Graveyard Keeper 2 Workshop Layout — A Factory Line That Passes Jack

What does a good workshop layout actually solve?

The Factory is not a free-form build. It is a demand-and-capacity puzzle with a fixed inspection target, and the layout either produces a rating of 20 or it does not. Everything else — where the carousels sit, how long the belt runs, where the zombie supplier stands — is decoration until those two numbers line up.

The rule is short. Every conveyor tile adds 1 demand. Every Zombie Carousel with a zombie assigned adds 7 capacity. The Factory rating is the lower of the two numbers. Jack’s Factory Tour asks for a rating of at least 20, which is why the standard answer is 20 belt tiles and three staffed carousels: demand 20, capacity 21, rating 20.

That single line is the spine of the layout. Build it first, confirm the inspection, and only then start moving furniture.

Where is the Factory and what blocks the first layout?

The Factory sits underground and is reached through the cellar of the Inquisition Base. The entrance is not open on a fresh save. Clearing the Blockage takes 4 Iron Detail + 1 Reinforced Beam and Building mastery 8. That cost is the real gate: a player with a tidy plan but no iron chain will stand in front of a wall of rubble.

The first Carousel is usually a repair, not a new build. Repairing a Broken Zombie Carousel takes 6 Bronze Gear + 4 Bronze Detail + 4 Wooden Plank and Building mastery 5, and it needs a zombie on the slot before it contributes anything. Building a fresh Carousel instead costs 6 Bronze Gear + 6 Iron Detail + 4 Wooden beam and sits behind the Zombie Gears technology at 90 red + 20 blue points.

Two technology purchases frame the layout. Conveyors cost 70 red + 20 blue and require Tool Rack II plus Jack at 50. The Assembly bench costs 75 red + 20 blue. Neither is optional if the line is meant to run without you standing there.

Layout element	Build or repair cost	Mastery / tech
Clear the Blockage	4 Iron Detail + 1 Reinforced Beam	Building 8
Repair a Carousel	6 Bronze Gear + 4 Bronze Detail + 4 Wooden Plank	Building 5
New Zombie Carousel	6 Bronze Gear + 6 Iron Detail + 4 Wooden beam	Zombie Gears, 90 red + 20 blue
Conveyor technology	—	70 red + 20 blue, Tool Rack II, Jack 50
Assembly bench	—	75 red + 20 blue

How should the 20 tiles be laid out?

Put the three carousels in one cluster beside the machines they power, not spread across the room. Capacity is counted per Carousel, not per area, so there is no bonus for distance. A compact cluster also keeps the zombie pathing short and makes it obvious when a worker has wandered off.

Then run the belt from the gathering point to the first machine and stop counting at 20. The trap is the decorative extension: every extra tile is another point of demand, and a line that rated 20 yesterday can rate 18 after a cosmetic reroute. If a second product needs a second line, build a second short line instead of branching the first one.

Keep one tile of clearance on both sides of the belt. Zombies do not need a wide corridor, but the player does, and a belt laid against a wall is miserable to debug when a workstation jams. Leave the Carousel access side open as well: an empty slot still looks like a slot, and the only reliable way to notice a missing worker is to walk the line.

The factory power guide covers the arithmetic in more detail, including why a line can pass Jack at 21 and still fail to run at 25. The layout rule that follows from it is simple: never let demand exceed capacity, and never let either number fall below 20.

Where do supply stations and zombies belong?

Each production zone needs a Zombie Supplier Station, an operator, and a Porter route. Put the supplier station within a few tiles of the workstation it feeds. A supplier on the far side of the room adds walking time to every cycle and, worse, makes it hard to see which station has run dry.

Gathering stands are the exception to the input rule: stone, marble, log, iron ore, clay, sand and crop stands need no raw material delivered. They still need a zombie and a route out. Place them closest to the Factory entrance so the Porter leg is short, and put the crafting stations deeper in the room where the finished goods are used.

The tutorial line is worth building exactly as intended before improvising: 1 Log + 4 Bronze Nails produces 4 Wooden Kit I at Building mastery 2. It teaches the two habits that scale — a short belt and a supplied station — without asking you to solve the whole room at once. The zombie production line explains the worker side, and the crafting stations list has the full station catalogue.

What should the finished layout look like?

A finished layout has three carousels in one block, a 20-tile trunk belt, one supplier per production island, and a clear walking lane to every machine. It has no dead-end belts, no cosmetic loops, and no second product sharing the trunk.

Check the Factory panel after every change. If demand rose, remove a tile rather than adding a fourth carousel; if capacity fell, look for the empty slot before building anything new. The panel is the source of truth, and the room is only as good as the number it reports.

Source: gamebalance_full.json — craftDefs and buildDefs, build 25509347; station counts cross-checked against the in-game Factory panel. Exact build costs are quoted from the shipped recipe data used across this wiki.