From the time of its founding, maintenance of Rapture required trained divers in reinforced suits to walk outside along the seafloor to repair leaks and reinforce the city's structure. By the time of the Protector Program's tests, certain former citizens of Rapture had been genetically altered with ADAM and permanently sealed inside the special diving suits to become what were eventually called Big Daddies. They were genetically modified and conditioned in the research labs and facilities of Point Prometheus. Protector training was eventually done in the
Proving Grounds.
The candidates for induction into the Protector Program went through voice box modification and pheromone application, which attracted the Little Sisters to the Big Daddies. After those, the candidates' skin and organs were grafted and integrated into their suit, to become one functional unit.
[16] The subjects were then placed in large vats of an unknown yellow substance, and eventually reduced to mindless servitors.
Through genetic splicing, the humans inside the heavy suits were given enhanced strength and durability. Their suit exoskeletons contained the life support machinery needed to keep them alive during their duties, allowing a Big Daddy to lift heavy loads and do other strenuous tasks, as well as resist the cold and pressure of the deep ocean. In
BioShock,
BioShock 2, and
Burial at Sea, Big Daddies can be seen performing both internal and external maintenance repairs. Big Daddies were also ordered to periodically return to facilities like Hephaestus for routine maintenance check-ups.
Even the ones I like-, better yet- especially the ones I like as Isaac and Black Knight. What are you doing loops for? Why is your head that big?
