The Sinking City Trophy Guide & Roadmap

The Sinking City Trophy Roadmap

Estimated trophy difficulty: 3/10
Approximate amount of time to platinum: 15-20 hours
Offline Trophies: 29 (1, 6, 8, 14)
Online Trophies: 0
Number of missable trophies: 24 (Tempting Fate, Reanimator, Brutal Honesty, Compliments to the Chef, Use Protection, Sic Semper Tyrannis, Et Tu Brutus?, It’s a Kind of Magic, What Could Go Wrong?, Crime, No Punishment, Double Tap, The End Justifies the Means, Still Salty, Dodge This, Damage Control, I’m Out of Here, The Stars are Right, Leap of Faith, First, Do No Harm, Extra! Extra!, No Honor Among Thieves, Family Reunion, Both Worlds, All Sewn Up)
Glitched trophies: 0
Does difficulty affect trophies?: No, can do everything on the Newcomer difficulty
Minimum Playthroughs: 1 + reloading a manual save made when reaching the Altar at the end of “Into the Depths” to get all endings in one playthrough.

Introduction

Welcome to The Sinking City Trophy Guide! The Sinking City is an action and investigation game set in an open world inspired by the universe of H.P. Lovecraft. In this new type of adventure, you take on the role of Charles W. Reed, an investigator in the 1920s United States. Upon your arrival in the fictional city of Oakmont, Massachusetts, you are asked to investigate a mysterious flood inundating the city, in the hopes of shedding light on the darkness that has seized the place and corrupted the minds of the inhabitants, including yours. As Charles is plagued by unnerving visions making him more and more insane, it is up to the player to put pieces of evidence together and solve each case by taking advantage of the open investigation system the game features.

Speaking of trophies, the game has many missable ones. However, thanks to the built-in manual save feature (three slots), you can unlock the Platinum in one single playthrough by making smart use of said system. Follow the guide with thoroughness to learn exactly where you need to make manual saves to unlock all of the trophies pertaining to moral choices. You will also need to make a manual save when you reach the Altar at the end of the final case called “Into the Depths” to unlock the trophies of the three different endings in one playthrough, not tied to the choices you’ve made throughout the game. To get the Platinum, you don’t need to complete all the cases the game has to offer. Follow the Roadmap to focus exactly on which ones are needed.

To begin with, let’s spend some words on the investigation system in this game: whenever you work on a case, evidence will be progressively added to your Casebook, which contains key information related to all the different types of cases the game sports. As you collect evidence, you will use the Mind Palace in the game menu to piece clues together and make inferences, something you need to go through to complete cases. For choice-related cases, you can choose how you want to end the case by selecting a pathway in the Mind Palace. What you choose in the Mind Palace doesn’t affect the choice-related trophies at all. For the trophies, what matters is what dialogue line you pick. Check the guide for details. Sometimes to move to the next part of the case, you need to collect ALL of the evidence available at a given investigation scene. When you’ve collected all of the available evidence, the investigation scene will be marked with a green lens on the map. Au contraire, a yellow lens signifies that the key evidence to continue the investigation has been collected. This means that sometimes finding all clues is not required. Sometimes you have to reconstruct how events unfolded on a given crime scene and to do so you have to use Charles’s Retrocognition skill and number the events in the right order. Check the Guide for All Retrocognition Solutions. In the Casebook evidence may have a hint icon indicating you need to do some archive research. In the archive interface, you need to select the piece of evidence you wish to investigate, then choose three search criteria for relevant information. Most of the time, archive searches lead to the location of your next investigation scene or to the street address of a suspect. Depending on the information you need, you may have to consult the archives of different locations, such as the Police Station, Oakmont Chronicles HQs, the City Hall, or the Library. Check the Guide for all Archive Searches Locations and Solutions to find out which criteria you need for the cases tied to the trophies. Once you have a location, the trick to quickly find it is to pin the location using the Casebook so that it always shows in the upper right-hand corner of your screen and then place a custom marker on the main map on the street you need to reach using . Evidence tied to locations is indicated by a compass icon. When you get close to the investigation scene, look for doors with an H-looking symbol on it. H-looking symbols are more easily spotted by entering Mind’s Eye. Additionally, if the light above a door is on, that’s where you need to go.

Secondly, it’s worth noting that in The Sinking City the only available currency is ammo. It is crucial to solving some cases and surviving. A little bit of ammo, as well as crafting materials, are given to you when completing cases. Lots of ammo can be found in the wild, in cabinets, trash cans, drawers, and cupboards. In fact, make it a point to thoroughly scavenge for these whenever you search for clues in an investigation scene. You will probably have little to no ammo at some point in the game. If this is the case, the best way to get ammo quickly is to scavenge Infested Areas. When you get to an Infested Area, climb atop a fence or crates to survey the area. Then, use to enter Mind’s Eye and look for fluorescent H-looking symbols. Quickly aim for those, get what you need and run for it. No need to engage monsters. After some time has passed, you can even go back to previously visited Infested Areas to farm materials.

Thirdly, as you play through the game, you will unlock Knowledge Points. Prioritize Combat Proficiency and Vigor. Since you will have to fight monsters pretty often in this game, your weapons, which will be given to you automatically as part of the story, need to be powered up. Vigor is also important because it increases your capacity for all materials and health kits. As for Mind, using Antipsychotic kits is enough to restore your mental sanity without really needing to upgrade it. Having said this, feel free to use Knowledge Points to help you through those aspects of the game which you find the most problematic.

Lastly, when you visit new areas make it a point to unlock phone booth fast travel points whenever you see one appear on the top of the screen. It will make travelling between areas in Oakmont a lot faster.

Step 1: Play through the story while making manual saves to unlock choice-related trophies until you unlock the story case “Into the Depths”

For this first step, your job is to play through the story by making smart use of the manual save feature whenever you need to make a choice that is related to trophies. Make a choice and as soon as the trophy has unlocked, hit Options and load the manual save. Then make the opposite choice to unlock the other trophy.

Below are all the main story cases you need to play through. In parenthesis are all the missable trophies related to each of these cases (in their unlock order), which is when you need to make the manual save for choice-related trophies.

Frosty Welcome ( Tempting Fate, Hook, Line, and Sinker)
Lost at Sea ( Deep Breath, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out)
Quid Pro Quo ( Brutal Honesty, Reanimator, Compliments to the Chef)
Fathers and Sons ( Sic Semper Tyrannis, Et Tu Brutus? – Make a manual save BEFORE speaking to Brutus after collecting all the evidence)
Nosedive ( It’s a Kind of Magic, Not Too Deep for Me)
Deal with the Devil ( What Could Go Wrong?)
Self-defense: ( Crime, No Punishment, Double Tap)
Fleeing Phoenix ( The End Justifies the Means, Still Salty, Dodge This – Make a manual save BEFORE speaking to the Archeologist after collecting all the evidence)

Step 2: Wrap up remaining trophy-related side cases and miscellaneous trophies clean-up

Upon completing “Fleeing Phoenix”, the game will warn you about a point-of-no-return before starting the story case called “Into the Depths”. Trophy-related side cases must be completed now before starting “Into the Depths” or else you will need to replay the game from the start. This holds true for miscellaneous trophies as well. Trophies related to miscellaneous activities and side cases can also be unlocked during Step 1. However you decide to go about it, it’s up to you.

These are all the side cases you need to play through. In parenthesis are all the missable trophies related to each of these cases (in their unlock order), including when you need to make the manual save for choice-related trophies.

A Delicate Matter ( No Honor Among Thieves)
Through the Looking Glass ( Family Reunion, Both Worlds – Make a manual save BEFORE shooting at the small mirror)
Silence is Golden ( All Sewn Up)

These are all the trophies tied to miscellaneous activities:

First, Do No Harm
Extra! Extra!

Step 3: Make a manual save at the Altar and reload it to unlock all three endings.

When you get to the Altar surrounded by three main paths and green beacons, make a manual save and reload it every time for the remaining endings and related trophies.

This is the last main story case left. In parenthesis are all the missable trophies related to each of these cases (in their unlock order), which is when you need to make the manual save for choice-related trophies.

Into the Depths ( Damage Control, The Stars are Right, Leap of Fight, I’m Out of Here – Make a manual save WHEN reaching the Altar with the surrounding green beacons)

Useful Tips, Tricks and Guides: