Graveyard Keeper 2 Polished Bronze

Before launch, Polished Bronze was simply outside the demo. In the full game it is there, but three separate things can still hide it.

The Bronze Polishing technology is not researched. It sits in the Metallurgy tab and nothing about the recipe shows until you buy it.

The workbench has no Tool Rack. Polished Bronze is crafted at the Woodworking Workbench, not the anvil, and the bench needs the Tool Rack extension next to it.

Mastery is too low. The recipe asks for Building mastery 5, for you or for the zombie working the bench.

Bronze Polishing is in the Metallurgy branch, column 5, and costs 30 red tech points.

It needs Bronze Forge (20 red) first.

The same technology also unlocks Bronze tools and Copper Trinkets at the Wooden Anvil — both of which then consume Polished Bronze.

Station: Woodworking Workbench I or II, with a Tool Rack extension placed beside it.

Ingredients: 2 Bronze Detail, 2 Sand and 1 Melted Fat. Output: 2 Polished Bronze per batch.

A batch takes 6 ticks at 2 energy per tick, and needs Building mastery 5. It is a workbench craft, so no Fuel is burned at this step.

For a zombie, a bronze axe or pickaxe gives +2 of that mastery; the rest has to come from its Building tree — see our zombie mastery guide.

Bronze Detail is the cheap one: one Bronze Ingot each, and the ingots come from the Furnace fed with Bronze Scrap or Copper Ore.

Sand is dug up at a Sand Digger Stand, which a zombie can work.

Melted Fat is the ingredient that stalls most players. It is distilled at the Distillation Cube from 1 Fat, 2 Clay Plate and 20 Fuel, or from 3 Seed oil instead of the fat, after the Alchemy: Distillation technology.

If you need it now, the Apothecary sells Melted Fat at a base price of 10 bronze.

Items: Copper Trinkets, Bronze tools, the Starter Alchemist's Kit and the Amateur Rod.

Stations and buildings: the Woodworking Workbench II, the Furnace II, the Weaving Loom, the Sewing Table, the Writing Desk, the Formulation Bench and the Embalming Table I, among others.

That list is why it becomes a bottleneck: the Formulation Bench alone gates candles, charged Hypno-devices and Dynamite.

Your first Polished Bronze is worth taking to the Study Table. Studying it costs 3 science and 7 ticks (5 with Researcher) and pays +30 red and +20 blue tech points.

Those red points go straight back into Metallurgy, so the study roughly refunds the Bronze Polishing research.

Everything bronze runs through the Bronze Works unlock in the Metallurgy tab of the tech tree.

Until it is purchased, the bronze options simply do not appear at your crafting stations.

Metallurgy is worth prioritising anyway, since the same branch holds the Firewood Shed that supplies Fuel.

Bronze crafting happens at a Wooden Anvil, with a Hardening Bucket placed nearby as an extension — it does not have to be attached to the anvil, just close to it.

The Hardening Bucket itself costs 8 Bronze Nails and 4 Wood Planks, so build your nail supply before attempting it.

Smelting runs through Furnace 1, which converts raw materials into ingots and consumes Fuel while it works.

For the polishing step itself, add the Woodworking Workbench with its Tool Rack to that list.

Bronze Ingots come from two sources. Bronze Scrap is the convenient one — you get it from breaking down boxes and junk around the map, and its furnace recipe requires less Fuel.

Copper Ore is the sustainable one. It has to be mined from ore veins, but the deposit is renewable, which matters once your yard has been stripped.

Once you have ingots, simple bronze items are cheap: Bronze Detail, for example, needs only one ingot each.

Every bronze station is priced in nails, so a nail shortage stops the chain before it starts.

Early nails come from breaking trash piles and broken barrels around your home with an axe equipped, alongside Bronze Scraps and Boards.

The Wooden Anvil costs just 1 Short Log, crafted at a Sawhorse, plus 1 Stone, and converts Bronze Scrap into nails at six nails per scrap.

Get that running before spending nails on the Hardening Bucket, which alone wants 8 of them.

Polishing burns no Fuel, but everything upstream does: the Furnace smelts the ingots and the Distillation Cube needs 20 Fuel per batch of Melted Fat.

One Short Log chopped at a Chopping Spot yields 10 Firewood, and 2 Firewood convert to 20 Fuel at a Firewood Shed.

The shed unlocks in the same Metallurgy branch as Bronze Works and costs 10 Sticks and 2 Bronze Nails to build.

Since sheds only supply stations in their own area, your outdoor furnace and kiln need their own shed separate from the kitchen.

Metalwork feeds the two systems the sequel is built around. The first is machinery and automated production, which the store page lists as core features.

The second is war: the game advertises crafting armour and weapons and training your undead troops.

The developers add that zombies fight best when equipped with the finest weapons and armour, so metal quality has a direct combat payoff.

Polished Bronze is the step where the bronze line stops being basic parts and starts building the stations that lead there.