Money making tips

Saving up for Aristocrat papers? Need a list of what some npcs buy items for? Want more money so that you can buy books from the astrologer? Read my tips on making money in Graveyard Keeper.

This guide is now updated to reflect changes made after all the patches and dlc that has come out. Namely that you can't send 2 shipments of merchant crates in a day anymore.

Tips

Although it is tempting to sell your fishing rod once you can afford a better one, certain "fish", frogs in specific, can't be caught with the excellent fishing rod. This leaves you having to repurchase a lower rank fishing rod if you're trying to follow my advice on catching a frog in order to unlock the frog > sliced meat advice I provide in the selling to NPCs section.

That teleportation stone the tavern-keep sells for a measly 2 silver? Buy one when you have the silver lying about. Preferably before heading into the swamp to talk to Clotho. It is re-usable. It lets you teleport home, to the tavern, to the lighthouse, to the quarry and to the refugee camp with a cool-down attached to it. Just delivered crates to the warehouse? Teleport back home to deliver more. Accidentally cut down a log producing tree in the middle of nowhere? Hold the log in your hands and teleport home. Or, teleport with a stone chunk from a stone deposit. Or, teleport around with a zombie.

If you've just started the game you've likely bought only 1-3 carrot, 1-3 beet and 1-3 cabbage seeds not realising you needed 4 of each to start growing crops on a garden bed. Well you have a couple of options in the early game to make money. Burying more corpses for those 1s50c burial certificates, taking the merchant up on his 5 silver loan with a payback requirement of 10 silver or selling billets to the carpenter. He is located north east of the dairy saleslady north of the innkeeper. He will have something like 97 copper on him and each billet gives you roughly 8 copper. Early game you can only chop down trees that have a thin trunk and leaves on their branches for logs. The smallest trees only provide branches. Here is a picture of the type of trees that you're looking for that provide 1 log. Once you have the log, you dump it in the log stockpile just south of your house. Then purchase the sawing technology using your tech points. Construct a sawhorse and start sawing billets. Billets work out to 4 billets at 8 copper each for 32 copper per log. Whereas making flitch only provides 6 flitch at 4 copper each for 24 copper per log. But you should read my section on selling stuff to NPCs prior to flooding the market with billet. Once you have your money you should also buy 8 crop waste from the farmer to throw in a composter (The composter can be found in the decay technology in the farming and nature tech tree) in order to grow peat. According to the wiki entry on peat[graveyardkeeper.fandom.com] it will reduce the growing time by 20%, provide 1 extra produce and seed when harvested.

You may be contemplating buying a simple iron part from the blacksmith to be able to make a furnace in the beginning. First you should make sure you've broken down all the barrels in the basement. I got 2 simple iron parts from doing that. I believe the blacksmith also gives you 3 simple iron parts for helping him out as part of the main quest.

Instead of trying to memorise what items you need to craft some object or open up a passage you could instead just keep roughly 10-20 of wood and iron products in stock and grab them all when you need to make something somewhere.

I made carrot cutlets throughout the early and midgame for feeding to the refugee camp, for my character's stamina regeneration, as well as for some easy green tech points. I just set a zombie to work a zombie farm for carrots and I had between 2-3 regular garden beds sitting there with carrots ready for harvest if the zombie garden fell behind and I had a carrot shortage.

Using speed potions mid-late game will help you out tremendously. You can buy them from the witch in the swamp for roughly 1 silver per potion once she is a high enough rank. You can also make them yourself upon building the alchemy workbench II with one acceleration powder, one chaos solution and one blood. Did I mention they last 10 minutes without the sauerkraut buff? They last 13 minutes if you eat sauerkraut beforehand. You can even stack the speed buff's duration by consuming one after the other.

If you haven't developed the quarry yet and need more stone then the small rocks around your house provide, there is a stone deposit west of the beehive area that provides chunks of stone and doesn't require any resources to start working. You can then use a teleport stone to bring it home. See the below image for the stone deposit location.
Some workplaces can be upgraded. Such as the furnace and the carpentry workbench. Just navigate to the tab with 3 dots once you have the required technology.

The household utensils rack gives you more storage space in your house. I think this was added in the better save soul DLC. i recommend building 3 of them. One for drinks, one for ingredients and one for food.

The circumspect buff from foods like cakes and grape pies provides a whopping 1 extra blue tech point when studying items at the study table. Its an alright buff in the beginning when you're researching a lot of small research things but is lacking later on when you start getting a whole lot more from researching grave related items like tombstones or even just making tombstones that provide blue tech points. But my biggest complaint is that the description says "You get extra points when studying new items." Right off the bat its already leaving a bad impression as the description says points in the plural form rather than the singular. And this buff suffers as by the time you're ready to afford to make, buy items that provide the buff, or even realise that the buff exists, the buff is already kind of useless. It costs 80 copper to buy a grape pie from the innkeeper or 1 silver to buy the recipe from the innkeepers wife. The other and better (subjectively better as you're now running around the map looking for beehives) alternative for getting a recipe with the buff is to get the cake recipe from dig (hes east of the innkeeper) for 5 honey. Then you still need to purchase eggs and milk at 10 copper each and navigate purchasing, growing and processing flour. After all that buying the 80 copper grape pie is starting to look like the better option in the early game compared to making your own. Or just ignore the buff and craft a couple extra tombstones and fencing.

This one's more of a bug than a tip. Stone grave fence VI doesn't currently provide blue technology points.

You can move two large items at once while running around. Things like crates and wood logs can be carried and you can use your feet to push another large item around. If you have a long stretch of path with a wall on the side it makes it easier to move the items in a certain direction.

Certain NPCs only buy the II quality of tools. The blacksmith buys shovel IIs off of you. The carpenter buys Axe IIs and the stonemason buys Pickaxe IIs.

Selling stuff to NPCs

This section will cover what items NPCs will buy from you and what prices they offer for those items. This is a subpar method of generating money in the late game compared to something like making crates for the merchant so I am not going to make this a comprehensive listing. If you are wondering what something costs and its not listed here you can reference https://graveyardkeeper.fandom.com/wiki/Vendors#Purchasing. Selling to NPCs gives you something to do while waiting for the merchant to come around and take your crates if mining silver and making nails for crates is starting to get on your nerves. The amount of money NPCs offer you per item gets lower as you sell items to NPCs. For example selling billet to Tress the carpenter starts at 8 copper and goes down to 5 copper as I was selling him goods. Selling 13 billet at 8 copper each should net me 1 silver and 4 copper if the price stayed the same. Instead I was offered a total of 77 copper. They also seem to get slightly more cash on hand the next time you visit if you sell them goods. I took note of the carpenter starting at roughly 90 copper the first time I visited and he had 1 silver 35 copper the second time I visited. Also, if you are trying to unlock the next tier of something from an NPC and have the resources to make a prayer for prosperity, then make that prayer and sell the Commercial Blessing you get to the NPC you want to rank up as that is much faster then trying to sell them goods to unlock the next tier.


For the merchant I just sell gold quality red wine, gold quality grape pies and pumpkin soup. Its tempting to sell silver ingots to him for 12s25c but keep in mind you could also use the silver nuggets to make silver powder and make silver injection to improve your zombies or corpses. But, once those are taken care of sell him silver ingots in batches of 4 to prevent the ingot market from dropping in value too much.
The merchant buys items from you for the following prices:
Gold quality salmon 43c
Silver quality royal fish 28c
Gold quality royal fish 48c
Cake 69c
Grape pie 91c
Red wine (Gold quality) 1s68c
Vegetable soup 40c
Cabbage soup 29c
Pumpkin soup 44c
Lentils 22c
Onion rings 14c
Baked kebab 36c
Burgers 29c
Toasts with onion 15c
Silver ingot 12s25c
Gold ingot 30s62c
Gold jewellery details 34s23c
Faceted Diamond 18s37c
Jewellery 75s

The moneylender buys your valuables. You can't sell faceted diamonds to him without unlocking his tier 3 inventory.
The moneylender buys items at the following prices:
Silver ingot 12s25c
Gold ingot 30s62c
Gold jewellery details 34s23c
Faceted Diamond 18s37c
Jewellery 75s

The blacksmith Krezvold buys your broken and outdated tools. I recommend selling him broken tools that you can craft replacements for. Such as if you break your rusty pickaxe and have access to Pickaxe I quality pickaxes then craft the replacement tool, equip it (don't forget this part and sell your newly made tool) and sell that rusty and broken tool to him. Just keep in mind that the woodcutter (located north of Tress the carpenter) wants an iron axe in exchange for the recipe to lasagne and pasta. Before all this DLC content I used to sell Shovel IIs to Krezvold to avoid using/buying a whetstone and make a replacement at the anvil. But now, it feels like a lot of work for little reward as you need the blacksmith's inventory unlocked to tier 3 just to sell a shovel II to him for 5s25c and the whetstone costs 10s for multiple uses. He requires 2 prayer sermons for blessings of commerce to rank up his inventory to tier 3 which takes away from having sermons on donations or combo prayers.
Krezvold buys items from you for the following prices:
Steel ingot 1s43c
Steel part 1s 40c
Iron ingot 57c
Simple iron part 44c
Complex iron part 86c
Nails 20c
Rusty Axe 75c
Rusty Pickaxe 75c
Rusty Shovel 75c
Rusty hammer 75c
Rusty Sword 3s75c
Pickaxe I 2s25c
Shovel II 5s25c

The carpenter Tress is great to sell that almost broken axe II to.
Tress buys items from you for the following prices:
Beam 39c
Plank 7c
Flitch 4c
Billet 8c
Bronze quality carved wood 44c
Axe II 5s25c
Gold quality Steel Chisel 2s45c


The stonemason Cory is great to sell that amost broken pickaxe II to.
Cory buys items from you for the following prices:
Stone 21c
Carved stone 1s27c
Polished Stone 65c
Marble 70c
Polished Marble 1s42c
Bronze quality carved marble 2s61c
Pickaxe II 5s 25c
Gold quality Steel Chisel 2s45c

Ms Charm just buys jewellery.
She buys items from you for the following prices:
Jewellery 68s47c

The astrologer doesn't buy much.
He buys items from you for the following prices:
Silver quality book 13s26c
Gold quality book 26s52c

The Bishop loves his sermons.
He buys non-book based sermons from you for:
75c (Copper quality)
1s5c (Silver quality)
2s25c (Gold quality)
And buys book based sermons from you for:
1s12c (Copper quality)
2s25c (Silver quality)
3s38c (Gold quality)

The witch only seems to buy speed potions and frogs from you. I don't advise selling those to her. I do recommend going to her to buy 4 of her 5 speed potions and 6 of her 10 frogs. 3 frogs can be turned into 1 sliced meat at the preparation table once you have fished up a frog. This enables you to make burgers without using up your flesh supply.

Adam the potter doesn't buy pottery from you.

The innkeeper buys some food from you. For example, he buys silver quality baked salmon but not gold quality baked salmon. He buys packages of meat for 64 copper and that price is affected by the price fluctuations which affects almost all items sold to npcs. This is quite a let down after the game had hyped up selling flesh to the townspeople and requires you to jump through so many hoops to acquire that stamp. Packaged meat also requires paper to make and, frankly, there are much better uses of paper than packaged meat. Frustratingly, he refuses to buy cooked foods that are made with flesh like sandwiches and burgers. Frankly I prefer to hold onto the flesh for turning into gold quality burgers which can be sold at the witch burnings for 33 silver alongside of 10 gold quality beers once you get far enough in the inquisitor's story (although you can only sell so burgers and drinks 3 times before the inquisitor is stopped from burning more witches) , or saving them for the better save soul DLC content where you need flesh to heal souls.
The innkeeper buys items from you for the following prices:
Packaged meat 64c
Baked salmon (Silver quality) 28c
Burial certificate 1s50c

Fishing

I don't really consider fishing a good form of making money. But, according to the wiki, "Selling goldfish is particularly profitable, as odds are to catch one fish per two lures; net profit of [27s50c] plus 19x tuna." The last time I fished in any real capacity was before the patches and DLC so maybe they made it better. I had written down that I had caught far less than 19 tuna with one lure with a gem and it didn't feel profitable when I didn't catch any goldfish after spending 5s on the lure with a gem due to RNG. Although you should take into consideration if you are an achievement hunter there is that fishing achievement which requires you to catch 200 fish. And it is nice to sometimes do things other than making crates of nails for the merchant.

Keep in mind when fishing for golden crucians in the river, that although this fish gives 4 blue fish fillet and 1 gold nugget upon being harvested it requires either gudgeon or anchovy to catch. This means you have to go catch those bait fish in order to catch golden crucians as the fisherman doesn't sell you fish you can use as bait.

If you want a comprehensive listing of what the lighthouse keeper offers for fish I recommend visiting https://graveyardkeeper.fandom.com/wiki/Vendors#Lighthouse_Keeper

Preaching

The small improvements you make to the church and graveyard add up over time to more gold and faith per sermon. Skrymaster in this guide's comments has brought to my attention that the graveyard affects how much money you get and the church affects how much faith you get. According to https://graveyardkeeper.fandom.com/wiki/Sermon you get 3 copper per graveyard score and 1 faith per 5 church score before modifiers. He also pointed out that purchasing candles from the bishop is therefore a way of turning money into faith. The plus side to making candles is that you get 2 blue tech points for crafting them. The first level of incense doesn't give tech points for crafting them.

My one playthrough had a graveyard with a 528 rating and a 70 rating chapel. This netted me 28 faith and 55 silver when doing a gold quality combo prayer. I had a 177 graveyard rating and 51 chapel rating on my second playthrough and I got 14 faith and 7s58c with 9s8c bonus for a total of 16s66c with a silver quality prayer for donations. With a 245 graveyard rating and a 51 chapel rating I got 28 faith and 9s80c with 17s70c bonus for a total of 27s15c with a gold quality combo prayer. (A gold quality combo prayer requires 60 church rating to succeed 100% of the time).

Dungeon Delving

If you have yet to do the dungeon keep in mind that the pots in there are smash-able and can contain things like gold quality seeds or things as worthless as metal scrap. There are also deposits down there that can be mined. There are also golems which drop silver and even gold at level 15.

Level 5 of the dungeon has a silver deposit just south west of the entrance. See the below screenshot of what it looks like.
Level 6 has a gold deposit in the south west corner which gave me 9 gold nuggets.

Level 7 has a silver deposit if you take the path south of the entrance.

Level 8 has a silver deposit if you take the south path at the fork in the path. It also has a diamond deposit in the south east part.

Level 9 has a silver deposit in the south east. It also has a gold deposit in the north eastern section.

Level 10 has a silver deposit in the south west.

Level 11 has a silver deposit close to the entrance to the south west.

Level 13 has a silver deposit close to the entrance to the south west. It also has a diamond deposit.

Level 14 has a silver deposit close to the entrance to the south west. There is also a gold deposit south east of the entrance.

Level 15 has a silver, diamond and a gold deposit. As well as a golden apple.

Mining

Mining is pretty decent for money generation if you go mine yourself and get some gold on top of all the silver you get. On a single trip to the quarry for iron I hauled 70 iron ore, 14 silver nuggets and 2 gold nuggets. (The gold nugget drop rate seems to have been nerfed or I just didn't have a large enough sample size when I first wrote this guide before the patches and DLC.) All that iron is good for turning into nails and the silver is good for turning into silver injections or silver bars. Keep in mind the precious metals perk doesn't trigger if you use zombies to dig up chunks of iron. If you use a zombie to process the chunks of iron into iron ore you also are not triggering the chance to get silver or gold. If you desperately need gold nuggets you're better off going into the dungeon and mining the deposits in there as they're guaranteed to be there. Fishing up gold crucians and processing them into fish fillets also gets you gold nuggets.

Selling Crates

Doing the merchant's crate deliveries will probably be your best bet at making money despite the 50 silver that is required for the trade license. You can make 1g50s a week if you sell 10 crates of goods. And provided you have the zombie juice and faith, using zombies to mine, process, transport, hammer nails, and make crates, is a nice form of passively making money as you're running around doing quests for the NPCs.

The below strategy seems to have been patched out. Now the merchant just takes crates upon leaving. In order to maximise the money the merchant provides you need to know how to abuse the game a bit. When the merchant arrives he grabs all the goods on the pallets in the warehouse. He also grabs them upon leaving. If you throw extra crates in or near the warehouse you can take advantage of this to sell 10 crates of food in a week instead of just 5

The merchant offers the following rates for goods:
10s75c for silver quality food
16s50c for gold quality food
15s for goods

I consider selling crates of nails the best way to get money through crates. Nails are quick to craft at an anvil II when you have have the inborn blacksmith tech in the smithing tech tree. Also, an argument against the other options is that selling crates of food requires fertiliser to make at the quality the merchant is looking for and alchemy is a pain to deal with since its located over in the church basement. Gold quality food is also required for the tavern DLC if I recall correctly so those two reasons rule out food for crates. Carved stone requires faith which is always in short supply. Smoothed marble is deep in the tech tree. Porcelain pitchers require you to walk all the way over to the alchemy area and make white powder. Frankly nails are the best as, if you go to the quarry to mine more iron yourself instead of waiting for your zombies to mine it, you have a chance to get silver and gold from digging.

[MegaMidboss]

Ah ok.

[Skrymaster]

The "and they slightly scale with flyers now"? Ignore that part, I don't know what the fk I meant to say back then, haven't played the game in a long while so I can't test either.

[MegaMidboss]

Also, Skrymaster I remember the merchant mentioning that increased fame affects the prices offered but do you have any information on how much is required? I currently have 10 pallets built with 3 extra fame but the chest still says 15s for a box of goods. I also can’t find any details on that aspect on the wiki when searching for crates, fame, flyers or the merchant.

[MegaMidboss]

I finally got around to replaying the game in order to update the guide to reflect the new content and changes. I included a link to the wiki for a listing of items that npcs buy and the prices they offer and a disclaimer that I am not making a comprehensive listing of good they buy. I changed my opinion on the usefulness of selling higher quality tools to npcs. I also included Skrymaster's comment on the church score affecting the amount of faith you get and the graveyard score affecting the money that is obtained. Although the wiki says that it is 1 faith per 5 church rating instead of 1 faith per 4 rating.

[Zer0]

Now Krezvold wil buy:

* All the rusty tools.
* All the Tools I
* Shovel II
* Iron Hammer

[Skrymaster]

@Dpheonix1038 The steel shovel can be sold at the blacksmith once you unlock his tier 3(but since he starts with tier 1 unlocked, the author probably meant his 2nd unlock). To unlock that much quickly you'll have to sell 5-6 blessings of commerce to get him from tier 1 to tier 3. Steel shovels are expensive to craft energy-wise, so you should make sure you have digestion potions and cheap snacks(like baked pumpkin, onion rings or carrot cutlets) on you before tackling this strategy, for optimal results. Digestion potion makes food items provide x3 or more energy than normal. The one bottleneck to this is the blacksmith has a limited pool of money to buy your shovels with, and once you sell all his money's worth, you'll have to wait for his stock to refresh.

[Pheonix]

Shovel rank 2 to the weapon smith don't sell for me, do I need a higher tier of trading open with him?

[Skrymaster]

A couple things about your strategies, first and foremost, buying candles from bishop, only worth doing as a way to trade money for faith, as every 4 church score nets 1 faith, modified later by prayer.
Gravescore is the sole contributor to money you earn from sermons, along with prayer bonus ofc.
The dungeon deposits, gold/silver gives 8 and diamonds give 4. WITH the endgame jeweler perk you get 1 extra of each.
The Merchant 5 pallet thing? that's outdated since the last dlc, he now only gets your crates at dusk, but you can have up to 10 anyway (and they slightly scale with flyers now)
There's zombies in the game now, too, so making money got easier...

[MegaMidboss]

You're welcome.

[Красивая чертовк]

This is such a big help. Thank you so much!