In this The Sinking City Beginner’s Guide, we will guide you on how you can start your journey as a private investigator in The Sinking City. The Sinking City is essentially an investigation game which also combines some elements from survival and a little bit of horror thrown in it. It is a pretty unique title in its own way as you will solve cases while trying to survive the horrors of Oakmont City at the same time.
We have curated this The Sinking City Beginner’s Guide in which we have listed some important tips and tricks along with some strategies that will surely help you get started in The Sinking City. There are a few key mechanics of the game that you must understand as quickly as possible because they are vital to solving cases and surviving at the same time. With our handy beginner’s guide, you will be solving cases in the flooded Oakmont City in no time.
Beginner’s Guide – The Sinking City
Our The Sinking City Beginner’s Guide details everything that you need to know in order to start playing The Sinking City.
Always Consult your Casebook
Your Casebook is your ultimate guide to playing The Sinking City. Everything that you collect while investigating different cases will be stored here whether they are directly related to the case or not. Your Casebook will also list all the cases that you have taken whether they are currently active or previously completed. It works as an archive of all the knowledge about all the cases present in the game.
If you are stuck anywhere in the game, the only thing that will help you figure out what to do next is your Casebook so you must always try to figure out in your Casebook what you have to do next. Your Casebook will also identify whether the case is the main case or a secondary case. It works similarly for both primary and secondary cases so you can use it all the time.
Deduct Conclusions in Mind Palace
Another nifty tool at your hand is the Mind Palace where all the clues you find about the main case are stored. In your Mind Palace, you can combine clues and come to a final conclusion based on your understanding and facts that you uncover during your investigation. In Mind Palace, you can choose how you want to end the case as well. You can choose to lie in certain situations or give out the truth depending on your own preferences.
You must keep in mind that Mind Palace only works with the main cases. Secondary cases are not tracked in the Mind Palace. For secondary cases, your only friend is your Casebook. The Casebook will help you collect more clues about your case which are then stored in your Mind Palace where you can deduce the outcomes. Hence you must look for as many clues as possible if you want to solve the cases properly.
Check out our The Sinking City Investigation Guide for detailed information on how to carry out investigations in the game.
Use Fast Travel to Move Around
Oakmont City is a big place and since there are no cars to drive around, you must rely on using fast travel to move around quickly. Every time you solve a certain aspect of a case, you will be required to check another place for clues and most of the times, the places are in far off districts. Apart from running and taking boats to get there, you can simply use the fast travel which will save you a great time. Check out our detailed Fast Travel guide which will help you unlock fast travel in The Sinking City.
Look for Supplies
Supplies are extremely limited in Oakmont City and you will need lots of them. Bullets are extremely rare in the game however you can craft them if you find the supplies. For this purpose, you must look in every nook and cranny or the buildings and areas that you visit in the game. You must have enough bullets with you every time otherwise you will not be able to kill the enemies that are present in investigation sites making your job extremely hard.
Even in the open world, look for crates, lockers and other boxes marked with a symbol, you can search for supplies. You should never run out of supplies because The Sinking City is also a survival game and if you ignore that aspect, you will not be able to investigate as well. Always keep yourself well supplied with crafting materials and supplies especially ammo.
Choose Between Fight or Flight
The Sinking City is not your everyday city. It is overcome by a supernatural flood which means that it brings some supernatural horrors with it as well. To ensure your survival, you will need plenty of ammo and weapons however this is not the case. Ammo is extremely limited in the game hence in most cases, you must decide whether spending the ammo on killing some monsters is worth it or not.
You will need to decide this because sometimes it is better to just run away and save some ammo because you never know when you will need it the most. You must be prepared for the worst and for this you must have a decent amount of ammo with you always so never spend all your ammo in a single firefight. If you decide combat over fleeing, make sure that every bullet counts because you cannot afford spraying bullets all over the place.
Avoid Infested Areas at the Start
As you explore the city of Oakmont, you will come across numerous infested areas which are blocked off the normal streets. Although these places house the best loot for you, they are also filled with different monstrosities that will kill you pretty easily especially if you visit these locations early in the game when you lack skills and better weapons.
I will highly recommend that during the early cases, you avoid these places but if you really want to explore them, you must get in, grab what you need and get out and avoid any sort of combat. Once you have acquired better skills and weapons later in the game, you can explore these infested areas to your will and mow down any enemies that are present in them easily.
Remember to Heal and Use Antipsychotics
There are two major things that you have your eye on at all times. Your sanity meter which is the blue one and your health which is the red one right next to it. You can only carry a certain number of First Aid Kits and Antipsychotics with you at all times and the resources required for crafting these are rarer even than the resources required for crafting bullets. In short, you cannot afford to take a lot of damage and you cannot afford to remain in the presence of supernatural phenomenon for too long before losing your insanity.
Get away from monsters quickly or kill them quickly to ensure that they do not drain your insanity as well as your health too much. In addition, be careful of fall damage as well. Avoid jumping down massive heights as Reed takes a massive amount of fall damage hence lowering your health and ultimately lowering your chances of survival. Make sure that you heal yourself on time and use antipsychotics before engaging enemies to keep your sanity for longer.
Spend Knowledge Points on Skills
Charles Reed comes with some really cool supernatural abilities and you can make him even better by purchasing different useful skills from the Skill tab in the pause menu. There are three unique categories to choose from so make sure that you spend these skills wisely and pick the right ones at the start so that you can easily make the gameplay easy. For more details on skills, check out our The Sinking City Skills Guide which will also tell you about which skills are the best and you must choose them first in the game.
Important Buildings Are Marked
During your investigation, you will enter different sorts of buildings in different districts. Having said that, the game also does not mark the buildings on your map rather than just identifies the street where the building or place is located. However, there is a clever trick by which the game identifies the buildings and that is a specific symbol. Buildings and other areas that you can enter and look for clues are always marked with a specific sign which you can check out below.
If you are at the right street but still cannot find the building, look for this sign at it will be most probably your building where you must go in and investigate. Apart from buildings, you will find this sign often on boxes and lockers. Boxes and lockers that have this sign will always have tons of supplies in them so keep a lookout for them.
This concludes our The Sinking City Beginner’s Guide. If you want to add anything to this guide, feel free to use the comments section below.
