You can do a lot more than burn or bury corpses and help the townsfolk in Graveyard Keeper 2. To keep things running smoothly in your absence, you might need more helping hands, even if they’re from the dead. Having a zombie workforce will take a load of your shoulders and help you focus on other tasks at hand. But obtaining your first zombie requires several steps after uncovering the Resurrection Lab.
While setting up your Resurrection Lab for the first time, you will get a hint to find something called the Necronomicon. This book holds the secrets to create a unique potion to help bring your corpses to life. This is how you go about getting the book and using it in Graveyard Keeper 2.
How to Get the Necronomicon Book
You get the Necronomicon from Gunter after you have reached a reputation of 30 or more. First, you need to complete all of Agatha’s quests to find Donkey near the Morgue. If you ask him about the Necronomicon book, he will tell you that he may know about it, but he needs your help liberating the town first.
Follow through with the rest of his questline until you reach the end of it and get the option to finally ask him about the book. But he will confess that he has no idea about it, and will refer you to speak to Gunter the Astrologist. You will find Gunter in the Port Area, in the far northeast section of the map. If you have a reputation of 20, Gunter will acknowledge that he has the book, but will not share the location details. For that, you will need to increase your reputation to 30.
Obtaining 30 Gunter Reputation
Complete either of the quests to increase your reputation with Gunter:
- Friendship Written in the Stars – Retrieve the Deck of Cards from Linda.
- Congregation Trouble – Use the Hypno-device during your next sermon.
- Rhyme and Printed – Get the Printed Poetry item for the Astrologer.
Each of these quests will give you 10 reputation, giving you the required reputation to finally get the dialog option that will make the Astrologer hand over the book. Turns out, the book was under his bed all along, which saves you a lot of time trying to find it amongst his cluttered basement.
I would suggest completing his other quest called Stars, Lies, and Contracts too, as you require 40 Gunter reputation to unlock the Necronomicon technology from the Tech Tree. If you scroll right under the Anatomy and Alchemy section of the Tech Tree, you will find Gunter’s icon, and the Reanimation Liquid recipe right beside it.
Using the Necronomicon Book
The Necronomicon book in Graveyard Keeper 2 helps turn corpses into zombies by unlocking the Reanimation Liquid recipe. If you hover your cursor over the book in your inventory, it will have the following text:
To bring one to life, harvest the green goo from the walking one, and add tin and some ash.
Technically, you will require green goo, tin, and ash to create the Reanimation Liquid. You can get green goo or zombie goo by defeating zombies in town battles. Check your map to find shield icons, then head over there to participate. Next, you need ash, which is obtained after burning corpses in the Crematorium. You can unlock the recipe for the Crematorium very early in the Tech Tree, under Anatomy and Alchemy.
As for tin, you need the Sluice Box equipment at your base first. You will unlock the Sluice Box as you work your way through the Metallurgy section of the Tech Tree; it’s right under Bronze Forge. You need to add sand to the machine to turn it into Tin. Sand piles are found all across the map, so it shouldn’t be hard to get them.
Note: If you can’t find or craft any of the above materials, you can use other items that equate to 2x red, 1x green and 4x blue research points. My personal favorite is to toss in red mushrooms or stones, ash, and alcohol instead of goo and tin.
Crafting and Using the Reanimation Liquid
Once you have the required items, head over to the Alchemy Lab and research Laboratory II. Then, visit the Study Table and study the green goo, tin, and ash to get the required research points. You can also get research points by building Study Kits at the Writing Desk. Crafting 2 kits is a requirement for creating one Reanimation Liquid. You also require 5 Faith to turn the concoction into the Reanimation Liquid.
After that, visit the Laboratory II station and add the ingredients into the empty slots. Click on Craft to start creating it. In the meantime, visit the Jewelry Table and craft a Zombie Collar. Depending on what tier of the Zombie Collar you have unlocked, you will require different materials to craft it. After that, get a corpse and place it on the table within the Resurrection Lab, add the collar and the Reanimation Liquid, and press the Prepare button to create a zombie.
If you can’t make a zombie, check your calendar on the top left corner. The marker needs to be on the green Envy icon to generate enough electricity for the Resurrection Table to work in Graveyard Keeper 2.
