A larger dock does not by itself unlock larger work in Sunken Engine. The shipyard has three separate gates: the Renovation Table determines physical capacity, the bank determines which ship sizes and repair types you are licensed to accept, and player progress determines which rows are available. Spend on only one of those and the next Radiofax offer can still contain a task you cannot finish.
This guide builds those gates together. It covers the current Radiofax job flow, a practical license and upgrade order, the inspection sequence for bigger ships, and recovery checks for locks, radios, cables, engines, and cursed work. Fishing, pearls, and gambling are funding choices rather than repair mechanics; they have their own Sunken Engine money guide.
Read every contract as a capability test
The 0.5 update replaced the old fax machine with Radiofax. New offers arrive as a “pick” system: you see several jobs, choose one, and lose the alternatives for that cycle. The dock can hold only one active job, so the expensive mistake is not a slow repair; it is accepting a ship whose final task sits behind a permission you cannot yet buy.
Before accepting, compare the offer with four ledgers:
- Ship class: the deck and tonnage gate must both cover the vessel.
- Task licenses: electrical, signal, maintenance, and locksmith work have separate permission lines.
- Special tools: a lockpick, sanity recovery, or occult tool may still be needed even when the task is licensed.
- Story state: cursed or narrative ships can require the Necronomicon or a previous chapter interaction.
If the Radiofax description does not expose enough detail, choose a familiar ship class until the next bank row is affordable. Routine jobs are useful when they raise player level toward a visible gate; repeating them after every available requirement is already met only delays the story offer.
Buy access in pairs: dock capacity plus permission
Deck Length is an access upgrade, not a speed upgrade. Purchase it when the next tonnage certificate is visible or when Radiofax begins showing vessels that physically exceed the current dock. Buying several deck tiers far ahead of the bank creates empty capacity. Buying tonnage without the matching deck creates a certificate you cannot use.
The task permissions solve different blockers:
| Permission family | Job signal | What it does not solve |
|---|---|---|
| Tonnage | A larger class of vessel appears in the offer pool | It does not authorize the individual repairs found aboard. |
| Electrical repair | Bulbs, basic devices, or later electrical assemblies appear on the list | It does not calibrate communications equipment. |
| Signal or communication | A radio or related signal device requires calibration | It does not replace bulbs or repair metal. |
| Maintenance | Railings, bent steel, or heavier structural work blocks completion | It does not open locked cabins. |
| Locksmith | A door, hatch, cabinet, or spring mechanism is sealed | It gives permission but does not provide an unbreakable lockpick. |
Launch-era guides quote fixed costs and early level thresholds for these rows. The official 0.5 economy update changed the license prices, and later Early Access updates continued to add tasks. Treat the bank’s current level requirement and price as the only purchase authority. The safe order is the permission demanded by the next accepted job, then the next tonnage pair, then convenience upgrades.
Use upgrades to remove repeated travel, not to decorate a bottleneck
Once access is covered, measure an upgrade by the action it removes from every ship. A larger garbage container reduces furnace or disposal trips. A faster cleaning tool shortens every stained surface. A backpack tier now matters chiefly for cursed items, saleable finds, and fish because the 0.5 inventory overhaul made basic work materials unlimited and moved market purchases directly into the bag.
- Match Deck Length to the next usable tonnage tier. Do not buy it several contracts early.
- Increase bin capacity when ships regularly force a mid-clean emptying trip. If the bin never fills, the tier is not yet earning time.
- Improve the cleaning or scraping tool that dominates the current ship class. Count repeated surfaces, not the tool’s menu position.
- Expand the bag when sellable or cursed loot is being left behind. It is no longer a cure for every nail-and-bulb supply run.
- Upgrade sanity recovery before deliberately farming cursed ships. A faster ordinary contract does not help if occult work forces an early retreat.
- Buy Kitchen and cosmetic tiers for their own objectives. They can fund or personalize the yard, but they do not grant repair permission.
The paid cosmetic menu is particularly easy to confuse with renovation progress. If the next obstacle is a locked job row, changing walls or lighting cannot move it. Delay paid decoration until the license reserve is protected; use only clearly free visual swaps if you want to test the menu.
Spend skill points on the route you are actually running
Skills have their own level gates and escalating point costs. For a contract-first repair route, Scrapmaster removes repeated trash interactions, Master Builder reduces future upgrade spending, Swift Stride cuts travel around large hulls, and Steadfast Mind improves tolerance for horror work. A ship-pay skill was repaired in an official launch hotfix, but its current name and values should be read from the live tree rather than an old recommendation list.
Do not spend early points on every income branch at once. Fishmonger, Lucky Catcher, and Master Angler make sense when fishing is an active funding loop. Gambler’s Edge increases the scale of gambling stakes; the available evidence does not establish that it changes the underlying odds. A repair-focused player gets a more reliable return from fewer clicks, cheaper access, or faster movement.
Before confirming a skill, ask which visible constraint it removes:
- If the bin fills first, improve trash handling.
- If the license price is the gate, reduce renovation cost or increase reliable job income.
- If large decks consume time between tasks, improve movement.
- If cursed tasks force recovery breaks, strengthen the sanity route.
- If none of those occurs, keep the point until the next contract class reveals the bottleneck.
Inspect a bigger ship before touching a tool
Walk the accessible deck once with the work list open. Note locked spaces, electrical markers, loose trash, stains, scraped finds, damaged surfaces, structural parts, and any occult effects. This first circuit separates a hidden task from an unavailable task. If a required icon is behind a locked cabin, solve the lock before assuming the ship is bugged. If the task is visible but the interaction is absent, check the corresponding license and tutorial.
Then work in an order that keeps the list readable:
- Remove loose trash and surface dirt so small repair markers are not buried in clutter.
- Scrape oysters, starfish, barnacles, and physical eye growths, keeping saleable finds separate from refuse.
- Open doors and cabinets that hide rooms or sub-tasks.
- Complete material repairs: wooden patches, bulbs, cable insulation, bent metal, and flags where requested.
- Finish device minigames such as radio calibration and advanced locks.
- Handle cursed symbols and concealed spaces with the Necronomicon.
- Rescan, compare the work list, and only then submit the vessel.
The 0.5 inventory change means you should not recreate the old ritual of placing every basic purchase on shipyard shelves. Follow the current inventory icons. If a repair still asks for a consumable, obtain it through the current market flow and verify it reached the bag before returning.
Finish each repair by its feedback, not by animation alone
Wood, bulbs, metal, and cables
A damaged deck section may require a wooden patch and fastening sequence. Align the interaction with the highlighted zone and time the hammer input to the success region shown by the current minigame. A partial animation is not completion; watch the task counter. Bulbs are replacement jobs rather than cleaning jobs, and they require the electrical permission shown in the bank. Bent metal uses the structural repair interaction. A damaged cable is complete only after the insulation wrap finishes and its task entry clears.
Radio calibration
The radio puzzle separates two tuning stages. Adjust the red and blue controls until their corresponding indicators align, then move the green slider until its own indicator confirms the set. If the green stage will not settle, return to the two colored controls; the slider cannot compensate for a bad first alignment. Official hotfixes changed visibility and flicker on radio variants, so use the live indicator rather than memorizing a launch screenshot.
Conventional lockpicking
Rotate the pick to a candidate angle, apply light turning pressure, and release as soon as the cylinder resists or the tool shakes. Move a small amount and test again. The goal is to find an angle that permits a complete turn, not to force the closest attempt. Lockpicks can break and must be replaced, while the locksmith license only unlocks the activity. There is no reliable evidence of a skill that makes the pick indestructible.
Spring mechanisms
Treat each spring-loaded pin as a separate timing check. Raise it until vibration begins, then release promptly so it sets. Move on only after the pin stays cleared. Holding through the vibration loses the timing window; rushing to the next pin without confirming the first creates the impression that the entire mechanism reset.
Engines and the 0.7 mechanical additions
Official 0.7 notes added ship-wheel, gearbox, and propeller repair, while earlier hotfixes corrected engine covers and engine interactions on several hulls. These tasks were not present in the October 2025 guides. When one appears, open the current tutorial and follow its component highlights; do not improvise from the old wood, radio, or cable minigames. If the interaction marker is hidden, change viewing angle around the cover before deciding the job is inaccessible.
Cursed ships require a second inspection language
Ordinary tools and the Necronomicon solve different damage. Scrape physical eyes. Hold the book on cursed symbols. In symbol rooms, compare the foreground marks with their shadow shapes and light the matching corners. A concealed doorway appears only after the occult state is complete. If sanity pressure becomes dangerous, stabilize before entering; completing the physical checklist does not protect the player inside a cursed location.
The August spellcasting update added four crafted powers. Two directly affect shipyard throughput:
- The Arms of the Depths automates basic trash collection and surface cleaning while the summoned arms are active.
- Call of the Cursed Ship summons a cursed vessel, but only when the shipyard is empty.
These are late capability tools, not substitutes for early licenses. Each charge comes from cursed content or altar crafting, and the cursed-ship spell cannot clear an occupied dock. Use ordinary contracts to build the license base before spending rare cursed materials to automate work you are not yet permitted to finish.
Diagnose the dock before abandoning a contract
| Failure signal | Likely cause | Recovery |
|---|---|---|
| A task icon is present but there is no interaction | Missing task license or blocked viewing angle | Check the bank row, then approach the component from another side. |
| The list shows work behind a wall | A conventional or spring lock still seals the room | Open the compartment before rescanning the hull. |
| The green radio indicator never activates | Red or blue tuning remains incomplete | Reset the colored alignment, then return to the slider. |
| A lockpick repeatedly breaks | Full pressure is being held at a rejected angle | Use short tests and adjust in smaller increments. |
| A cursed mark remains after scraping | The mark is occult rather than physical | Equip the Necronomicon and hold the effect to completion. |
| Radiofax never presents another job | The current ship still owns the dock or its handover is unfinished | Clear the final work-list item and speak to the captain, or use the current send-back option. |
| A tutorial’s controls conflict with a web guide | The guide describes an earlier Early Access system | Use the installed tutorial; controls and minigames have changed across updates. |
Sources and current-build limits
The game, developer, publisher, Early Access status, media, and current feature line were verified through the official Steam listing for Sunken Engine, Steam app metadata, and official announcements by Two Nomads Studio. Repair details were cross-checked against readable guide references, but launch-era prices, fax instructions, shelf inventory steps, and old fishing controls were not carried forward after official updates replaced them.
This article reflects the build history available on August 16, 2026: the 0.5 Radiofax, inventory, and economy overhaul; the 0.6 underwater and fishing overhaul; the 0.7 wheel, gearbox, and propeller additions; and the August spellcasting update. Steam still marked the game Early Access on that date. Use the current bank, Renovation Table, work list, and tutorial for any value or input that changes later.