Graveyard Keeper’s Undead Workforce: How Many Zombies Can You Amass?
The simple answer is: as many as you can effectively manage. Graveyard Keeper doesn’t impose a hard limit on the number of zombies you can create. The real constraint is your ability to maintain a steady supply of high-quality bodies and manage the resources required to utilize your undead workforce. A massive but inefficient zombie horde is far less useful than a smaller, well-maintained group of productive workers.
Maximizing Your Zombie Army: Quality Over Quantity
The key to a successful zombie operation lies in efficiency. This is directly tied to the white skull count of the corpse before zombification. Forget about the red skulls; they are irrelevant to zombie performance. Focus instead on removing organs or fluids that lower the white skull count (like Blood, Fat, or Flesh) and applying embalming fluids that increase it (like Gold, Silver, Lye, or Glue injections). Avoid actions that decrease white skulls, such as performing a Surgeon Mistake or using Acid injections. A zombie with more white skulls works faster and more effectively.
The beauty of the zombie system in Graveyard Keeper is its scalability. You start small, likely using zombies for basic tasks like wood cutting and stone mining. As you progress, you can expand your operations, assigning zombies to more complex tasks like writing books, making jewelry, and even operating the paper press or creating pottery. The more efficient your zombies, the greater the return on your investment of time and resources.
Resource Management: The Limiting Factor
While Graveyard Keeper doesn’t explicitly cap the number of zombies you can create, the availability of corpses and the resources required to prepare them are natural limitations. You’ll need a consistent supply of bodies delivered by the Donkey, and you’ll have to invest time and resources in performing autopsies, removing organs, and administering embalming fluids to maximize their efficiency. Keeping your zombies working requires energy, so you also have to allocate some zombies to creating the items your work force requires to keep performing their jobs. Efficiently using your available space and resources becomes a critical skill.
FAQs: Mastering the Art of Zombie Management
1. How do I unlock zombies in Graveyard Keeper?
Zombies are unlocked relatively early in the game. You’ll need to follow a series of short quests and unlock the appropriate technologies. Start by meeting Gunter and heeding his advice. This will set you on the path to undead automation.
2. What affects zombie efficiency?
White skulls are the primary factor determining a zombie’s efficiency. The more white skulls a zombie has, the faster it will work. Red skulls have no effect.
3. Do red skulls matter for zombies?
No. Red skulls only affect the graveyard rating when burying a corpse. They have no impact on zombie efficiency or performance.
4. How do I improve a zombie’s efficiency?
Treat a zombie like a normal corpse. Perform autopsies and embalming procedures to maximize the white skull count. Remove organs or fluids that decrease white skulls and use injections to increase them.
5. What are zombies good for?
Zombies can be assigned to various tasks, including: wood cutting, wood gathering, ore mining, stone cutting, writing books, making jewelry, using the paper press, and making pottery. They are essentially tireless workers that automate resource gathering and production.
6. Can I get rid of old or inefficient zombies?
Yes. You can dispose of zombies just like normal corpses. Options include throwing them into the river or burying them in your graveyard. However, burying an efficient zombie is usually better than burying a normal corpse, as you can potentially produce grave yard bonuses based on the quality of burial.
7. Does efficiency matter for zombies transporting items?
According to some players’ experience, zombie efficiency may not affect porters, and only matters for zombies involved in resource collection or crafting. More research is likely needed to completely clarify how porters operate.
8. What’s the best early-game use for zombies?
Wood cutting and stone mining are excellent early-game tasks for zombies. These resources are essential for crafting and building, and zombies can automate their collection, freeing you up to focus on other tasks.
9. What body parts should I remove during an autopsy to improve a zombie?
Focus on removing Blood and Fat. Removing these will often convert red skulls into white skulls. In some cases, removing the heart, brain, or intestines might remove multiple red skulls, setting up a body to create a very high-efficiency zombie.
10. How do I get more bodies for my zombie workforce?
Ensure the Donkey’s carrot crate is always full. The Donkey will deliver corpses regularly as long as there are carrots in the crate. Keep an eye out for potential bugs that could interrupt this delivery.
11. Can I upgrade zombies after they are created?
Yes, zombies can be modified like corpses through autopsies at the preparation place and injections at the embalming table.
12. What should I do with my first corpse in Graveyard Keeper?
Yorick will ask you to toss the corpse in the lower right corner of the graveyard into the river. This is part of the initial tutorial and unlocks further gameplay mechanics. However, you can choose any corpse.
13. Is there an end to Graveyard Keeper?
The base game has a main quest line that can be completed. However, with DLC, the game “just keeps rising from the dead,” as mentioned, but the Last Journey Edition aims to bring closure. Even after finishing the main story, there’s plenty to do, so if you are looking for a game with a satisfying ending, this might not be the best game for you.
14. How many different endings does Graveyard Keeper have?
The Stranger Sins DLC contains three different endings. Saving your game before building the watchtower at the Refugee Camp lets you explore all of them.
15. Where can I learn more about game design and its connection to learning?
For those interested in the broader context of game design and its intersection with education, visit the Games Learning Society website: GamesLearningSociety.org. The Games Learning Society explores how games can be powerful tools for learning and engagement.
By understanding these mechanics and strategies, you can efficiently build and manage a robust zombie workforce in Graveyard Keeper, automating resource gathering and production to build your ideal graveyard empire. Remember, it’s not just about how many zombies you have, but how well you manage them.