Early in Graveyard Keeper 2, the twins who live across the river hold the merchant’s fishing rod, and they will only part with it once you hand over pottery. The game drops this request without explaining the crafting chain behind it, so the objective stalls until you piece together three things: a technology, a workstation, and a raw material.
Quick answer: Unlock Pottery I in the Tech Tree, build a Potter’s Wheel with 2 Wooden Planks and 1 Stone, mine clay southeast of your home, then craft 6 Clay Plates and return them to the twins.
What you need before crafting clay plates
The twins want exactly six clay plates, and every step depends on the one before it. Line up these requirements first so you are not backtracking between the workyard and the clay pit.
- The Pottery I technology, bought with 10 Red and 5 Green Tech Points.
- A Potter’s Wheel, built from 2 Wooden Planks and 1 Stone.
- Enough clay to run the recipe twice (4 clay total for 6 plates).
- An axe and pickaxe for gathering wood, stone, and clay.
Unlock the Pottery I technology
The clay plate recipe and the Potter’s Wheel blueprint are both locked behind Pottery I, which sits in the Building branch of the Tech Tree. You earn Red and Green Tech Points gradually by doing actions tied to each field, so keep working around your base if you are short.
Build the Potter’s Wheel
Once Pottery I is unlocked, the Potter’s Wheel becomes buildable at your workyard crafting bench. It costs 2 Wooden Planks and 1 Piece of Stone. Neither material is a simple pickup, so it helps to know where each one comes from.
| Material | Where it’s made | Recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Board | Sawhorse | Logs from chopped trees |
| Wooden Plank | Woodworking Workbench I | 1 Board per plank |
| Piece of Stone | Stonemason’s Workbench | 2 Stone + 4 Wood Wedges make 4 pieces |
Logs come from chopping trees with your axe, and stone is mined from boulders with your pickaxe. Wood Wedges are produced at the Chopping Spot from Short Logs. Clearing trees and rocks near your workyard does double duty, since it frees up placement space and hands you the raw materials at the same time.
Building the Woodworking Workbench I and the Stonemason’s Workbench requires Bronze Nails, one of the harder early materials to track down, so gather those before committing to the production chain.
With the planks and stone in hand, open the crafting bench in your yard, select Potter’s Wheel, and place it in any open slot in the surrounding area.
Where to mine clay
There is a large clay pit in the ground just southeast of your home, inside the Inquisition Base. Head that way past the small ruins and look for the sinkhole of clay before the cliffside. Interact with the deposit to start gathering.
This node does not run dry, so you can pull all the clay you need from this single spot without hunting the map. Gathering drains your energy, though, and prolonged work builds fatigue, so bring food if you plan to stockpile in one trip.
Craft six clay plates and deliver them
Carry your clay back to the Potter’s Wheel and select the Clay Plates option in the crafting menu. Each cycle turns 2 clay into 3 clay plates, so two runs cover the full order of six.
Cross the river again and return to the twins where you first met them. Handing over the six clay plates completes this part of the quest, and you receive your first fishing rod on the spot with nothing else to pay. From there you can start fishing and take on any objectives that need fish.
If you can’t find the clay plate recipe
Receiving the twins’ request does not automatically unlock the technology or workstation needed to finish it, and talking to them again will not push the quest forward. If the recipe or the Potter’s Wheel blueprint is missing, open the Tech Tree and confirm that Pottery I is actually unlocked.
Also make sure you are crafting the plates at the Potter’s Wheel itself rather than another bench. With Pottery I unlocked and the wheel built, the only remaining task is gathering clay and running the recipe. There is no reason to over-produce, since the twins need exactly six plates unless you want extra pottery for later crafting.
