Limbus Company: How to Use Sinking

Sinking in Limbus Company is a status effect that deals 1 gloom damage on enemies without SP and takes away SP via potency on count. It’s a very powerful status effect, via many good sinking IDs being released in season 2 and having a few very powerful EGO. So, how do you play Sinking?First, I’ll have to cover Sinking IDs and EGO. After that, I’ll describe how to use the status effect in game with those IDs and EGO. The final section will be a compendium of Sinking E.G.O. Gifts, placed last because most modes don’t have EGO Gifts.

I’ll cover three types of IDs:
– what I consider to be cores of sinking teams
– units that are very good for sinking teams and support the cores
– units that inflict sinking, but I feel should not be on a genuine sinking teamOut of every ID in the game, these are the ones that inflict Sinking:

Spicebush Yi Sang is a great unit on his own, but here I’m focusing on his Sinking. Spicebush has the sins gluttony, sloth, and pride; very common on a pure Sinking team, so nothing special except for gluttony. His Sinking on his S1 is amazing, inflicting 3 count on its own. His next skill needs 6 self Tremor (which he can gain via S1 or S30, but what’s important is the conditional makes the skill a 3-slot AoE and inflicts 6 sinking on all targets hit. Spicebush Yi Sang is the only non-EGO source of AoE sinking, and it’s pretty common since it’s a S2. His S3 inflicts 2 count, but that is nothing compared to its unique effect, Sinking Deluge, at more than 6 Sinking. Sinking Deluge deals SP damage via count times potency, stopping when the enemy gets to -45. Then, if the enemy has -45, the rest of the SP damage is done as gloom damage. This is completely utterly ♥♥♥♥♥♥ in SP damage when at high sinking counts, and is very worth it. Even if he didn’t add a lot of count, Deluge makes it worth bringing him on a Sinking team just for being Sinking Deluge.

Molar Ishmael is also a great unit on her own. She doesn’t have any special statuses like Yi Sang, but makes up for it by being completely broken in inflicting Sinking. Her sins are pride, sloth, and gloom, which is nothing notable. First of all, her passive inflicts 1 Sinking count if an enemy has tremor. She will usually be the only person inflicting tremor on pure Sinking, and the only problem (i will go over this later) is Rodya’s Rime Shank EGO bursting Tremor. However, it’s still active enough for Ishmael to almost always have an extra Sinking count infliction. Her S1 inflicts 2 Sinking count, her S2 inflicts 6 Sinking, and her S3 deals more damage if the target has 6+ Sinking, inflicts 5 Sinking count, and inflicts 6 regular Sinking. All of these are without conditionals, so she is insane at keeping up Sinking and inflicting it, making her a core of the team.

This ID, like the other cores, is also absolutely insane on its own. Dieci Rodya gains special points due to Discard, but we aren’t covering Discard and doing a full kit analysis of every skill. Her sins are gloom, envy, and sloth, which will help us later. Dieci’s S1 inflicts no Sinking, but it’s made to be discarded and usually will be, so you don’t have to use it. Her S2 inflicts 5 Sinking, and her S3 inflicts 6 Sinking count in total. Her Sinking infliction on her own isn’t a lot, but she inflicts a lot of count. What the real reason to use her is is Rime Shank.

Rime Shank is Rodya’s Season 1 TETH EGO. On its awakening at Uptie 4, it inflicts 5 Sinking potency and count and bursts Tremor. What you are here for is not to use the awakening; its to use the corrosion. The corroded version inflicts 10 Sinking and 8 Count, completely solving any sinking problem in one turn, making it insanely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cracked at keeping up Sinking. Its only problem is costing 8 gloom and 5 envy on corrosion…which Dieci Rodya has as her S1 and S2. Needless to say, she is an SS tier Sinking unit.

Sunshower Heathcliff is unique in that he is a negative sanity unit that focuses more on inflicting Sinking on himself rather than the enemies. However, he has more Sinking support than most units, inflicting 2 Sinking on hit and 2 Sinking count on tails hit on his S1, and inflicts 5 Sinking on his counter, which he will be using due to his need to get hit to take away SP. He isn’t a bad unit on his own, but he’ll be inflicting a fair bit of Sinking when defending, getting him a spot on this list. He has envy, gloom, and sloth as his skills, but gives the Sinking team a rare wrath sin on his counter.

Hong Lu’s base ID is lucky because its one of two actually good base IDs. He has pride, sloth, and lust; lust is especially rare on Sinking teams, so he’s a good pick. He also has high coin power conditions on no damage last turn, so he keeps up with the rest of the team well enough. On every one of his skills, he inflicts 2 Sinking, making him a solid potency applier. What’s to note is that his base EGO is also Sinking, healing him by 15 SP, afflicting 5 Sinking, and makes allies lose less SP from SP loss conditions. It’s also an AoE, basically being a worse Rep Emitter and a cheap AoE Sinking applier.

He literally rolls a 9 on S1 and S2. He has 2-3 speed. He’s a half-decent applier, putting on 4 Sinking on S1 and 4 Sinking + 1 Count on S2, but he will never be hitting this anyways, and it will all be absorbed on the next hit due to the lack of count. Don’t even try to use him on a Poise team, his second affinity. He’s just really bad.

Now that we know who to use, what other EGO is there for Sinking, and what non-sinking units do we slot in?

Outside of Rime Shank and Land of Illusion, Outis’ Sunshower inflicts 6 Sinking on awakening and 7 on corrosion (no count), Fluid Sac Don Quixote inflicts 2 on awakening and 10 on corrosion, Soda Ryoshu inflicts 6 on awaking and corrosion, and Suddenly, One Day (gregor’s base) inflicts 10. The problem with the latter two is that Soda Ryoshu is really bad, and even on a Sinking team I’d advise against using it; Suddenly, One Day is also competing with 6 other random status effects to inflict 10 of. Really, the only Sinking EGO to consider using are Sunshower and Fluid Sac, but building off of those is also a bit…weird.

The Sinking team has a massive lack of lust, gluttony, and wrath. If I had to suggest any unit replacements:

– Heathcliff can be replaced with Seven Heathcliff or R Corp. Heathcliff
– Hong Lu can be replaced with K Corp. or Hook Office Fixer, if you have him

Both, while not inflicting any Sinking, help alleviate the problem with sin affinities. For the 6th unit, I’d recommend

– The Middle Little Sister Don Quixote (particularly benefits in Sinking due to a high amount of envy, but not at her full potential) (has been placed above the rest because this character has a viable Sinking EGO)
– Molar Office Fixer Outis (has been placed above the rest because this character has a viable Sinking EGO)

– Lobotomy EGO::Regret Faust (or Seven Assoc.)
– R.B. Chef de Cuisine Ryoshu
– The Middle Little Brother Meursault
– Lobotomy EGO::Red Sheet Sinclair
– Zwei Assoc. Gregor

All of these units have either wrath, lust, or gluttony. While they do not inflict Sinking on their own, they’re usually good units and fuel EGO.

There are two ways to play Sinking: with Sinking Deluge, and without Sinking Deluge.Without Sinking Deluge, the goal is to inflict count and potency in a consistent way as much as possible throughout the entire fight, as Sinking will go away on hit. For this, I’d recommend putting Molar Boatworks Ishmael as your first slot, Dieci Rodion as your second slot, Sunshower Heathcliff as your third slot, and Spicebush Yi Sang as your fourth slot.

Molar Boatworks needs more turns due to how good she is at maintaining count, and also to get Tremor on enemies for her passive. Dieci Rodion is there to fuel and spam Rime Shank while inflicting large amounts of sinking with her skills, and should be used *after* Molar Boatworks Ishmael because of Rime Shank’s Tremor burst. Sunshower Heathcliff needs more slots to counter on to inflict more Sinking, and Spicebush’s amazing count S1 is at it’s best when not clashing; unopposed Sinking AoE is also very good. Sinking count should be at least attempted to be maintained until Rodya gets 45 SP and Rime Shank. Then, use it and you’re good. This strategy is best used in regular encounters.

With Deluge, Sinking focuses on getting a very high Potency and a decent Count very fast to get Deluged. The turn order difference I’d make for this is to put Spicebush Yi Sang before Sunshower, because more slots means more chances for Spicebush’s S3. Again, getting Rime Shank as fast as possible is critical here, and using it as many times as possible before Deluge is the best way to do it. Then, use Crow’s Eye View when Yi Sang has a S3, inflict as much as possible, and use it on the next turn. Repeat until the enemy is killed. This strategy is best used in focused encounters.

EGO gifts for Sinking are basically just free buffs for Sinking. Not just the status effect itself; the units also get a buff depending on EGO gift, usually. I’ll list them in order of rarity, then rate how good they are based on three factors:- How much does it help maintain Sinking?
– How much Sinking does it inflict?
– What buffs does it offer to teams supporting Sinking?

Upgrades for gifts are listed like/this for numbers, and (in these) for non-number effects.

“Combat Start: Inflict 2/3/4 Sinking and +1 Sinking count on all enemies with less than 0 SP. (for Abnormalities, one random part). For each Envy Affinity Skill used, randomly inflict 1/2/3 Sinking between all enemies next turn. (for Abnormalities, one random part)”

This gift is great at generating potency, but the problem is that for Abnormalities, there is almost always no SP. Especially in Mirror Dungeons, where as of writing almost no Focused encounters involve SP. Good in regular encounters, though. I probably wouldn’t upgrade it unless you really need a Sinking gift. While not being the best gift I recommend it solely for the fusion.

“When hitting and dealing HP damage to an enemy with a Skill that inflicts Sinking, inflict 3/4 Sinking and +2/3 Sinking Count at Turn End. (Once per enemy per turn)
When activating Lust Absolute Resonance (remove Abs. requirement), inflict 2/3 Sinking and +3 Sinking Count on all enemies (For Abnormalities, one random part) at Combat Start.”

There is one major problem with this gift: It requires lust. In a Sinking team. While the first one is pretty good for longer fights, you are not inflicting the last part. I’d say it excels in boss fights.

“Turn Start: enemies with Sinking lose 3 Offense Level and Defense Level for the turn.”

Free -1 clash power. Forgettable compared to the rest. I personally wouldn’t take it.

“Whenever an ally inflicts Sinking on enemies with Skill Effects, the ally gains 1/2 Offense Level Up next turn. (Max 3/4)
Allies with Wrath Affinity Attack Skills gain 2/3 Offense Level Up instead. (Max 4/5/6)”

I don’t think its even possible to get the last part on most Sinking IDs. I don’t know if its every ally or one ally, but it’s pretty good. I wouldn’t upgrade it, but if it’s an option I would grab it.

“Deal +12.5% damage and take -12.5% damage against enemies that had Sinking at the start of the combat phase.
Allies with Gloom skills deal +20% damage and take -20% damage instead.”

Why would you not take this? I think this is self explanatory. It’s weirdly good for a tier 2 gift, especially since every Sinking ID has gloom. Would get.

“When hitting and dealing HP damage to an enemy with a Skill, inflict 3 Sinking.
If the Skill’s Affinity was Gluttony, inflict 5 Sinking instead.”

What the ♥♥♥♥. The main problem is gluttony, but 3 Sinking on every single hit. Take this every single time when available. It even contributes to the fusion!

“First Turn Start of a wave: randomly inflict (5/10 + (# of enemies x3/4)) Sinking Count between all enemies (or all Abnormality parts). (For Abnormalities, only the Core counts as an enemy)”

This gift really Curses the Relationship Between You and the enemies. When It Snaps and activates, it inflicts an ungodly amount of count, completely fixing any count problem. Again, I’d encourage your Curiousity on the math and get this gift when possible; I would prioritize it over Midwinter (Unless you’re Holding Tight onto Headless Portrait due to the fusion gift) due to the sheer amount of count when Setting Sail towards the Abnormalities’ core. This is truly a Bon Voyage between High Tide and Low Tide.

“Deal +35/40/50% damage against enemies [suffering negative effects (Low Morale, Panic) from SP loss]/with 0 or less SP or without Sanity.
When Sinking’s effect applies to enemies without Sanity, the Affinity of the damage inflicted changes to whatever is the most effective.”Yeah, this is the tier 4 gift, so it’s cracked and a must-grab. I think the description speaks for itself, as it completely alleviates the gloom damage only problem and also boosts damage on an easy to get conditional. It’s too expensive to upgrade rationally because it’s a tier 4 gift, so don’t upgrade it.

“Encounter Start: This Gift activates when 5 or more Identities have Attack Skills that apply Sinking. (Not counting E.G.O Skills)
When hitting an enemy with a Skill, inflict 5 Sinking.
Turn Start: All enemies (or all Abnormality parts) regain Sinking Count equal to (Sinking consumed from getting hit last turn)/2”

This is the fusion gift. You win the game. Get this.

Overall, due to its insane damage potential and heavy support, Sinking is a status that should be heavily considered (especially in enemies weak to gloom). However, Sinking having a low number of IDs means it isn’t as supported as well as Rupture; it makes up for this in the sheer power of the available EGO and IDs.Most of this guide is heavily subjective. Based on my experience of a player from launch who’s played around 300 hours, I think my opinions hold some sort of weight. Suggestions are very encouraged in the comments and I’ll ask for permission to use the idea.

That’s it for the guide. Get Sinking!