Graveyard Keeper 2 reputation: unlock blocked dialogue

What to check, in order

1. 01

   Work out whose reputation the locked option checks: a named character or the village.

2. 02

   Read the current value on their portrait.

3. 03

   Finish that character’s available quests, or build and upgrade town shops for the village.

4. 04

   Open the tech tree after crossing a threshold so portrait nodes can unlock.

5. 05

   Go back to the dialogue that was locked.

6. 06

   Keep happiness separate in your head; it does not count as reputation.

Two kinds of reputation

Graveyard Keeper 2 tracks reputation per person for the main cast and as one shared pool for the village. The village pool covers the villagers, Januarius, Herm, the twins and the town traders. When a quest says someone trusts you, check which of the two it means before you grind.

The classic mix-up is Jack in a Boat. Jack’s personal reputation goes up as you help him, but the twins only row for you once village reputation reaches 10. Doing more for Jack does nothing for the twins.

How to raise it

Named characters gain +10 for each of their quests. There is no gifting or chatting your way up; quests are the source. That makes a character’s reputation a fairly honest measure of how far through their story you are.

Village reputation gets +5 from each of three early quests and +2 or +3 every time you build or upgrade a trader’s shop in town. Twelve traders’ shops can add up to 86 in total, which with the quests gives the village maximum of 101.

• Planted and Delivered (Herm, 5 Wheat): village +5.
• Two Peas in a Pod (the twins, 6 Clay Plates): village +5.
• Every town shop built or upgraded: village +2 or +3.
• Every quest from a named character: that character +10.

Thresholds that matter

Most reputation checks cluster around a few numbers. Village reputation 10 is the big early one: both Jack in a Boat and Good Fellow wait for it. Beyond 10, nothing else in the game reads village reputation, so building more shops is for income, stock and orders, not trust.

Named characters gate more of the mid and late game. Jack at 40 opens the factory under your house and the Circular Saw, and Jack at 60 is exactly what Gunter’s PR contract demands. The final help quests late in the story ask for 90 or 100, depending on a choice you make about the Old God’s red eye.

Portrait nodes in the tech tree

Some technologies show a character’s portrait instead of a price. They cost nothing and unlock automatically once that character’s reputation is high enough, but the check only runs when you open the tech tree. If you just finished a quest and the node still looks locked, open the tree and look again.

The labels are not always accurate. Agatha’s first node says 25 but opens at 30, and Gunter’s two early nodes both open at 20 even though they are labelled 30 and 40.

Field note: Opening the tech tree after every quest hand-in takes two seconds and catches portrait unlocks you would otherwise miss for days.

Reputation is not happiness

Happiness, the smiley-face number, decides sermon attendance and is spent every Wrath. Reputation is trust, it is never spent, and nothing in the game consumes it. Using Town Gratitude raises happiness, not reputation, so it will not open a reputation-locked dialogue however many you use.

If a conversation option is greyed out, hover it. The tooltip names the person and the number it needs.

Character by character

Herbert, Head of the Guards, drives the early story: Certificate, Please, Grave Expectations, Fighting Spirit Required and Swords and Bell all come from him, so his reputation climbs naturally as you play. His portrait nodes at 20, 55 and 60 tend to unlock without any special effort.

Jack is the one to watch. His reputation gates the factory, the Circular Saw and Gunter’s contract, and it only moves through his own quests: the boat, the iron crate, entering his workshop and the kit delivery. Agatha’s reputation comes from the church questline, and Gunter’s from his PR jobs and the astrology errands. Albert, the Plague Doctor, needs only 10 for his single portrait node, which Sweet Dreams covers.

Linda has no tech nodes at all. Her role is town quality: she takes the green scrolls from repaired houses.

Planning around reputation

Because quests are the only source for named characters, reputation planning is really quest planning. When a gate is ahead, look at that character’s quest log and finish whatever is open, even small errands. Jack’s workshop chain, for instance, is four quests at +10 each, and doing them early gets you both the factory and Gunter’s contract out of the way.

For the village, the fastest early route is Herm’s wheat and the twins’ plates. After that, every town shop you build pays a little village reputation as a side effect, so it takes care of itself.

Common questions