Graveyard Keeper 2 Combat Guide — Battles & Army

The rules: flags win, not kills

The tutorial states the loop plainly: build defensive structures near your base, pick up and carry the squad banner to command your troops, and capture flags. The win condition is holding enough flags before the timer runs out — clearing every enemy on the field without the required flags still counts as a loss. The zombies' objective is your home flag: if it falls, or you die, the fight ends in defeat.

Once you hold a flag, attackers turn on the barrier in front of it instead, which lets your archers shoot from behind cover while taking almost nothing back. Capture with the fewest bodies; do not chase kills.

Scout before you start

The battle begins paused — nothing ticks until you trigger it from the build station, which is both where every structure is placed and the fight's start button. Use the pause to run the whole area, note where zombies enter and where the flags sit, place defences, and only then start.

Reading the two lanes

Two timeline bars at the top of the screen are the attack lanes, and the red marks along them are arrival times:

• Lane 1 arrives from one fixed direction.
• Lane 2 has two entry points that merge into a single run-in.

The reference plan: park the barricades in front of lane 1, and lead the squad yourself down lane 2. Watching only one lane loses the fight — both need attention.

The three barricades

| Barricade | Behaviour | |---|---| | Barricade I | No special property, but takes a banner behind it — squads will man the position | | Spiked Barricade I | Reflects damage onto attackers; slightly weaker, rated the best value | | Fortified Barricade I | Most health, but cannot be manned and takes no banner — holds a lane on its own |

Game data lists all three families up to tier III. Capture speed is a headcount, so put bodies on the flag rather than spreading them thin.

Your army

The first defence gives you exactly one squad: hired mercenaries, and they are extremely expensive — treat them as a stopgap. Your own zombies on the front line come later in the full game, so the worker infrastructure in the zombie workers guide is your long-term army.

Prep that pays

If you have alchemy running, put potions on the hotbar before starting — the three buffs stack. If you skip alchemy, the minimum plan is: barricades on one lane, squad on the other, banner carried so the squad follows orders, and flags captured as early as possible so the defence shifts onto the barriers.

Winning the defence awards the Defender's Emblem and closes out the demo-era storyline. For the wider combat system and town mechanics, see the system pages.