📖 GK1 mechanic — applies to Graveyard Keeper (2018), not confirmed for GK2
Quality (Star) System
Branch: core
Almost every crafted item, raw material, and processed good in Graveyard Keeper carries a quality value, visible as colored stars in the UI. White stars indicate base quality, while red, green, and blue stars indicate that the item carries that respective tech-point-color bonus, gained by being crafted with higher-tier ingredients, on advanced stations, or by characters using bonus-conferring abilities. Quality stacks multiplicatively at most crafting boundaries: a high-quality plank crafted from a high-quality log on an upgraded sawmill yields a noticeably higher-star plank than a chain of base inputs. The star system flows downstream — material → component → finished good — so investing in upstream quality (e.g. higher-tier ore smelted into higher-tier iron ingot) pays off in late-game outputs. Burial quality, which determines the value of a corpse buried in the graveyard and the moral approval the keeper accrues, is the most studied application: organ removal, embalming, body-quality preservation, and grave decoration all feed a multi-factor formula. Players optimizing the graveyard's overall score have to manage quality flows from corpse delivery all the way through to the gravestone and fence carved nearby. Some recipes have a minimum input quality requirement; below it, the recipe will not unlock the higher-tier output. The quality system is one of the strongest signature mechanics of GK1 and is one of the features most likely to carry over into GK2's confirmed automation framing.
Key data
| Label | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Quality dimensions | 4 (white / red / green / blue stars) | |
| Stacks across crafting | Yes, multiplicatively at most boundaries | |
| Burial-quality factors | Body quality, organs removed, embalming, gravestone, fence, decorations |