The Graveyard

The graveyard is introduced in the tutorial. An integral part of the game is how well you "keep" or maintain your graveyard. The most important part of the graveyard is its rating. The church is located in the graveyard.

## Graveyard Rating

Graveyard rating is the main factor affecting the amount of money earned by donations in weekly sermons. It is therefore desirable to have a high .

There are four factors that affect quality: bushes, corpses, decor and graves.

### Bushes

Bushes are present at the start of the game and do not currently regrow after being removed. Each bush has a -1  effect on rating.

### Corpses

The quality of a buried  corpse determines the maximum rating per grave. The number of ,  and  in the corpse rating are the basis of the quality. No grave can have a higher  rating than the number of  on that corpse. Additionally, certain autopsy operations increase the base  rating of a grave. See  corpse for more info.

(Possible Bug Warning: If you exhume a corpse with 100% freshness from the right/east side of the graveyard, be wary of trying to improve it via autopsy. Corpses that spawned in the graveyard at the start of game may not acknowledge organs or parts added to them, effectively 'eating' the parts with no benefit. Parts can still be removed as normal. )

### Decor

Decor includes things like lanterns, urns with ashes, flower beds, prayer stations, etc. Each piece of decor adds some amount of . The fence around the whole graveyard can be repaired for +10  and further upgraded for +20 .

### Graves

Graves are an integral part of the game. Your first source of income in the game is  Burial certificates. They are obtained by burying or cremating corpses, and can be sold to Horadric at The Dead Horse for 1 50.

Graves also have a positive or negative effect on the  rating, based on the  corpse quality and grave decorations. As the maximum benefit for tombstones is +7  and fences is +5 , no grave can have a rating higher than +12 , even if the  corpse has more than 12 . (with the Game of Crone DLC the maximum benefit for tombstones is increased to +9  and for fences to +7  resulting in a possible max. of 16.)

Grave sites have no effect on  when placed or "planned" with the blueprint desk located in the graveyard. After being dug out for burial, the grave has a -2  effect on quality.

#### Grave Maintenance

Graves will fall into disrepair over time. This is made apparent during the tutorial when you are shown how to repair grave decorations. Grave decorations that have deteriorated will provide less  which in turn will provide you with less income.

#### Tombstones

As noted in the corpses section, the maximum  benefit of a grave cannot exceed the number of  of the corpse buried there.

#### Fences

As with tombstones, a grave quality is only as good as the corpse in the grave.

### Maximum Rating

The following table shows (without the DLC's Game of Crone or Better Save Soul) how to achieve a maximum graveyard rating (top/north to bottom/south and west/left to east/right). Instead of a lantern, a stone prayer station can be used for the same amount of . The 2x4 lawns can be replaced by marble flagstones.

In total that's

* 160   8×Marble columbarium
* 1008   84×Gravesite
* 36   9×Lantern or  9×Stone prayer station
* 29   9×Lawn or  2×Lawn plus  7×Marble flagstones
* 20   1×Build stone fence
* 5  1x Statue of the Bishop

adding up to 1258 , which seems to be the absolute maximum. Feel free to find a better solution. (Layout: https://imgur.com/a/kTP1pef)

edit: after version 1.3 a grave can have up to 16 quality, meaning new absolute maximum is 1594. (based on above layout: https://imgur.com/p5BKek1)

edit: With the new grave decorations and body part modification system in the DLCs the maximum score for a simple grave is now 26. A perfect corpse of 26 with marble grave fence VIII and marble sculpture VI. With that in mind using any columbariums reduces your graveyard score since they only provide 20. The layout linked above can still be used, replacing any columbariums with graves and in some spots additional lawns/marble flagstones. You'll have more empty spaces in the end but a higher score.

## Graveyard Expansion

In the beginning, the west half of the graveyard is locked. The sign there tells you to speak to the Inquisitor about this. Once you have earned 20  with him, he hands you (or sells) a  graveyard scroll. Return to the graveyard and use it there at the sign.

The west half is quite overgrown with a lot of shrubs and big trees. You'll need the "Woodcutter" technology to get rid of the trees. You won't get any negative  from it, but you won't be able to build anything without clearing the area first.

## Royal Services

Once you are a preacher, you gain access to the Royal services box located outside the front door of the church. It is through this box that you interact with the bureaucratic system behind the throne.

You upgrade citizen titles by spending money on the Crown. Each title costs you a certain amount of money, but grants you access to a number of items you'll need to advance certain quests.

### Exhumation Permission

Corpse exhumation is only needed when a badly autopsied corpse is negatively impacting your . To exhume a corpse, buy an  Exhumation permission from the church box. After you have removed the fence and the gravestone, you may select "exhume" and dig up the body.

**Note:** These cost 1 75, which is 25 more than what you are paid for the  Burial certificate. You will earn much of the money back if you bury it again (after autopsy) or if you cremate it. So, overall it's a small loss for exhumation.