Graveyard Keeper 2 Alchemy Calculator: Every Combination

Ingredients carry red, green and blue rune values, and each potion needs a rune total. Any combination of up to three ingredients that adds up to it works. Stone is 2 red and a Healing Potion needs 2 red, so Stone on its own makes one, as do Clay + Clay and Clay + Sand.

6,960 combinations, 29 potions, 70 ingredients.

How mixing works

A formula is a rune requirement, not a list of ingredients. Healing Potion asks for 2 red. Anything that adds up to 2 red produces it, so a single Stone works, and so does Clay plus Clay, or Clay plus Sand. The game will not stop you putting a lump of rock in a healing draught, because as far as the recipe is concerned you have handed it two red runes.

You can combine up to three ingredients, and order never matters. Most combinations use all three slots: 6,274 of them, against 651 two-ingredient recipes and 35 that need a single ingredient. Fewer slots is usually the better answer when you have one, since it is less to gather.

Every one of the 29 formulas starts hidden, so none of this is handed to you in game: recipes are discovered one mix at a time. The two benches are not equivalent either. Laboratory I holds two ingredient slots and Laboratory II holds three, so the six formulas with no two-ingredient answer cannot be mixed at all until the second bench is built.

Unlocking alchemy

Alchemy is a branch of the tech tree, and the first step is free but not automatic: Alchemy, Basic costs no spheres and opens the first bench, but it sits behind your standing with the Plague Doctor. Everything after it is paid for in red, green and blue spheres.

Research	Spheres	Requires
Alchemy, Basic	free	standing with the plague doctor
Alchemy, Distillation	55	Alchemy, Basic
Battle Potions I	101010	Alchemy, Basic
Laboratory II	2040	Battle Potions I
Battle Potions II	252525	Laboratory II
Transmutation I	4040	Reanimation Liquid
Battle Potions III	707070	Reanimation Liquid
Alchemy, Advanced	200100	Battle Potions III
Crafting Potions	10080	Alchemy, Advanced
Practical Potions	100100	Alchemy, Advanced

The order above is the one you can actually follow: each step waits for whatever it depends on, cheapest first. Two of them break out of the branch entirely. Transmutation I and Battle Potions III are gated behind the Reanimation Liquid formula rather than behind other alchemy research, so they arrive when your potion-making does, not when your sphere count does.

Laboratory II is the step worth planning for: it is the second bench, and at 20 red and 40 green it is the steepest cost in the branch until Battle Potions III. Alchemy, Advanced is the wall at the end, asking 200 red and 100 blue on its own.

Ingredient 1 Ingredient 2 Ingredient 3

Potion Narrow by an ingredient you have

Every potion in Graveyard Keeper 2

Potion	Runes needed	Recipes	Simplest recipe
Alkali	142	945	Cheese + Hops + Stick
Berserker Potion	111	112	Cheese
Berserker Potion II	211	204	Tin + Stick
Berserker Potion III	322	887	Marble + Alchemic Powder (Green Rune, Blue Rune x2) + Stick
Damage Potion	11	23	Flax
Damage Potion II	22	216	Copper Nugget + Stick
Damage Potion III	33	471	Marble + Pumpkin
Explosive Dust	22	123	Stone + Minced Meat
Healing Potion	2	13	Stone
Healing Potion II	4	52	Stone + Stone
Healing Potion III	5	76	Marble + Stone
Lacquer	2	14	Minced Meat
Tannin Liquid	421	512	Marble + Cheese + Stick
Miracle growth elixir	15	363	Coal + Pumpkin
Zombie Motivator Potion	11	17	Alchemic Powder (Red Rune, Blue Rune)
Zombie Motivator Potion II	12	64	Alchemic Powder (Red Rune, Blue Rune x2)
Zombie Motivator Potion III	33	253	Marble + Alchemic Powder (Blue Rune x3)
Organ Improver (Red Skull)	41	197	Stone + Copper Nugget
Organ Improver (White Skull)	4	136	Pumpkin + Stick
Philosopher Stone	333	432	Marble + Alchemic Powder (Blue Rune x3) + Pumpkin
Dream Dust	11	23	Peat
Preservative	3	70	Pumpkin
Umami	44	440	Flour + Hops + Alchemic Powder (Blue Rune x3)
Spices	22	250	Alchemic Powder (Green Rune, Blue Rune x2) + Stick
Paint	2	21	Flour
Reanimation Liquid	214	556	Tin + Alchemic Powder (Blue Rune x3) + Stick
Rich growth elixir	13	218	Coal + Stick
Third Eye Salt	15	170	Alchemic Powder (Blue Rune x3) + Alchemic Powder (Red Rune, Blue Rune x2)
Weak growth elixir	12	102	Coal

Every alchemy ingredient and its runes

The rune values below are what every recipe adds up. An ingredient with a high total reaches stronger potions on its own; a low one is for topping a mix up to an exact number.

Ingredient	Runes	Used in	Base price
Marble	3 red	267 recipes	50
Stone	2 red	345 recipes	5
Alcohol	3 blue	160 recipes	50
Ash	1 green, 1 blue	203 recipes	10
Beeswax	1 red, 2 green	241 recipes	0
Berry	1 green	449 recipes	0
Blueberry	1 blue	310 recipes	0
Blood	1 blue	310 recipes	0
Brain	3 blue	160 recipes	0
Brain	3 blue	160 recipes	0
Cacao	2 green, 1 blue	205 recipes	300
Cheese	1 red, 1 green, 1 blue	231 recipes	0
Clay	1 red	533 recipes	0
Coal	1 red, 2 green	241 recipes	0
Blue Crystal	1 green, 2 blue	230 recipes	75
Peat	1 green, 1 blue	203 recipes	0
Firefly	1 red, 2 blue	237 recipes	10
Goldfish	2 green, 1 blue	205 recipes	72
Flax	1 red, 1 green	338 recipes	7
Flesh	1 red	533 recipes	35
Flour	2 green	307 recipes	5
Night flower	2 blue	257 recipes	0
Fragrance	3 green	183 recipes	30
Golden nugget	2 red, 1 green	243 recipes	100
Guts	1 green, 2 blue	230 recipes	0
Guts	1 green, 2 blue	230 recipes	0
Heart	1 red, 2 blue	237 recipes	0
Heart	1 red, 2 blue	237 recipes	0
Honey	2 green, 1 blue	205 recipes	8
Hops	2 green, 1 blue	205 recipes	11
Iron Ore	3 red	267 recipes	100
Tin	2 red, 1 blue	241 recipes	0
Leaf	1 green	449 recipes	0
Melted Fat	3 red	267 recipes	10
Minced Meat	2 blue	257 recipes	0
Swamp mushroom	2 green	307 recipes	0
Red Mushroom	2 red	345 recipes	0
Copper Nugget	2 red, 1 green	243 recipes	0
Onion	2 green	307 recipes	10
Onion	2 green	307 recipes	14
Onion	2 green	307 recipes	18
Alchemic Powder (Blue Rune)	1 blue	310 recipes	5
Alchemic Powder (Blue Rune x2)	2 blue	257 recipes	10
Alchemic Powder (Blue Rune x3)	3 blue	160 recipes	20
Alchemic Powder (Green Rune)	1 green	449 recipes	5
Alchemic Powder (Green Rune, Blue Rune)	1 green, 1 blue	203 recipes	10
Alchemic Powder (Green Rune, Blue Rune x2)	1 green, 2 blue	230 recipes	25
Alchemic Powder (Green Rune x2)	2 green	307 recipes	10
Alchemic Powder (Green Rune x2, Blue Rune)	2 green, 1 blue	205 recipes	25
Alchemic Powder (Green Rune x3)	3 green	183 recipes	20
Alchemic Powder (Red Rune)	1 red	533 recipes	5
Alchemic Powder (Red Rune, Blue Rune)	1 red, 1 blue	288 recipes	10
Alchemic Powder (Red Rune, Blue Rune x2)	1 red, 2 blue	237 recipes	25
Alchemic Powder (Red Rune, Green Rune)	1 red, 1 green	338 recipes	10
Alchemic Powder (Red Rune, Green Rune, Blue Rune)	1 red, 1 green, 1 blue	231 recipes	30
Alchemic Powder (Red Rune, Green Rune x2)	1 red, 2 green	241 recipes	25
Alchemic Powder (Red Rune x2)	2 red	345 recipes	10
Alchemic Powder (Red Rune x2, Blue Rune)	2 red, 1 blue	241 recipes	25
Alchemic Powder (Red Rune x2, Green Rune)	2 red, 1 green	243 recipes	25
Alchemic Powder (Red Rune x3)	3 red	267 recipes	20
Pumpkin	3 green	183 recipes	20
Pumpkin	3 green	183 recipes	30
Pumpkin	3 green	183 recipes	40
Salt	1 red, 1 green, 1 blue	231 recipes	20
Sand	1 red	533 recipes	0
Seed oil	1 blue	310 recipes	0
Stick	1 green	449 recipes	1
Tooth	1 red, 1 green	338 recipes	0
Water	1 green	449 recipes	0
Zombie goo	2 blue	257 recipes	150

Things the tables do not tell you

Several ingredients share a name. There are two entries called Brain, two called Heart, and the same goes for Guts, Onion and Pumpkin. They are separate ingredients with their own internal ids, and where their rune values differ they behave differently in a mix, so the rune figure beside each name in the picker is the reliable way to tell them apart.

Alchemic Powder is not one ingredient either. Each powder carries a different rune load, written into its name here, because the game distinguishes them with coloured rune icons that do not survive outside the game. A powder with two green runes and one blue is a different thing from one with a single red.

These figures are exact rather than observed, so they describe the game as it is balanced today. A patch that rebalances a formula changes the answer here, and this page is updated when one does.

Alchemy questions

How do you make Alkali in Graveyard Keeper 2?

Alkali needs 1 red, 4 green, 2 blue. The simplest recipe is Cheese + Hops + Stick, and 945 combinations in total produce it.

How do you make Berserker Potion in Graveyard Keeper 2?

Berserker Potion needs 1 red, 1 green, 1 blue. The simplest recipe is Cheese, and 112 combinations in total produce it.

Which alchemy ingredient is used in the most recipes?

Clay appears in 533 of the 6,960 combinations in the game, more than any other ingredient.

Can you make a potion from a single ingredient?

Yes. 10 potions have a one-ingredient recipe, because that ingredient alone already carries the rune total the formula needs. Examples: Dream Dust (Ash), Paint (Alchemic Powder (Green Rune x2)), Lacquer (Alchemic Powder (Blue Rune x2)), Healing Potion (Alchemic Powder (Red Rune x2)).

How many ingredients can you combine at once?

Up to three. A Tier 1 alchemy bench takes fewer than a Tier 2, which is the same split the first Graveyard Keeper used, and each formula lists which benches it can be made on.

How does alchemy work in Graveyard Keeper 2?

Every ingredient carries rune values in red, green and blue, and every potion formula requires a rune total. Any combination of up to three ingredients whose runes add up to that total produces the potion, which is why a single Stone (2 red) makes a Healing Potion (2 red), as do Clay + Clay and Clay + Sand. Nothing about the combination has to make thematic sense.