Research is split into six branches, each its own tab and its own tree. Nodes cost red, green and blue spheres, and every one after the first in a branch waits on the node before it. The layout below is the game's own: the positions and the links between nodes are read from the files, not arranged by hand.
236 technologies across 6 branches, joined by 220 prerequisite links.
The six branches
Each branch leans hard on a single sphere colour, and that is the real decision rather than which technology sits at the end. Building and Metallurgy run on red at better than four fifths of their cost, Farming is almost entirely green, and Theology is the only branch that genuinely spreads across all three.
Cooking is the outlier worth knowing about: all 20 of its technologies cost nothing at all. It is gated entirely by what unlocks it rather than by spheres, so there is no reason to leave it unresearched.
Across the whole tree 37 of the 236 technologies are free, 30 have no prerequisite at all, and 10 are not bought with spheres at all but with a character's good opinion of you.
| Branch | Technologies | Red | Green | Blue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Building | 54 | 4,470 | 257 | 670 |
| Metallurgy | 47 | 3,680 | 330 | 340 |
| Farming | 34 | 5 | 2,575 | 360 |
| Theology | 31 | 930 | 795 | 1,120 |
| Anatomy & alchemy | 50 | 2,072 | 1,172 | 1,642 |
| Cooking | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The tree
Pick a branch. Every node shows what it costs and what it unlocks, and the grid scrolls sideways, because the building branch alone is eighteen columns wide.
Research questions
What does the Graveyard Keeper 2 tech tree start with?
The Concept of Wood is the first node of the building branch and has no prerequisite. It opens Chopping, Woodworking I and The Concept of Stone. There are 30 such starting points across the six branches, one or more per tab.
Is any research free?
Yes. Every technology in the Cooking branch costs no spheres at all, so it is gated by whatever unlocks it rather than by research points.