Graveyard Keeper 2 Beginner Guide

The opening hour

The main quest walks you out of the Inquisitor dungeon and into the keeper role. In order:

1. Escape the dungeon. Eat the mushrooms to restore energy, take the pickaxe, and free Larry. Search the wall stash for the rusty key, royal signet and Inquisitor medallion, then unlock the door.
2. Cross the abandoned district. Head down from Crown Hill, clear the barricade, and enter the large building after dark to sleep and advance time.
3. Survive the first town defence. Demolish the outhouse to reach the sewers, collect a sword and armour at the defenders' post, and take the banner when prompted. The signet and medallion get you through the village gate.
4. Claim the base. The guard captain sends you west to bury the fallen. Find the abandoned Inquisitor base, locate the graveyard and morgue beside the old temple, and sleep in the hut — sleeping opens the tech tree and the base loop.

Red skulls and white skulls

One body, two uses — decide before you cut:

• Graves want white skulls. More white skulls and fewer red skulls raise a grave's quality ceiling.
• Worker zombies want red skulls. The red skull count is the number of perk slots a zombie gets.
• Organs marked "+red" during autopsy lower the red count when removed, so check the markers before extracting anything.

Early mistakes to avoid

• Placed objects cannot be moved. Workstations and zombie supply stations can only be demolished and rebuilt elsewhere, and you only recover part of the materials. Plan zombie delivery paths before placing anything.
• A zombie that won't work usually lacks tool mastery. Recipes require a tool level; if the zombie's matching mastery is lower, the order never starts. Inspect the worker before blaming the queue.
• Fix energy with the food chain. Wheat → flour → dough → bread is the reliable early answer to running out of energy.
• Don't out-decorate your skulls. Grave decorations raise the rating only up to the quality the buried body allows.
• Spend tech points on what quests block. Check the tech tree costs before banking points, and buy the node your current quest chain needs next.

Raising your first zombies

Beyond the zombies granted by the story, you raise more yourself: unlock the morgue's lower room and the Resurrection Table in the tech tree, then reanimate a prepared body with a collar and Reanimation Liquid. Reanimation is calendar-gated and only works on a green (lightning) day.

Where to go next

• Quests database — every quest giver, step and reward we have catalogued
• Recipes database — what to craft, where, and what it costs
• Technology tree — branches, costs and unlocks
• Map and locations — regions, work zones and districts