Graveyard Keeper is a very interesting simulation game where you have to do some shady graveyard work to make money and unlock new technologies to progress.

There are many tasks at hand such as expanding your church and spreading your influence that requires a lot of paperwork in Graveyard Keeper. Doing the paperwork also requires a lot of writing supplies and ink, and crafting ink can be confusing if you are starting out.

While you can buy ink from the Astrologer early on, crafting it yourself is essential to avoid spending money on something that is very important in the gameplay. Here is a straightforward, step-by-step guide to producing your own ink from scratch in Graveyard Keeper.

Guide to making ink in Graveyard Keeper

Before you can start mixing ingredients, you must unlock the necessary workstations in your technology tree:

• Writing supplies: This technology node allows you to craft ink and paper at the church workbench.
• Alchemy: You must navigate the swamp and speak to Clotho the witch to unlock the alchemy tech tree. This allows you to build the alchemy workbench (tier I), which is mandatory for mixing dyes.

The biggest hurdle in making ink is obtaining black paint. There are a few alchemical recipes, but two methods are great for players who have just started Graveyard Keeper or progressed a little ahead. These methods are mixing ash with oil and adding graphite powder with water.

• Ash: Easily obtained by cremating corpses on pyres instead of burying them.
• Oil: You can buy “seed oil” from Dig (the vendor east of the tavern) or press it yourself from hemp seeds.
• Note: You cannot put a glass bottle of “seed oil” directly into the alchemy bench. You must open your inventory, select the seed oil, and click “Use” to extract 10 drops of usable oil. Combine the ash and oil at the tier I alchemy workbench to create your paint.

The other method involves mixing graphite powder with water and it is not recommended for early gameplay. Here’s how you can make ink using this method.

• Graphite powder: Mine coal, smelt it into graphite in a furnace (level 2 or higher), and grind it down using an alchemy mill.
• Water: Draw a bucket from the well near your house and “Use” it in your inventory to get water droplets. Combine the powder and water at the bench.

Once you have your black paint, you need two final components to thin it out and store it:

• Water (1x): Sourced from your home well.
• Conical flasks (1x): Crafted at a furnace using glass (smelted from river sand and water) or purchased directly from the Astrologer.

Head down to the church basement and interact with the church workbench. Combine your 1x black paint, 1x water, and 1x conical flask. This recipe is highly efficient, yielding 5x ink per craft. To turn your newly crafted ink into a usable writing tool, combine it with feathers (purchased from the village egg vendor) to make pen and ink.

If you have not set up your alchemy lab yet and just need to finish an early quest, like making flyers for the Inquisitor, do not panic. The Astrologer sells ink and feathers once a week. Buying a single bottle of ink to craft three sets of pen and ink is a great way to avoid the early grind until your graveyard economy is fully operational.