Graveyard Keeper 2 Graveyard Guide

How the graveyard works

Nine steps from a body arriving to the number the game shows for your graveyard. The corpse and the decorations are the only two things a single grave is made of, and the graveyard is what those graves add up to.

1. 1

   A corpse arrives

   A body is delivered or collected. It already carries a set of organs, and those organs decide its red and white skull counts.

2. 2

   Inspect the corpse

   The corpse's skulls are its potential: the white skulls are the highest grave quality it can carry, and the red skulls are subtracted from it.

3. 3

   Choose what to remove or leave

   Autopsy actions change which organs the body holds, and therefore how many red and white skulls it contributes.

4. 4

   Dig a grave

   An empty grave is placed inside a grave area. Outside a valid area or slot, a grave cannot be placed at all.

5. 5

   Bury the corpse

   Placing the body puts the corpse into the grave, and it becomes the grave's skull contribution.

6. 6

   Add a gravestone and a fence

   These are the grave's top-level items: their recorded quality is what the grave sums.

7. 7

   Individual grave quality

   Decoration quality minus the corpse's red skulls, capped by its white skulls. That is the number a single grave is worth.

8. 8

   Total Graveyard Quality

   The graveyard is a zone whose recorded display type is a sum, so every grave and structure inside it is added up, negative contributions included.

9. 9

   Quests, goals and effects

   That total is what quest checks and inspiration goals measure, so an unreadable graveyard blocks progress as well as income.

How to bury a body

The burial itself is short. Preparing the corpse is optional but permanent, so decide that before the body goes in.

What each step needs

• Prepare the corpse

  Remove, replace or embalm while the body is still in the morgue. Optional, but it decides the grave's ceiling.

  Autopsy station

• Place an empty grave

  The grave has to sit in a grave area that has a free slot.

  Valid grave area and slot

• Move the body to the grave

  The corpse is carried from wherever it lies to the open grave.

  A corpse you can reach

• Bury and fill it

  Once the body is in, the grave is filled and counts towards the graveyard.

  The grave and the corpse

• Decorate the grave

  A gravestone and a fence are what actually raise the grave's value. A body alone only sets the skulls.

  Gravestone and fence items

• Check the result

  The grave's contribution is the same arithmetic the calculator below runs.

Prepare a corpse for burial

Autopsy changes the corpse, and the corpse is what a grave's ceiling is made of. This page does not tell you which organ to remove, because the right answer depends on the grave you are filling.

Corpse state and grave result are two different numbers

A useful corpse is not the same as a good grave: white skulls only become grave quality if the decorations are strong enough to reach them, and red skulls cost decoration quality before anything is counted.

What preparation changes

1. 1Corpse's current skulls
2. 2Red and white skull contribution
3. 3Available autopsy actions
4. 4Projected grave potential

Across the 51 recorded corpse states, white skulls run from 2 to 7 and red skulls reach as high as 8.

How grave quality works

One grave, one formula. The game data records the method behind it, and it is the arithmetic the calculator below uses.

The recorded arithmetic

Summed quality of the grave's top-level items

The gravestone and the fence. A corpse's own items contribute skulls, not quality.

Minus the corpse's red skulls

One per red skull, taken off before the cap, so they cost decoration quality rather than adding a penalty on top.

Capped by the corpse's white skulls

White skulls are the ceiling. Decoration quality above it is not wasted on the grave, but it is not counted either.

Bottom limit in the recorded arithmetic: -999

That limit is a value no combination of decorations and skulls can reach, so what actually pulls a grave down is the corpse’s red skulls.

Grave quality

To reach the cap a grave needs the corpse's white and red skulls added together in decoration quality: 7 white + 8 red = 15.

This is the model the production data records, cross-checked against all 51 recorded corpse states before this page was built.

Gravestones and fences

These are the only items a grave scores. The recorded contribution is what the grave sums, so two decorations of the same role are directly comparable on that number alone.

How to increase Graveyard Quality

Graveyard Quality is a sum, so the fastest gain is almost never the most expensive decoration. Work down this order and stop where your graveyard actually is.

1. 1

   Clear what pulls the total down

   A grave with a red-skulled corpse and no decorations contributes a negative number, and it is subtracted from everything else you build.

2. 2

   Finish what is unfinished

   A grave that is dug but not filled, or a structure that is placed but incomplete, adds nothing while still occupying the space.

3. 3

   Improve the weakest graves

   A cheap decoration on an undecorated grave usually gains more than an expensive one on a grave that is already at its cap.

4. 4

   Prepare better corpses

   Raising white skulls raises the ceiling of the grave you put the body in. It only pays off once the decorations can reach that ceiling.

5. 5

   Upgrade gravestones and fences

   Each tier adds recorded quality to one grave. Check the cap before buying the top tier.

6. 6

   Add eligible structures

   Monuments, benches, flower beds and the columbarium are placed inside the graveyard area and are part of the same total.

7. 7

   Extend the graveyard

   Expansion gives more usable area, which only helps once you have graves or structures to put in it.

Everything above is a check on your own graveyard. This page cannot see your save, so it describes the order rather than claiming a number.

Why isn't this grave improving?

Work down these checks. The first one that fails is the answer, and the calculator above runs the same arithmetic on your numbers.

1. 1Did the decoration actually change? The grave scores top-level items only, so an item still in your bag changes nothing.
2. 2Is the grave already at the corpse's cap? Once decoration quality covers the corpse's red skulls plus its white skulls, a stronger decoration adds nothing.
3. 3Is the corpse contributing red skulls? They are subtracted one per skull before the cap, so they cost decoration quality even before they lower the result.
4. 4Is the grave complete? A dug, unfilled grave is not carrying its corpse yet.
5. 5Is the grave inside a valid grave area with a free slot? A grave outside one is not part of the total.
6. 6Is this grave part of the graveyard zone at all? The total is summed inside the zone, so a grave placed elsewhere contributes to nothing.

What the answer means

• The corpse is limiting this grave. A stronger gravestone cannot raise it in its current state; the ceiling comes from the body's white skulls.
• The decorations are limiting this grave. The corpse has more potential than the grave currently uses, so the next gain comes from this grave's gravestone or fence.
• This grave is subtracting from the graveyard. It has a corpse contributing red skulls and not enough decoration quality to cover them.
• This grave is not carrying anything yet. Fill it first, then read the number again before you change any decoration.

How Graveyard Quality works

One good grave is not a good graveyard. The zone's recorded display type is a sum, which means it is the total of what is inside it, negative entries included.

What the total is made of

• Individual graves

  Each grave contributes its own result: decoration quality minus its corpse's red skulls, capped by the corpse's white skulls.

• Other graveyard structures

  The monuments, benches, flower beds and columbarium that the game places through the graveyard build area.

• Negative and unfinished entries

  A grave whose corpse contributes more red skulls than the grave has decoration quality subtracts from the total instead of adding to it.

Because the total is a sum, a new high-quality grave can be offset by one bad grave, and the number can go down while you are building.

What Graveyard Quality affects

• Quest checks and inspiration goals that require a specific graveyard quality.
• The graveyard's own recorded quality display, which is what the game shows for the zone.

Only effects this build's data records are listed. Anything the release connects differently belongs in the version notes below rather than in a claim here.

Graveyard Quality and progression

Graveyard Quality is not a sandbox number: quest checks and inspiration goals measure it, and they are listed here from the game data.

Every requirement the data records, in one ladder. When the release adds more, they appear here without the page being rewritten.

Burial Certificates

A burial is not only a grave: the game records a certificate as the corpse's burial reward, which is why burial is both a progression step and an early income.

Where certificates sit

1. 1A body is buried
2. 2The burial reward is recorded
3. 3Burial Certificate item
4. 4Quest turn-in or sale

The recorded reward exists in three tiers, and the tier that comes out depends on the body, not on the grave.

Burial certificates

• Burial Certificate I
• Burial Certificate II
• Burial Certificate III

Exhumation certificate

Exhumation Certificate

What a certificate is worth, who buys it and when their stock refreshes belong to the item and vendor pages, not to this guide.

Burial, cremation or another option

Not every body belongs in a grave. Here is what the two recorded ways of disposing of a body yield and what each one costs you in graveyard quality.

• Burial

  Grave contribution

  Counts in the graveyard

  Recorded output

  Burial Certificate IBurial Certificate IIBurial Certificate III

  Requires

  Not recorded

• Cremation

  Grave contribution

  Nothing in the graveyard

  Recorded output

  AshSalt

  Requires

  Body Places I

Nothing here says burial is best. Cremation gives you materials from a body you were not going to bury well, and burial gives you the grave and the certificate.

How to exhume a body

Exhumation is the way out of an early mistake: a body buried before you knew what it was worth can be taken out and replaced.

When can a body be exhumed?

Once a body is buried, nothing about it can be changed in place. Changing which organs it holds means taking it out of the grave first.

What has to be removed before?

The grave's own items sit on top of it. Take the gravestone and the fence off before you open the grave again.

What does it cost?

The game records an Exhumation Certificate as the item this action consumes.

What happens to the grave?

The grave stays where it is and keeps contributing its own result, so an emptied grave stops carrying the corpse's skulls until another body fills it.

Fixing a bad grave

1. 1Bad grave in the graveyard
2. 2Exhume the corpse
3. 3Autopsy or replace the body
4. 4Bury it again and re-check the grave

The certificate is a real item with a real source: its page owns where to get it, and the vendor pages own price and stock.

Graveyard layout and space

What you can put where, and which of it is counted. This is not a layout builder: it answers what the game lets you place and what the total includes.

Individual slots have no pages of their own: a slot is a fact about the map, not a subject a page can answer.

Graveyard troubleshooting

The problems this page gets asked most, with the check that actually distinguishes them.

SymptomWhat to check

Grave quality is 0 or negative

Read the corpse first. Red skulls are subtracted before the cap, so an undecorated grave with a red-skulled body starts below zero.

A better gravestone didn't help

The grave was already at the corpse's white-skull cap. Decoration quality above the cap is not counted.

Graveyard Quality went down

A negative or unfinished entry was added or exposed. The total is a sum, so one bad grave moves it even while you build.

A burial didn't count

The grave may be unfinished, or the body may not be in it yet. Check the grave before you check the graveyard.

Can't place a grave

The location has to be inside a grave area with a free slot. A grave placed outside one contributes nothing.

Can't exhume

The grave's decorations are still on it, or the exhumation certificate is missing.

Can't craft a better gravestone

Check the technology and the workstation in the decoration's own row above, then price the materials in the crafting calculator.

The corpse itself is poor

Autopsy changes the body. The Autopsy Planner shows what each recorded action does to the skulls before you plan it.

Current version notes

The numbers below come from the current production data. When the release data lands, the page rebuilds from it instead of being rewritten.

• Grave arithmetic: the recorded model, verified against 51 recorded corpse states.
• Grave decorations: 13 items carry a recorded grave contribution.
• Graveyard placements: 32 buildings the game allows inside the graveyard build area.
• Progression: 8 recorded requirements on Graveyard Quality.

Not recorded by this data: how Graveyard Quality feeds sermons or economy effects. That belongs to the sermon system, and no number is claimed here until the data carries one.