Graveyard Keeper 2 has many interesting quests that quickly move into interacting with quirky characters, like in the quest Jack in a Boat, unlocking new recipes, and more. Can’t See The Forest For The Iron is one such quest line, and while the initial part of it is unlikely to cause any trouble progressing, the second part has you scouring for a couple of ingredients, and this is where you are likely to get stumped.
In this article, I have put up the walkthrough for the entire quest, including how to locate ingredients and craft a candle in Graveyard Keeper 2.
Can’t See The Forest For The Iron Quest Walkthrough
“Can’t See The Forest For The Iron” Quest follows the Into the Forest questline of Graveyard Keeper, which has you trying to get into the forest located west of the Village. When you try to enter the forest for the first time, you will be blocked by two guards at the entrance to the forest. After a brief dialogue exchange, you will soon learn that you will need a special pass to enter the forest for the quest “Into the Forest (Eventually), “I can’t enter the forest without a special pass.” You will also activate another quest, “Forest Pass, “Show the Forest Pass to the guards at the Forest Outpost.”
Getting the Forest Pass
Here we will start another quest in the chain: “The Guards won’t let me into the forest. I should ask July in the Village Tavern about it.”
We now know the person of interest; head to the Tavern and talk to the Horadric, the man behind the counter. After mentioning the Forest, he will start to sing the same song as the guards we encountered before; soon he will ask us to do him a favor. His task is to fix the Royal Post Box outside the Tavern to help attract more customers. That’s not all of the request; he will also ask us to bring an official certificate from the Mailbox confirming his status as Head of the Village. Don’t worry, fixing the royal box will complete the second objective.
Now leave the Tavern, and you will find the broken Royal Post Box out front. Interact with the Post Box, and during the interaction, choose the option “Repair Full Functionality”. Then you are given an option to choose between a grayed-out “Use Royal Signet” or “The 42-Step Verification Process“. Our only option here is the latter one, so pick the verification process, but don’t worry; it’s just a scare tactic. After a few seconds, the box will be fully repaired and operating normally.
Once it’s fully repaired, you will get plenty of options:
- Into the Forest
- Pay Taxes
- Request Deed
- Cleric Application
Click on Into the Forest to learn about the election process of the town. Basically, you will learn that holding an official election in the town is the only way to earn a permanent Head of the Village certificate. With this news in hand, head back to the Tavern and talk to the Horadric. After a brief exchange between him and July, he will come back and hand you the precious Forest Pass.
After receiving the Forest Pass, head back to the guards and show them the pass, and they will begin talking about not venturing into the forest because of bandits and ghosts. When pushed, they will talk about an old miner named Hans; all the stories about the forest were told by him. So we know who to look for inside the Forest, pass the guards getting into the forest, and up north you will find the mine, but unfortunately it’s locked.
Now move a bit southeast within the Forest to find a cabin with a couple of old people going on about their lives. Here you will find Hans by the cooking station with bandits; after talking to them, you will learn the only way to break the door of the old mine is by good ol’ fashioned dynamite blasting. You will need Dynamite to blow up the entrance and reveal the path inside. The first objective of “Can’t see the forest for the iron” is to give Larry a Candle; you will find him at the home in Inquisition Base. Handing him the candle will help us with the explosives we need to blow up the entrance to the mine.
Craft Simple Candle
- Head inside the Inquisition Base, then get into the Writing Basement; here, interact with the Formulation Bench, and you will find the crafting option for Simple Candle. To craft a Simple Candle, you will need 2x Beeswax and 1x Flax Thread.
- Beeswax: Just head south of the base in the Inquisition Base, and you will find the Beeswax hanging off the tree. If luck is not on your side, then I highly recommend visiting the Forest section to find a bunch of them.
- Flax Thread: Use the Spinning Wheel in the yard to make Flax Thread from a single Flax. If you don’t have any Flax, buy the Flax seed from the Farmer and plant it in the garden to grow the crops. If you don’t have the Spinning Wheel or Flax Thread unlocked in your game, then head over to Farming in the Tech Tree to unlock both of them.
Note: Simple Candle is unlocked in Church Lightning 1 in the Tech Tree. If you don’t see the option for Simple Candle in your Formulation Bench, then head over to the Tech Tree > Theology > Church Cleaning > Church Lightning.
Now with both Beeswax and Flax Thread ingredients in hand, head over to the Writing Basement, interact with the Formulation Bench to craft a Simple Candle. Hand the Candle over to Larry to get the Dynamite research item on the Tech Tree and a single Dynamite. Time to hit the Forest to interact with the bandits and give them the Dynamite to complete the quest, and you will get a message: “I have the explosives. I can now enter the Old Mine in the Forest.” Inside the Old Mine, you will gain access to Forest’s Iron,
