Town Gratitude is one of those mechanics in Graveyard Keeper 2 that quietly controls your entire progression. That golden thumbs-up icon at the top of the screen determines how much Faith you pull from your weekly sermon, and without enough of it, even a beautifully upgraded church produces nothing. The cap starts at a frustrating 10, and the game does not explain how to push past it. Here is everything you need to know.
What is Town Gratitude and why does it matter?
Town Gratitude is the resource that powers your church sermons on Wrath day each week. The game uses the lower of two values to calculate sermon success: your current Gratitude or your church's overall rating. So if your Gratitude sits at 0, a five-star church still produces zero Faith. Since Faith unlocks advanced crafting recipes and research, going into every sermon with a full Gratitude bar is not optional.
How to increase the Town Gratitude cap from 10 to 20
The initial cap of 10 is hardcoded to your story progress, which is why players who only touched the demo could not raise it at all. To unlock the 20-point cap, you need to win the first major battle that reopens the port area.
Getting to that battle requires some preparation:
- Coin to pay mercenaries who join your side during the fight
- Fortifications built and deployed from the barracks before the battle starts
- Health and damage potions brewed in the alchemy lab to swing the odds in your favor
- Completion of several quests for Herbert, including raising your graveyard rating to a required threshold
Once the battle is won and the port opens, your maximum Town Gratitude automatically increases to 20. Sermons become meaningfully more productive from this point forward.
Graveyard Keeper 2 Guide: How to Increase Maximum Town Gratitude
How to increase Town Gratitude beyond 20
Some late-game prayers demand a Gratitude rating of 100 or more, so the 20-point cap is just a waypoint. Pushing further requires a different approach: repairing buildings in town to grow the population.
Building repairs use Building Kits, Wooden Kits, Iron Kits, and sometimes Furniture Kits. Each repair opens the town up more, and winning additional battles unlocks new districts with more buildings to fix.
After repairing buildings, wait for Lust Day and visit Linda at the Dockside Club. Ask her to invite new people to town. Each visit raises your maximum Town Gratitude by one or two points and rewards you with Green Scrolls. Repeat this cycle of repairing buildings and checking in with Linda to steadily push the cap higher.
What are the best ways to earn Town Gratitude each week?
Raising the cap is only half the equation. You also need to fill it before every sermon. Here are the most reliable methods.
Complete quests and collect Town Gratitude sheets
Main and side quests do not hand out Gratitude directly. Instead, they reward Town Gratitude sheets, each worth +5 Gratitude when consumed from your inventory. Because these sheets do not expire and do not count against your cap while stored, you can stockpile them and redeem a batch right before Wrath day.
For a broader look at managing your early economy alongside these quests, the Graveyard Keeper 2 beginner tips and tricks guide covers the key habits that keep resources flowing.
Bury or cremate corpses and sell Burial Certificates
Every body you bury or cremate generates a Burial Certificate. Sell these at the tavern and you earn both coin and +1 Gratitude per certificate. Bodies arrive most days, making this a low-effort but consistent source that adds up over a full week.
Sell in-demand goods to the Merchant
The Merchant needs food and firewood to keep the village running. Goods that are currently in demand appear with a golden thumb icon, and selling them earns Gratitude alongside coin. The bottom of the shop menu shows the exact Gratitude value of your pending sale before you confirm.
The catch: if you flood the market with one crop, demand drops and the golden thumb disappears. Diversify your harvests to keep multiple goods in rotation.
The following items can earn Gratitude when in demand:
- Wheat
- River Fish
- Carrots
- Cabbages
- Beets
- Onions
Once you build new shops in town, higher-tier goods become eligible. Flax, for example, can be sold to Tailors for Gratitude once that shop is constructed.
Fill warehouse orders at the port
After winning the first battle, the port warehouse opens up. Completing supply orders here pays out 15, 20, or 25 Gratitude per order, making it one of the highest-value Gratitude sources in the game. The downside is that these orders require a steady production line. Setting up zombies to work at your homestead automates the supply chain so warehouse orders do not grind your other progress to a halt.
Buy Gratitude pages from the Tavern
If Wrath day is approaching and your Gratitude is short, the tavern sells Town Gratitude pages at 5 Silver each for +5 Gratitude per page. This is expensive relative to other methods, so treat it as a backup rather than a primary strategy.
Win battles
Each battle you win pushes the zombie horde back, unlocks new map areas, and rewards you with multiple Town Gratitude sheets. The exact sheet count is visible before you commit to a fight, so you can plan around expected rewards.
Getting the most out of your sermons is just one piece of the puzzle. For a full breakdown of every system you will encounter in your first hours, the Graveyard Keeper 2 strategy guides collection has you covered from corpse management to alchemy and beyond.