room.
IDEA: maybe there's some way of skipping the trigger which sinks the bathysphere; or
getting to the bathysphere before the gate closes.  I've tried some horizontal jumps
and non-trigger paths without much success.

Head towards the Atrium.

* "A sign of life" - let play
* The spiders are triggered when you're well back into the hallway; not off "A
  sign of life"

Kill 2 spider splicers, quickly - they come in from the Arcadia bathysphere area.

* "Nicely done" - short; let play; waits for "A sign of life" & 2 dead splicers

Kill 4 more spider splicers - they come in in pairs from little caves in the "skylight" next to the doors to the Atrium.

* "Come to Fleet Hall" - diary skip to open the Atrium doors earlier

TODO: try the door propping trick on the Atrium doors (maybe the bathysphere 
is ready to go the instant you walk into the Atrium)

The stage is lit up off a trigger as you enter the Atrium

* "Welcome!" - short; triggered on stage lighting up
* "Jamming Atlas and Ryan" - let play

Get on the elevator (which takes freakin' forever), see Fitzpatrick die.

* "Test all my disciples" - let play
* You can shoot the explosives on the piano (or the guy) to make that happen 
  faster.
* "Quicker than hoped" - let play; short; cancels others; while playing, you'll 
  be blocked from leaving.

You can take the picture from pretty far away. Run back towards the Atrium; stop when you get to the stairs.

* "Burden of the artist" - diary skip - will hold up the next
* "Place Fitzpatrick picture" - MUST radio skip it (with a fast one - either 
  "Nicely Done", "Welcome!", or "Quicker than Hoped") - it cancels others

Cohen unveils the "quadtych".

* Goal: 'Find the quadtych' **will wait for whatever diary might be playing**; I
  think this is look activated like a picture (can't be too close or far)
* "Touch the quadtych" - diary skip

Put photo in the quadtych.

* Skip the crossbow? - there's one next the Health Station under ice, after 
  Finnigan is dead
* "Creating the quadtych" - diary skip to open the doors earlier (it's long)
* "Draw back the curtain" - short; let play

Head towards Poseidon Plaza.

Kill Some People

Kill Martin Finnegan. Take a picture.

* "Take Finnegan's picture"
Note: there's another crossbow lying around after he's dead. You may be able to 
skip the first one.

Kill Silas Cobb. Take a picture. Note that the door leading outside doesn't open until you kill all the spider splicers. So stay downstairs to kill them faster.

If you death warp out of the room after the explosion, the door will be open 
and Silas will be standing at the entrance to the crawlspace.

Kill Hector Rodriguez. Take a picture.

A fast way to take Hector Rodriguez down AND nearly kill yourself in the process is
proximity mines.  Takes 2 on Medium.   You have to put them in a trail, separated by
a bit, and run with Hector as he runs over them in order to make progress towards a
death warp. But you've got plenty of time to set that up while Jasmine's ghost does
her thing.   Hector is look-activated.  So you can go towards the door so long as you
don't look.  That might be useful if you have to hit him with frag grenades instead. 
This'd be a good opportunity to use the "switch to plasmids and back and avoid the
reload" trick.

Head back to the Atrium.

Get the Hell Out of Fort Frolic

Put two photos in.

* "Coming together" - diary-skip; after 2nd picture
* "Screw all you doubters" - diary-skip; after 3rd picture - waits for 
  "Coming together"

Cohen sends some splicers at you.

The splicers spawn based on where you are standing and where you are looking.  As far
as I can tell, there are certain spawn points located around the area and the game
chooses the closest spawn point to your location that you aren't looking towards, as
long as you aren't too close to it.  For example, there is a spawn point in the
corner of the lower level, in the far right corner when looking away from the
quadtych.  If you are standing next to the wall, near the glass cases, looking away
from the spawn point, one of the initial splicers will spawn there.  If you walk
past the cases towards the spawn point, then the splicer will not spawn there.  If
you look towards the spawn point, the splicer will not spawn there.  There doesn't
seem to be any determining factor as to whether it is a thuggish or spider splicer
that spawns, either, although spider splicers are much more common.
Two splicers spawn as Cohen begins saying "Fly away, little moth!"  Every time you
kill a splicer, one more spawns, with the exception of the tenth one, which spawns
two.  Cohen says "Smile, smile!" after killing the fifth one, which has no effect on
the game.  You have to kill a total of 17.
Because of the way the splicers spawn, the best way to fight is to kill all the
splicers in view, then spin 180 degrees to kill the ones that just spawned behind
you.
  
* "Sorry for the outburst" - diary-skip; after goons defeated

Put the last photo in, head immediately for the door, leave Fort Frolic.

Waits for the completion of "Sorry for the outburst"

* "On to bathysphere" (Atlas) - let play
 
All messages will stop when you reach the bathysphere.

Death Warps

• Out of Cohen's trap.
• Out of Silas' trap. (?)
• Back from killing Hector Rodriguez.

Notes

"One other change besides adding a death warp after the last photo is buying less incendiary bolts and getting at least one hacking tool at that shop. Maybe getting more electric buck, instead, too, since I doubt I'll be needing that many incendiary bolts. It will be easier to tell once I get further into it what ammo I would rather have more of. " - Cauldrath

"Well, what I was going for, which is the perfect situation, is a one-shot kill. Happened on one of my exploration runs, I shot him once and he exploded, dying instantly. I think I must have hit his Molotov cocktail with my incendiary bolt, but it worked instantly." - Cauldrath on Hector Rodriguez

"Maybe you could even use [Security Bullseye] for Cohen's little temper tantrum after placing the third picture on the Quadtych" - Psychochild

ExplodingCabbage's notes on radio skipping: [10]

There's no early way out of the freeze - not even if you throw a burning corpse in the right spots.

There's no way to radio skip Jasmine, it looks like.

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.

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.

Rapture Central Control*

Vita-chambers

• In the entry hall
• In Ryan's office (offline)

Normal Sequence

Rapture Central Control is basically just hurry up and wait. There are several pauses.

Ryan makes his big "a time to destroy" speech (during which the door to the next room is blocked by an invisible barrier). Atlas follows up with a radio message.

Ryan's speech is on a timer.  You can't get past the barrier before the timer ends.
But Altas's radio message is triggered at the end of Ryan's speech.  And it can block
the door in the "Would You Kindly" room.  So diary skip Ryan's speech then loot the room.

Have a wrench or grenade ready to knock out the grating.

The "Would You Kindly" room's door is locked for a bit to complete Atlas' radio message (unless you skip it).

The whole "a man chooses" sequence - first the conversation through the glass, then the conversation face to face.

There's no known way out of the "man chooses" sequence.  It plays even if you play other
stuff on the 360.  Be at the door when it opens.

Atlas's speech and Fontaine's speech

Radio skip both Atlas's and Fontaine's speeches: "Continue to Core" 
for the first, "Override Self-Destruct" for the second.  The 2nd speech waits
for any playing audio to finish, and the end of the level does too.

Useful Death Warps

None.

The only one that might've been useful - between Ryan's speech and Fontaine's, back to the main hall - is impossible. You are invulnerable during this time.

Notes

You can't back out of the "man chooses" speech, like with Cabbage's trick in Smuggler's Hideout, it seems like. I think an invisible barrier goes up as you hit the trigger. And the radio selection screen isn't accessible

"You can play radio messages and diaries while Ryan is making his little speech before he opens the door [on the 360], but all it does is make him continue doing his animation silently if you use a radio message. If you play an audio diary, both voices play at the same time. " -- Cauldrath (You can't even reach the radio messages screen on the PC.)

Olympic Heights*

Vita-Chambers

1. As you leave the sewers from the safe house.
2. At the entrance of Mercury Suites
3. In Fontaine's courtyard

Normal Progression

When you first wake up, Tenenbaum will chat a bit.

* "Welcome back" - let play; short* "Angry at Fontaine" - let play; you don't have 
time to skip it* "Redeem yourself" - diary skip (may be too fast)* "Mind control 
weakened" - diary skip* "Go to Suchong's Flat" - radio skip with "Redeem yourself"
- the girl waits   for audio to finish (I think)A good place to wait for the little girl
to say "come with me" is right behind her, off the foot of the stairs.  It doesn't
really matter where, because she takes a while to open the door.  Just be ahead of her.

Find the crank, and crank the door open.

Head towards Mercury Suites and Suchong's apartment.

Get the radio message describing Lot 192 .

Go to Tenenbaum's apartment and look for her Lot.

This is entirely skippable, with no special tricks.  Just head for Fontaine's.

Go to Fontaine's apartment (code: 5744) and get Tenenbaum's Lot.

The camera above Fontaine's door must be dead or hacked before you can enter.  Nail it with
a crossbow bolt as the elevator door opens (or maybe as it arrives on the level)

Head for Apollo Square and Suchong's clinic.

Death Warps

• Death warping back from Fontaine's might be a win (pick a fight with the Big Daddy?)

If you die in the sewers - you actually die! There are no Vita-Chambers active yet. You get sent to the main menu.

Note that Fontaine's Vita-Chamber is an exception to the "nearest Vita-Chamber" rule - it only applies to Fontaine's area. When you die in the Mercury Suites courtyard, you go back to the one at the Mercury Suites entrance, not up into Fontaine's, even if you've activated it.

Notes

"You only need to find the first audio diary that tells you what lot 142 is before getting it. You can get that, go to Fontaine's apartment, then leave the level. " - Cauldrath (If you go before that, it's just a "Mysterious Liquid" you can't use.)

Apollo Square*

Vita-Chambers

1. As you come in from Olympic Heights
2. At the entrance of Artemis Suites
3. At the entrance of Fontaine's Home for the Poor

Normal Progression

Head for the Artemis Suites via Apollo Square.

Go upstairs, into Suchong's clinic, avoid the traps and get the other Lot

I *think* the timing is right that you can nail Suchong's camera on the run with
Electro Bolt 3.

Head for the metro by Fontaine's Home for the Poor.

Death Warps

None - they're all not active when you need them.

(Maybe deathwarp out of Suchong's back out onto the street? You can jump down into the courtyard from the 2nd floor, so there's not a lot of time.)

Notes

You have to go to Suchong's clinic ... otherwise Fontaine will block you at the metro station.

You can't death warp to the end of Artemis' street. The Vita-Chamber isn't active yet.

Point Prometheus

Vita-Chambers

1. By the entrance
2. In the lobby

Normal Progression

Watch Fontaine smash stuff. Follow him. Avoid the security bots.

When Fontaine heads towards the exit, it's possible to avoid the look trigger that causes him to
start moving, for a second. I think there's also a floor trigger between you and the door, so you
have to sort of run around it. But if you avoid both triggers, you can get through the door 
before Fontaine gets there, and exit the level.

Death Warps

None.

Proving Grounds

Notes

You can't kill a Little Sister and call them out of a vent further down the line. They will only come out vents that one of them has already reached, so a speed run should include no Little Sister deaths.

You don't have to kill the Big Daddy that attacks you. If you pull him back to the security camera and use Security Bullseye, he should be too busy dealing with bots and you can just continue on.

Fontaine

Vita-chambers

None.

Equipment Needed

1. 2 first aid kits
2. 50 electric gel
3. 5 crossbow bolts
4. 3 frag grendades
5. 5 heat-seeking rockets

Recommended Fight Method

1. Stick the needle in Fontaine.
2. Unload 5 normal crossbow bolts into him, switching to plasmids between each shot
3. Switch to the grenade launcher and shoot him with frag grenades until he returns to his machine. Switch to heat-seeking rockets.
4. Stick the needle in him again, after the animation for changing ammo completes.
5. Hit him with Security Bullseye, then shoot him with heat-seeking rockets until he returns to the machine.
6. Stick him with the needle a third time.
7. Shoot him with electric gel until he returns to the machine one last time.
8. Use a first aid kit right before sticking him with the needle, because you will take a lot of damage while you drain him and you can't use first aid kits while you do.

Notes

"Security Bullseye is where it's at. Hit Fontaine with it and they'll instantly lock onto him. You may need to refresh this throughout the fight but those Security Bots do some really worthwhile damage. It was comparable to an Incindinary Crossbow Bolt to the head every time they opened fire which was pretty frequent. Best part is seeing as how it's on a timer, it's easy to quickly breeze past the second phase and still have some time left to play around with in the third fight with the flying bot bastards on him." - Psychochild

Total fight time should be <= 1 minute.

"They've apparently patched the game so that multiple overlapping proximity mines only do 1 mine's worth of damage. I bet this is to take out the twinky 6-mine Fontaine trick. (I swear that it used to work before.)" - usernameguy

Misc

PC vs 360

Known Differences

• The 360 doesn't let you crouch at full speed. It was though that you couldn't use the Smugglers Hideout skip on the 360 because of this, but you still can.
• Audio skipping is much faster on the 360 controller, just because of the UI controls.
• The rules for accessing radio messages are different. In the PC version, you can't during certain scenes. While on the 360, you can. (eg the Footlight Theater.) This means the 360 can radio skip things the PC can't.

Suspected Differences

It seems like looting is faster on the 360. Maybe that's just me.

Plasmids and Tonics Analysis

Must Haves

• Telekinesis - far too useful
• Sportboost & Sportboost2 - this is a speed run, right? Equip both.
• Electro Bolt - impossible to avoid? And handy for turrets and doors and such.
• Security Bullseye - Reportedly extremely helpful for taking down high hitpoint targets such as the required Big Daddy kills during Hephestus, as well as Fontaine himself. Very easy to obtain, since it is directly on the route back to the Fisheries.

Potentially Interesting

If not for the cost in time of obtaining ADAM...

• Target Dummy (Reduces fire on you, and allows for the hacking of turrets without Electrobolt. High EVE cost is a drawback.)
• Cyclone Trap

Potentially Skippable

• Incinerate - Not required, since there are other methods to melt ice. Some people feel it isn't worth the time to obtain, since the damage is somewhat slow.

Others disagree. While it is not useful against an enemy charging or chasing you, it is still fairly effective against targets when it has time to work. Enemies that aren't actively attacking you, such as when you manage to surprise a splicer, or when you hit spider splicers crawling along the ceiling.

Unobtainable

• Hypnotize Big Daddy (1 & 2), Safecracker, Prolific Inventor, Armored Shell 2 - too much time taken by rescues
• Natural Camouflage, Scrounger, Extra Nutrition 3, Security Expert 2, Photographer's Eye 2, Static Discharge 2, Wrench Jockey 2 - all tonics gained by research; there's no time for non-essentials.

Notes

See here for a detailed list of the tonics: [11]

Are we 100% sure the time it takes getting Sportboost & Sportboost 2 will be made up in saved running time? It certainly seems like it...

Links

• The Speed Demo Archive forums, [12] and [13]
• Tremalkinger's older runs, on YouTube: [14]
• Cauldrath's runs: [15]