The Sinking City 2 Chapter 3 Guide: Unlocking the Black Reed Longshot & Countering Slither Revivals
Master Chapter 3 of The Sinking City 2 with our guide on unlocking the Black Reed Longshot rifle in Akeley Memorial Hospital and stomping out The Slither.
The Evolution of Frogwares’ Survival Horror
Frogwares has made a definitive statement with the release of The Sinking City 2. By abandoning the open-world detective mechanics of the 2019 original in favor of a tightly focused survival horror experience, the studio has redefined what it means to explore a Lovecraftian nightmare. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, the flooded streets of Arkham offer a visually staggering but mechanically punishing playground. Resource scarcity, intense enemy encounters, and a suffocating atmosphere are the cornerstones of this highly anticipated sequel. For many players currently navigating the murky waters of the mid-game, Chapter 3: A Sight for Sore Eyes represents the first true test of endurance. This section of the game introduces complex spatial puzzles, a brutal ammunition economy, and terrifying new enemy behaviors that will quickly drain both your health pool and your returning sanity meter.
Breaching Akeley Memorial Hospital
The centerpiece of Chapter 3 is the Akeley Memorial Hospital, a massive, partially submerged structure that stands as a decaying monument to Arkham’s grim history. The advanced water physics of Unreal Engine 5 are on full display here, with knee-deep, debris-filled currents slowing your movement and concealing lurking threats beneath the surface. Horrific creatures frequently patrol the flooded lower wards, requiring players to constantly balance silent stealth with sudden, violent confrontation. Deep inside this labyrinth of rusted gurneys and shattered medical equipment lies a critical structural upgrade that you simply cannot afford to miss. To survive the escalating difficulty of the coming chapters, securing a high-powered firearm is absolutely mandatory, and the hospital holds one of the most effective mid-game weapons available in the entire drowned city.
Solving the Old Man Door and Claiming the Rifle
Progressing through the dilapidated hospital eventually brings you face-to-face with a bizarre architectural obstacle the community has dubbed the “old man door.” This heavily reinforced gate bars entry to a secured storage room, and opening it requires a morbid scavenger hunt. You must locate two separate halves of a grotesque face mask hidden within the hospital’s treacherous wings. The first half is relatively simple to acquire, positioned near the entrance of the primary ward to clearly introduce the puzzle’s mechanics to the player. However, securing the second half forces you to venture deeper into the psychiatric and surgical sectors, where the emergency lighting fails and the shadows stretch across the walls.
Once both pieces are safely recovered and physically combined on the door, the heavy mechanism finally releases. Stepping inside this hidden armory rewards you with the highly coveted Black Reed Longshot rifle. Additionally, acquiring this specific weapon immediately triggers the system achievement, granting you the “We Aim to Please” trophy. This firearm operates as a massive tactical upgrade over the basic hunting rifle, providing unmatched stopping power at long ranges, which becomes essential as you encounter larger, more mutated variations of the eldritch horrors.
The Harsh Reality of Ammo Crafting
Holding a powerful rifle is comforting, but the pure survival horror reality of The Sinking City 2 quickly sets in when you realize how devastatingly scarce ammunition truly is. You will rarely, if ever, find boxes of high-caliber rounds sitting neatly on shelves waiting to be looted. Relying entirely on random environmental drops will leave the Black Reed Longshot functioning as little more than a heavy wooden club. To keep the weapon fed and ready for combat, you must actively engage with the game’s demanding crafting system.
The specific recipe required to produce ammunition for this rifle involves combining two pieces of gunpowder with a set of chemical supplies. This material cost is intentionally steep. Gunpowder is arguably the single most valuable resource in the drowned city, serving as the foundational ingredient for nearly every ballistic and explosive item in your limited inventory. Spending two full units of gunpowder on a few rifle rounds means you are directly sacrificing your ability to craft shotgun shells, revolver bullets, or defensive incendiaries. You must constantly weigh the immediate threat level of every encounter, deciding if an enemy truly warrants the expenditure of such premium resources, or if a desperate retreat is the smarter play.
Confronting the Slither and the Stomp Mechanic
The Akeley Memorial Hospital does not merely test your inventory management skills; it actively subverts your established combat expectations. Throughout Chapter 3, you will repeatedly encounter shambling, zombie-like corpses wandering the flooded halls. Drawing your newly acquired rifle to score a clean, safe headshot from a distance might seem like the optimal tactical play, but these enemies harbor a highly disturbing secret. Upon successfully killing the host body, grotesque parasitic worms will erupt violently from the corpse.
If left unchecked, these parasites will quickly attempt to revive the downed enemy, or worse, rapidly slither across the floor to seek out a fresh host in the immediate vicinity. To permanently neutralize the threat, players must aggressively close the distance and manually stomp on the worms and the corpse multiple times. This specific mechanic injects a frantic, stressful rhythm into every combat encounter. The animation lock of the physical stomp leaves your investigator temporarily vulnerable to flanking attacks, forcing you to maintain extreme situational awareness. For a much deeper understanding of this parasite’s behavioral patterns, origins, and specific weaknesses, consult our detailed breakdown of the Slither.
Navigating Scripted Ambushes and Sparing Resources
While the multi-stomp mechanic successfully grounds the combat in a gritty reality, early player feedback highlights some frustrating mechanical inconsistencies regarding exactly how these parasites spawn. According to widespread community reports, certain areas within the hospital—and in subsequent flooded levels—feature worms already visibly writhing on the ground before any enemies appear. The natural survival horror instinct is to preemptively shoot or crush these visible threats to prevent them from animating the nearby bodies.
However, many players have frustratingly discovered that these specific environmental worms are often coded as completely invulnerable. Regardless of your careful attempts to clear the room stealthily, a scripted ambush will eventually trigger, forcing a massive spawn of enemies. This particular design choice strips away a degree of tactical agency, transforming what could be a calculated stealth approach into a chaotic, unavoidable firefight. When cornered by these forced ambushes, the Black Reed Longshot becomes your most reliable tool to rapidly thin the charging horde before they can surround you in the tight hospital corridors. For broader strategies on surviving these overwhelming encounters without draining all your health, review our core combat guide.
Conserving Strength for the Final Act
Understanding the mechanics of the Black Reed Longshot and the frustrating nature of the Slither in Chapter 3 is not just about surviving the hospital; it is fundamentally about preparing for the late-game gauntlet. Ongoing community discussions and early game clears heavily indicate that the pacing of the final act takes a dramatic, punishing turn that will test the limits of your gathered resources.
Unconfirmed reports suggest players will face brutal back-to-back, high-intensity encounters, including a terrifying sequence involving a “Leyden Jar” charging horde and a massive, grotesque eyeball boss. Furthermore, the narrative reportedly shifts toward a harsh, freezing Antarctica-inspired environment—a clear and chilling nod to Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness—where unskippable hordes relentlessly pursue the protagonist. With console players already noting that the aiming mechanics feel deliberately heavy and sometimes unresponsive under extreme pressure, relying on frantic snap-shots will lead to certain death. By mastering the stomp mechanic early to save ammunition, and strategically crafting Black Reed Longshot rounds only when absolutely necessary, you will build the robust stockpile required to face the cosmic horrors waiting at the end of the world.