Material Locations: Where to Find Stone, Clay, Sand, Coal and the Rest

Graveyard Keeper 2 sorts its raw materials into three piles. Some sit in faces and pits a short walk from your bed and never run out. Some are finite: loose rocks, iron boulders, scrap barrels, the marble seams in the Old Mine. And a handful can only be bought, or collected on a weekly schedule. Knowing which pile a material belongs to stops you from chasing the last loose rock on the map while an endless rock face waits next door. Most of these materials also pay tech points when studied: see the science points guide.

Where every basic material comes from

The rest of this page takes each material in turn: where exactly to go, what it costs you to get there, and when to hand the job to a zombie.

Stone: loose rocks first, then the endless Quarry face

Your first Stone comes from the loose rocks scattered around the Inquisition Base: 48 of them on the map, 1 to 4 Stone each depending on size, any pickaxe will do. Indoors, 21 junk piles give 1 or 2 Stone by hand, plus Bronze Scrap and Bronze Nails. Riverside adds two small rocks (1 and 2 Stone) and the Graveyard has a few more around it. None of these come back once broken.

The real answer is the Quarry, the work zone at the south edge of the Yard where the forest begins. Its rock face gives 4 Stone per break at Building mastery 4 and refills instantly: this is the infinite stone everyone is looking for. Two loose rocks beside it give 2 and 4 Stone once. When the path to the Quarry first opens is not confirmed; the story first sends you there around the time you get the Forest Pass. The Quarry milestone costs 6 Faith to activate, paid from your backpack.

Stone rarely gets used raw. At the Stonemason’s Workbench, 2 Stone and 4 Wood wedge become 4 Piece of stone, the block behind the Kiln, Furnace I, the Potter’s Wheel and many repairs. Two Stone also make a Stone Kit, which goes into Building Kit I, the currency of Town restoration. Plan 10 Building Kit I to see the full stone and clay bill.

Marble: Old Mine seams first, the Quarry face for good

Four marble deposits sit inside the Old Mine and give 4 Marble each at Building 4, but they never respawn. The Quarry’s marble face is the one that lasts: 4 Marble and 2 red tech points per break at Building mastery 7, refilling instantly. Both Old Mine entrances ask for Building 8, so by the time you can walk in, you already clear the face’s requirement: treat the mine seams as a one-off bonus and the face as your permanent supply.

Marble feeds the late construction tier: a Marble Kit takes 2, a Sculpture Kit II takes 4, and 2 Marble with an Iron Chisel cut 4 Marble Plate at the Stonemason’s Workbench. A Building Kit II is a Marble Kit plus a Wooden Kit II, which means marble and Special Wood land on your shopping list at the same time.

No trader buys raw marble. The Builder sells Marble Plate and Polished Marble from his second level, which is a shortcut if your Building mastery is still short of the face.

Clay and sand: the Riverside pits

Riverside is the river bank south-west of the Yard, open from the first day. It holds a clay pit (4 Clay per dig, Building mastery 2) and two sand pits (4 Sand per dig, Building mastery 3), all dug with a shovel and all refilling instantly. The whole world has four clay spots and three sand pits; besides Riverside, look for clay south-south-west of the Graveyard toward the river bend, and east of the Graveyard on the approach to Town. Two broken ladders between Riverside and the Quarry can each be repaired with 4 Wooden Plank, 1 Bronze Detail and 4 Bronze Nails (hammer, Building 2).

Where they go:

• Clay: 2 Clay make 3 Clay Plate at the Potter’s Wheel (the twins want 6 in Two Peas in a Pod), 4 Clay make 2 Clay Urn, and the Kiln fires 4 Clay with 10 Fuel into 6 Brick. The Kiln itself costs 4 Piece of stone, 5 Clay and 5 Water.
• Sand: 3 Sand and 10 Fuel give 3 Glass at a furnace. Sand also goes into Polished Stone (4 Piece of stone, 1 Melted Fat, 2 Sand for 4), Polished Bronze (2 Bronze Detail, 2 Sand, 1 Melted Fat for 2), Lens and, washed, Tin.

Once both ends of the Old Mine are open, Zombie Digging adds one Clay Digger Stand and one Sand Digger Stand at fixed Riverside spots (costs in the zombie table below). Build a chest at Riverside first so the diggers have somewhere to drop their work.

Tin: washed out of sand, never mined

There is no tin ore. Research Bronze Forge (20 red), build a Sluice Box in the Yard from 4 Board and 4 Bronze Nails, and each wash turns 3 Sand into 2 or 3 Tin at Smithing mastery 2. With the Gold Digger perk, a wash can also turn up a Golden nugget.

Outside a few alchemy mixes, Tin has one job: the ore route to bronze, where 3 Copper Nugget, 1 Tin and 20 Fuel smelt into 4 Bronze Ingot (5 with Fireman). One wash covers two or three smelts, so a few Sand go a long way. No trader buys or sells Tin.

Copper and Bronze Scrap: your two roads to bronze

The world holds a single copper vein, south-west of the house along the western cliff above the river crossing, in the Riverside area. It needs a pickaxe and Smithing mastery 2, gives 3 Copper Nugget (4 with the Miner perk) and regrows. The Jeweler and Miner perks each add a 20% chance of a Gem on top. Apart from alchemy mixes, copper only goes into bronze, and nobody buys it.

Bronze Scrap is the early alternative. You pull it by hand from 38 broken barrels, 11 trash piles, 6 shelves and 21 indoor junk piles, and you can buy it from Herm from his first level, the Trademaster, the Smithy and the Jeweler. Three Scrap and 20 Fuel smelt into 2 Bronze Ingot (3 with Fireman), and one Scrap hammers into 6 Bronze Nails.

The ore route is also the thriftier one: 20 Fuel buys 4 ingots from copper and tin but only 2 from scrap, so scrap burns twice the Fuel per ingot. And scrap in the world runs out while the copper vein and the sand pits refill. Lean on copper once the Sluice Box is up; a hundred ingots later you earn Bronze Age either way.

Coal: only a zombie can dig it

Coal is the material that sends players searching every cliff: there is no coal node anywhere, and no trader sells or buys it. The only source is the Zombie Miner in the Old Mine, which yields 1 Iron Ore and 2 Coal per cycle (8 ticks, 6 with the Zombie Miner perk). It needs a pickaxe, Building mastery 1, a build cost of 2 Wooden Plank and 4 Brick, and Zombie Mining (60 red, 10 blue). Whether the mine has one Miner spot or two is not confirmed.

That technology is hidden until both ends of the Old Mine are open: the Quarry cave, blasted with the bandits’ Dynamite, and the Factory blockage, cleared with 4 Building Kit I and 1 Reinforced Beam, both at Building 8. The full walkthrough is in the iron guide.

The good news: you do not need coal early. The Kiln and the furnaces burn Fuel, and a Firewood shed turns every 2 Firewood into 20 Fuel for the stations around it (one Short Log or 20 Sticks chop into 10 Firewood). Apart from a few alchemy mixes, Coal only feeds the Factory Smithy recipes: Iron Ingot (1 Iron Ore and 1 Coal for 1), Brick, Glass, tableware, glass containers, clay molds and lenses.

Iron ore, steel and gold

Iron Ore comes from 28 boulders, mostly in the Forest and three of them at the Quarry. Each gives 3 Iron Ore per break (+1 with Miner) at Smithing mastery 3, and none of them respawn. The Trademaster keeps 10 in stock at a 1 silver base price, and the Zombie Miner makes it forever. Smelting at Furnace II and the other routes are in the iron guide.

Steel cannot be smelted. The Bishop at the Royal Foundry sells Steel Ingot through dialogue once Man of Steel opens his trade: 1 silver each, in lots of 1, 10, 50 or 100 (a hundred for 1 gold). The Foundry itself opens with Steamy Royal. Details in the steel guide.

Golden nuggets have no mine either. The Trademaster on the Main Pier sells 20 at a 1 silver base, the Sluice Box drops them with Gold Digger, and a Philosopher Stone turns 1 Iron Ore into 1 nugget. See the gold guide.

Wood: logs, sticks and Special Wood

The 165 trees around the map give 1 to 4 Log (+1 to 2 with Axeman) and 1 to 4 Stick with an axe, and they regrow. Dead trees and driftwood give 1 to 2 Log and 2 to 3 Sticks. Stumps and bushes want a shovel: a stump gives 2 Sticks and 1 to 3 Short Log, a bush 2 to 3 Sticks. Logs do not stack: you carry them in your hands, one at a time, and milestones let you fast travel with one. Fell 100 stump-leaving trees for Tree Bane.

A Sawhorse cuts 1 Log into 4 Board or 3 Short Log. The Circular Saw, behind Jack’s reputation 40 gate, gets 4 Board, 4 Short Log, 4 Wooden Plank or 2 Wooden beam from each Log (+2 with Carpenter, +1 for beams).

For automation, the Sawmill in the forest south-west of the Quarry hosts the Lumberjack stand: 1 Log and 2 Sticks per cycle with no input at all. Its technology needs Circular Saw first and, like every zombie gathering post, stays hidden until the Old Mine is open at both ends.

Special Wood: one seller, no recipe

Special Wood cannot be crafted or gathered. The only source is Harold, the woodcarver of the Stilt Houses on the western lake. Reach him through Still Standing on Stilts by winning Battle at the Lake, then start Organic Music and repair his wood-catching machine with 2 Building Kit I and 1 Iron Kit II. From that repair on (you do not need to finish the quest, whose Organ is built from his wood) he sells Special Wood through dialogue at 1 silver each, in lots of 1, 10, 50 or 100. The Flooded Quarter milestone nearby is free.

One Special Wood makes 3 Wooden Kit II, and the Church Organ takes 4 Special Wood plus 6 Steel Detail. It also goes into Carved Wood, the Pro Rod, prostheses and the Comfortable Chair. Nobody buys it back, so buy what the next project needs and no more.

Blue Crystal: the Goddess’s weekly pile

Blue Crystals are a weekly harvest with a strict rule. Once you finish Heart of the Swamp, a pile of 4 Blue Crystals appears at the Goddess of Nature statue in the Heart of the Swamp at the start of every Envy. The catch: a new pile only spawns if you picked up the previous one, so a skipped week is simply lost. Some story scenes at the statue can pause it too.

Getting there takes Go Wild in the Wild Lands: the bandits open their bridge to the Swamp for a Royal Pardon (a 5 silver fine at Royal Services, then 3 Ink) and the Fairy’s Swamp Map (summoned at your Kitchen Table with 1 Dream Dust, 1 Comet’s Tail and 1 Tooth). The Swamp milestone is the priciest in the game at 8 Faith, and worth every point if you make the trip weekly. Gunter also sells Blue Crystals, at a 75 bronze base price, once his shop reaches its second level after Friendship Written in the Stars.

Each zombie collar eats exactly one: a Bronze Zombie Collar is a Bronze Ingot, a Blue Crystal and 3 Faith, the Golden and Steel versions take 5 and 10 Faith. Four crystals a week means four collars a week, which is why missing an Envy hurts your zombie workforce. The weekly calendar helps you fit the trip in.

Flax, thread and fabric

Flax is not found in the wild: you grow it. Flax Seed comes from the Tailor (first level), Herm (second level) and the Trademaster. A planting takes 4 seeds on a Garden Bed and Farming mastery 5, and after that the bed’s own Farming drives growth: a plain bed (Farming 2) only advances on about 40% of growth ticks, a Garden Upgrade I bed (4) on about 80%, and a Garden Upgrade II bed (8) on every tick. If your garden is not ready, the Tailor sells Flax from his first level.

Spin it at the Spinning Wheel, unlocked by Flax Thread (45 green) and built from 3 Wooden Plank, 8 Sticks and 12 Bronze Nails: 4 Flax become 4 Flax Thread at Farming 3 (6 with a zombie holding the Tailor perk). The Weaving Loom turns 4 Flax Thread into Fabric, or an Assembly bench with its spinning wheel takes 16 Flax. The Tailor sells Flax Thread from his second level and Fabric from his third; Herm sells thread from his third. To automate the crop, Zombie Gardening (60 green, 20 blue) gives you the Gardener Stand and a Flax tablet. Growth times and fertilizer are in the farming guide.

Peat, water, salt and ash

• Peat: the three Village toilets give 2 Peat each and refill after 30 minutes. The Compost Pile, unlocked by Fertilizers I (10 green), turns 8 Leaf into 2 Peat; the upgraded pile turns 16 into 5. Every harvest drops 2 Leaves.
• Water: the garden well gives 10 per draw, 20 after the Garden Well upgrade. The Simple Chest in the Yard starts with 100.
• Ash and Salt: Crematorium I turns a corpse into 5 Ash and 1 Salt (Crematorium II: 7 and 2). The Apothecary sells both; the Baker sells Salt too.

Zombie gathering posts: automate the lot

Every technology in this table stays hidden until the Old Mine is open at both ends. After that, every raw material in the Factory can come from zombies who need no input at all and even earn 1 red tech point per cycle each.

A cycle is 8 ticks, or 6 with the matching perk (Logger, Zombie Miner, Quarryman, Excavator). Zombies start with 0 mastery, so the tool in their hand does most of the work: a zombie works twice as fast at twice the post’s mastery requirement and three times as fast at three times, then no faster. An iron tool (+4) already hits that cap on every post that asks for 1. Spend the zombie’s red-skull slots on the perk, not on mastery nodes.

Getting the goods home is a second job. Porter Stations carry them to the Factory heaps: Old Mine to the coal and iron ore heaps, Quarry to stone and marble, Sawmill to wood, Riverside to clay and sand. Those seven heaps are shared with the stockpiles in the Yard. The Quarry also wants a Zombie Supplier Station and a chest to collect from. The factory guide covers belts and power from there.

What the shops sell (and what they never will)

Restoring the first five Town shops (Apothecary, Vegetable Stand, Tailor, Builder, Smithy) costs 4 Building Kit I, 3 Wooden Kit I and 1 Iron Kit I each for the first stage, so you quarry and fire a fair amount of stone and brick before the Builder can sell you any. The money guide covers what is worth selling.

Common mistakes

• Mining loose rocks after the Quarry opens. Loose rocks never return; the Quarry face refills on the spot. Move your stone runs there for good.
• Searching the map for coal. There is none to find. Coal waits on the Zombie Miner, and the Zombie Miner waits on both Old Mine entrances.
• Blaming the shovel. If a sand pit will not let you dig, the shortfall is Building mastery (3 needed), and Building comes from your talents and the axe and pickaxe in your belt, not the shovel.
• Skipping an Envy. The Blue Crystal pile does not stack up while you are away: an uncollected pile blocks the next one from spawning. Every week it sits there costs you four crystals, and four collars.
• Leaving porter stations unticked. Nothing is ticked by default in a Porter Station window, so a fresh porter carries nothing until you choose what it moves.
• Burning through scrap. Barrels and junk piles do not refill. Once the Sluice Box runs, let copper and sand carry your bronze.
• Waiting for a steel or Special Wood recipe. Neither exists. Budget 1 silver per ingot or piece of wood and go shopping.
• Walking without Faith. Milestones are paid from your backpack, not a chest, and the two posts on your material runs, Quarry (6) and Swamp (8), are the priciest to activate.

For the order to research all of this, see the tech priorities guide.