Where to Find Gold Nuggets in Graveyard Keeper 2

Two sources, neither straightforward

Golden nuggets are tied to two stations: the sluice box and the formulation bench. At the sluice box the nugget is not a recipe of its own — the station has exactly one recipe (Tin in, Tin plus a possible Golden Nugget out, 5 ticks), so the nugget arrives as a per-craft roll on top of the tin. It also won't roll at all until you take the right perk.

Unlock Miner, then Gold Digger

In the mechanical branch of the inspiration tree, Gold Digger is locked behind Miner, so you have to take Miner first. The Gold Digger description says gold starts appearing when sifting sand — which is precisely what testing confirms. Both perks exist in the game's perk data.

The measured drop rate: about 40%

A demo-era test queued 50 sluice box crafts with an emptied inventory and counted the results:

• 50 crafts produced 21 golden nuggets — roughly two in five.
• The takeaway: run it 100 times and expect around 40 nuggets.
• The box keeps producing tin alongside, so the nugget column is pure bonus.

This is a probability per craft, not a guaranteed by-product. Bulk crafting is the only way to stockpile nuggets.

Zombies cannot do this for you

The same test ran zombies on the sluice box as a control: over a hundred attempts, zero nuggets. The conclusion is unambiguous — this is one of the few production lines that zombie workers simply cannot staff. If you want nuggets, you stand at the box and press it yourself, so batch the work when you have the tin and the time.

The same perk line also pays gems

Miner has a second payoff: once taken, mining copper veins starts dropping gems. The measured rate from a full energy bar (one vein cycle is 3 hits at 3 energy, so 100 energy buys 33 cycles) was 8 gems from 33 cycles — about 24%, with a stated expectation of 20–25%, or roughly one gem per four to five cycles.

Copper veins pull double duty here, since copper nuggets also feed bronze ingot production. The practical routine:

• Nuggets: take both perks, stock tin, sit down and craft in bulk yourself (~40% per craft).
• Gems: mine copper veins whenever your energy bar is full (~20–25% per cycle).

One perk line funds both, so Miner is worth its points early if you plan to work metal.