Graveyard Keeper 2 Coffins — How to Open a Grave and Dig Up a Corpse

Sooner or later you'll stand in front of a burial plot in Graveyard Keeper 2, press "open coffin" — and get a requirement window instead of a shovel. The blocker isn't the tech tree, a skill or a quest: it's a purchasable item. Here's how it works.

Quick answer

Buy an exhumation certificate from the bartender in the village tavern for 1 silver 75 copper, return to the grave, and the open-coffin action executes, consuming one certificate.

Why the open-coffin option is stuck

Interact with an occupied grave in the graveyard and you'll see the open-coffin button. Press it and the game asks for: exhumation certificate (0/1). That counter is the entire obstacle — no skill, shovel upgrade or story step is missing.

One certificate covers one grave. If you plan to clear out several bad burials in a session, buy a stack before heading back.

Where to buy the exhumation certificate

1. Open the world map and pick the village region — fast travel there; walking wastes the trip's whole point.
2. From the arrival point, cross the village square into the main tavern building. The bartender stands behind the ground-floor counter.
3. Talk to him and choose the trade option. His stock is tiered; the exhumation certificate sits in the first tier, so it's available on your first visit.
4. Buy one certificate per grave you intend to open at 1 silver 75 copper each, then close the trade menu.

Performing the exhumation

1. Return to the graveyard and stand at the plot you want to empty, certificate in inventory.
2. Interact with the grave again and choose open coffin. The requirement now reads 1/1, the action executes, and the certificate is consumed.
3. Dig the grave out and pull the corpse up. From there you can carry it to the morgue, the cremation pile, or the resurrection table.

You'll know it worked when the certificate counter drops, the grave sits empty, and the plot is free to refill or rebuild.

Note that a grave's decorations belong to the plot, not the corpse. If you're rearranging the graveyard rather than swapping bodies, use the graveyard workbench to remove headstones and fences, then dig a fresh plot where you want it.

When 1 silver 75 copper is worth it

Each grave scores min(decoration, white skulls) − red skulls. The white-skull count is a hard ceiling: put a +5 marble fence on a corpse with only 2 white skulls and the plot still returns +2. That ceiling is the second reason to dig: once you've unlocked advanced embalming and can prepare better corpses, swapping out an early low-skull corpse raises the plot's score without touching its decorations. Our graveyard rating guide covers the full formula.

Dig when:

• Red skulls are dragging a decorated plot into negative score.
• You have a higher-white-skull corpse ready for that exact plot.

Don't dig when the plot already scores positive — every reopening burns another certificate.

What to do with the dug-up corpse

Once it's out of the ground, the corpse behaves like any other, so decide its destination before you start digging:

Option	Best for
Rebury in a better plot	High-white-skull corpses
Cremation pile	Corpses that only drag scores down
Zombie resurrection	Corrupted bodies destined for labor or combat
The river	Quick disposal before the cremation pile is unlocked

Because corruption makes zombies better workers and soldiers, a red-skull corpse you dig up isn't necessarily waste. Sort as you dig: decent bodies go to show graves, the rest go down the resurrection line — and you won't pay for a second certificate later.