Getting Started in Graveyard Keeper: A Beginner’s Guide
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So, you’ve inherited a graveyard, a house falling apart, and a talking skull named Gerry. Welcome to Graveyard Keeper, a morbidly delightful game where you balance capitalism, corpse management, and the occasional witch burning. But where do you even begin? The first few days can be overwhelming, so let’s break down your initial priorities.
Your absolute first step should be improving the graveyard quality. A higher graveyard rating unlocks the church, which is crucial for progressing the game. This primarily involves:
- Gathering Resources: Chop wood, mine stone, and collect iron ore. These are the fundamental building blocks for everything else.
- Crafting Basic Headstones and Fences: Even simple stone versions significantly boost your graveyard rating. Prioritize areas closest to the main path for maximum visibility.
- Burying Bodies: Don’t worry too much about corpse quality at first. Just get them buried to free up space and earn burial certificates. You’ll learn to improve bodies later.
Once you have the church unlocked, it is critical to start learning and understanding the tech tree. This will drive all of your improvements and progression.
Early Game Strategy: Efficiency is Key
The early game in Graveyard Keeper is about setting up sustainable resource production. Here’s a more detailed breakdown:
Resource Gathering and Crafting
- Wood: Immediately upgrade your axe to improve your wood chopping efficiency. Wood is needed for everything so you can never have too much.
- Stone: Upgrade your pickaxe as soon as possible to reduce the time spent mining stone. Build a Stonecutter’s Table near the stone deposit.
- Iron: The same applies to iron as to stone. You will need to find ore deposits around the game map.
- Workbench: Build the Workbench in your house to craft essential tools and materials.
- Furnace: Construct a Furnace to smelt iron ore into iron bars.
- Anvil: Build the Anvil to create iron tools and components.
Improving Corpse Quality
While early burials are about clearing space, start paying attention to corpse quality. Here’s a simplified approach:
- Check Skull Quality: Examine each body for red and white skulls. Red skulls decrease grave quality, while white skulls increase it.
- Perform Basic Autopsies: Remove blood and fat to convert red skulls to white skulls. The autopsy table is unlocked fairly early in the game. This is a key step towards higher-quality burials.
- Craft Basic Burial Items: Stone gravestones and fences are the bare minimum. As you progress, you’ll unlock better versions.
- Focus on White Skulls: Aim for corpses with at least 4 white skulls for a decent burial rating.
Unlocking the Church and Faith
- Increase Graveyard Rating: As mentioned earlier, raising your graveyard rating is crucial for unlocking the church.
- Meet the Bishop: Once the church is unlocked, the Bishop will give you quests to perform Sermons.
- Craft Sermon Paper: Use paper at the Lectern inside the church to craft Sermon paper.
- Earn Faith: Performing Sermons earns Faith points. Faith is a vital resource used for research at the Study Table.
The Study Table
- Unlock: The Study Table is unlocked through the Bishop’s quest line.
- Study Items: The Study Table allows you to research items using Faith and Science points. This unlocks new crafting recipes and technologies.
- Science Points: Science is obtained by researching certain items, primarily paper products.
Money Making
- Burial Certificates: Sell burial certificates to Horadric, the tavern keeper, for early income.
- Wood and Resources: Sell excess wood, stone, and iron to merchants for additional income.
- Crop Farming: This method will unlock later in the game when you have more time and resources.
Expanding Your Horizons: Mid-Game Goals
Once you’ve established a basic economy and graveyard, focus on these mid-game goals:
- Alchemy: Unlocking alchemy opens up new avenues for crafting potions, reagents, and improving corpse quality.
- Technology Tree: Systematically explore the tech tree, unlocking new crafting recipes, building upgrades, and automation options.
- Dungeon: The dungeon provides valuable resources and crafting materials.
Important Tips
- Talk to NPCs: Pay attention to what NPCs tell you. They provide quests, information, and unlock new areas.
- Manage Your Time: Time is a precious resource. Plan your day efficiently to accomplish tasks.
- Use the Wiki: The Graveyard Keeper wiki is a valuable resource for looking up information on crafting recipes, NPC quests, and game mechanics.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What is the best body to bury in Graveyard Keeper?
A basic grave should be a corpse with at least 4 white skulls (no red or green skulls), a stone gravestone, and a stone fence. This will give you a grave with a +4 rating. Note: If there is a corpse with a long meter or high freshness, it may give a +1 bonus. Remember to remove blood and fat from the body to convert red skulls into white skulls to improve your rating.
2. How do I start studying in Graveyard Keeper?
The study table is where you can research the various items in the game for a one-time bounty of tech points. The study table becomes available after you’ve progressed the Bishop’s main quest line far enough to get access to the church and alchemy lab. To get to the study table, you will need to progress through the Bishop’s questline.
3. How do you make money in the beginning of Graveyard Keeper?
Your main job in Graveyard Keeper is to prepare bodies for burial or cremation. One of the first things you’ll learn as you play through the game’s tutorial is that every time you bury a body, you’ll gain a Burial Certificate that you can then sell to Horadric, the tavern keeper.
4. How do you get rich in Graveyard Keeper?
Several ways to get rich in Graveyard Keeper:
- Set Up A Zombie Farm.
- Smelt Coal Into Graphite.
- Witch Burning Burger Stand.
- Giving Books To The Astrologer.
- Donation-Focused Sermons.
- Putting Together Crates of Goods.
- Process And Package Flesh.
- Sell Your Burial Certificates.
5. Is there a penalty for dying in Graveyard Keeper?
If the player dies, they respawn at their bed with full health and all items. Health can be restored by either sleeping or using honey, health potions, or beer. This makes death a very minor inconvenience in the game.
6. How many hours does it take to complete Graveyard Keeper?
When focusing on the main objectives, Graveyard Keeper is about 45½ Hours in length. If you’re a gamer that strives to see all aspects of the game, you are likely to spend around 69 Hours to obtain 100% completion.
7. What is the best autopsy method in Graveyard Keeper?
- Remove Blood, then Skull, then Fat. This will increase your meter by 1 skull without any red skulls.
- Remove Blood and Fat. This will convert your red skulls and is an ideal situation for a corpse.
8. What should I remove from the body in Graveyard Keeper?
Remove Blood and Fat to convert your red skulls. First, remove the heart. If that removes two red skulls, you can remove the skull, then blood and fat, for a perfect body. Experimenting is key!
9. How many endings does Graveyard Keeper have?
With the DLC, this game contains three different endings. Despite all of them being cliff-hangers, there are perks that come with them.
10. What body am I supposed to exhume in Graveyard Keeper?
After your first night in your bed, Yorick appears and asks you to exhume the corpse in the lower right corner of the graveyard and toss it into the river, claiming that they are a jerk and should be evicted from the graveyard. Note: You can choose any corpse, as long as you throw it into the river.
11. Should I throw the body in the river in Graveyard Keeper?
There are no known negative consequences if you do so in game. After you first do so, Gerry appears, scolds you, and tells you the secrets of cremation. However, since you do not get a burial certificate for corpses you dump, this way of disposal is a financial loss for you.
12. Can you walk faster in Graveyard Keeper?
When the donkey demands carrots, after you give him the oil, he will leave you a present. When you walk in it, your speed will increase for a short time. Long enough to get to town or pretty close to your mining camp. Experiment and learn!
13. Can you get to the town in Graveyard Keeper?
The town is located south of the The Dead Horse. Follow the road, and you will reach the gate, which is initially blocked by the Guard. Progress through the main questline to gain access to the town.
14. What is the goal of Graveyard Keeper?
Build & manage your own graveyard while finding shortcuts to cut costs, expand into entertainment with witch-burning festivals, and scare nearby villagers into attending church. This is a game of capitalism and doing whatever it takes to build a thriving business. Success comes from mastering efficiency.
15. What DLC is best for Graveyard Keeper?
The best DLC is Game of Crones. It is not only the largest but more like the main quest. This adds a lot to the overall experience.
In conclusion, starting Graveyard Keeper is all about efficient resource management, corpse quality improvement, and unlocking the church for faith generation. Understanding these mechanics is essential. This will help you progress and thrive. Don’t be afraid to experiment and explore! Games are about learning, and understanding the systems at play. This is a concept explored at length at Games Learning Society. You can learn more about this at GamesLearningSociety.org.
Happy keeping!