Graveyard Keeper 2 clay plates: make the correct item

Your next steps

1. 01

   Check whether the request says Clay Plate or Ceramic Plate.

2. 02

   Dig Clay in the Yard, the Square or at the Riverside.

3. 03

   Unlock Pottery I and build a Potter’s Wheel.

4. 04

   Shape 2 Clay into each Clay Plate.

5. 05

   Only fire plates in the Kiln if Ceramic Plates are what you need.

6. 06

   Hand the twins six Clay Plates for a fishing rod and village reputation.

Clay Plate or Ceramic Plate?

The names are close and the icons look alike, so read the request letter by letter. A Clay Plate is unfired: shaped on the wheel and done. A Ceramic Plate is a Clay Plate that has been through the Kiln with fuel. Neither substitutes for the other, and firing plates you needed raw is the classic way to waste an afternoon.

For the early twins’ quest, you want plain Clay Plates.

Where to get clay

Clay is dug from three places: the Yard, the Square and the Riverside. It stacks to 99, so dig plenty while you are there; the pottery chain eats it quickly. Later, a zombie at a Clay Digger Stand produces Clay on its own, along with a red technology point per job.

Sand is at the Riverside too. If you are making glass for the dresser or the Resurrection Table, bring both home in one trip.

Field note: Clay plates are quick, only about 3 time units each. A shovel trip and five minutes at the wheel cover the whole twins’ quest.

Two Peas in a Pod

The twins live by the bridge south of the village. Their quest, Two Peas in a Pod, also involves Jeffry at the Hangman’s House, and it asks for six Clay Plates. The rewards are good for such a small job: your first fishing rod and +5 village reputation.

That reputation matters. Village reputation 10 is the gate for the twins agreeing to row Jack’s boat and for Januarius’s Good Fellow. This quest and Herm’s wheat quest together get you there.

A practical order: unlock Pottery I and dig your clay on the same day you plant Herm’s wheat. The wheat grows while you shape the plates, and the two hand-ins land within a day of each other. That puts you at village reputation 10 and opens Jack’s rowers and Good Fellow in one stroke.

How much clay you actually need

Clay goes faster than you expect because almost every pottery item eats several pieces. Six plates for the twins is already 12 Clay. If you also want a couple of Ceramic Plates for an order, that is three more Clay Plates each, so another 6 Clay per Ceramic Plate. Bricks at the Kiln are 4 Clay each.

Count backwards before you go digging. It is much quicker to dig 30 Clay in one trip than to walk back to the riverside three times.

Pottery and your mastery

Pottery belongs to the Building branch, along with carpentry and masonry. That means your axe and pickaxe on the toolbar are what count, not the shovel you dug the clay with. If the wheel refuses a recipe, hover it and compare the Building requirement with your current total.

Building mastery is also the first one most players raise, since wood wedges and pieces of stone need Building 3. Claim the Lumberjack and Rock Breaker inspirations for the first Building talent node and pottery will rarely stop you.

Zombies on the wheel use their own Building mastery from their own tool, so give a pottery zombie an axe or pickaxe.

Field note: Put the Potter’s Wheel next to the chest where you dump clay. A porter zombie in the same yard zone can then keep it supplied without your help.

The rest of the pottery chain

The Potter’s Wheel and Kiln do more than plates. Clay Urns, from 4 Clay with the Ceramic Firing technology, are needed to distil alcohol from wine, cider, beer or mead. Bricks come from the Kiln too, or from a Smithy if you have coal to spare. Bricks go into the Zombie Miner station and plenty of town construction.

Fuel for the Kiln

The Kiln burns Fuel, the same Fuel your furnace uses. A Firewood Shed turns 2 Firewood into 20 Fuel, and outdoor stations need an outdoor shed. Update 1.005 rebalanced Kiln and Furnace fuel costs, so if you remember different numbers from launch week, trust the recipe window in your current game.

If the Kiln will not start with plates loaded, it is almost always Fuel.

Launch fixes and selling plates

Update 1.007 addressed a potter’s wheel bug where crafting could get stuck. If your wheel froze partway through a batch before that patch, update and try again before rebuilding the station.

Surplus plates are not wasted: Herm buys Clay Plates and Bricks. A zombie on the Potter’s Wheel with a steady supply of clay is a small but steady earner. The Potter’s Wheel is one of the stations zombies can work, so once your first workers arrive, it is a natural place to put one.

Common questions