In Graveyard Keeper 2, Town Gratitude is the gold thumbs-up resource displayed along the screen’s top edge, and it controls your church sermons’ effectiveness. A sermon awards whichever is smaller: your Gratitude or church rating. Thus, even a fully upgraded church produces no Faith when Gratitude is 0, making its maximum one of the earliest limits to increase.
Quick answer: The initial Gratitude limit is 10. Raise it to 20 by winning the initial battle that restores the port, then increase it again by completing more town districts.
Raise the Town Gratitude cap from 10 to 20
The cap cannot be increased in the demo, and it stays locked at 10 until you push through the main story. The single event that lifts it is winning the first Capture the Flag style battle that reopens the port. Clear that fight and the maximum jumps to 20 permanently.
Push the cap beyond 20
Some prayers need 100 Gratitude or more, so the cap is meant to climb well past 20 later in the game. The mechanic that raises it is the same one that took you to 20: clearing combat encounters that block off town districts. Each liberated area, such as the Castle Area and the Square still hidden under fog on the map, is set to unlock more capacity as you fight your way across the region.
Progress here is inconsistent for some players. Winning every battle on this side of the river and completing the election event has not always moved the cap above 20 in early play, so treat further increases as tied to opening new districts rather than to any single quest.
Fill the meter before each Wrath day sermon
A higher cap only matters if you refill Gratitude every week. Sermons happen once a week on Wrath day and consume the resource, so you need to top the meter up before then. Anything that helps the settlement tends to reward Gratitude, and most sources have their own weekly limit, which is why spreading your effort across several activities works better than grinding one.
| Source | Gratitude gained | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Town Gratitude sheets (quests) | +5 each | Consumed from inventory before a sermon |
| Tavern purchase | +5 for 5 Silver | Expensive; use only in a pinch |
| Burial Certificates | 1 each | Sold at the tavern; caps near 5 per week |
| Selling in-demand goods | Varies | Only items marked with the golden thumb |
| Warehouse orders | 15, 20 or 25 | Unlocks after winning the first battle |
| Battle victories | Multiple sheets | Rewards shown before you start |
Complete quests for Gratitude sheets
Main and side quests are among the strongest sources, but they do not add Gratitude directly. Instead you receive Town Gratitude sheets. Store them safely and consume them from your inventory just before a sermon for +5 Gratitude each. Because they are physical items, you never lose value by overfilling the meter.
Sell burial certificates and thumbs-up goods
Burying or cremating bodies grants a Burial Certificate each time, and selling those at the tavern returns both coin and 1 Gratitude apiece. Bodies arrive most days, so this is a steady trickle. The merchant, meanwhile, marks certain goods with the golden thumb when the town needs them, paying Gratitude on top of coin. Wheat, river fish, carrots, cabbages, beets and onions all qualify while in demand, and the trade menu shows how much Gratitude a sale will add at the bottom of the screen.
Selling too much of one crop kills its demand and stops the Gratitude bonus for a few days, so diversify your harvest. Roughly 15 of an eligible crop equals one Gratitude point, and each crop type tends to stop paying after about 2 points per week.
Ship goods to the port warehouse
Once the first battle reopens the port, you gain access to the town warehouse and can send supplies to the shops you build. Filling these orders often pays 15, 20 or 25 Gratitude at once, but you need a strong production line at home to hit those quantities. Setting your zombies to work keeps the output flowing.
The Herm buy-and-sell shortcut
When Wrath day is approaching and your supply is lacking, purchase eligible goods from Herm and sell them straight back. In one recorded run, the player bought 5 river fish fillets, along with 30 wheat, 30 carrots, 30 beets and 30 cabbages, then resold everything to obtain the full 10 Gratitude in one visit. The transaction costs a little through the price difference, but it beats buying tavern scrolls and saves time compared with farming all those goods yourself.
How to confirm the cap has increased
Check the meter at the top of the screen. Before the port opens it reads out of 10, and after the first battle it shows out of 20, matching the town rank tracker that now reads Town 20. Any leftover fractional progress on Gratitude resets at the start of the new weekly cycle, so finish partial points and spend your Gratitude on the sermon before that reset rather than assuming it carries over.
