The Sinking City 2 Wiki: Walkthrough, Safe Codes & Puzzle Solutions

What kind of game The Sinking City 2 is

Frogwares built the first game as an open-world detective story. The Sinking City 2 is a different animal: a linear, chapter-based survival horror that trades the whole city for five tightly authored zones, and trades free-form casework for a much scarier resource economy. Ammunition is scarce, enemies soak more punishment than you would like, and the safest answer to a room full of Slithers is often the door behind you.

Investigation has not disappeared — it has become the progression system. Clues you pick up feed the Investigation Space, where correctly connecting related evidence pays out Talent Points and Dream Essence. That currency is the only way to unlock talents, so the "optional" detective work is what makes Calvin survivable later. Skipping it is a real difficulty setting.

The gameplay loop, then: explore a flooded district by boat and on foot, break into locked rooms with keys and safe codes, solve a mechanical puzzle to open the way forward, retreat to a safe room to save and spend essence, and push on.

How to play: the systems that actually matter

Five systems decide whether your run of The Sinking City 2 goes well. New players lose hours to the first three, and none of them are explained twice.

• E.R.C. crates need pens. Emergency Relief Crates hold ammo, weapon parts and inventory upgrades, and they will not open without an E.R.C. Activator Pen found somewhere else on the level. A crate you cannot open is not a bug.
• Talents come from the third safe room onward. The Talent Table appears at the third safe room; before that, Dream Essence just accumulates. See which four talents to equip first.
• Night Ore buys you a life. It recharges the Night Shade mask, which revives Calvin once after a fatal blow — the closest thing the game has to a second chance. Details on the Night Shade page.
• Melee will not finish downed enemies. Use the stomp — Ctrl or the lower mouse side button on PC. Half of the "my melee is broken" reports are this. See melee and stomp.
• Difficulty is not a commitment. Four modes, changeable mid-run from the pause menu, and the lowest one can be made forgiving outright. The difficulty page lists exactly what each changes.

Where to find what you need

This The Sinking City 2 guide is eleven sections deep and never more than two clicks from the answer. If you are mid-run, start with Puzzles or Safe Codes; if you are deciding whether to buy, start with Release or Review.

• WalkthroughAll five chapters in order, plus the Premium-only Holloway Manor mission, the Arkham map and how long the game takes.
• Puzzle solutionsTwelve pages, one per puzzle: trident obelisk, Lorelei lock, prism stations, face masks, salt storage, portal device and more.
• Safe codesEvery combination in one table — 1908, 2137, 1496, 6294, 1672 — plus every key and the door it opens.
• Collectibles & trophiesE.R.C. crate and pen locations, inventory upgrades, Ex Oblivione codices, the missable checklist and the platinum roadmap.
• WeaponsAll nine guns compared, what weapon parts really do, how to get the Bucking Bronco and how to stop running dry on ammo.
• Talents & buildsThe Talent Table, farming Dream Essence and Talent Points, and three four-slot loadouts that hold up.
• Combat & bossesShoggoth, Slither Prime and the Acheronian Juggernaut, enemy weak points, difficulty modes and the Night Shade revive.
• EndingsWhat we actually triggered, what changes it, what New Game+ carries over — and what Frogwares has never confirmed.
• PC performanceCrash fixes straight from Frogwares, best settings, DLSS and FSR status, Steam Deck, controllers, mods and trainers.
• Release & platformsEditions and prices, PS5 and Xbox specifics, Game Pass status, Switch 2 questions, the demo and PC requirements.
• Review & verdictMetacritic and OpenCritic scores, whether it is worth $49.99, and whether you need the first game first.

Five things worth knowing before you start

1. There is no chapter select. Once a chapter ends you cannot return to it in that save, and collectibles left behind are gone until New Game+. Use the missable checklist before each point of no return.
2. Pick up every clue, even the boring ones. They are the currency for talents.
3. Save at the conch record player. Safe rooms are the only save points, and enemies cannot follow you in — they are also your stash and your Talent Table.
4. Do not ram anything with the boat. Frogwares lists this in its own known-issues post: collisions can black-screen you into a reload.
5. 100% of The Sinking City 2 needs two runs. Ex Oblivione Codices exist only in New Game+, so the platinum is a two-playthrough job.

How this wiki checks its facts

Search results for The Sinking City 2 filled up fast with sites that invented ending names, invented mission names and listed the pre-order bonus guns as main weapons. We do three things differently, and you can hold us to all of them:

• Every code and solution page carries a confidence marker — cross-checked, official, or reported — with the build it applies to and the date we last checked it.
• Every number is labelled by origin — official (Frogwares said it), cross-checked (multiple independent walkthroughs agree), or reported by a named outlet.
• Anything Frogwares has not announced is written as not announced. We do not fill gaps with guesses; the full list of open questions is published in llms.txt and on our editorial policy page.

Found something wrong, or a code that does not work in your build? Tell us on the contact page and we will re-verify and re-date the page.