The Sinking City 2 Investigations

Optional means skip is legal

Calvin’s failed ritual and Faye’s Dreamlands problem are the campaign. A boarded parlor, a journal, or a ritual residue is extra. If you are already starving on ammo, the legal move is the next walkthrough beat, not another clue room. You can double back through a shortcut after the pack is rebuilt.

Community hours treat side-quests as fun extras with their own scenes and rewards — not as keys to the next story door. This page follows that: take them when you can spare the fight, not because a completionist bar is blinking.

This is not TSC1’s detective city

The sequel tightened the map into interconnected survival spaces: foot, skiff, rising flood, locked doors, Safe Rooms. Investigation still exists — clues, journals, ritual residues, decoded files — but it no longer is the whole activity loop. Do not stall the opening hours waiting for a “real detective chapter” that 1.0 does not require.

Once that gate question is closed, the only useful follow-up is what a case actually pays when you do take it.

Routes and supplies beat trivia

A safer route is a door, a collapsed seawall cut, or a shortcut you can double back through. That is why investigations sit next to locations and puzzles instead of on a lore wiki. Supplies are the same scarce ammo, healing, and craft mats the survival page already ranks. An upgrade is a gun, attachment, or inventory chest — not a hidden class.

Inventory expansion is the one payout this page will nag you about. Extra slots make every later optional case cheaper because you stop dropping gunpowder to pick up a journal. Talent extras and perk points are the other long-term pay. They are not a reason to enter a side wing with two bullets.

What this page will not list yet

Full case names, exact clue counts, and a grenade-launcher room are TBA. Kickstarter talk of expanded investigations and extra secrets is real as a stretch-goal history; it is not a 1.0 checklist. If a community clip names a chest, it still needs a recapture before it becomes a pin here.

The next decision is not “which case is S-tier.” It is whether your current pack can survive the extra rooms.

Abort is a skill

Enemies still telegraph swings. Weak points still cut the bullet tax. None of that makes a side room free. If you already finished the loot on a floor, community advice is to slip the stragglers and let the next visit deal with them — the same rule applies to a case you opened by mistake. Run to the door. Safe Rooms and new areas often drop the chase.

Backtracking is the intended recovery. Unlock the shortcut, leave, craft, return. That loop is on survival and crafting. A skipped case is not a failed run.

Red then blue, then leave

The in-game map is the cheapest investigation tool. A red room still holds pickups. A blue room is stripped. Do not start a new case to “feel complete” in a blue district. Completeness is the blue map plus a stash that can survive the next required fight — not a full case log.

If you do take the case, the board is how leftover clues convert into perk points without another firefight.

Connect, then walk

Clue work is inspect, read, decode, pin. The board is where pins become a spend. If the UI is already showing two leftover files, treat that as a Safe Room action, not as a reason to reclear the district. Perk points then go to talents — Dream Essence is a separate spend, and this page will not merge those two currencies.

Exact point totals per file stay TBA. Community-observed is the existence of the pay, not a spreadsheet. Do not plan a talent tree off an invented number.

Puzzles on the case are still puzzles

Optional cases reuse the same padlocks, codes, environmental toys, and key items as the story route. Demo codes can differ from retail. If a side safe wants a number you do not have, leave it. The puzzles page is where verified strings belong. This page will not guess a combination to pad a case list.

Holloway is the one named extra investigation that has a store SKU attached — which is why it gets its own question.

Premium is a SKU, not a chapter lock

If you bought Standard, you are not missing a required investigation. You are missing a paid side story and a revolver kit. Do not stall Calvin’s opening hours waiting for a manor that is not in your edition. If you own Premium, still run the same take-or-skip test: empty pack means leave the cliff house for later.

Bucking Bronco’s pickup room stays TBA here. Attachments and the ammo recipe matter on crafting and weapons, not as a reason to invent a walkthrough of the manor on this page.

What to do after this page

Route the next story district on the walkthrough. Name the building on locations. Craft the supplies the case just paid. That is the whole optional loop: never a gate, sometimes a better gun, always a pack check first.