The Sinking City 2 Locker Symbol Padlock Solution

The symbol order

Lighthouse first, then the rings, then the star, then the squid. The Sinking City 2 locker symbol puzzle sits on the docks, and it uses the maritime iconography running through all of Time and Tide, and this padlock is the clearest example: every symbol on the dial is something you have already seen painted on a crate, a sign or a chart in the same district.

Like every other lock in the game, the order is fixed rather than randomised, so this sequence is correct on every save. Symbol locks are also the only category the game gates behind reading: a couple of them will not present an input at all until the matching note is in your journal, which is why two players standing at the same padlock can see two different prompts.

The dial itself is worth a close look before you touch it. It shows all four marks at once, and the positions are numbered left to right rather than clockwise, which trips up anyone who has just come from the rotating obelisk in chapter 1.

Step-by-step

1. Approach the padlock on the locker. The dial shows the four symbols and a position for each.
2. Set position one to the lighthouse.
3. Set position two to the rings.
4. Set position three to the star.
5. Set position four to the squid. The padlock releases.

Where the clue lives

The four marks appear together on paperwork near the lockers — a manifest or a scrawled note, depending on which locker room you reach first. Reading it also puts an evidence item in your journal, which is worth the ten seconds because evidence is what pays for talents through the Investigation Space.

This is a pattern across the whole chapter: the fish market and the docks put clues on paper and answers on machinery, and the two are usually within one room of each other.

It is worth saying plainly, because it changes how you play the back half of the game: there is almost never a puzzle in The Sinking City 2 whose answer is not physically present in the same space. If you are stuck, the correct move is to search the room again rather than to try combinations. The two exceptions in the entire game are the salt storage numerals, which are a mathematical pattern, and the ventilation device, which is pure mechanism.

The rest of Time and Tide's locks

Chapter 4 also introduces the Leyden jars, the Fish Eye Key and the Snowflake Key. All of the keys are indexed on the keys and doors page, and the route through the district is in the chapter 4 walkthrough.

If the padlock will not release

• You reversed the order. Lighthouse is first, squid is last.
• You are confusing the rings with the star. Both are round at a glance; the rings are interlocking circles.
• You have not read the note. Some symbol locks in The Sinking City 2 do not accept input until the relevant evidence is in your journal.
• You are at a different locker. The docks have several locker banks; only one takes this sequence, and the others are ordinary containers.
• You changed a dial after confirming. Set all four positions first, then confirm once.