Graveyard Keeper 2 Alchemy Ingredient Combinations: 6,960 Valid Mixes

How many alchemy ingredient combinations are valid in Graveyard Keeper 2?

6,960 of them. The shipped data lists every legal alchemy mix as its own row: 6,960 combinations spread across 29 formulas and built from 70 distinct ingredients. The enumeration is exhaustive, not sampled. A row exists for each set the lab accepts, and no other set appears in the file.

What the data holds	Count
Valid ingredient combinations	6,960
Alchemy formulas they cover	29
Distinct ingredients used	70
Distinct rune values across those 70	19
Rows using two ingredients	651
Rows using all three slots	6,274

Source: gamebalance_full.json → alchemyMixSourceDefs[], build 25509347.

The 70 counts item definitions, not tiers. Heart, Brain and Guts each appear twice because two quality variants of each carry runes, and Onion and Pumpkin appear three times each. Merge the variants and the working set is 63.

What makes an ingredient combination valid?

Only the colour totals. Every ingredient carries some number of red, green and blue runes, and a formula demands an exact total — one rune over fails, and a surplus of any colour fails as hard as a shortfall. Load order is irrelevant, because the lab sums the three colours separately and never compares slots.

Rule	Limit
Rune total	Must equal the formula exactly, no surplus
Slots per mix	2, or 3 in the larger lab
Runes on one ingredient	Never more than 3 of a colour
Runes of one colour per mix	5

Source: gamebalance_full.json → alchemyMixSourceDefs[].ingredient1–3 and itemDefs[].runesRed/runesGreen/runesBlue, build 25509347.

The 3-rune ceiling is why slot count and rune total are linked: five blue cannot come from one item, so a formula asking five of any colour always needs at least two slots. Per-ingredient values are in the red green blue rune values table, and the alchemy recipes guide covers what each formula outputs.

How many combinations does each formula accept?

Between 13 and 945 valid mixes, depending on the formula. Every figure below is a row count taken from the same shipped file, and each example is a mix that actually exists there rather than a reconstruction. Check the arithmetic before loading anything, since a surplus rune costs the whole batch of ingredients.

Formula	Rune target	Combinations	Fewest slots	A working mix
Dream Dust	1 green + 1 blue	23	1	Ash
Paint	2 green	21	1	Flour
Lacquer	2 blue	14	1	Night flower
Healing Potion	2 red	13	1	Stone
Healing Potion II	4 red	52	2	Marble + Clay
Healing Potion III	5 red	76	2	Stone + Marble
Damage Potion	1 red + 1 green	23	1	Flax
Damage Potion II	2 red + 2 green	216	2	Clay + Beeswax
Damage Potion III	3 red + 3 green	471	2	Golden nugget + Beeswax
Zombie Motivator Potion	1 red + 1 blue	17	1	Alchemic Powder (1 red, 1 blue)
Zombie Motivator Potion II	1 red + 2 blue	64	1	Firefly
Zombie Motivator Potion III	3 red + 3 blue	253	2	Tin + Firefly
Berserker Potion	1 red + 1 green + 1 blue	112	1	Cheese
Berserker Potion II	2 red + 1 green + 1 blue	204	2	Clay + Cheese
Berserker Potion III	3 red + 2 green + 2 blue	887	3	Clay + Beeswax + Firefly
Weak growth elixir	1 red + 2 green	102	1	Beeswax
Rich growth elixir	1 red + 3 green	218	2	Clay + Fragrance
Miracle growth elixir	1 red + 5 green	363	2	Fragrance + Beeswax
Preservative	3 green	70	1	Fragrance
Organ Improver (red skull)	4 red + 1 green	197	2	Marble + Flax
Organ Improver (white skull)	4 green	136	2	Berry + Fragrance
Reanimation Liquid	2 red + 1 green + 4 blue	556	3	Clay + Blue Crystal + Firefly
Tannin Liquid	4 red + 2 green + 1 blue	512	3	Clay + Cheese + Golden nugget
Alkali	1 red + 4 green + 2 blue	945	3	Clay + Cacao + Cacao
Explosive Dust	2 red + 2 blue	123	2	Clay + Firefly
Spices	2 green + 2 blue	250	2	Berry + Blue Crystal
Umami	4 green + 4 blue	440	3	Flour + Blue Crystal + Blue Crystal
Philosopher Stone	3 red + 3 green + 3 blue	432	3	Cheese + Beeswax + Firefly
Third Eye Salt	1 red + 5 blue	170	2	Alcohol + Firefly

Source: alchemy_formulas.csv → runes_red/runes_green/runes_blue and gamebalance_full.json → alchemyMixSourceDefs[].formulaId, build 25509347.

Three of these feed farming rather than combat, and each has its own breakdown: dream dust recipe, rich growth elixir recipe and rich growth elixir and fertilizers. Paint and Lacquer share the lab but demand different colours, and both are in the paint guide.

Why does Alkali have 945 combinations and Healing Potion only 13?

Because the count follows the rune target and the reachable ingredients together. Healing Potion wants 2 red, and only seven ingredients carry 2 red and nothing else. Alkali wants 1 red, 4 green and 2 blue, and 54 of the 70 ingredients show up in its rows.

Formula	Combinations	Ingredients it can use
Alkali	945	54
Berserker Potion III	887	61
Reanimation Liquid	556	47
Lacquer	14	8
Healing Potion	13	7

Source: gamebalance_full.json → alchemyMixSourceDefs[], build 25509347.

A wide formula is forgiving and a narrow one is not, so when a mix fails the target is the problem, not the slot order. Six formulas have no two-ingredient combination at all — Berserker Potion III, Reanimation Liquid, Tannin Liquid, Alkali, Umami and Philosopher Stone — so the smaller lab can never produce them.

How do you make Third Eye Salt?

Any of 170 recorded combinations. Published lists for this formula disagree, and the data settles it: Alcohol plus Heart and Heart plus Brain are both valid, while Salt and Cheese appear in none of the 170 rows and cannot be part of any mix for it.

Claim about Third Eye Salt	What the data shows
Alcohol + Heart	Valid. Heart is 1 red + 2 blue, Alcohol is 3 blue
Heart + Brain	Valid. Heart is 1 red + 2 blue, Brain is 3 blue
Salt and Cheese	Never. Neither appears in any of the 170 rows
170 combinations	16 use two ingredients, 154 use three
Distinct recipes	127 once the two Heart and two Brain variants are merged

Source: gamebalance_full.json → alchemyMixSourceDefs[] where formulaId = third_eye_salt, build 25509347.

Nine two-ingredient routes exist, and those are the ones to memorise. The cheapest-looking are Heart + Brain and Alcohol + Firefly, each landing on the target with one 3-blue item. The shipped data does not record why Heart and Brain come in two quality variants, so check the item quality tiers page for what changes between tiers elsewhere.

Can you put the same ingredient into a mix twice?

Yes — 571 of the 6,960 rows repeat an item. Marble plus Clay for Healing Potion II, Clay plus Cacao twice for Alkali, and Flour plus two Blue Crystals for Umami are all recorded combinations in the shipped data, not transcription mistakes.

Slot pattern	Rows	Share
One slot used, nothing to repeat	35	0.5%
Two slots, two different items	622	8.9%
Two slots, the same item twice	29	0.4%
Three slots, all different	5,732	82.4%
Three slots, with an item repeated	542	7.8%

Source: gamebalance_full.json → alchemyMixSourceDefs[].ingredient1–3, build 25509347.

Twelve of the three-slot rows fill every slot with the same item, so stacking is not limited to a pair. Nothing in the file splits an item into parts, which is why a repeat reads as a quantity of two. Ten formulas can be made from a single ingredient, including Dream Dust, Paint, Lacquer, Healing Potion, Berserker Potion and Preservative — a full formula in one slot, with nothing to get wrong.

Which ingredients appear in the most combinations?

Clay, Sand, Flesh and the red Alchemic Powder each appear in 557 rows, 8.0% of the entire enumeration. The nine single-rune fillers are the backbone: 4,608 of the 20,159 ingredient placements in the file, just under a quarter of every slot filled.

Ingredient	Runes	Appearances
Clay, Sand, Flesh, Alchemic Powder (1 red)	1 red	557 each
Berry, Leaf, Stick, Water, Alchemic Powder (1 green)	1 green	476 each
Stone, Red Mushroom, Alchemic Powder (2 red)	2 red	360 each
Flax, Tooth, Alchemic Powder (1 red, 1 green)	1 red + 1 green	349 each
Blueberry, Blood, Seed oil, Alchemic Powder (1 blue)	1 blue	324 each

Source: gamebalance_full.json → alchemyMixSourceDefs[].ingredient1–3, build 25509347.

Rows group identical items, and the count is appearances rather than distinct formulas, so one mix contributes once per slot the item fills. A per-item breakdown is in the red green blue rune values table, and where the cheap fillers come from is in the runes and clay guide. The 25 ingredients with a base price of zero are worth checking first — the rest are in the item prices and selling guide.