Burning bodies is the fastest way to clear out corpses you do not want in your graveyard, and it pays better than dumping them in the river. The crematorium sits just outside the morgue, but it starts out as an empty plot — you have to unlock the pyre blueprint before the game will let you build anything there.
Quick answer: Unlock the Crematorium node in the Theology tech branch, build a Place for burning corpses from wood billets south of the morgue, then drop a body on it and set it alight.
Crematorium location and how many pyres fit
The crematorium is an outdoor spot roughly one screen south of the morgue entrance, and it exits straight back into the morgue. There is no building to enter, just a marked plot with build slots on it.
- 1× Trunk for storage
- 4× Place for burning corpses (the funeral pyres)
Each pyre is single-use. Burning one body consumes the structure, so the four slots are really four burns before you rebuild.
Unlock the Place for burning corpses blueprint
Walking up to the crematorium plot before you have researched cremation shows empty build boxes with nothing you can place in them. The blueprint lives in the Technologies menu under the Theology branch, on the Crematorium node, which grants Blueprint: Place for burning corpses. Spend the points there first, or the plot stays unusable.
You also need a Circular Saw in the workyard, since wood billets are the main fuel material for the pyre and are cut there.
Crematorium build costs
| Blueprint | Materials | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Trunk | 4× Flitch, 4× Nails, 8× Simple iron | Local storage |
| Place for burning corpses | Wood billet (6 shown in the build menu; some listings put it at 8) | One cremation |
The trunk is optional but handy, because it saves you hauling ash and salt back up the hill every time. Open the build menu at the plot to confirm the exact wood billet cost your version is asking for before you cut a stack at the saw.
How to burn a corpse at the crematorium
Cremation rewards and how to confirm it worked
A successful burn drops the payout straight into your inventory while the flames are still going. You should see:
- 1× Burial certificate
- 5× Ash
- 2× Salt
If the pyre slot is empty again and those three items landed in your bag, the cremation completed. The output never changes with the state of the corpse, so a body you have already stripped of every organ gives exactly the same 5 ash as an untouched one. That makes the crematorium the obvious destination for leftovers after harvesting parts in the morgue.
The only other way to dispose of a body without burying it is tossing it in the river west of the Old Graveyard for Yorick, and that gives you nothing in return.
Wall Crematorium in the Souls room (Better Save Soul)
With the Better Save Soul DLC you get a second option indoors. The Wall Crematorium is built on the north wall of the Souls room, up to two of them, and it needs the Useful equipment technology plus 4× Complex iron parts, 2× Iron chisel, and 2× A polished brick of stone. Each one also adds 10 Souls’ gratitude.
| Outdoor pyre | Wall Crematorium | |
|---|---|---|
| Ash per body | 5 | 3 |
| Salt per body | 2 | 2 |
| Certificate | 1 | 1 |
| Reusable | No | Yes, burns Fuel |
Each burn in the wall unit costs 20 Fuel, and fuel is cheap to stock: 10 wooden sticks give 20, a single firewood gives 30, and 10 coal gives 160. Two fewer ash per body is the trade-off, but you stop spending stacks of wood billets on structures that vanish after one use.
For most playthroughs the outdoor plot is enough. Keep a few wood billets on hand, build pyres in batches of four, and run the leftovers down from the morgue whenever the tables fill up.
