For those who are looking for more of a challenge during their trips to Rapture and Columbia then players will be able to select the Survivor Mode difficulty. This is the hardest difficulty offered in BioShock: The Collection and will offer changes to not only enemies but the environment itself. While Survivor Mode doesn’t add new enemies, it does make them far harder to kill and allows them to deal more damage. Vita Chambers (or just respawning in Infinite) will either offer you less EVE or take away some of your money with each death.
Now, Survivor Mode is quite difficult and given the scarce amount of items you can find early on in the games, can make the first encounters quite frustrating. If you are looking to conquer BioShock on Survivor Mode you will want to make sure to utilize many of the Plasmids that you might have previously ignored. Enrage is a fantastic choice because it can not only help whittle down a Bid Daddy’s health but thin the numbers of enemies who are roaming in groups.
The wrench is also your best friend since many of the perks that boost your melee efficiency can stack and turn a lot of unaware Splicers into one hit kills. Make sure that you focus many of your passive perks into a certain build because the more your abilities complement each other, the better off you’ll be.
For BioShock 2 and BioShock Infinite, it’s going to be about preparation and making sure to consistently land your critical hits. Headshots drop enemies quite fast, so weapons like the rivet gun or sniper rifle are very efficient choices and should be upgraded first. Much like the original BioShock, you will always want to make sure you’re tailoring vigors and plasmids to a specific playstyle. Survivability and keeping your distance will be key to winning, and make sure to always save your heavy ammo for enemies like The Handy Man or Big Sisters.
Survivor Mode is by far the hardest offering in BioShock: The Collection. However, with patience and good resource management, you should be able to conquer this difficulty setting. Just remember to maximize the use of your wrench early on in BioShock so you can save as much ammo as possible.
