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Old Man Winter Icon
WinterOldMan
OLD MAN WINTER: Freeze your foes with this Arctic ally!
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Old Man Winter is a new drinkable Plasmid in BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea that works similar to a Vigor. Although Old Man Winter allows the player to freeze enemy Splicers much like Winter Blast, it can also create ice traps, as well as freezing gushing water to create an icy bridge and even water puddles.

Infinite Spoilers

History

As an alternative to Plasmid injections, Old Man Winter was a drinkable Plasmid that had been created by Yi Suchong, sold exclusively in Jack Frost's Village of Fontaine's Department Store. When Suchong discovered that a "window" revealed Jeremiah Fink stealing and modifying his Plasmid formulas with an oxidation agent, Suchong retaliated by stealing Fink's formulas, and presenting this to Andrew Ryan as a drinkable Plasmid. Old Man Winter had its drawbacks, in that it produced dry ice which never melted instead of regular ice. Over consumption also had drastic side-effects, forming large ice crystals around the user's body, as seen on Frosty Splicers. The Test-Drive Apparently, the newer model Bathyspheres had a dangerous design flaw and tended to overheat. Rather than go public with this information the company simply supplied a free sample of the Plasmid with purchase and labeled it as a promotional give away. 

Burial at Sea - Episode 1

Main article: Burial at Sea - Episode 1

Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth are first introduced to the Plasmid when entering Fontaine's Station. They see the Frosty Splicer, using the Plasmid to freeze a path for himself from burst pipes in the area. The duo soon realize that they need the Plasmid to access the Housewares department, which is blocked by another set of burst pipes. They venture to Jack Frost's Village where it's believed the Plasmid, and the Frosty Splicer, will be found. After defeating the Frosty, Booker opens the Plasmid cabinet with no luck. Elizabeth introduces her “new Plasmid”, (called "Tear") to bring in one bottle of Old Man Winter and Booker is granted the cold ability.

Old Man Winter Icon

Plasmid Combos

Official

  • Freezing an possessed enemy with Old Man Winter will infuse them with ice, causing them to freeze all other enemies around them.
  • Freezing an levitated enemy with Bucking Bronco will instantly shatter them to pieces regardless how much health they have (except for a Big Daddy) and vice versa.

Combat Strategy

  • Old Man Winter freezes the enemy, making it an easier target.
  • This Plasmid can be used to stop/slow down hostile enemies, which the player can use as time to recover.
  • Frozen enemies can be executed with Air Grabber regardless of how much health they get.
  • If Player freezes a water puddle, all enemies in it will be frozen until water puddle thaw out.

Burial at Sea - Episode 2

Main article: Burial at Sea - Episode 2

Elizabeth needs the Plasmid in order to fix the vandalized Lutece Device. She finds some in the Test-Drive area of Bathyspheres DeLuxe.

Old Man Winter Icon

Combat Strategy

  • Freezing an enemy will make it easy for Elizabeth to knock them out with the Air Grabber.
  • After freezing an enemy, the player can use the time the enemy is frozen to find a hiding place, or get rid of them.
  • With the right upgrade, the Plasmid will cause the enemy to forget Elizabeth if noticed, when the dry ice melts.
  • The Plasmid can be used to freeze water puddles of any kind, which will prevent enemies from noticing her from the sound of her footsteps in the water.

Videos

Gallery

Concept and Rendering

Gameplay

Behind the Scenes

  • Old Man Winter originally appeared as one of the unused Vigor icons in The Art of BioShock Infinite, resembling an old man with an icy beard. It was not named until the April 2013, when a fan, nicknamed Trie215 on the 2K Games forums, sent his fan-made poster of the Vigor via Twitter to Irrational Games. As inspiration, the fan used the icon as the bottle's visage.
  • Old Man Winter is the ingestible form of the Winter Blast Plasmid in the original BioShock.
  • Old Man Winter is the only Plasmid in Burial at Sea - Episode 1 which has its own presentation video, like other Plasmids had in the previous games. Also, this video uses the same sound and voice track as Winter Blast in BioShock.
  • This Plasmid's name comes from a personification of the winter season.
  • Unlike other Vigors in BioShock Infinite, Old Man Winter does not have a cutscene that displays the physical effects the Vigor has on the user.
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