Graveyard Keeper 2 Choir Guide: Agatha's Quest Only Works With a Zombie

The Graveyard Keeper 2 choir only counts for Agatha's quest once at least one zombie is singing in it. Without a zombie you can still hold the sermon, but the quest won't move on.

That step is missing from a lot of guides. We tried it ourselves following one of them: built the choir, held the sermon, and the quest stayed stuck. Here's the full order, the tech costs, the Music Notes recipe and the way out of the known bug if you built the choir too early.

💡 Quick version: how to finish the choir quest

• Unlock the Church Music I tech for 50 red and 20 blue points.
• Craft 4 Music Notes at the Writing Desk (8 Clean Paper, 4 Ink, Book mastery 5).
• Build the choir from the church's build table: 4 Oiled Plank, 2 Bronze Detail, 4 Music Notes.
• Put at least one zombie into the choir.
• Talk to Agatha at the Crossroads and tell her the choir is ready.
• Hold a new sermon in the church and close the results window.

📜 Which quest is this?

The task is part of Agatha's quest line and is called "The Nun Also Reads". Agatha, the nun, wants two things: a finished choir in the church, and then a ceremony where that choir actually sings.

Once you've told her about the choir, the quest log only says to hold a ceremony in the church. That's where most players get stuck, because it doesn't say a word about a zombie.

Only when both parts are done does her quest line continue, including Herbert's novel. As long as the choir quest is stuck, that whole thread stays blocked.

🧪 Step 1: unlock Church Music I

In Graveyard Keeper 2 you unlock the choir and Music Notes in the Theology tech tree, on the branch behind the nun icon. The church carpets node sits right before it. There's no hidden blueprint. The tech is the only way.

Tech	Cost	Unlocks
Church carpets node	20 red, 5 green, 10 blue points	Prerequisite
Church Music I	50 red, 20 blue points	Music Notes recipe, choir blueprint

You don't need the next tier, Church Music II, for the quest. It costs 150 red and 100 blue points and unlocks the organ.

⚒️ Step 2: craft Music Notes

You write Music Notes at the Writing Desk. Each run makes one sheet, and the choir needs four.

Recipe	Station	Input	Requirement
1 Music Notes	Writing Desk	2 Clean Paper, 1 Ink	Book mastery 5
4 Music Notes	Writing Desk	8 Clean Paper, 4 Ink	Book mastery 5

According to a community database, each run gives one red and one blue tech point. Mastery 5 is the real hurdle: if you've barely used the Writing Desk so far, you'll have to work through a few other writing recipes first until you reach that level.

🔨 Step 3: build the Graveyard Keeper 2 choir in the church

You build the choir in Graveyard Keeper 2 through the build table in the church. There's no scaffold you have to hammer on: as soon as you hit build, the materials are used up and the choir is there.

Material	Amount
Oiled Plank	4
Bronze Detail	2
Music Notes	4

🧟 Step 4: put a zombie in the choir

This is the step that breaks the quest if you skip it. For the game, an empty choir is just church furniture. The quest wants a sermon with the choir singing, and in Graveyard Keeper 2 only zombies can sing.

Here's how: pick up a zombie and carry it over your head to the choir. An interaction prompt to put the zombie down appears there, and that slots it in. If a zombie is already in the choir, you can take it back out the same way. Any zombie counts. You don't need a special perk for the quest.

You can tell it worked by the cross icon above the choir: empty it shows +1, with one zombie without a musician perk it shows +2. We checked that in game.

We tested the whole thing: without a zombie, the quest stayed stuck after the ceremony. With a zombie in the choir, it was marked as completed right after the next ceremony. Players on the Steam forum report exactly the same. The developers haven't published anything about it.

How much does the choir add to your church?

The empty choir gives 1 point of church quality, and each zombie adds more depending on its musician perk. We confirmed the first two values in game. The perk values and the cap of five zombies come from a community database:

Zombie	Church quality
no musician perk	+1
first musician perk ("slightly increases")	+2
second musician perk ("increases")	+4
third musician perk ("greatly increases")	+7

There are three musician perks, and their in-game descriptions step up from a slight to a normal to a strong boost. According to those descriptions, the perks also work when the zombie is assigned to the organ.

For the quest, one zombie without a perk is enough. If you want to build up the church long-term, fill all five spots with musicians later.

No zombie yet?

Then you need to raise one first. That takes a complete body with all six organs (skull, brain, heart, intestines, bones, skin), a reanimation fluid, a zombie collar and faith for the resurrection. The collar has to handle as many red skulls as the body has. A bronze collar tops out at five red skulls.

✨ Step 5: tell Agatha and hold the sermon

Go to Agatha at the Crossroads with your choir and zombie in place and pick the dialogue option that the choir is ready. She'll then come to your next ceremony in the church, and the quest goal switches to holding a ceremony in the church.

Then hold a new sermon in the church. A service you held before building the choir or without a zombie doesn't count retroactively. Make sure to close the results window after the sermon. Only then does the game check whether the choir was used. According to the Steam forum, Agatha shows up right after the ceremony.

The reward is +10 relationship with Agatha and +2 Town Gratitude, both confirmed in game. After that, the conversation about Herbert's return starts.

Watch your likes before the sermon. The sermon window shows how many visitors will come: always the lower of church quality and likes. In our game we had 47 church quality and 20 likes, and 20 visitors came. Each visitor uses up one like. If your likes are at 0, nobody shows up.

A note on the order: some guides have you preach first and then talk to Agatha. If one order doesn't work for you, try the other. Either way, the zombie in the choir is what matters.

🩸 Bug: choir built too early

There's a second reason the choir quest in Graveyard Keeper 2 can get stuck. Several players on the Steam forum report that the quest doesn't progress if the choir was already standing before Agatha asked for it. That includes players who had five zombies in their choir.

According to those reports, tearing it down and rebuilding it didn't help. A hotfix after release got some saves working again, but not all. The official patch notes don't mention the bug. These are community reports, not a confirmed developer statement.

If you're affected, do this:

• Update the game to the latest version.
• Check that at least one zombie is in the choir.
• Talk to Agatha again.
• Hold a new sermon and close the results window.
• If that doesn't help: back up your save and wait for a patch. A mod that pushes the quest forward is going around in the community; we haven't tested it.

If you're not that far yet, wait to build the choir until Agatha explicitly asks for it.

Once the church is running, alchemy is the next big system. All runes and recipes are in our Graveyard Keeper 2 alchemy guide, and every other guide for the game is on our Graveyard Keeper 2 hub.

❓ FAQ about the choir in Graveyard Keeper 2

Why doesn't my choir quest complete after the sermon?

Usually there's no zombie in the choir. Put at least one in, talk to Agatha and hold a new sermon. Then close the results window.

How many zombies do I need for the choir?

One is enough for the quest. According to a community database, the choir holds up to five zombies.

Does the zombie need a musician perk?

No. Any zombie counts. A musician perk only raises church quality further.

Where do I get Music Notes?

You craft them at the Writing Desk: 2 Clean Paper and 1 Ink each. You need Book mastery 5 and the Church Music I tech.

Does a sermon I held before building the choir count?

No. The quest only checks a sermon where the choir sings with a zombie in it.

I built the choir before the quest. What now?

Update the game, put a zombie in, talk to Agatha and preach again. If the quest stays stuck, it's a known bug that hasn't been officially confirmed yet.

As of October 8, 2026. Tech costs and choir values were cross-checked with the community databases wikily.gg and graveyardkeeper2.io, and the quest flow and reward with English quest guides. English item names follow English quest guides.

Checked in game: the tech unlocks (Music Notes and the choir blueprint through Church Music I, with the church carpets node as prerequisite), Agatha's location at the Crossroads, slotting a zombie in with church quality +1 empty and +2 with one zombie, the three musician perks and their descriptions, the Music Notes recipe at the Writing Desk, the choir's build cost, the quest goal, dialogue option and reward, and the full flow: without a zombie the quest stays stuck, with a zombie it completes after the ceremony.

The choir-built-too-early bug comes from the Steam forum and is marked as a community report.