The Excel Sheet Guide

The all-in-one GK guide that makes your life easy.

First, acknowledgements and my excel sheet

This is my own experience, and I debated a lot as to whether to write this guide at all simply because there are a lot of excellent guides out there that I depended upon while I was playing through GK my first several games before I developed my own method. Also, my resources are created based on, and sometimes wholly copied over from other creators, namely:
redditor GenerousSongbird's Optimal Graveyard Layout
redditor Dalairen's compilation of 100% Graveyard Keeper layouts with GoC and comments
redditor derpderp3200's alchemy cheat sheet
ChiefHonkHonk's T1 Goo Recipes
Mike Takumi's Berry & Honey Locations[docs.google.com]
and more that I referenced, but for now slip my mind simply because it's not obvious. So, let's keep going.

The excel sheet that all my games depend upon is found here[docs.google.com]. Download it if you want, but you don't have to. It contains:

1. Layouts of my Workyard, Lab, Morgue and Garden (prefixed with LYT)

2. Recipes for Talking Skull Tavern, and my simplified fishing guide

3. My essential alchemy recipes and their corresponding ingredients

4. How to get each goo simplified

5. Calculators for simplified corpse preparation

6. Study table faith & tech points reference it's gone. refer to Wiki for tips[graveyardkeeper.fandom.com]

7. Mike Takumi's map with berry & honey locations highlighted

Basically, all the essentials for my game play. Of course, every one is different, so you might find it too much or not enough. There are tons of other layouts out there, but they tend to be 100% layouts, meaning that they prioritize using up all the space in the area. I prioritize easy pathing. I wanna be able to walk through my workyard or cellar or lab without wasting time bumping into things.

The only place I believe you should build 100% is the graveyard. Refer to GenerousSongbird or Dalairen's layout for tips. (Linked above)

But anyway, let me walk you through how I think you should play GK. Hehe.

Second, Day One

Now, when you land in the game you go through the starter things talk to the starter people and now what do you do? Here's what I like to prioritize:

1. Clearing the right side graveyard & removing broken headstones/grave fences that you have no repair kits to fix

2. Claiming garden and seeing Horadric

3. Clearing your yard

4. Clearing your cellar

5. Getting iron and starting furnace

6. Decorating graveyard

SPOILERS AHEAD! So if you haven't played through the intro at least once, and don't want to spoil the game for yourself, please stop reading. Actually, why are you even reading guides? Anyway, not my place to judge.

So, it should be around Sunday mid-day once you're done talking to bishop. And we want to wait till it's Ms. Charm's day (the next day) before we talk to Horadric, so clear the right side of the graveyard, fix the more expensive grave fence and headstone, then clear out the rest and dump them in your one and only workyard trunk to break down later. Depending on if you're playing with mods[www.nexusmods.com], you might need to sleep. Anyway, while away your time until it's Ms. Charm day.

When Charm day comes, read the notice on your broken kitchen garden, then follow the yellow arrow and see Horadric and exhaust all talking options. Do the Krezvold quest, then get the beer at Horadric's.

When you exit the Dead Horse, head North to see Shepherd and buy 6 peat from him. Now, start picking red flowers. There should be one to his immediate right. Head south-west, through the bee-keeper's fields while picking any red flowers down to the Farmer. Now buy 4 Carrot Seeds, 4 Beet Seeds, and 4 Cabbage Seeds from him. You should have just enough money. Pick more red flowers. You should have at least 15. On the road home, there will be a few more, and you should end up with 18 red flowers. These are to decorate your graveyard.

On the way home you will be accosted by Gerry. Just do your thing, then claim your garden and start planting your first batch of carrot, beets and cabbage seeds. Remember to fertilize first with the peat you just bought.

If you haven't slept and gotten the exhumation permission from Yorick, then do so now. Dig up any dead body, clear the empty grave, strip it of skull (for astrologer) if you have enough tech points and throw it into the river and walk away to trigger the convo with Gerry. Go to the Morgue and give Gerry the beer, then go back and sleep. Bodies should start coming in the next day. Every time a fresh body comes in strip it of blood and fat and bury it immediately. Though not much, these can still boost your graveyard rating for a bit until you can start cremation.

Next, we want to go to the mini-swamp to the north of our home and collect iron from the nodes. Go after the midday sun or after midnight so that there are no bats or slimes. While waiting for the right time, you can mine rock outcroppings or chop the trees in the cluster to the immediate left of your house for materials to build and fuel your furnace. Waiting for iron bars is the most time consuming thing (besides sleeping), so we want to get the furnace going.

Our starting yard is small, so we have to plan well until we get enough iron to expand. We want to skip building the wooden anvil completely and go to building the anvil, so that we can save simple iron parts for the carpenter's bench, and also not spend so much on making nails and iron parts in the beginning. So, by now you should have a few tech points, so up your tech tree. I like buying the tech for up to Woodworking (Building), Firewood (Building), Advanced Forging (Smithing), Tools (Smithing), then Stoneworking (Building).

Build the sawhorse and chopping spot, then the furnace. Get just enough firewood to fuel smelt all the ore you just obtained and get the furnace going. Whilst we are waiting, let's build the Carpenter's workbench and collect more logs if need be. Get the tech Simple Gravestones (Theology) and start building fences for all your graves. Decorate.

At this point, check the number of wooden sticks you have. If you have more than 50, get 50 and go to your garden. Get the tech Decay (Farming & Nature) and build 5 compost heaps down the left of your garden. Now you're ready for your first harvest and composting.

Now we're waiting for the furnace to spit out enough iron to make us an Anvil, upgrade our tools, build us a stone cutter. While waiting, you can clear the stone outcroppings and collect more stone near the apiary. We need lots of stone later to farm blue tech points by making Stone grave fences.

Around this time, you should meet the Inquisitor. Before your second meeting with him, read the sign on the left graveyard and bring 20 pieces of firewood. On your second meeting, you should then receive the left graveyard permission slip and unlock the left graveyard, but that's for next week.

You should also be able to harvest your garden once before the week ends. Go see the farmer and sell your produce, keeping at least 4 of each vegetable. Buy 1-2 more carrot, beet and cabbage seeds so that you can replant again. Go to Horadric and sell any death certs you have. If you have at least 2 silvers, buy a teleport stone. Here's another mod[www.nexusmods.com]. Excellent.

Now walk/teleport home and replant. Start your compost plots as well. Make storage trunks for your garden if you have enough iron (Tech: Improvement [Farming & Nature]). Make stone headstones and decorate your graveyard more.

Third, Week Two

During this week, the aim is the build up your Graveyard rating and your Church. You want 20 rating for the church, and 30 rating for the Graveyard. To pass next week's 'inspection'. Faith is the most limiting factor in this game. By getting 20 rating for the church, you get about 4 or 5 faith each week, which allows you to talk to either Snake or Ms. Charm during the week.

When Sun-day rolls around again, you should have at least 5 graveyard rating, so see Bishop early in the morning to open the church. Give your sermon, and go down and study blood, fat and human flesh. That should give you 60 tech points, which I spend buying Stone gravestones [Theology], Cremation [Theology], Woodcutter [Building] and as soon as I can Stone Carving [Building]. Now, clear the left side of the graveyard and read the sign. You're ready for the second meeting with the Inquisitor.

Now there's plenty of logs to transport from the west graveyard back home, so I tend to do them slowly, in batches, and whenever I need them. I use them mostly to make wood billets for cremation. The next body I get on Charm-day I strip the skull off and keep in my inventory for Astrologer.

Since every body I get after this I will cremate, I strip each of blood, flesh, fat, skin, skull.

• Blood x 20 + Skull x 24 for decorating Snake's dungeon

• Blood for alchemy

• Flesh x 10 for burgers

• Fat for oil

• Skin for Pigskin papers for Furnace II and Softcovers

While the organs are useful as well, until I get the cultist perk, I'm mostly just guessing, so I just leave them alone.

Before Merchant-day, you should be able to harvest your garden again, so go see Merchant and submit your carrots beets and cabbages. Sell the rest or make them into soup. Whatever you want. Go see farmer again. This time, get 12-13 wheat seeds. We're aiming to sell flour to the miller so we can get his hops. You should also get a bottle of seed oil from Dig while you're in the village. Head home and start planting. You can wait for donkey's carrot seeds and plant them together so you can keep track of them. Keep composting the crop waste so you have a ready supply of peat.

Once you have excess 9 peats (excess meaning 15 total, 6 for your carrot and wheat plots, 9 extra) get 18 pieces of stone and 9 peats, and head to your graveyard. If you haven't seen the Inquisitor and opened the left side of the graveyard, then just plant your 5 flower plots on the right side. After you see him, plant open the left side of the graveyard and plant the 4 left. Put the extra peat, flowers and stone in the graveyard trunk.

Now, start decorating the church. Start with the pews. You can build 4 pews (4), 2 confessionals (10), then 2 candelabra II (4). That should give you 23 rating. Now every sermon should average 7 faith, which is just enough to talk to Snake and research the key given to you by astrologer right after. If you have any iron bars in left over after building up the church, start clearing the blockages up to the quarry and building the two bridges in the swamp. Now you have access to swamp iron and quarry iron.

When you next see Bishop, he will ask for 4 quality fish fillets in addition to the ratings you have achieved. DO NOT give him the fillets until you have earned at least 23 silvers to buy him his precious building permission, okay?

16 or 26 Skull-Corpse Preparation

Corpse preparation is very simple. Whether you have Better Save Souls or not, it's all the same. I'm going to put a table here, then, I'm going to explain it. Very easy.

Injection	R	W
Silver	-1	1
Gold	-2	2
Glue	0	1
Lye	1	1

Body Part	R	W
Blood	1	-1 or 3
Fat	1	-1 or 3
Skin	-1	1 or 3
Flesh	-1	1 or 3
Skull	-1	0

Hah. Two tables. Surprise! Now, when you're ready to prepare a body, there are three things to take care of:

1. Important parts (Brain, Heart, Intestines)
   
2. Injections
   
3. Non-important parts (Blood, Fat, Skin, Flesh) only with the BSS DLC

The summation of the red skulls on all the injections and non-important parts is -2, so we want the red skulls on our important parts to not exceed 2. That's all that matters.

If you don't have the BSS DLC, things are simpler. Keep your eyes peeled for +3W organs, especially -2R/+3W organs. When you have enough organs to make a combination (max +2R Brain + Heart + Intestine), pass a new body through all the injections, the swap the organs out. You're done!

If you do have the BSS DLC, then you have to save soul shards to upgrade non important parts. If you do have extra soul shards, you can spend a few on upgrading +2W body parts to make up numbers if you don't have enough body parts. Remember: as long as the sum of red skulls on important parts don't exceed 2, you're ok.

When I first get a body, I pass them through all the injections (Gold, Silver, Glue, Lye, Preserve, Restore), then I strip them of parts. Then I reinsert the upgraded non-important parts, and pick and choose the upgraded important parts so that the sum of red skulls on the important parts is less than or equals to 2. Then I'm done.

Lastly, Fishing

I absolutely love fishing in this game. I grab a book, turn the music low, the sfx up, eat some fish nuggets and go to town.



Honestly, the table speaks for itself I think. It isn't comprehensive, but if you're trying to get at least one of every fish, this table will work. Of course, depending on your play style, you might want to farm some fish or use some type of bait, so you'll find your way. Fish nuggets and Baked fish are your friends, especially when catching the elusive Goldfish.

Also, when catching either Gold crucian or Goldfish, you can tell when you didn't get the fish simply by the fish pattern in the fishing mini-game. Gold crucian tends to bounce up and down in segments, while the Goldfish will go from one extreme of the meter to the other before landing in the middle, then repeating. If you don't get the fish you desire, esc out of the mini-game to save bait.

[Wa1fuStealer]

The google drive spreadsheet was deleted, how to restore

thanks for the guide tho!

[pinocchio1231]

Spreadsheet has been rewritten and restored! Sorry for the delay

[Mimung]

The google drive spreadsheet was deleted, how to restore

[MrSuzie]

The google drive spreadsheet was deleted, how to restore

[Henry Read]

The google drive spreadsheet was deleted, how to restore

[Souzappatrick]

The google drive spreadsheet was deleted, how to restore

[Thyfate]

The Google Doc spreadsheet has been deleted. Can you please restore it ?

[pinocchio1231]

thanks for your input! I'll try it out the next time I start a new save :)

[jfquesnel]

stating with you pathing in mind, put the chopping space behind the sawhorse, makes moving easier.

[pinocchio1231]

On the layouts, I prioritize easy pathing over efficiency. So, I'm not maximising space, but it's much easier for me to walk around my workyard/lab and move from station to station/chest without bumping into stuff.