Graveyard Keeper: Game of Crone

1. Summary

Game of Crone gets a split reception. 138 of 204 English reviews recommend it, and many of those thumbs-up come with conditions, such as starting it early or waiting for a sale. The DLC adds backstory for Clotho, the Ancient Curse and the Inquisition, a camp of exiled nobles that grows into a free food farm, a vampire hunt in the village, and craftable bags that finally enlarge the inventory. Story and lore draw praise in 59 reviews, the refugee camp in 43 and the bags in 20.

Bugs come up in 39 reviews and are the complaint that turns up most in negative ones (28 of the 65): the game freezing at the DLC's opening scene, tents spawning without beds, NPCs who never show up and quests that can't be finished, with reports continuing into 2026. Next comes the camp's central mechanic. Every new building waits on a refugee happiness meter that takes several in-game days to fill, which 35 reviews complain about, 17 of them from players who still recommend the DLC. Other complaints concern an ending choice that permanently decides the camp's fate and your perks, with no manual save to fall back on, and a story that stops on a cliffhanger. Reviewers who started the DLC on a fresh save are mostly positive, while those who arrived on a finished save describe a waiting game with rewards they no longer need.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

New lore and backstory for familiar charactersHigh

Story or lore praise appears in 59 reviews. Reviewers single out Clotho's past and the origin of the Ancient Curse, a closer look at how the Inquisition treats the town's nobles, and hints about the previous keepers. One says the DLC "adds a lot of background lore about the witches and the Ancient Curse that the Stranger Sins DLC set up". Another enjoys the tone: "Charming story with nice comedy moments and the usual dark humor." A returning player on a fresh run wrote, "I honestly cannot say where the original game and the expansions join together". The 21 reviews that criticize the story call it bland, boring, shallow or simply bad, and some go after the new cast: one calls them "mostly one dimensional and undeveloped", another found them "very flat", and a third says the villain would be hard to accept even in an 80s B movie. Another dismisses the plot as "a cliche ancient curse story", and one negative review finds a single part worth having: "The only remotely important story beat is learning Clotho's past and what started the Ancient Curse."

A refugee camp that turns into a free farmHigh

The camp starts as a few tents for nobles who fled the town. Players keep them supplied with food and water, then add a kitchen, fields, a cook, a tanner and a money lender as more refugees arrive, and 43 reviews praise it. One reviewer liked that newcomers "didn't just stand around taking up space, but rather most of them provided new quests and rewards for me." For 20 reviews the payoff is food: they describe the camp as a source of free produce, animal products and cooked meals, "like the zombie farm but no zombies", and one adds that "over time they'll become self-sufficient and practically an infinite source of food for you." Several of the same reviews complain about waiting for camp happiness before each build, and two note that its storage fills up with one kind of item, such as eggs.

Bags that finally enlarge the inventoryMedium

"They increase your inventory capacity and are really nice, main thing I like from this DLC actually," writes one of the 20 reviews that name the craftable bags as a highlight, and for some they are the main reason to buy. One player kept separate bags packed for the dungeon, masonry, woodwork and smithing, ready to grab and go. The bigger bags unlock late in the camp's progression, though, so "by the time you get the most useful bags, you have basically already completed the game". Three reviews resent paying for what they see as a basic fix ("It's basically just a paywall for quality of life changes that should have been added to the base game years ago"), and three more dislike bags inside bags, find the layout clumsy, or found that quest items stored in a bag don't count as carried.

A vampire mystery in the villageLow

The vampire hunt gets approving mentions in nine reviews, most of them brief, and one calls it "of course the highlight". A detailed review enjoyed watching the mystery unfold but found it easy to solve well before the characters do. One player felt the vampire and donkey plots were afterthoughts next to the camp.

Where players are split

An ending choice you can't take backMedium

The DLC ends with a decision that settles the refugees' fate and which perks you receive, and 29 reviews discuss it. Nine like having a choice that matters: "Rescue or Betray, Face or Escape is all in your hand," writes one, and another calls it "a hard choice at the end if you're someone who likes morality to outweigh goodies". The other 20 complain or warn about it, and half of those still recommend the DLC. Several say the best perks come with the darkest route ("the best choice in terms of game mechanics, is the worst choice in terms of game plot"), one ending dismantles the camp you spent hours building, and Graveyard Keeper only autosaves, "for some god unknown reason there are no manual saves". "I got the bad ending and lost all the features of the DLC and they made it irreversible," wrote one player. Another, who expected to reload, "got locked out of it and have to play THE WHOLE GAME AGAIN to get the best ending." One player agreed to Beatrice's deal planning to betray her and found the good ending closed. Reviewers on both sides give the same advice: look up the endings first and back up the save before the point of no return (one names the Observation Tower).

When to play it: a fresh save or a finished oneMedium

Most of the 28 reviews about timing advise starting the DLC as early as possible or on a new save ("This dlc is something you should have on a new save."), because the bags, camp food, grave decorations and perks help most in the early and middle game. Players who left it until after the main story describe days of waiting with nothing else to do and rewards they no longer need. "Are you already late game? Don't buy this DLC", one writes. Starting early has its own costs, which one reviewer lists: silk for each tent at 20 silver, a cow for a gold coin, and memory tinctures at 10 silver a dose. Another warns newcomers that the optional DLC "really swamp the story and majorly slow down progression". Three reviews add that the camp's rewards, such as marble statues, a golden apple and swords, let you skip chunks of the main game.

The communist donkey's revolutionMedium

Graveyard Keeper's corpse-delivering donkey gets his own questline about leading the donkeys and rats in a revolution, and it divides the 23 reviews that mention it almost evenly. One fan calls it a "new hilarious donkey quest line", and another says "The only part of this DLC that I thoroughly enjoyed was the revolution of the communist donkey party". Critics see a string of deliveries to the donkey's box that changes nothing in the end. One was "disappointed the donkey questline doesn't go anywhere aside from an off screen ending", and another wrote: "Supposed to be funny but bombed on me."

What frustrates players

Freezes, softlocks and quests that won't finishHigh

The bug reported most often hits at the very start. 11 reviews, all negative, describe the game locking during the opening scenes, when the exiled noble visits your house or when you enter the first tent ("game completely locks and i cannot move or quit"). One player says it "has happened to me every single time I've encountered it, on my 3rd save file now." Nine of those 11 were written in 2023 or later. In all, 39 reviews report bugs, and 28 of them are negative. Players also ran into tents that spawn without beds and block the camp, a refugee cook or Vampire Carl who never appears, a camp stuck at 0/0 happiness, a black screen in the final reward cutscene, and an area you can leave once and never re-enter, locking a side quest. One player wrote in 2025, after restarting a 30-hour run, that "5 years after release we still didn't get bugfix for bug softlocking player out of core dlc content". At launch, several reviews say patches fixed their problems within days, and one launch-week review switched to a thumbs-up with the update "2 patches after and game is now much more playable". A handful of reviewers say they met no bugs at all, and a few advise keeping backup saves.

Waiting on refugee happiness before every buildHigh

Each camp upgrade waits on a happiness meter. You supply food and water, wait for satisfaction to fill, build the next structure, and the next one costs more. 35 reviews complain about this, 17 of them from players who still recommend the DLC. Reviewers report waits of three to six in-game days near the end, and some idled through them: "most of the time left the pc on Idle cause i didn't had anything else to do than wait". Several read it as padding. "Camp development is heavily gated behind waiting in the worst traditions of mobile games," says one, and another felt the meter "was there just to artificially extend the playtime". Others can't see why refugees who asked for a building make you wait to build it: "Why would the refugees need to build up satisfaction for me to improve their camp? Dumb." A few defenders say it's painless when started early, since "there is always plenty of other thing to do while you wait for happiness to accrue", and one points out that meditating in the stone garden passes the time. Some reviews add that the quests themselves are a long run of errands, summed up in one as "6-12 hours of extra fetch quests."

Full price feels steep for what it addsMedium

Of the 24 reviews that raise the price, 18 tell readers to buy it on sale or in a bundle, and 16 of those are positive reviews. "I do wish the dlc had a bit more meat on it's bones for the price tag," writes one, and another finds "$10 apiece is a hard sell for me" before recommending the whole set at a discount. Six go further and argue that some of it belongs in the base game or a free update ("This should be an update, not a dlc."), three of them pointing at the bags.

A story that stops on a cliffhangerMedium

"DLC story just suddenly breaks off," says one player, who first assumed a bug was blocking progress. 15 reviews object to the ending's lack of resolution, six of them positive, and several expected a follow-up chapter. One wrote in 2025: "It seems like there was maybe a follow-up DLC planned at some point, but never actually made". A few players read the open ending as a promise instead ("the ending of the dlc is a great tease for future dlc or a sequel").

Missable quests and achievementsLow

"Why this DLC have MISSABLE QUESTLINE????" asks one review. 11 reviews warn that content can be lost for good: a questline you can miss, an area you can't return to, or an achievement tied to the ambushes ("Watch out for the achievement that requires you to kill all three ambushes."). Some players chasing 100% say they had to reload old backups or start a new save.

Camp rules that aren't explainedLow

Seven reviews say the camp is hard to read at first: when refugees will talk to you, what raises their happiness, and why it stalls ("my refugees are stuck on 13/13 happiness and thats that"). One finds that "things in camp dont work very transparent", and another blames a lack of guidance that makes it "easy for players to miss important elements until the game concludes". Players who worked it out say it's simple once you keep the camp's storage stocked.

3. The player conversation

Many recommendations are hedged. Thumbs-up reviews include "I give this DLC a 6,5/10, recommended." and "On its own, I give it a lukewarm thumbs-up." Positive and negative reviews describe the same design problems (the happiness wait, the ending, bags that arrive late). Bug reports split them most clearly, since most of those come from thumbs-down reviews. Several positive reviews say outright that anyone who likes Graveyard Keeper's grind will like more of it. Negative reviews mostly come from players blocked by bugs or from players who object to the waiting, the ending or the story.

What reviewers talk about depends on how they played. Those who began the DLC after finishing the main story write about idle days and rewards they no longer need, those on a new save about early costs and juggling the camp with everything else, and achievement hunters about missable content and the irreversible ending. Comparisons with the other DLC are divided: nine reviews call Game of Crone better than Stranger Sins or the best of the three, and eight rate it lower. A few reviews are really about Graveyard Keeper as a whole (its grind and fetch quests), and one positive review makes the point that the DLC isn't to blame for the base game.

Launch week was the high point: 18 of 20 reviews were positive, and early patches fixed broken achievements and a missing quest ingredient. The rest of November 2020 dropped to 13 of 27 positive, and those negative reviews center on the happiness wait, the ending and bugs the first patches had not caught. Reviews from 2022 onward settled at 79 of 112 positive, but bug reports never stopped: reviews written in 2026 were 12 of 21 positive, and six of the 21 describe bugs, three of those the opening-scene freeze.

4. What the developers could do

1. Fix the freeze at the DLC's opening scene. 11 negative reviews written between 2020 and 2026 describe the game locking when the noble arrives or in the first tent, which ends the DLC before it starts.
2. Shorten or remove the happiness wait between camp builds. 35 reviews, half of them positive, complain about the wait, and players on a finished save say they idled for days with nothing else to do.
3. Clear the camp's progression blockers. Tents without beds, NPCs who never appear, a 0/0 happiness meter and a black-screen final cutscene force restarts, and one player was still waiting for a fix "5 years after release".
4. Let players recover from the ending choice. 20 reviews complain about or warn of an autosaved, irreversible decision that can cost the camp or the best perks, and two players ask for a way back to just before it or a free pick of the perk.
5. Unlock the bags and camp rewards earlier. Reviewers say the bags and perks arrive after they stop mattering, and one suggests making the bags available around the 6-satisfaction mark.
6. Resolve the refugee storyline. 15 reviews object to the story cutting off with no resolution, and some expected a follow-up chapter that, as one wrote in 2025, never came.
7. Price it lower or sell it with the other DLC. 18 reviews, 16 of them positive, recommend it only on sale or in a bundle.
8. Flag missable quests and achievements in game. 11 reviews warn about content that can be missed for good, and some lost a questline, an area or an achievement that way.