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How to Automate Wood With Zombies in Graveyard Keeper 2

By Freedom251 Team · · 4 min read

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To automate wood in Graveyard Keeper 2, you unlock the Zombie Lumberjack technology, build a lumberjack stand, timber stockpile, and porter station at the forest sawmill, and assign a zombie holding an axe to the stand. The zombie then gathers logs and sticks on a repeating cycle. The porter station is what moves logs on to the Factory wood heap. None of this becomes available until both entrances to the Old Mine are open.

The game released on 22 September 2026 according to its Steam store listing. The unlock conditions, costs, and output below come from community guides and a community data reference extracted from a specific game build, not from developer documentation. If your technology tree or costs differ, the in-game values take precedence.

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What has to be unlocked first

The gathering technologies stay hidden in the tech tree until the Old Mine is open from both ends. A community unlock guide reports that entering from only one side is not enough for Zombie Lumberjack to appear.

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The Quarry-side entrance

According to a current community walkthrough, the collapsed Quarry cave is opened by blasting it with dynamite, which comes after the relevant forest progression in the game.

The Factory-side passage

The same walkthrough says the Factory-side blockage must be cleared before the second route opens. It lists the following requirements for that passage:

  • 4 Building Kits I
  • 1 Reinforced Beam
  • Building Mastery 8

The Zombie Lumberjack technology

Once both routes are open, the Zombie Lumberjack technology is listed in a community sawmill reference at 75 red and 10 blue technology points. The exact prerequisite chain that gates it is reported by players rather than confirmed by the developer.

Step-by-step setup

  1. Open both Old Mine routes, using the Quarry cave and the Factory-side passage described above.
  2. Unlock Zombie Lumberjack in the technology tree for 75 red and 10 blue points.
  3. Build the three sawmill structures in the forest southwest of the Quarry. Their materials are listed in the table below.
  4. Equip a zombie with an axe and place it at the lumberjack stand. The reference says the zombie repeats the work cycle on its own once set up.
  5. Build a porter station if you want logs carried to the Factory. Gathering works without it, but the logs then stay in local storage.

Sawmill build costs

Structure Materials (per community sawmill reference) Role in the setup
Lumberjack stand 2 Wooden Planks, 6 Bricks Where the axe-carrying zombie works
Timber stockpile 4 Wooden Beams, 12 Bronze Nails Local sawmill storage for gathered wood
Porter station 2 Wooden Planks, 4 Bricks Carries logs from storage to the Factory wood heap

What the setup produces

The sawmill reference lists one work cycle of the lumberjack as yielding 1 Log and 2 Sticks, plus one red technology point. The cycle restarts automatically. The reference does not state how long a cycle takes or how much wood an hour the setup produces, so no throughput figure can be given here.

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Local storage or delivery to the Factory

The two setups differ only in where the wood ends up. Choose based on whether you want the logs to sit at the sawmill or travel to the Factory.

Setup Where logs end up Required structures Automatic transport
Local gathering Timber stockpile at the sawmill Lumberjack stand, timber stockpile, axe-equipped zombie None
Gathering with delivery Factory wood heap All of the above, plus a porter station Porter route carries logs to the heap

The sources reviewed do not describe any competing lumberjack buildings or a tested optimal layout for the sawmill.

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Processing wood beyond gathering

Gathering and processing are separate stages. Logs and sticks from the sawmill are raw material. Turning wood into boards, beams, or building kits depends on Factory recipes, stations, power, inputs, and staffing, and those depend on what you have unlocked.

A community Factory guide suggests checking the following when a production line stops moving wood:

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  • Belt direction at each conveyor segment
  • Whether each station has its required inputs
  • Whether the correct tool and a zombie are present at each station
  • Whether the porter endpoint is collecting items

The same guide says no universally best Factory layout has been published. It recommends building a short line that you can inspect and then extend.

Troubleshooting

  • Zombie Lumberjack is missing from the tech tree: confirm that both Old Mine entrances are open. Entering from one side is not enough.
  • The lumberjack has stopped: confirm that the zombie has an axe and is assigned to the lumberjack stand. The work cycle repeats on its own once it is set up correctly.
  • Logs stay at the sawmill: check that a porter station is built and assigned. Without one, gathering happens locally and nothing is transported.
  • A Factory line does not move wood onward: inspect the route one segment at a time, starting with conveyor arrows and inputs, then station staffing, matching tools, and the collection point at the end.

What is and is not established

The Steam store listing gives the release date as 22 September 2026, with Lazy Bear Games as developer and tinyBuild as publisher. The developer’s Steam announcement describes the broader design in these words: "Build machinery, automate production, and lead your undead army into battle to save the Kingdom from the zombie apocalypse." That confirms automation as a core premise but does not give wood-specific mechanics.

The unlock gates, material costs, sawmill output, and porter behaviour described here come from community guides and a community data reference. Developers may change these with later updates, so check them against the current tech tree and structures. No wood-automation figures from the developer or an independent organisation were found in the sources consulted.

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