The Furnace is where Graveyard Keeper 2 turns scrap and ore into ingots, and almost every bronze tool you make early on starts here. To get Furnace I, unlock Bronze Melting (10 red points) in the Metallurgy tree. Then build it at the Yard building desk with 6 Piece of stone and 12 Brick, and finish the frame with a Hammer at Building mastery 2.
Furnace II, or Furnace 2 as most players call it, comes from Iron Forge (35 red points), and it’s the only furnace that makes Iron Ingot. Both run on Fuel from a Firewood shed in the Yard. They also stop after each batch until the output is collected, so you’ll want zombies on them sooner or later.
What I Covered:
Furnace I vs Furnace II
Both furnaces go up at the Yard building desk and finish with a Hammer at Building mastery 2. What changes between them is the research and the bill of materials.
| Furnace I | Furnace II | |
|---|---|---|
| Research | Bronze Melting (10 red) | Iron Forge (35 red) |
| Needs first | Bronze Works | Bronze Polishing |
| Materials | 6 Piece of stone + 12 Brick | 6 Polished Stone + 2 Polished Bronze + 12 Brick |
| Best for | Bronze Ingot and Glass | Iron Ingot |
How to Get Furnace 1 in GK2
Furnace 1 only asks for Piece of stone and Brick, but Brick comes from a Kiln that burns Fuel. So a Yard Firewood shed and a Kiln both go up before the furnace does.
Research Path in the Metallurgy Tree
Furnace I is two steps into the Metallurgy branch of the tech tree:
- Unlock Bronze Works. This is the same research that gives you the Wooden Anvil.
- Unlock Bronze Melting for 10 red points.
Bronze Melting also unlocks Firewood shed I, so you can build the Yard shed as soon as the research is done.
Furnace I Materials
| Material | Amount | How to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Piece of stone | 6 | Stonemason’s Workbench: 2 Stone + 4 Wood wedge makes 4. You can also buy it |
| Brick | 12 | Kiln: 4 Clay + 20 Fuel makes 6 |
Two crafts at the Stonemason’s Workbench cover the furnace and leave you 2 spare Piece of stone. Wood wedge is a Chopping Spot recipe, and a single Short Log gives you 10 of them.
You Need a Kiln for the Bricks
Bricks are the slow part. They come from the Kiln, which has its own research called Brick Making (15 red and 5 green points), and Brick Making wants Pottery I first. The Kiln takes 4 Piece of stone to build. It also needs 5 Clay and 5 Water.
One Brick batch uses 4 Clay and 20 Fuel and gives you 6 Brick. For the 12 you need, that’s two batches, so 8 Clay and 40 Fuel before the furnace even exists. The Brick recipe asks for Building mastery 3, one point higher than the furnace frame.
Place and Finish the Frame
- Open the Yard building desk and pick Furnace I.
- Place the frame where you want it. The game takes the materials now, and you won’t pay them again.
- Put a Hammer on your tool belt. A Hammer sitting in your backpack doesn’t count.
- Interact with the frame to finish it. You need Building mastery 2 and some energy.
Some players can place the frame but can’t finish it. If that happens to you, check four things: the Hammer is equipped, your Building mastery is 2 or higher, you have energy left, and the Hammer still has durability.
How to Get Furnace 2
Furnace II is your first source of Iron Ingot. The research is a single step, but two of its materials need Melted Fat, and that’s the slow part.
Iron Forge Research
Furnace II needs Iron Forge, which costs 35 red points and comes after Bronze Polishing. It’s worth the points. Bellows and Iron Smithing both need Iron Forge too, and Iron Smithing is what gives you the Iron Anvil.
Furnace II Materials
| Material | Amount | How to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Polished Stone | 6 | Stonemason’s Workbench with a Tool Rack: 4 Piece of stone + 1 Melted Fat + 2 Sand makes 4. You can also buy it |
| Polished Bronze | 2 | Woodworking Workbench with a Tool Rack: 2 Bronze Detail + 2 Sand + 1 Melted Fat makes 2 |
| Brick | 12 | Kiln, same as before |
Melted Fat is the real wall here. Both polished materials need it, and the only place to make it is the Distillation Cube in the Alchemy Lab. So if you haven’t opened the Alchemy Lab yet, Furnace II is going to wait. If you craft everything yourself, you need 3 Melted Fat, and one batch from Fat gives you 4. If you buy the Polished Stone instead, you only need 1.
You’ll already have Bronze Polishing for the Polished Bronze recipe, since Iron Forge needs it anyway. The recipe does want Building mastery 5, though.
Upgrade or Second Furnace?
Furnace II has every Furnace I recipe, so you lose nothing by moving up. What I can’t confirm yet is whether it replaces Furnace I or goes down as a separate building. Check the Yard building desk before you tear anything down. If both can stand side by side, I’d keep Furnace I on bronze and Glass and give Furnace II the iron.
Graveyard Keeper 2 Furnace Recipes
The mastery column below is Smithing. Every recipe except Engineering Details also burns Fuel from the Yard shed.
Furnace I Recipes
| Item | Ingredients | Fuel | Output | Smithing mastery | Research |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze Ingot | 3 Bronze Scrap | 10 | 2 | 1 | Bronze Melting |
| Bronze Ingot | 3 Copper Nugget + 1 Tin | 20 | 4 | 2 | Bronze Forge |
| Glass | 3 Sand | 10 | 3 | 2 | Glass |
| Alchemy Flasks I | 2 Glass | 10 | 2 | 2 | Glass Blowing |
| Empty Bottle | 1 Glass | 10 | 2 | 3 | Glass Blowing |
Furnace II-Only Recipes
| Item | Ingredients | Fuel | Output | Smithing mastery | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Ingot | 3 Iron Ore | 30 | 3 | 5 | Iron Forge |
| Golden ingot | 3 Golden nugget | 30 | 2 | 4 | Iron Forge + Bellows |
| Engineering Details | 1 Steel Ingot | None | 2 | 12 | Steel Casting + Casting Table |
Iron Ingot is the reason to build Furnace II. Golden ingot and Engineering Details show up much later, and each one needs an extension next to the furnace.
Fireman adds 1 ingot to every ingot recipe here. It has to be your own perk, since a zombie’s perk won’t count for it. Glassworker adds 1 to the glass recipes, and Gear Master turns 2 Engineering Details into 3.
Bellows and Casting Table
| Extension | Research | Cost | Unlocks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bellows | Bellows (30 red, needs Iron Forge) | 4 Wooden Plank + 4 Bronze Nails + 2 Leather Scroll | Golden ingot |
| Casting Table | Steel Casting (150 red, 20 blue, needs Steel Smithing) | 4 Polished Stone + 4 Steel Ingot + 2 Steel Detail | Engineering Details |
You place both from the Yard building desk right next to the furnace, and there’s no frame to finish. The research alone doesn’t attach anything. If the recipe doesn’t show up in the furnace menu, move the extension closer. Golden ingot is a Furnace II recipe, so a Bellows next to Furnace I won’t unlock anything.
You can’t smelt Steel Ingot in either furnace. It comes from the Bishop’s Steel supply dialogue, and Steel Smithing, which the Casting Table needs, asks for 70 reputation with Jack.
How to Fuel the Furnace
Fuel lives inside a Firewood shed, and each shed only feeds stations in its own area. Your furnace needs a shed in the Yard. The one inside your house only covers the Kitchen Oven.
- Build a Chopping Spot. It needs the Chopping research (8 red points) and 2 Short Log.
- Chop 1 Short Log into 10 Firewood. 20 Stick works too if you’re low on logs.
- Load the Firewood into the Yard Firewood shed. Every 2 Firewood becomes 20 Fuel.
- Open the furnace and check the Available fuel counter before you queue a recipe.
So one Short Log turns into 100 Fuel, which is exactly what a Firewood shed I holds.
| Shed | Research | Cost | Fuel capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firewood shed I | Bronze Melting | 10 Stick + 2 Bronze Nails | 100 |
| Firewood shed II | Firewood shed II (20 red, 5 green, needs Bronze Forge) | 20 Stick + 6 Bronze Nails + 2 Bronze Detail | 500 |
Shed II has its own frame and its full cost. You don’t get a discount for owning Shed I.
Fuel goes quicker than you’d expect once you smelt iron. Bronze costs 5 Fuel per ingot, while an Iron Ingot costs 10, and a full Shed I only covers 3 iron batches. I’d build Shed II right after Furnace II.
Where to Get Ore, Scrap and Sand
| Input | How to get it |
|---|---|
| Bronze Scrap | Break the broken barrels and trash piles around your yard. It’s also sold |
| Copper Nugget | Mine ore veins. There’s one close to the yard that’s easy to walk past |
| Tin | Sluice Box: 3 Sand makes 2 to 3 Tin |
| Sand | Mining and quarrying |
| Iron Ore | Mine it or buy it |
| Golden nugget | Formulation Bench: 1 Iron Ore + 1 Philosopher Stone |
The Sluice Box comes with Bronze Forge (20 red points) and costs 4 Board and 4 Bronze Nails. Bronze Forge is also the research behind the copper and Tin ingot recipe, so you get both at once.
Why the Furnace Stops After One Batch
If you queue five bronze batches and walk away, you’ll come back to one finished batch and four still waiting. The furnace won’t start the next one until the output is taken out, and the Kiln behaves the same way. A lot of players on Steam thought it was a bug. The fix is zombies:
- Assign a zombie to the furnace. Without one, porters won’t touch it, even though they empty your workbenches and anvils fine.
- Check the zombie’s stats. It needs enough of the stat that material asks for, and you can hover over the material in the furnace to see the number. If the zombie falls short, its icon shows red when you place it.
- Give the zombie a tool if it’s short. Tools raise the matching stat.
- Build the Zombie Supplier Station. Players find it in the building tech tree, top row, second slot.
- Put a second zombie on the Supplier Station in the same area. That porter carries the finished ingots to your storage.
Graveyard Keeper 2 uses far more zombies than the first game did, so expect a working furnace line to eat into your supply of bodies.
What to Smelt First
This is the order I’d follow:
- Bronze from Bronze Scrap. It needs Smithing mastery 1 and only 5 Fuel per ingot. At the Wooden Anvil, 1 Bronze Ingot makes 12 Bronze Nails, or 6 Bronze Detail with a Hardening Bucket next to it.
- A Bronze Hammer. It adds 2 Smithing mastery while it’s on your tool belt, and you need a Hammer for frames anyway.
- Glass. The Jewelry Table and Laboratory I both need 3 Glass to build.
- 2 Iron Ingot, once Furnace II is up. The Iron Anvil costs those plus 4 Piece of stone.
Should You Rush the Furnace?
I’d rush Furnace I. Bronze Detail only comes from Bronze Ingot, and it shows up in the cost of a lot of early builds, from the Tool Rack to Firewood shed II, on top of every bronze tool. Furnace II can wait until you’ve opened the Alchemy Lab and have a couple of zombies free, because without a porter you’ll be walking back to collect every single batch.
Graveyard Keeper 2
