Graveyard Keeper 2 Iron Guide — Ore, Ingots and Nails

What is iron used for in Graveyard Keeper 2?

Iron is the mid-game metal. It feeds tools, weapons, armour, kits and building parts, and it is the only route to the higher steel tier. The chain is four items long — Iron Ore, Iron Ingot, Iron Nails and Iron Detail — and nearly everything else is built from those.

Iron Detail is one of the most-used intermediates in the game: 25 recipes list it as an ingredient, against 19 for Iron Ingot and 3 for Iron Ore. Only Fuel (63), Ink (45), Stick (35), Bronze Detail (31) and Blank Softcover Notebook (27) are pulled in more often. If you are planning the rest of the metal tree, the crafting station list shows where the Wooden, Iron and Steel Anvils sit relative to each other, the tech tree overview shows which technologies open each step, and the tech tree full cost list prices each step in spheres.

Source: gamebalance_full.json → craftDefs[].needItems, build 25509347.

The dataset also carries an Iron Scrap item with a base price of 0, no trader and no recipes that consume it. It is not part of this chain.

Where do you get Iron Ore?

Iron Ore comes from three places: the Zombie Miner produces it automatically, the Trademaster sells it, and iron ore deposits can be gathered in the world. Base price is 1 silver and the Trademaster pays 75 bronze, which makes surplus ore the easiest iron product to convert into cash.

Source	What it gives you
Zombie Miner	Iron Ore, Coal and Gem, gathered with no supervision once a zombie is assigned
Trademaster	Sells Iron Ore from the start
Iron ore deposits	Gathered directly in the world

The Zombie Miner is the source that matters most, and it costs only 2 Wooden Plank and 4 Brick once Zombie Mining is researched. It produces Coal on the same loop, which is exactly what the cheap smelting recipe needs, so one miner can feed both halves of the conversion. The zombie production line guide covers assigning and feeding that worker.

How do you smelt Iron Ore into an Iron Ingot?

Two stations make Iron Ingot. Smithy I runs 1 Iron Ore + 1 Coal into 1 Ingot at mastery 2 and 8 ticks, while Furnace II runs 3 Iron Ore + 30 Fuel into 3 Ingots at mastery 5 and 12 ticks. The Furnace II batch produces 4 with the Fireman talent.

Route	Inputs	Output	Mastery	Ticks	Unlocking technology
Smithy I	1 Iron Ore + 1 Coal	1 Iron Ingot	2	8	Smithy: Hammer
Furnace II	3 Iron Ore + 30 Fuel	3 Iron Ingots (4 with Fireman)	5	12	Iron Forge

The two routes trade different resources. Smithy I spends Coal and is available early, but it is a Factory workstation that needs 6 Reinforced Plank, 4 Bronze Detail and 4 Bronze Gear to build. Furnace II spends Fuel, which is the same pool the Kiln, both Kitchen Ovens, the Brewing Stand, the Distillation Cube and Kitchen Table II burn — the factory power guide explains why that queue gets crowded.

How do you turn Iron Ingots into Nails and Details?

Both come off the Iron Anvil. One Iron Ingot yields 12 Iron Nails or 6 Iron Detail, and the relevant talents push those to 16 Nails and 9 Details. Both recipes sit at mastery 6, and no trader will buy the ingot itself.

That last point decides how you should store your metal. Iron Ingot has a base price of 1 silver 60 bronze but no buyer anywhere, so an ingot in your chest is dead money until you convert it. Iron Nails and Iron Detail both have buyers, and both are consumed by other recipes, so converting ingots the moment you have spare ore is almost always correct.

What do iron items, stations and prices look like at a glance?

The four-item table below is the whole chain: source or crafting station, conversion ratio, base price and what a trader pays. Both price fields come from one source, the wikily dataset, and Fextralife’s GK2 wiki carries no price fields at all — so treat every number here as a dataset figure, not an observed shop price.

Item	Made at / source	Ratio	Base price	Selling price
Iron Ore	Zombie Miner, Trademaster, ore deposits	Gathered, no inputs	1 silver	75 bronze (Trademaster)
Iron Ingot	Smithy I, Furnace II	1 Ore + 1 Coal → 1 Ingot, or 3 Ore + 30 Fuel → 3 Ingots	1 silver 60 bronze	No trader buys it
Iron Nails	Iron Anvil	1 Ingot → 12 Nails (16 with Blacksmith)	16 bronze	12 bronze
Iron Detail	Iron Anvil	1 Ingot → 6 Detail (9 with Engineer)	30 bronze	22 bronze

Three traders take Iron Nails — the Furniture Maker, the Builder and the Smithy — while only the Furniture Maker and the Smithy buy Iron Detail. Both items are also gated behind trader level 2, so the buyers only open up after you have spent money with them. The item prices and selling guide covers how trader stock and purse size limit the volume you can move in one day.

Which stations and mastery levels does the iron chain need?

The chain needs Smithy I or Furnace II to smelt and the Iron Anvil to finish. Iron Nails, Iron Detail and Iron Kit I all sit at Iron Anvil mastery 6, the ore-to-ingot recipe at Smithy I mastery 2, and the bulk Furnace II recipe at mastery 5.

Product	Materials	Station	Mastery	Ticks	Technology
1× Iron Ingot	1× Iron Ore + 1× Coal	Smithy I	2	8	Smithy: Hammer
3× Iron Ingot	3× Iron Ore + 30× Fuel	Furnace II	5	12	Iron Forge
12× Iron Nails	1× Iron Ingot	Iron Anvil	6	5	Iron Smithing
6× Iron Detail	1× Iron Ingot	Iron Anvil	6	6	Iron Works
1× Iron Kit I	1× Iron Ingot	Iron Anvil	7	8	Iron Works
1× Iron Axe	2× Stick + 2× Iron Detail + 1× Iron Ingot	Iron Anvil	6	8	Iron Instruments I
1× Iron Sword	2× Stick + 3× Iron Detail + 2× Iron Ingot	Iron Anvil or Steel Anvil	6	10	Iron Equipment (80 red)
1× Iron Armor	2× Iron Detail + 4× Iron Ingot + 2× Fabric	Iron Anvil	6	12	Not confirmed

Source: gamebalance_full.json → craftDefs[].talentLock and craftDefs[].craftsIn for sword_2, plus techDefs → Iron Equipment redSpheresPrice, build 25509347.

The Iron Anvil itself is one of the cheapest stations in the chain: 4 Piece of stone and 2 Iron Ingot, unlocked by Iron Smithing. Piece of stone comes off the Stonemason’s Workbench at 2 Stone and 4 Wood wedge each, so the anvil is really an ore-to-station conversion rather than a material sink.

Progress per tick equals your Smithing mastery divided by the recipe requirement, rounded down and capped at 3. Iron Detail at mastery 12 therefore finishes in 3 ticks instead of 6, which is the difference between the iron line feeling slow and feeling free.

What is the best iron item to sell?

Iron Nails and Iron Detail are the only iron products a trader will actually take, at 12 bronze and 22 bronze each. Ore sells for 75 bronze but is better spent on ingots, and ingots themselves cannot be sold at all, so nails and details are the conversion endpoint.

Per ingot the output is 12 nails worth 12 bronze each or 6 details worth 22 bronze each, so both beat selling raw ore — but demand, not the unit price, is the real limit. Nails are used by Wooden Cross II, Wooden Fence II and several building costs including the Circular Saw and the Chest, and Detail is one of the most-requested intermediates in the game, so most players never have a surplus to sell. The shipped data records no general sell-price formula, so check the vendor buy price matrix before hauling a stack to a trader; if you do want cash, sell ore the day you do not need it rather than stockpiling it.

Where does iron end and steel begin?

At Bishop’s door. Iron is the last metal you produce yourself; steel is the first you can only buy — 10 silver per ingot from Bishop at the Royal Foundry, no smelting recipe, no resale. Jack’s Man of Steel quest takes the first 3, the Merc Leader 3 more, and the rest feeds the Steel Anvil’s 47 recipes.

Do not stockpile iron ingots once Bishop opens — convert the iron line into tools and kits, then switch the budget to steel. The full steel chain (lots, quest order, and what to build first) is in the steel guide. For the Smithy II upgrade kit and its Clay Mold input line, see the Iron Kit II guide.