Overview
Which vigor can throw enemies off Columbia, kill handymen and patriots in under 5 seconds, and turn the tide of a battle with the flex of a palm? Why, Undertow of course!
Overview and Vigor Information
Overview:
Undertow is the 7th vigor found in bioshock infinite. On cast, it sweeps away all nearby enemies, briefly incapacitating them by knocking them over. On charge, it grabs a single enemy from a distance and pulls them towards you, where they hover, vunerable for a few seconds before resuming their fight, now right next to you. The basic use for undertow is to either push enemies over the edge, reel them in and shoot them to death, break up the fight if you are surrounded or to push smaller targets away while facing off with more difficult or larger enemies. However you use it on an enemy (aside from the siren), the enemy will be wet for a few seconds.*
The undertow charge effect – grabbing an enemy and pulling them in.
Location:
It is found in the Office of Jeremiah Fink. More specifically, in the Fink MFG Factory. Having exited an elevator within the factory, you should walk into Fink’s Office – you can tell by the fallen clock surrounded by blood, Fink’s large desk and a neon sign saying “Fink MFG” The undertow vigor is under this sign, next to a corpse.
Upgrades:
As with every vigor, undertow has two upgrades – a boost, and an aid. Undertow Boost costs $1143, and increases the vigor’s effective range by 2. This is useful for increasing the number of people you can push away if you’re surrounded, or pushing people off the edge from a safer distance. Other than that though, you can still function well without this particular upgrade. However, it is still useful to have if you plan on making this your primary vigor.
Undertow Aid is much more useful, and strangely enough, cheaper at $306. It increases the maximum number of enemies you can pull in to 3, making the use of salts 3 times more efficient, even more so when using other vigors. Invest in this upgrade as soon as you can, it will serve you well.
Enemies
Nearly all of the game’s enemies can be affected by undertow in one way or another. However gun automations, rocket automations, mosquitos and zepplins all remain unaffected by the vigor.
- Humans (Soldiers, Vox, Police and Citizens) – There is no limit to using undertow on these enemies, and the vigor is most useful against these enemies because of its crowd control ability and instant kill abilities.
- Firemen – Like other humans, there is no limit to how undertow can be used on this enemy.
- Zealot of the Lady – No.
- Siren – Though the vigor cannot be used against her directly in any way, it can be useful at pushing back the corpses she has resurrected in order to focus your attention on her – it’s also useful for pushing already dead humans away so that they can’t be resurrected..
- Boy of Silence – Naturally, any attempt to attack the boy of silence will end in him dissapearing and calling nearby enemies, so there is no use bothering
- Motorised Patriot – Cannot be pushed back (though is wetted*), but can be reeled in.
- Handy Man – Like the patriot, pushing him back won’t work, though he will be wetted, and he can also be reeled in – for the brief moment that he is made vunerable having been reeled in, his heart is exposed for a few seconds, making this an extremely useful tactic for finishing him off.
*This will be significant in a later section
Vigor Combos and Uses in Combat
On it’s own, Undertow is a near useless vigor – without the additional input of weapons or other vigors, the only thing it is good for is throwing people over the edge of Columbia. However, when used together with other vigors and any weapon, suddenly it is in another league.
Genereal Combat Tactics:
The vigor is useful in most combat situations. However, both undertow effects (from hereon in will be know as “Cast” (click) and “Charge” (hold)) have their own uses.
Cast is useful at any range (provided it actually hits enemies), be it for dispersing a crowd, creating an escape route if surrounded or pushing enemies of the edge.
Charge however tends to be more useful for mid to long range, without going out of it’s effective range of course. This way you can reel in enemies from a safe distance.
Vigor Combos:
- Shock Jockey (cast) – Simply reel in or push away, followed by a quick blast of electricity is enough to kill common enemies in one hit. (NOTE – It is extremely useful to have the Shock Jockey upgrade that allows you chain the shock effect)
- Shock Jockey (trap) – Create a shock trap, and reel in an enemy next to it – this combo should instakill common enemies.
- Possesion (trap) – Once again, creating a possesion trap and reeling in an enemy next to it forces the enemy into the trap.
- Devils Kiss (trap) – Create trap, reel in, ???, profit.
- Bucking Bronco (trap) – Again, reel into the trap for an added period of vunerability.
- Charge – If you’re fast, reeling in an enemy and quickly charging at them causes them to fly accros the area. However, this tactic is even funner and more effective with the use of Bucking Bronco instead of Undertow.
- Return To Sender (trap) – Charge this vigor (whether your absorbing enemy damage or not doesn’t matter) and throw the trap on the floor. Fire your weapon into it (how many times depends on the damage of the weapon) to increase it’s damage. Reel an enemy into it and POW!
- Murder Of Crows (trap) – This is one of my favourites, and can easily clear an area of enemies without you having to run anywhere. However, it does require you to have the Crows Trap Aid (For $1485, it turns the bodies of the dead killed with the vigor into crow traps). Create a trap and reel an enemy in, finishing him off with gunfire – now you should have 1 – 3 more crow traps made from the dead bodies. From here, simply reel in more enemies and shoot them down. They should activate the traps made from the last enemies, while creating their own when they die. Rinse and repeat until all enemies have been splashed, pecked and shot to death.
Heavy Hitter Tactics:
While it is possible to instantly kill human targets with the shock-undertow combo, it is also possible to kill handymen and patriots in a matter of seconds.
- Patriot – The quickest I have killed a patriot using this method took about 1 second. First, set down a shock trap (or not, depending how much time you have). Then, reel in a patriot (or 2 or 3, if you can chain shock jockey this should work on any number of enemies). Continuously shock and splash* the patriot while shooting it until it’s destroyed.
- Handyman – I have defeated a handy man this way in about 3 seconds. Set down a shock trap, followed by 2 Devils Kiss traps next to each other (you may not have the time – if this is the case, prioritise the shock trap). Reel in the Handyman into this mega-trap. What should happen is that he will be wet, so the shock trap can deal massive damage. This paired with the fire traps wil drain most of his health. From the moment you reel him into this trap, shock, splash* and shoot him – he should be dead nearly instantly, but don’t forget to aim at the heart!
*Though it doesn’t push them away, it does make them wet, preparing them for the shock-splash combo.
Useful Gears
- Blood to Salt – If both undertow and shock jockey are upgraded to reel in more people and chain shock respectively, and are used together, the salts gained from killing enemis is usually enough to keep your salts at the full.
- Electric Punch/Electric Touch – Can be used as a close range substitute for shock jockey – punching a vunerable towed enemy will kill them.
- Head Master – Towed enemies are easier to headshot, so this gear can increase critical damage gained from said headshots.
- Newton’s Law – Having jumped from a skyline, this will push enemies further towards the edge, potentially reducing the salts needed to completely push them off columbia.
- Overkill – Enemies shocked by this can subsequently be splashed, killing them.
- Rising Bloodlust – Having pushed up to 5 enemies over the edge or off a gunship at the same time, you’ve just gained up to 50% damage bonus for 10 seconds. Have fun.
- Shock Jacket – if enemies are hit with this gear, a quick splash will also finish them off.
- Storm – If the Shock chain upgrade hasn’t been purchased, this gear will act as though you have, saving you buying that upgrade.
- Tunnel vision – Reeled in enemies can be further damaged by aiming at them down the sights.
- Urgent Care – If sheilds are depleted, the time given by incapitating enemies is enough for your sheilds to regenerate.
Conclusion
This vigor is certainly the most vertacile – if you invest your money into both of its upgrades (along with the shock chain upgrade and the crow’s trap upgrade), you will be near unstoppable.
Go forth and splash!
PS. As much as I would like to thank each and every one of you for your complementary comments, I can’t. Otherwise half of the comment section would be a thankyou from me. So thanks in advance for your appreciation, and I will reply if necessary, I just don’t want to fill the comment section with my own comments. But seriously, thanks! ^^