What Does Sinking Do in Limbus Company? Full Guide

You keep seeing “Sinking” in Limbus Company and want a straight answer to what does sinking do in Limbus Company. Then you are at the right place.

Here it is. Sinking makes the next several hits deal fixed SP damage instead of normal damage. Against enemies without SP, that same damage becomes Gloom damage instead. That’s the core idea, but the full mechanic has more nuance worth knowing.

The Sinking status effect icon in Limbus Company

There’s also something almost nobody explains clearly. Two different effects in this game share the name Sinking, and they work nothing alike. We’ll cover both.

The Core Sinking Mechanic

Sinking is a Status Effect. The next time a unit with Sinking gets hit, it takes fixed SP damage equal to the effect’s Sinking Potency.

Each time this triggers, Sinking Count drops by 1. Once Count hits zero, the effect ends.

Diagram explaining Sinking Potency and Sinking Count — How Sinking Potency and Sinking Count work together

Both Sinking Potency and Sinking Count can go as high as 99.

Units without SP, known as Abnormalities, don’t take SP damage from this. They take Gloom-affinity damage instead.

Sinking is treated as the core Gloom-affinity status effect in the game’s system. Gloom is one of Limbus Company’s seven Sin affinities. Sinking sits alongside Burn, Bleed, Tremor, Rupture, Poise, and Charge as one of seven core status effect keywords that team building commonly revolves around.

How Sinking Behaves Against Different Enemy Types

This is where the effect gets genuinely interesting. It does two different jobs depending on what you’re fighting.

Enemy Type	What Sinking Does
Enemies with SP (most human enemies)	Drains their SP, reducing their coin-flip probability during clashes and making fights easier to win
Enemies with SP using negative Coins	Sinking’s SP drain does not apply the same way here, a real exception worth remembering
Abnormalities (no SP)	Deals fixed Gloom-affinity damage instead, behaving similarly to Rupture, with a high damage ceiling since Potency can reach 99

Chart comparing Sinking damage against SP and non SP enemies — How Sinking behaves against different enemy types

Against SP-holding enemies, a Sinking team tends to trigger Low Morale and Panic as SP drops. Those states can cause Fragile, which increases damage the enemy takes, scaling up to a maximum of 100 percent bonus damage.

Against Abnormalities, none of that Low Morale or Panic chain applies. Sinking just becomes a straightforward fixed-damage tool there.

One more thing worth clearing up. An older, since-patched issue briefly caused Abnormalities to have hidden SP. That’s no longer how the game works. Abnormalities have no SP under current rules, full stop.

Sinking Deluge: The Payoff Mechanic

Sinking Deluge is a separate mechanic built on top of base Sinking. It doesn’t work the same way as a normal hit.

Sinking Deluge damage formula illustration — How Sinking Deluge calculates its damage

When triggered, Sinking Deluge deals SP damage equal to Sinking Count multiplied by Sinking Potency. Then it removes Sinking entirely.

If the target’s SP is already at negative 45 or lower, the extra SP damage beyond that point converts into Gloom-affinity HP damage instead. Units without SP take the whole amount as Gloom-affinity HP damage.

Low Morale Panic and Fragile status chain illustration — The debuff chain a Sinking team can trigger

At maximum values, 99 Potency times 99 Count, Sinking Deluge caps out at 9801 damage before Gloom resistance. That’s reported as the highest single-effect damage ceiling currently documented in the game.

At the time of this research, Spicebush Yi Sang was the only Identity documented with access to Sinking Deluge. Future Identity releases could change that.

Spicebush Yi Sang Identity using Sinking Deluge — Spicebush Yi Sang, currently tied to Sinking Deluge

If you’re building a team around this kind of damage ceiling, check a current Limbus Company tier list to see how Sinking-focused Identities stack up against the rest of the roster.

Two Different Effects Share the Name Sinking

Read this section carefully. It’s the part most guides skip entirely.

The core Sinking effect described above is what almost everyone means by the term. Most Identities and E.G.O.s that reference Sinking use this version.

A second, completely different effect also happens to be named Sinking. It’s applied only by one specific Lobotomy E.G.O., Red Sheet Sinclair, sourced from the Canto 4 character “So That No One Will Cry.”

	Core Sinking	Red Sheet Sinclair’s Sinking
Applied by	Most Sinking-related Identities and E.G.O.s	Only Red Sheet Sinclair
When Hit	Take fixed SP or Gloom damage, reduce Count by 1	Gain Rupture equal to Count
On Hit	Not applicable	Apply Rupture equal to Count to the target
Turn End	No special trigger	At 6+ Count, take damage equal to Count, then remove effect

Comparison of core Sinking and Red Sheet Sinclair's Sinking — Two different effects share the same name

If you’re researching Red Sheet Sinclair or “So That No One Will Cry” specifically, none of the core Sinking mechanics above apply. It’s a completely separate system that happens to share a name.

Sinking’s Reputation Has Changed Over Time

Older discussion around Sinking, especially from 2023, was skeptical. Players at the time described it as weak or underdeveloped compared to other status effects.

That wasn’t wrong for its era. Sinking simply didn’t have much support yet.

Limbus Company Season 2 Sinking focused content — Season 2 content that boosted Sinking’s viability

Project Moon released more Sinking-focused Identities and E.G.O. gifts over time, especially starting with Season 2 content. That support meaningfully increased what Sinking teams could actually do.

By 2026, coverage treats Sinking as one of the game’s core, commonly-built-around keywords. Both the old skepticism and the current respect were accurate descriptions of their own moment. The game just changed in between.

If you’re picking up Limbus Company now, grabbing current Limbus Company codes is a quick way to build up resources while you experiment with a Sinking team.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Sinking do in Limbus Company?

It makes the next several hits on the affected unit deal fixed SP damage instead of normal damage. Against enemies without SP, that damage becomes Gloom damage instead.

What’s the difference between Sinking Potency and Sinking Count?

Potency is how much fixed damage each triggered hit deals. Count is how many more hits will trigger the effect before it runs out.

How does Sinking affect Abnormalities differently than human enemies?

Human-type enemies with SP take SP damage, which drains their coin-flip odds in combat. Abnormalities have no SP, so they take fixed Gloom-affinity damage instead.

What is Sinking Deluge?

A payoff mechanic that triggers a unit’s entire Sinking stack at once, dealing SP damage equal to Count times Potency, then removing Sinking completely.

Are there two different effects called Sinking in the game?

Yes. The core Sinking effect is what most content refers to. A separate, differently-behaving effect with the same name is applied only by Red Sheet Sinclair.

Is Sinking good, and has that changed over time?

It’s currently considered one of the game’s core status effect keywords. Earlier discussion from 2023 was much more skeptical, before more Sinking support was released.

Does Sinking work against enemies with negative Coins?

Not in the same way. Enemies using negative Coins are a specific exception to how Sinking’s SP drain normally functions.

What debuffs can a Sinking team trigger on the enemy?

Low Morale and Panic often show up as enemy SP drops, which can lead to Fragile, increasing the damage that enemy takes.

Quick Reference Summary

Question	Answer
Max Sinking Potency	99
Max Sinking Count	99
Damage type vs SP enemies	SP damage
Damage type vs Abnormalities	Gloom damage
Sinking Deluge max damage	9801, before resistance
Two effects share this name	Yes, core Sinking and Red Sheet Sinclair’s version.

Axee Davies

Axee Davies is the founder of AxeeTech, publishing gaming guides, codes, and Windows how-tos since March 2013. A tech enthusiast for 13+ years — starting with smartphones and Android rooting — he now runs a site that puts out a new guide every day for Roblox players, traders, and Windows users. More about AxeeTech

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