DrainSim Community Map: How to Clear Mystery of the Sphinx

Community workshop maps turned DrainSim from a fixed campaign into a much larger pile of jobs, and the Egypt-themed Mystery of the Sphinx is one of the more intimidating ones to open cold. A stone Sphinx sits in the middle of flooded channels, four tomb pits are sunk into the upper temple deck, and two sarcophagus pits sit below. The layout suggests a huge water-routing puzzle. It is not one.

Quick answer: Do not drain the central channel. Rake the debris out of each individual tomb drain and vacuum the shallow water that pumps cannot reach. Clearing the last drain ends the map.

Mystery of the Sphinx objectives: four tombs and two sarcophagus pits

The map tracks six separate drain targets. Four are labelled Tomb 1 through Tomb 4 and sit on the raised temple deck. The other two are sarcophagus pits, the Sarcophagus of Neferkhara and the Sarcophagus of Tutankhamun. Every one of them is a self-contained pit with its own drain underneath the water.

Objective	Where it sits	Clears when
Tomb 1–4	Upper temple deck	Drain raked, water vacuumed
Sarcophagus of Neferkhara	Lower pit near the Sphinx	Drain raked clear of dirt
Sarcophagus of Tutankhamun	Marked on the tablet	Drain raked clear of dirt

The wide flooded courtyard around the Sphinx is scenery for scoring purposes. Water sitting in the channels does not block completion, which is the single fact that cuts this map from an hour-long pumping marathon down to a short job.

Flooded stone courtyard pool in front of the pyramid on the Egypt workshop map — The flooded courtyard pool in front of the pyramid does not need to be emptied. Image: CodePeas

Tools that decide the run

Loadout planning matters here because the pits are deep and the drains are buried. Two items do almost all of the work, and the rest is support.

Rake — the only way to clear debris off a submerged drain cover.
Water vacuum — removes the final shallow layer that pumps leave behind.
Pumps — need a direct power cord running to a switched-on generator.
Hoses — must be attached to a pump to send water toward a drain or a lower level.
Shovel and buckets — for digging dirt out of blocked pits.
Inflatable red barriers — dams that stop water spilling over a wall edge.
Generators — double as a platform to stand on in deep water.

Placement outlines tell you whether a piece of equipment will work before you drop it. Green means the spot is valid, red means the placement is invalid or the item has no power.

Fastest way to clear Mystery of the Sphinx

Open the workshop board and pick Mystery of the Sphinx from the list of community maps. If the map is not in your list yet, subscribe to it first through the DrainSim Steam Workshop, then reload the board.

Choose the Box Truck so you have room for the full kit. Pack the rake and the water vacuum first, then add a couple of pumps, generators, hoses, a shovel and buckets.

At the spawn area, unload everything from the back of the truck before you walk off. Items highlight with an orange outline and a pick-up prompt when you look at them, so you can pull gear out one piece at a time.

Highlighted orange equipment showing the E pick up prompt in DrainSim — Equipment highlights orange with an E “PICK UP” prompt when you can grab it. Image: CodePeas

Pull up the tablet and check the marked positions of Tomb 1 through Tomb 4. The tablet also shows the water level for each area, which is how you confirm a pit is actually empty rather than just looking empty.

Climb the temple structure to the upper deck. All four tomb pits sit up here in a row, so you can work through them without going back down to the courtyard.

Upper temple deck of the Mystery of the Sphinx map with flooded tomb pits — The upper temple deck, where all four flooded tomb pits sit. Image: CodePeas

Drop into or lean over a tomb pit and use the rake on the drain cover at the bottom. The drains are blocked with debris, and raking them clear lets each pit empty on its own.

Switch to the water vacuum for the last few inches. Pumps stop working once the water gets too shallow, so the vacuum is what takes a pit from nearly empty to fully clear.

Player aiming an orange tool down at submerged equipment beside a flooded pit — Working a tool downward on submerged gear at the edge of a pit. Image: CodePeas

Repeat the rake-then-vacuum pass on the remaining tombs and on both sarcophagus pits. The Sarcophagus of Neferkhara pit is the awkward one, since its drain is buried under dirt and you may need to stand on a generator to reach it with a shovel.

Why the pump chain is a trap on this map

The obvious plan is to line pumps along the upper deck, run hoses down to the courtyard, and push the tomb water toward the Sphinx’s outer drains. It works mechanically. It is also slow, and it creates a second problem.

Chain of pumps and hoses routing water from the temple toward the Sphinx drains — A pump chain routing tomb water down toward the Sphinx’s outer drains. Image: CodePeas

Run around six pumps at once and the lower channels cannot take the volume. Water rises over the channel walls and spreads across the courtyard, which means a trip back to the truck for the inflatable red barriers and a lot of time spent placing and inflating dams along the wall edges just to hold the flood you created.

Barriers are worth carrying, but on this map they are damage control for over-pumping rather than a required part of the solution. If you go straight to the drains with a rake, you may never need to inflate one.

How to confirm the map is complete

Completion is instant and unambiguous. Once the final blocked drain is raked clear, the level ends on its own and the GREAT JOB! screen appears with the payout attached, listed as a reward of $306. You do not need to return to the truck or trigger anything manually.

From that screen you go back to the garage, where the map list and the workshop board are waiting for the next job. If the screen has not fired, check the tablet water levels again. One pit still holding a shallow layer of water is almost always the reason, and a pass with the vacuum finishes it.