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For Vending Machines in Columbia, see Vending Machines (Columbia).
Bio Arcadia Langford Labs Circus of Values Vending Machine

A Circus of Values Machine.

Vending Machines are permanent fixtures in Rapture which sell various items or dispense various services. Most vending machines require payment (either Dollars or ADAM) to use. Many can be hacked to reduce their sale prices.

List of Vending Machines[]

Common Vending Machines in BioShock[]

B1 El Ammo Bandito VendingMs

An El Ammo Bandito machine.

Main article: BioShock Items

There are 53 common vending machines in BioShock (43 Circus of Value machines and ten El Ammo Bandito machines), selling a total of 21 different items. Prices for different items vary by location and can be quite outrageous sometimes. For example, in the Fleet Hall theater of Fort Frolic, there is a vending machine that sells food items at forty times the usual price; a single Creme-Filled Cake is sold for over 200$.

Vending machines will not sell ammunition for weapons that are not yet available for the player to find; for example, the Medical Pavilion has the Pistol, Machine Gun, and Shotgun and its vending machines have ammo for these three weapons, but not for anything else. They never contain inventable ammunition types, instead, these have to be made at U-Invent machines. All El Ammo Bandito machines sell base ammunition types and will also have two additional types of advanced ammo available at the end of their list. However, this advanced ammo type is only available in limited stock and can only be bought a limited amount of times.

Hacking[]

Hacking a vending machine will cause all prices to drop by 25% (except for advanced ammunition types, which are reduced by 50%) in addition to granting access to extra items not normally available for purchase. A few vending machines in the Medical Pavilion, will, if hacked, drop their prices by slightly less than 25% (not shown in the references below). The tonic Thrifty Hacker and the Vending Expert line of tonics also reduce costs in vending machines.

Exceptions[]

There is a broken vending machine in Arcadia's Waterfall Grotto, with several Frag Grenades and First Aid Kits around it, and another in the Footlight Theater that serves little purpose.[1] There is also one in Hephaestus Core that will dispense a slow-burning grenade if the player tries to use it. One can step away before it explodes, or use the Telekinesis Plasmid to grab the grenade and toss it at an enemy. Gatherer's Gardens, Gene Banks, Power to the People machines and Bot Shutdown Panels cannot be hacked.

Locations and Available Items[]

Vending Machines in BioShock 2[]

Main article: BioShock 2 Items

Like in the previous game, Vending Machines aid the player by selling items such as Food items, First Aid Kits and ammunition for a price. Exceptions include the Power to the People, EVE Dispenser, Tool Dispenser, and Fuel Station, which can be used for free, and Gatherer's Garden machines, which use ADAM as currency. Slot and fortune telling machines also return, but are only found in one instance in Siren Alley and Ryan Amusements respectively.

Hacking[]

Like in the first game, hacking a vending machine will lower the sale prices and grant access to extra items. For both Circus of Values and El Ammo Bandito machines, landing on a blue square during the hacking sequence will also cause the machine to dispense one or more free items. Achieving a blue bonus on a Health Station will automatically cause it to dispense a free First-Aid Kit, in addition to its usual benefits. While not exactly machines, Hack Panels are required to be hacked in order for the player to progress through a certain part of the level. Oftentimes they are inaccessible, requiring the player to use Hack Darts to reach and hack them.

Exceptions[]

As in the first game, Gatherer's Gardens, Power to the People machines, Bot Shutdown Panels, and Gene Banks cannot be hacked, as with any of the free vending machines (Tool Dispenser, EVE Dispenser, etc.).

Gallery[]

Bugs/Glitches[]

  •  Icon mac Icon pc Icon xbox Icon ps3 The "Epstein the Swami" will still work even if the player has no money.
  •  Icon mac Icon pc Icon xbox Icon ps3 Slot Machines will still work even if the player has less than ten dollars.
  •  Icon pc Icon xbox Icon ps3 Due to a bug, vending machines in BioShock 2 no longer produce any soundtracks or jingles. They however work fine in both DLCs, The Protector Trials and Minerva's Den. This problem was ultimately fixed in BioShock: The Collection, where the machines produce sounds in the main game as well.

Behind the Scenes[]

All Sales Final * Select With Care *
  • The Circus of Values and El Ammo Bandito vending machines use the same model, with the only physical alteration being their top and bottom images.

See Also[]

References[]

  1. Originally intended to supply extra Pistol Rounds if the player got stuck. See the Footlight Theater article for more detail.
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