Everything You Need to Know About Graveyard Keeper (2024)

Graveyard Keeper is a crafting simulation with several RPG elements that finds the main character trapped in the role of graveyard keeper in a strange medieval town after being abducted, or saved, by a mysterious stranger. Or you could be dead. Who knows!? The only thing you care about is leaving this world and returning to your love, but that will require the help of all of the townsfolk as you manage your workshops, farms and even zombies in your attempt to climb the ladder to aristocracy and obtain the items you need to escape. With the DLC Stranger Sins, you will have access to the new tavern, which greatly expands on the story and adds new ways to earn large amounts of gold. Enjoy an adventure filled with autopsies, black magic, combat, alcohol, barbeques and so much more. Don’t worry, it’s definitely not human meat!

If you’re sick of farming the dungeon for powder, curious how to make the best zombies, or just have bad luck with Clotho’s alchemy recipes, this guide has what you need. From when and where to find key villagers to farming tips and strategies to beat enemies in the dungeon, all the info you need is below.

Map

1. Episcop, the Bishop, appears on the day representing pride at your church, standing next to the door. He has one of the six artifacts you need to beat the game and is integral in advancing the church storyline.
2. Ms. Charm, the Actress, appears on the day representing lust at the tavern. You need five faith to impress her after your first conversation. She also has one of the six artifacts you need.
3. Lawrence, the Merchant, appears on the day representing gluttony just south of the tavern. He has one of the six artifacts and is required to unlock your store and tavern in the Stranger Sins DLC. He also sells gold star fish stew (which you need to make dinners for one of his later quests), silk, gold grape seeds, and gold fittings.
4. Snake, the Cultist, appears on the day representing envy either waiting outside the dungeon, or at the dungeon’s entrance if you’ve opened it. He has one of the six artifacts and his help is required to complete many quests.
5. Edward, the Inquisitor, appears on the day representing wrath at the top of Witch Hill. He has one of the artifacts and his storyline unlocks dark organs and the Cultist perk.
6. Harvard, the Astrologer, appears on the day representing sloth at the Lighthouse, by his telescope. He has one of the artifacts, his help is required in many quests, and he sells books that give research points as well as other things that help with book making.
7. Clotho, the Witch, stands outside of her house every day, but getting to her is the tricky part. Her swamp is a veritable maze, but if you head south and follow a clockwise pattern around her house it should be relatively easy to get to her. She is used in several quests and sells alchemy recipes, a few rare ingredients, and seeds for your orchard.
8. Koukol, the Servant, appears at night just south-west of the entrance to the mountain fort. He is needed for a couple of quests.

The other NPCs are easy enough to find, but if you want me to add some to the map, feel free to ask in the comments!

Technology Points

In Graveyard Keeper, getting technology points and unlocking technologies is the only way to progress. A better weapon and armor, zombie workers, and improving your character’s crafting ability all require different technologies and perks obtained in the technology tree by spending technology points. The main way to get these points is to research things, so it’s important to research literally everything. This research requires the research bench under the church, some faith, some paper turned into science points, and one of whatever item you want to research. This item is not consumed.

There are a couple different ways to get paper. When you first go into the area under the church, you will obtain several Ruined Books. These books can be combined with some River Sand at the Desk to make some clean paper. You can also turn Bat Wings (found in the dungeon or in the forest North West of your home at night) or Human Skin into Pigskin Paper, which can be converted to paper at the Church Workbench.

Obtaining large amounts of faith in the beginning can be difficult, as the basic prayer you are given does not give very much. I suggest rushing a Gold star Combo Prayer. This netted me over twenty faith per sermon, as well as a decent amount of silver, which quickly gave me an abundance of faith.

To start, you’ll need to make a Softcover at the Church Workbench with some Pigskin paper. Then combine the Softcover with a Tanning Agent (found further down in the Important Alchemy Recipe section) and one faith to make a Bronze star Hardcover. Then combine the Hardcover with some Steel Parts (requiring the Iron Castings technology) and two faith to make it Silver star, then with some Gold Jewelry Details (easily purchased from the Merchant) to make it Gold star. Once you have that, you just need a Gold star Chapter, which is made out of three Gold star Notes (made from Gold star Stories), and you should have the prayer.

To make the Gold star Stories, you need the Inventing Stories technology and a bit of luck. You also need ink from the Writing Supplies technology and the Books technology to actually make the book. The Perks Writer and Playwright may also be necessary as they add a bonus that makes it easier to create Gold star writing products. I suggest sleeping to save, and then trying to make any gold star items that don’t have a 100% chance, because if it fails you can just reload and try again until it works.

You can also obtain technology points from books and great books of the three different colors; blue, red and green. These books can be purchased from the Astrologer, or created by a zombie at a random text generator that you can make under the church. There are even foods such as the Grape Pie which give a buff called Circumspect, which gives more skill points when you research. However, I found little point to this. The bonus points it gives were negligible and really not worth the work it took to make the food, in my opinion.

The Importance of Zombies and Automation

I highly recommend using zombies to automate everything, because doing it all yourself will take infinitely more time. I got sick of farming iron, stone, marble and wood very quickly, and you need a lot of it. You can also make things like farming and brewing far easier than when you do them yourself. Don’t forget to set up Zombie Porter Stations at all of your zombie production areas so they can transport everything to your base.

The Quarry in the Northwest area of the map is where you set up your Zombie Mine and Quarry. Here you can set up zombies to mine stone, marble and iron. Just be sure to set up an Iron Ore Stockpile and a Stone Stockpile so they have somewhere to put it all.

Just Northwest of your base you will find a giant tree in the forest, which is where you can set up a Zombie Sawmill which, with a Porter Station, will ensure that a constant supply of wood will be supplied to your base.

The Farm just below your house and the Vineyard to the East can also support zombies. You can set them to infinitely produce whatever product you choose, and they always make an equal number of seeds to ensure that the work goes on forever. I set up zombie wheat, carrot and gold onion growers in the farm, and gold grape and gold hop growers in the vineyard. The Porter in the vineyard even takes their supplies directly into your basement, but you’ll have to transport the Farm products manually. At least it’s close.

You can even set up a Zombie Brewery and Zombie Winery in your basement to automate that process, and a Random Text Generator under the church to constantly make books that give technology points. There are also Zombie Alchemy stations, but I never used them, though I can imagine making a setup to create embalming liquids would be helpful, however I started all that very late in the game.

Making the Best Bodies

You might be wondering how to max out your Zombie’s efficiency or how to get the best bodies for your graveyard, and the answer is embalming! Plus a little bit of surgery.

1. For every body, you want to remove the blood and fat first as both remove a red skull and add a white skull.
2. After that it’s time to look at the other organs. This requires the Cultist perk, which requires you to progress to the point in the Inquisitor’s story where he asks you to get him Dark Organs. The Cultist perk displays the white and red skulls that each organ has, so be on the lookout for brains, hearts and intestines with three white skulls. Once you have the right organs, place them in the body of your choice. The Butcher and Surgeon perks are also necessary to avoid those nasty Surgeon’s Mistakes.
3. Now you’ll need to embalm! You’ll want to hit it with a Preservative Injection first, to halt decay. The order for the rest is your choice. You will need the Glue Injection, Silver Injection and Gold Injection. The problem is that the Silver and Gold Injections requirethe red skulls to remove, or they simply won’t work. The Dark Injection can help with this, but remember, it only works once.

Red skulls negatively effect your score in the graveyard, but they have no effect on a zombie’s efficiency. That’s it! A body can have a maximum of sixteen skulls, but that’s easier said than done in my experience. Good luck!

Hard to Find Items

Some items are just harder to find than others. In this section I’ll be covering where to find them, what they’re for, and which items are required to make the different solutions, powders and extracts. If you have any requests for items to add, feel free to ask in the comments!

• Hiccup Grass: Required for a quest from the Merchant, it’s a small plant with white flowers that only grows in the swamp.
• Red Mushrooms: Required to make the Agaric Solution required by a quest for the Poet. They are a small, red mushroom with white flakes that is also found in the swamp.
• Gold star Royal Fish: One of the easiest foods to use to make Gold Dinners which are required for a Merchant quest. They can be purchased from the Merchant, which is great, because it allowed me to never use the fishing mechanic in my entire playthrough. You need five of them.
• Gold: Gold can be found while breaking up blocks of iron into iron ore, but it is more easily found in the dungeon. There are gold nodes on levels six, nine, fourteen and fifteen of the Dungeon. There are also golems on level fifteen of the dungeon that drop it, and it can be obtained by processing the Gold Crucian fish at a cooking table.
• Diamonds: Diamonds can be found in nodes from in the Dungeon from levels 8-15.
• Golden Apple: Required to finish Snake’s story line. Can either be obtained by beating the last level of the dungeon, purchased for ten gold from Clotho, or obtained via a quest given by the Woodcutter.
• Moths/Butterflies: Obtained by picking flowers, at night for the moth and in the day for the butterfly. Requires the Insects technology.
• Feathers: Purchased from the Astrologer or the Fresh Egg Basket in the Village.

Powders

Powders are obtained from the Alchemy Mill.

• Acceleration: Hemp, Honey or Blue Goo.
• Chaos: Bat Wings, Butterflies or Purple Goo.
• Death: Dark Intestine or Dark Purple Goo.
• Health: Cabbage, Crop Waste, Pumpkins or Dark Green Goo.
• Life: Intestine, Sulfur or Yellow Goo.
• Order: Bee or Green Goo.
• Slowing: Hops, Spider Webs or Brown Goo.
• Slowing: Hops, Spider Webs or Brown Goo.

• Toxic: Onion, Red Flower or Red Goo.

Solutions

Solutions are obtained from the Hand Mixer.

• Acceleration: Honey, Blue Jelly or Blue Goo.
• Chaos: Bat Wing, Moth or Purple Goo.
• Death: Dark Brain, Black Jelly or Dark Purple Goo.
• Health: Cabbage, Carrot, Hiccup Grass or Dark Green Goo.
• Life: Brain, Maggot, Yellow Flower or Yellow Goo.
• Order: Bee, Green Jelly, White Flower or Green Goo.
• Slowing: Beeswax, Fat, Hops or Brown Goo.
• Toxic: Red Mushroom, Orange Jelly or Red Goo.

Extracts

Extracts are obtained from the Distillation Cube.

• Acceleration: Hemp, Blue Jelly, or Blue Goo.
• Chaos: Butterfly, Moth, or Purple Goo.
• Death: Dark Heart, Black Jelly, or Dark Purple Goo.
• Health: Lentils, Pumpkin, or Dark Green Goo.
• Life: Heart, Maggot, Yellow Flower or Yellow Goo.
• Order: Green Jelly, White flower or Green Goo.
• Slowing: Beeswax, Spider Web or Brown Goo.
• Toxic: Onion, Orange Jelly or Red Goo.

The Dungeon

The Dungeon is found underground, in between the Church and your house. There are fifteen levels to the Dungeon, which include progressively harder enemies. Many rare materials can be found inside the Dungeon, including gold, diamonds, powders, bloody nails and, on the final level, the golden apple. The Dungeon is mostly just an area used to progress Snake’s storyline, but the gold, diamonds and powders can help you throughout the entire mid to end game.

Preparation

Before you venture into the Dungeon, you should make sure you’re prepared. Bring plenty of health potions (the recipe is further down in Important Alchemy Recipes) and food to recover energy. I made grape pies, which gave one hundred energy and were fairly easy to make. It would also be a good idea to make sure you’re well equipped. Steel armor from the Steel Weapons technology, a damask sword with gem from the Skilled Casting technology and the Sword Master perk are what you want to go for to maximize your combat potential. Also, make sure you have space in your inventory, because the monsters drop a lot of loot!

Enemies

Green Slime

• Health: 15
• Attack: Forward jump, easy to side-step, 10 damage.
• Drops: Green Jelly.
• Found: Floors 1-4.

Blue Slime

• Health: 20
• Attack: Forward Jump, easy to side-step, 15 damage.
• Drops: Blue Jelly.
• Found: Floors 5-9.

Orange Slime

• Health: 25
• Attack: Forward Jump, easy to side-step, 20 damage.
• Drops: Orange Jelly.
• Found: Floors 10-15.

Poppet

• Health: 30.
• Attack: Fires 3 projectiles in a cone, 3 times, in one direction. Can only fire North, West, East or South, so it’s easily defeated by approaching it at a diagonal, each shot deals 10 damage.
• Drops: Black Jelly.
• Found: Floors 8-15.

Bat

• Health: 15.
• Attack: The Bat will fly towards you to attack in melee. If it is sidestepped, it stays in place at the end of it’s attack range for a couple seconds, but if it hits it quickly backs up to attack a second time. Deals 5 damage.
• Drops: Bat Wing.
• Found: Floors 1-5.

Fire Bat

• Health: 20.
• Attack: Same as the Bat, but it also leaves behind a trail of fire that lasts for a few seconds. The melee attack deals 10 damage, and the fire deals 5.
• Drops: Bat Wing.

• Found: Floors 6-15.

Giant Fly

• Health: 10.
• Attack: The Giant Flies will fly directly at you to attack, while attempting to swarm you. They can be dangerous, but the best way to take them out is to hit them before they hit you, as they have low health. Their melee attack deals 10 damage.
• Drops: Random Alchemical Powder.
• Found: Floors 3-15.

Iron Maiden

• Health: 35.
• Attack: The Iron Maiden will approach you and then do a charge attack that takes about a second to go off. It’s pretty easy to dodge with a back step and then go in swinging, but it’s likely they’ll get a second attack off before death, so be careful. Their melee attack deals 20 damage.
• Drops: Bloody Nails and Metal Scrap.
• Found: Floors 4-15.

Giant Spider

• Health: 30.
• Attack: The Giant Spider will lunge forward to attack, and then retreat to fire it’s webs. The best way to kill it is to dodge the attack, go behind it to force it to retreat away from other enemies, and then charge it to take it out while it fires it’s projectiles. The melee attack deals 15 damage and the projectiles deal 5.
• Drops: Spider Web.
• Found: Floors 7-15.

Lightning Ball

• Health: 20.
• Attack: If you touch or attack the Lightning Ball it will explode after a couple of seconds, dealing 25 damage to everything within the explosion’s radius. The best way to deal with them is to hit them once and then retreat outside the radius of the explosion.
• Drops: Electric Powder.
• Found: Floors 7-15.

Graphite Golem

• Health: 50.
• Attack: The Golem will slam it’s fists into the ground, causing spikes to come out of the ground in a fairly large area. It can also deal a devastating melee attack that also causes spikes to pop out of the ground. The best way to beat one is to wait for it to do a ground slam, run it and hit it a few times, and back out before it melees you to death. The melee attack deals 20 damage and the spikes deal 5.
• Drops: Graphite and Random Alchemical Powders.
• Found: Floor 11.

Silver Golem

• Health: 65.
• Attack: Same as the Graphite Golem. The melee attack deals 25 and the spikes deal 10.
• Drops: Silver Nugget and Random Alchemical Powders.
• Found: Floor 13-14.

Golden Golem

• Health: 80.
• Attack: Same as the other Golems. The melee attack deals 40 damage and the spikes deal 15.
• Drops: Gold Nugget and Random Alchemical Powders.
• Found: Floor 15.

Making Gold

If you’re wondering how to make gold in the base game, well, so am I. Let’s just say I’m glad I had Stranger Sins. In the base game, the only ways I could find to make money were church sermons, selling bronze star vegetables to the farmer, and, eventually, selling gold star burgers and beer at Witch Hill. I’d like to think I just missed something, but none of the vendors would purchase any food or wine from me. Once you unlock your Tavern, however, the gold can start rolling in. You can regularly sell wine, beer and liquor with little effort, and you can throw events that allow you to sell your food. With this, I was able to hit ten gold to unlock the aristocrat title relatively quickly, and I had another ten gold in no time.

There are four Tavern events that allow you to sell food, but each one requires different food to make your customers happy. Each of these events cost Tavern Reputation, which you earn by selling alcohol at the Tavern. Just make sure to put all the food you want to sell in your barman’s inventory before you start an event.

Graveyard Fest

• Cost: 5 Flyers, 5 Faith, 1 Tavern Reputation.
• Food for Happy Customers: Bronze star Bowl of Lentils (sells for 25 copper), Bronze star Bowl of Pumpkin Soup (25 copper), Baked Fish (19 copper), Baked Meat (19 copper), Silver star Baked Pumpkin (25 copper), Bronze star Baked Pumpkin (19 copper), Bronze star Burger (38 copper), Carrot Cutlet (15 copper), Bronze star Omelette (25 copper), and Bronze star Onion Rings (12 copper).

Comedy Standup

To unlock the Comedy Standup event, you must complete the Ancient Lockpicks quest.

• Cost: 10 Flyers, 5 Faith, 2 Tavern Reputation.
• Food for Happy Customers: Silver star Bowl of Lentils (31 copper), Silver star Bowl of Pumpkin Soup (31 copper), Baked Meat (19 copper), Gold star Baked Pumpkin (31 copper), Silver star Burger (44 copper), Fish Nuggets (31 copper), Silver star Onion Rings (20 copper), and Bronze star Sandwich (21 copper).

Ms. Charm’s Song

To unlock the Ms. Charm’s Song event, you must complete most of Ms. Charm’s quest line up to the point where you have to give a Fly Agaric Infusion to the Poet.

• Cost: 15 Flyers, 10 Faith, 3 Tavern Reputation.
• Food for Happy Customers: Gold star Bowl of Lentils (38 copper), Gold star Bowl of Pumpkin Soup (38 copper), Baked Meat (19 copper), Silver star Baked Salmon (50 copper), Bronze star Baked Salmon (38 copper), Gold star Bottle of Grape Juice (1 silver 56 copper), Gold star Burger (50 copper), Silver star Burger (44 copper), Gold star Cabbage Soup (50 copper), Silver star Cabbage Soup (44 copper), Bronze star Cabbage Soup (19 copper), Gold star Lasagna (44 copper), Bronze star Omelette (25 copper), Gold star Pumpkin Soup (75 copper), Silver star Pumpkin Soup (62 copper), Bronze star Pumpkin Soup (50 copper), Gold star Royal Fish (88 Copper), Silver star Royal Fish (60 copper), Gold star Vegetable Soup (69 copper), Silver star Vegetable Soup (56 copper), and Bronze star Vegetable Soup (44 copper).

Rat Races

To unlock the Rat Races event, you must complete most of Snake’s storyline past the point where you have to give him a Damascus Sword with Gem.

• Cost: 10 Flyers, 5 Faith, 2 Tavern Reputation.
• Food for Happy Customers: Bronze star Bowl of Sauerkraut (31 copper), Beet slices (19 copper), Bronze star Berry Pie (19 copper), Gold star Cake (1 silver 19 copper), Croissant (31 copper), Gold star Grape Pie (1 silver 56 copper), Silver star Grape Pie (1 silver 25 copper), Bronze star Grape Pie (1 silver), Green Jelly dessert (31 copper), Muffin (25 copper), Gold star Onion Rings (25 copper), Red Jelly dessert (31 copper), Bronze star Sandwich (21 copper), and Silver star Pancakes (41 copper).

Just a quick note that Onion Rings and Toast with Onions both give the Beer Thirst effect which supposedly makes your customers buy more beer.

Important Alchemy Recipes

Alchemy Workbench Tier 1

• White Paint:White Powder + Oil OR Electric Powder + Water OR Alcohol + Slowing Solution.
• Black paint: Graphite Powder + Water OR Ash + Oil OR Death Powder + Water.
• Energy Potion: Acceleration Powder + Acceleration Solution.
• Energy Elixir: Acceleration Powder + Slowing Solution OR Slowing Powder + Acceleration Solution.
• Dark Elixir: Death Powder + Blood.
• Heal Potion: Health Powder + Chaos Solution OR Life Powder + Health Solution.
• Growth Enhancer: Ash + Life Solution.
• Zombie Juice: Health Powder + Blood.
  

  A List of Recipes at an Alchemy Workstation II in Graveyard Keeper.

Alchemy Workbench Tier 2

• Acid: Toxic Powder + Chaos Solution + Toxic Extract.
• Alkali: Life Powder + Death Solution + Blood.
• Glue: Health Powder + Life Solution + Chaos Extract.
• Preservative: Slowing Powder + Life Solution + Slowing Extract OR Life Powder + Slowing Solution + Slowing Extract.
• Balsamic Solution: Chaos Powder + Water + Death Extract.
• Silver Elixir: Silver Powder + Order Solution + Life Extract OR Silver Powder + Chaos Solution + Order Extract.
• Golden Elixir: Gold Powder + Toxic Solution + Chaos Extract OR Gold Powder + Order Solution + Health Extract.
• Flavor Enhancer: Ash + Toxic Solution + Life Extract.
• Tanning Agent: Slowing Powder + Death Solution + Order Extract.

Conclusion

That should be everything you need to know about Graveyard Keeper! If you have any comments, complaints or suggestions, please let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading!