Oct 20, 2025

Sunken Engine Walkthrough – Chapter 1 The Book’s Call (1-1)

Ali Amir

Discover everything you need to know about Chapter 1-1 in Sunken Engine, including how to complete it.

Sunken Engine’s horror aspect comes through gradually as you progress. Chapter 1 starts after completing the Prologue. This is the longest chapter in the game that requires you to discover the truth hidden within the book.

Unlock new licenses, purchase new upgrades, acquire new skills, and purchase items from the market.

For more information on Sunken Engine, check out its official Steam page.

Learning new mechanics to repair the ships is essential to progress in Chapter 1 in Sunken Engine. Your sanity meters drop while completing this chapter. When it gets low, you start hearing things like children’s voices, seeing figures standing in corners watching you, and experiencing other disturbing events.

To manage this, you smoke a pipe, which calms you down, but reduces your life expectancy each time.

The story gets told mainly through letters and documents that arrive as you progress. Make sure to unlock licenses to repair bigger and more complex ships.

Chapter 1-1 Walkthrough: The Book’s Call

Chapter 1-1: The Book’s Call initiates as soon as you complete the Prologue in Sunken Engine. You will interact with Jeremiah Marvin at the end of the Prologue mission. This NPC will grant you a book that you can use to unveil the hidden items. Once you acquire this book, Chapter 1-1 initiates.

You need to discover the truth hidden within the book. Continue repairing the ships and selling the items in the market to progress in this chapter. Take all the contracts and complete them to earn money. Use the money to purchase upgrades and unlock skills from the renovation table.

Purchase the Deck length upgrade to get your hand on the larger ship license. This will allow you to earn more money and XP. Earning XP, unlocking skills, and purchasing upgrades influence your character level in Sunken Engine.

Collect the trash using the garbage bin and burn it in the furnace on the right, and use a spatula to collect oyster and starfish from the ship. You can also crack open the oyster to get the pearl that you can sell at the bazaar. Also, upgrade the garbage bin to carry more trash, allowing you to quickly repair the ship.

Use the Necronomicon by holding the LMB to unveil the secrets.

Continue repairing the ships and earn money to upgrade the kitchen in Sunken Engine. Use the money to purchase the Ship Mastery Skill to enhance the overall profit from ship-related jobs.

Once you keep repairing the ships and selling the items, the day will pass, and you will progress in Chapter 1-1 in Sunken Engine.

Once your sanity is harmed, use the tobacco pipe to relax. Your sanity is basically harmed when you wake up the next morning.

Approach the Blackreef and go to the bank to purchase the license. Interact with Calvin Darrow and find which licenses are available. Buying the license will cost you money, and you need to reach a specific level to acquire it. Read the letter on the right side of the bank.

Move back to the shipyard and continue repairing the ships, and sell the items. Doing so allows you to reach the next level.

Unlock the Scrapmaster from the skill tree using the skill point to collect all trash within a small area with a single click instead of one by one.

The ship will have damaged or cracked floor sections that need patching. Pick up a wooden plank and two nails from the shelf, then repair the broken surface. For certain repairs, you need additional materials like bulbs, nails, and wood.

To get these, use the map next to the Shipyard’s entrance to go to the market and purchase the required materials. After that, take the materials back in the crate and place them on the shelves in the shipyard.

You can use the wood to patch up broken wooden surfaces and nail for patching wooden surfaces with wood. When you leave the shop and come back from the market, you will find it infested with mysterious eyes. At times, some ships can also be affected.

You can remove these eyes using the Scratching Tool. Just like the cursed circle, you will also find Cursed Symbols in your shop after leaving and returning. To remove them, use your magical book.

Place all the purchased items, like nails, wood, or tape, in the crate in your shipyard.

Use the nails or wood to repair the ship if required. You need to move the hammer with your mouse and press the LMB when the point reaches the green bar.

Go to the bank and purchase the Electrotechnician’s License 1. This will grant you the ability to repair broken light bulbs and basic electrical devices on the ship. Also, purchase the Communication License to calibrate and maintain ship radios for reliable communication. Purchase the Locksmith Permit 1 to pick locks throughout the ship.

The Heavy Maintenance Permit 1 license is also the best one to purchase to repair and reinforce metal railings to improve ship safety.

Some of the iron parts on the ship may be bent. You can use your hammer to straighten them. However, some doors are locked, and customers will pay to open them. Take your lockpick, rotate it, and test if the lock turns completely. If it doesn’t, adjust your angle and try again. Make sure not to break the lockpick.

You need to rotate the lockpick to find the correct angle. Hold to turn the luck and test the position. If the angle is wrong, the lockpick will break or shake. Make sure to locate the right spot and fully turn the lock to open it.

While repairing the ship and after reaching level 8, you will unlock a new upgrade. Interact with the renovation table and purchase the Spud. This allows you to expand your scraping area and increase speed. It also grants you a chance to collect double scrap.

Upon reaching level 12, you will gain a skill point and unlock a new license to purchase.

Unlock the next upgrade for Kitchen to crack open oysters to get pearls. You will find the Oyster Cracking station in the kitchen. Bring some oysters there and interact with them. By striking with the hammer, you can crack them open. Most of them will be empty, but some contain valuable pearls. You can use bazaar boxes to take pearls from the kitchen. Make sure to move the hammer onto Oyster and press the LMB to see if there’s any pearl inside.

Once you unlock most of the skills and upgrade while repairing the ships, you will get a notification that something is coming to the Shipyard. A dangerous-looking ship will arrive at the port.

There are mysterious eyes and cursed symbols on the surface of the ship. Use the Scratching Tool to remove the mysterious eyes and the magic book for cursed symbols.

Get inside the operator room on the ship and interact with the candles. You need to match two symbols with the Shadow in the background. Make sure to locate and light the candle in the corners of these symbols.