Sea of Nightmares Creatures Guide: The Little Daddy

LOT 215 is a special purpose ADAM-based Serum that is used by the many factions existing within Rapture, and recently other secret locations, on small female children, along with other serums and treatments to create the basic form of a Gatherer, the Little Sister. Some folks' scientific curiosity however, made them wonder what would be the serum's effect on an adult or male.

The serum works by affecting a specific type of gland in the female's stomach and originally properly worked only when the gland is not yet functional (before reaching puberty). The gland, which is supposed to provide embryos with energy to develop but is inactive before puberty, is re-purposed to instead generate ADAM continually, and that results in their body producing ADAM in a much higher amount than a Sea Slug, which can be siphoned from their blood, or "Harvest" all of the ADAM by disemboweling the gatherer and draining all of their blood.

Using the original form of LOT 215 on males (who don't have the gland) or mature women (who have the gland already functional) causes severe malformations to their bodies and minds. They lose all of their hair, their nails, and their genitals, and their entire body becomes horribly disfigured, becoming significantly smaller, yet bulky with swollen muscles and fat tissue, their palms and feet were turned into formless lumps, and they become brain dead.

The simple, yet cataclysmic experiment to create such a beast has been done multiple times in the past. The earliest ones, Dr. Tennenbaum and Dr. Suchong, euthanized the subject and deemed it a failed experiment. Later experiments by Ryan Industries simply threw the byproducts into the wild, leaving them to die and leave extremely ADAM-rich corpses. However the third repeat of the experiment by The Rapture Family had them interested. Being some time after the first Big Sisters came to be, they decided that when they accidentally created lemons, better turn them into lemonade.

After researching the bizarre creatures they created, they turned out to still be able to produce and gather ADAM, have regenerative capacities, and were able to use Plasmid-like abilities with the lumps that were their hands. Dr. Alexander, who designed the armor for two different types of Big Daddies, created suits of armor fitting to these small beings, leaving their whole body but their hands concealed. Easier to order around than Big Daddies and Big Sisters, the creatures were enrolled as both Gatherers and Protectors, and earned the name of Little Daddies, due to their resemblance with Big Daddies.

Little Daddies are slightly larger than Little Sisters, around half the size of an adult human. They wear a spherical metal helmet with five bulbs on it, one for each cardinal direction and one facing upwards, and they have slots in their helmets for their mouths. Their torso, arms and legs are covered with tight leather, and their feet are covered with boot-like wears that sport the edges of tri-prong walking sticks. Their hands are the only exposed part of their bodies, and those are nothing but deformed lumps of flesh, but they can be used to channel Plasmid abilities.

Despite having no fingers, Little Daddies are capable of creating multiple long tendrils of water from their hands and use them for a variety of purposes, such as to hold objects and attack enemies. They can use a Plasmid known as Parasitic Healing to sprout a moray from their mouths and use it to drain blood and ADAM from targets and corpses, and can fire waves of corrosive acid from their hands. They also have the ability to mimic their enemies' ADAM-based abilities. Much like Little Sisters, they have high levels of regenerative ability, but like them, Little Daddies provide significant amounts of ADAM as loot when killed.

Little Daddies feel no pain and are perfectly capable of protecting themselves. However, they are sometimes assigned to protect Little Sisters when no Big Daddies are available, working similarly to Big Sisters and are just as efficient. They are found in groups more often than Big Daddies and Big Sisters, however, they are effectively mindless, and when affected by the likes of the Possession Vigor, they will continue to follow orders from the caster even after the effect wears off, becoming permanent allies until their inevitable death.