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Vita-Chamber

One of many Vita-Chambers located throughout Rapture.

Introducing the future of health and wellness, the Vita-Chamber.
― Advertisement from Ryan Industries[src]

Vita-Chambers are devices that resurrect the player when they are killed.[1] Vita-Chambers are placed in convenient locations throughout Rapture so that a revived player will not have to travel too far to continue a battle. When the player is revived, they will be given a considerable amount of health and EVE. The player does not have a fixed number of lives, so the Vita-Chambers can be used without limit.

History[]

Vita-Chamber Icon

Development[]

At some point in late 1958 to early 1959, Sinclair Solutions in partnership with Suchong Laboratories successfully manufactured the Vita-Chamber for Ryan Industries. The device is described as using a combination of Plasmids reconstructed within a quantum field entanglement to bring people back to life. According to Dr. Suchong, the key developers were his colleague Alexander and Sinclair himself. Suchong was also involved in the project, including the first deployment stage for Ryan Industries: the mass-production and installation of the device throughout Rapture. Despite his work on the project, he remained skeptical as to the device's "fantastical" abilities for resurrection.[2]

Trigger Mechanism[]

One of the drawbacks of the Vita-Chambers is that they can only bring a person back to life if he or she dies of trauma. Slow wasting sicknesses or genetic illness can not be cured by a Vita-Chamber, so an individual who died of such a condition would remain permanently dead.[3] It also appears that the Vita-Chambers can also revive a body independently of the time of death, as Subject Delta was resurrected nearly 10 years after his death.

Impact on Rapture[]

Widespread advertisements for the Vita-Chamber describe it as "restoring vigor and spirit with the touch of a button." This implies that the chamber's true purpose of life-restoration was hidden from the population and only procured them restorative treatments. The Adonis Luxury Resort also had a Vita-Chamber as part of their treatments. By the time of Rapture's downfall in 1959, possibly hundreds of Vita-Chambers had been installed throughout the city.

Spoilers

Genetic Key[]

Even though Vita-Chambers were installed in most parts of the city, Andrew Ryan was the sole subject to whom they were attuned and could resurrect. Thus, they would only act upon Ryan, or someone with a similar genetic code.[2] This is the reason only Jack, who is Ryan's illegitimate son, can resurrect at these chambers. After the fatal confrontation between Jack and Andrew Ryan at Rapture Central Control, Ryan doesn't revive because he had intentionally shut off the Vita-Chamber in his office. Re-activating it however will not bring Ryan back to life.

BioShock[]

Vita-Chamber 1

Advertisement for Vita-Chambers.

Main article: BioShock

Once the player's health reaches zero, Jack will collapse, only to be revived at any nearby Vita-Chamber. Vita-Chambers are found throughout the game, at least two per level.

Players who are attempting to gain the "Brass Balls" achievement/trophy or the "I Chose the Impossible" trophy can choose to disable all Vita-Chambers after downloading the 1.1 patch and DLC for BioShock (though the player is not obliged to do so; simply completing the game without dying unlocks the achievement, regardless of whether or not the Chambers are on). If the player is playing with the Vita-Chambers turned off, the main menu will be brought up upon death.

Help Caption[]

If you are killed by the hostile
denizens of Rapture, you will be
revived live and whole at the last
Vita-Chamber you passed. Some of
your health will be restored, and you
will always have at least a small
amount of EVE.

Vita-Chambers work automatically
-- there is no need to use or activate
them.

BioShock 2[]

Adonis Luxury Resort Vita-Chamber

Vita-Chamber which is used for Delta's reviving.

Main article: BioShock 2

The Vita-Chambers are still functional during the events of BioShock 2, even those caught in the flood of Dionysus Park a decade earlier. The protagonist, Subject Delta, is initially revived at a Vita-Chamber in the Adonis Luxury Resort after his death there nearly 10 years earlier. This is accomplished when a Little Sister, acting on behalf of Eleanor Lamb, re-keys the chamber to correspond with Delta's genetic code signature.[4] Later in Outer Persephone, Sofia Lamb stops her daughter's heart to provoke Delta's coma and natural death in order to bypass his revival at a Vita-Chamber from ever happening.

In BioShock 2, the Vita-Chambers in the game can be disabled by a choice in the Gameplay Options menu to make it easier to gain the "Big Brass Balls " achievement/trophy.

Minerva's Den[]

Main article: Minerva's Den

Vita-Chambers are also present throughout BioShock 2's downloadable content, Minerva's Den, though no explanation is given as to why Subject Sigma would be able to use the chambers deployed inside the facility.

Help Caption

If you are killed by the hostile denizens of Rapture, you will be revived live and whole at the last Vita-Chamber you passed. Some of your health will be restored, and you will always have at least a small amount of EVE.

Vita-Chambers work automatically -- there is no need to use or activate them.

If you are revived while you have a Little Sister with you, she will be found waiting for you outside the Vita-Chamber. Remember to pick her up before moving on!

BioShock 2 Multiplayer[]

Main article: BioShock 2 Multiplayer

The function of the Vita-Chamber is not included in BioShock 2 Multiplayer, but closed chambers can be seen in the multiplayer maps of Arcadia and Hephaestus.

The exclusive Gene Tonic Resurrection is a "Tonic" version of the machine that resurrects a killed player, though only once.

Infinite Spoilers


BioShock Infinite[]

BI VitaChamber

Vita-Chamber in BioShock Infinite.

Main article: BioShock Infinite

The Vita-Chamber of the Bathysphere Station at the Welcome Center is seen when this place is revisited at the end of BioShock Infinite.

Burial at Sea - Episode 2[]

VitaChamberProto
Main article: Burial at Sea - Episode 2

In BioShock Infinite's downloadable content, Burial at Sea - Episode 2, a stage one prototype of the Vita-Chamber can be found in the hidden research area of Dr. Suchong's Free Clinic. A chalkboard beside the device shows its schematics with notes from Suchong's diary on the project, such as the plans to first outline the mass production and distribution of the Vita-Chamber throughout Rapture to complete stage one. A note at the bottom of the board mentions how each device must be tuned to Andrew Ryan's specific genetic frequency before distribution.

Gallery[]

Bugs/Glitches[]

  •  Icon xbox In some cases with BioShock, once a certain amount of time has elapsed since the download of the patch for the Xbox 360, the option "Disable Vita-Chambers" disappears. If this happens, the cache needs to be emptied, the download must be removed and the patch needs to be downloaded again.
  •  Icon ps3 If you are holding down either of the triggers when you die, once you respawn in the Vita Chamber, whatever trigger you were holding down will cause the player to keep shooting until you press the trigger again.

Behind the Scenes[]

  • The "Vita" in Vita-Chamber is from the Latin vita, which means "life."
  • An alternative developers name for the Vita-Chamber is Resurrection Station, cited both on the file name of its advertisement and on the description of Health Upgrade.
  • The game's Vita-Chamber feature is an alternative to the Save-Die-Reload mechanism used in most games. The Vita-Chamber itself is inspired by the Restoration Bays and the Quantum Bio-Reconstruction Machines from BioShock's spiritual predecessors, System Shock and System Shock 2, respectively. They were present only once on most levels and needed to be activated first before resurrecting the player there, otherwise it would be a game over.
  • In BioShock 2, only the first Vita-Chamber encountered in the game is seen to have been re-coded to allow Subject Delta to come back to life. There are no indication as to why Delta can use all chambers he passes by later in the game. Though, like the Gene Bank, it has been implied that the Vita-Chambers are all somehow linked.
  • A similar device called Resurrecto was originally planned in the early Beta version of BioShock Infinite, but was ultimately replaced by two Tear-like animations, and at cost of some of the player's money upon each death and a game over if it went below 0 in 1999 Mode.

References[]

  1. VO_EDN_S_Lamb_PlrWakesUp_01C.mp3
  2. 2.0 2.1 Yi Suchong's Audio Diary: The Vita Chamber
  3. Post by Jordan Thomas in the thread "Plot Holes (Full Spoilers)" in the 2K BioShock 2 Forums
  4. Eleanor Lamb's Audio Diary: Behind Mother's Back
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