Graveyard Keeper 2 Money Guide: How the Early Economy Works

The announcement pitch was blunt: “Build and manage your own thriving business as you bury the dead and turn them into pure profit.” The sequel keeps that engine and bolts on a much bigger customer: the Town itself. Every district you liberate becomes a market, every restored building opens shelves for your goods, and the corpse pipeline underneath it all never stops paying. This guide covers every income stream confirmed so far — devlogs and Steam achievement data, current as of October 23, 2026 — with per-stream rates so you can see where the money actually flows.

What are the confirmed income streams?

1. Town orders

The headline early loop. Open for Business — complete your first town order — already sits at 58% of players thirty-one days after launch, an early milestone rather than a grind. Orders are the restoration economy’s front counter: the Town asks, you supply.

2. Merchant orders

The long-haul version. Merchants’ Best Friend asks for 25 completed merchant orders and sits at 10.6% — a completion-marathon achievement, not an early one. The official Town diary frames why they matter beyond the payout: restored businesses “create new markets for your goods,” so every reopened shop widens what you can sell, and to whom.

3. Market stalls

Liberated streets physically fill with townsfolk and market stalls again — that is the payoff loop the combat devlog describes — and Patron of merchants (build all the market stalls in the Town) sits at 20%: still rare, and a direct function of how much of the Town you have liberated. Stalls are the endgame of town commerce: build them all and the Town is your storefront.

4. Production volume

The classic keeper grinds, each with an achievement as its yardstick:

Cooking and farming are early volume you handle yourself; alcohol and supplies are late-game lines you hand to zombie-run factories. The iron guide covers the automation wall that gates the transition.

5. The corpse economy

Underneath everything: bodies arrive, you prepare them at the morgue, and each one pays twice — as burial quality (cemetery score) or as labor (zombies). The bodies and morgue guide covers the full decision tree; the money angle is simple: your workforce is homegrown and free. The 50-resurrection Necromancer achievement is, economically speaking, a hiring milestone.

What does the achievement curve say about money pacing?

Three honest signals from thirty-one days of global data:

• The first town order is an early-money milestone — 58% in thirty-one days puts it right behind the opening story beats, first sermon, and first battle.
• The 25-merchant-order and all-stalls marks are endgame — at 11% and 20%, the deep commerce economy only pays out for players who stick with restoration to the end.
• The volume grinds form a staircase — cooking (68%) and farming (67%) early, fishing (19%) and supplies (26%) mid, alcohol (17%) late. Your production portfolio should age the same way.

For the full table behind these numbers, see the achievements guide; for what restoring each district unlocks next, the town restoration guide has the confirmed loop.