Elizabeth has been groomed in a controlled environment to take over the reins of the city once its current leader, Father Zachary Hale Comstock, dies.

To prevent her from leaving Columbia, her captors employ a "siphon" which drains and limits her powers, and she is locked in a tower guarded by a giant mechanical bird called the Songbird.

Irrational Games based Elizabeth's face on Anna Moleva, a Russian cosplayer, after the developers saw her accurate costume, and hired her to do live-action advertisements.

She has been kept under observation in a well-furnished cell within a large statue of the female personification of Columbia, using her time in captivity to become well-read and to learn practical skills like lock-picking and cryptography.

[4] The DLC, taking place in Rapture from the first BioShock games, is evocative of film noir with Booker becoming the private detective and Elizabeth the client and femme fatale.

[11] The developers made a "Liz Squad" group, in charge of the character and dedicated to populating the world with objects for Elizabeth to interact with, which was claimed to be led by either Amanda Jeffrey or John Abercrombie (who also did the AIs of the first BioShock).

[14] Troubles included expressing her childlike curiosity, making her act with a believable sense of horror to Booker's more violent actions, while keeping her out of the player's way.

Being more of a thoughtful character than Booker, her gameplay focuses more on strategy and avoidance of direct combat, more like a survival horror game.

[2] Early sketches tried different ways to portray her personality through posture and clothes, using the "clean, bright, and iconic" costumes of comic books as inspiration.

[17] Elizabeth's original Gibson Girl appearance had a normal-looking face, having normal facial feature proportions and using motion capture for her expressions.

[18] Levine was disappointed in the online community's mainly focusing on her breast size and chest, believing people should be more interested in her as a person rather than her appearance, and considered the expressive eyes the most important part of her design.

Prerelease materials showcased her new more mature design, with one shot having multiple angles to help any cosplayers who wished to dress up as the character.

[20][21] Elizabeth's femme fatale appearance was inspired by approximately seven different people of the era, including actresses Rita Hayworth, Lauren Bacall,[citation needed] and Veronica Lake.

[10] Levine, Draper, and Booker's voice actor Troy Baker worked collaboratively, and would talk about scenes and improvise new lines.

[10] At the start of Infinite, set in 1912, Booker DeWitt is sent to Columbia by the Lutece twins to recover Elizabeth, claiming that they will wipe away his debts with her return.

Along the way, they learn that Elizabeth has been kept under control of the Siphon, a machine built by the Luteces into the statue to nullify her tear powers; they also learn that Elizabeth is not Comstock's biological daughter, though oddly shares his genetics, and Comstock killed his wife and attempted to kill the Luteces to hide this conspiracy.

Booker kills Comstock in anger, but Elizabeth calms him down and says they need to finish destroying the statue and the Siphon to fully realize her powers.

They in turn were working for Comstock, who needed a blood heir for Columbia, having been rendered sterile by the twins' reality-warping experiments.

Booker later had a change of heart and chased down the Luteces as they stepped through a Tear, severing the tip of Anna's finger, which gave her awareness of multiple realities.

In Burial at Sea, Elizabeth approaches Booker – in this reality, a private detective in Rapture – to help them find a missing girl named Sally.

In his remorse, this Comstock reverted to his birth name of Booker DeWitt and had the Lutece twins transport him to Rapture, a reality where neither Anna nor Columbia existed.

As she sets out to do this, she is guided by visions of Booker, and later learns that she herself had died earlier in Rapture; she made a deal with the Lutece twins to combine all her quantum selves and memories of future time into one mortal body to return to this place at this time to rescue Sally, effectively leaving all alternate versions of herself in their own respective universes.

Elizabeth dies holding Sally's hand, smiling in knowing Jack will soon come to help the children of Rapture escape the violence.

[25] The second of Infinite's "Truth from Legend" trailers – both designed to look like old documentaries – details both Songbird and "the Lamb of Columbia", showcasing more of the character and her past.

[32][33] Draper and Baker together both won the "Best Song in a Game" award, for the moment in Infinite where Booker begins playing the guitar and Elizabeth sings "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?".

[35] Her implementation as an AI partner for the player-controlled Booker was described by GamesRadar's Lucas Sullivan to be "downright ingenious",[36] and was stated by Fitch and McCaffrey to be the main aspect that separated Infinite from its predecessors.

[37][38] Also from Kotaku, Patricia Hernandez commented that Elizabeth felt more human than the player themselves, and her liveliness made other characters seem "dead by comparison".

[39] Special praise was given not only to Elizabeth's ability to take care of herself in combat, but also for actively assisting the player by finding ammo and health, and opening tears.

[41] bit-tech's Edward Chester criticised Elizabeth's interrupting, pointing out how she never mentioned she was picking ammo up, would throw coins during voxaphone listenings and mid-fight, and how she would only start talking after big moments rather than regularly.

[48] Elizabeth has been the subject of a vast amount of fan-created pornography, although according to creator Ken Levine, any sex symbol status was never the intention, and he has expressed displeasure at these depictions of the character.