DLCPC · Switch

Graveyard Keeper: Stranger Sins

Lazy Bear Games · Simulation, RPG, Indie

Overview

In the first big storyline DLC you will have to build your own tavern and dive into the past of the world of Graveyard Keeper. Discover secrets of the locals. Find out more about the ruins are in the Village. What is the ancient curse? Where did the Ancient Contract come from?

6-12 hours of extra gameplay.
Build and run your own tavern. Finally you will have your own bar!
Arrange the Rat race and Stand-up events.
Get to know villagers better by completing dozens of new quests.
Help Gerry to do the total recall.
Witness the events of 200 years ago that will reveal the history of the game world and your role in it.

Backstory is not the only thing. Do you remember Lumberjack, Beekeeper, Corey and Tress brothers and other silent NPCs? Almost all of them will find a voice and character in this DLC. And this character will be even more crazy than in the original game. In search of mysterious artefacts of antiquity you will learn more about the backstory and relationships of these NPCs. If you convince them to talk.

From the game's Steam store page.

THE GAMEQ VERDICT209 reviews analyzed

What players are actually saying

1. Summary

77% of reviewers recommend Stranger Sins, Graveyard Keeper's first story DLC, and the story is what they praise most: 119 reviews speak well of the backstory, including 13 that still vote against the DLC. Gerry sends the keeper around the village collecting relics, and each relic unlocks a flashback to events two centuries earlier. Reviewers say this explains the ruins, the Town, why there is a graveyard keeper at all and who the talking skull used to be, and that it gives minor vendors their first real personalities. The tavern is the second draw. Stocked with wine and beer from zombie-run vineyards and breweries, it becomes the biggest income in the game, and several reviewers say it finally takes the edge off the base game's money grind. Of the reviewers who compare it with the other two DLC, most (15 of 19) call it the best.

Getting each flashback means chains of fetch quests, trips across the map and days of waiting for villagers who only visit once a week, a complaint in 47 reviews, including more than half of the negative ones. Price is the other recurring caveat. Fans who recommend it still tell others to wait for a sale, and a smaller group objects that story this central, including a changed ending, was sold separately at all. Players who added it to a finished save found the tavern's money useless and the quests mostly walking, while others recommend running it alongside the main game.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Backstory that explains the villageHigh

Each relic unlocks a non-interactive animated flashback of events around 200 years before the game, and no other part of the DLC is praised as often: 119 reviews speak well of the story, lore or cutscenes. Reviewers say the flashbacks explain how the Town and the village came to be, the contract, why there is always a graveyard keeper, who Gerry used to be, and why ruins are scattered across the map, all things the base game leaves vague. Side characters get depth too. One reviewer wrote "I didn't even know the vendor Adam exist before this DLC." Another says "it adds more story then the entirety of the base game". The praise turns up in negative reviews as well, as in "Story-wise, it's a masterpiece. Gameplay-wise, not so much."

Ten reviews call the story weak, generic or badly written. Their objections run from "This feels like a bad retcon of the entire setting, and all the characters." to poor dialogue and a protagonist who has to steal from villagers' houses with no consequence. One player found the story fine but felt "it ended up answering a lot of questions I never really found myself asking", having expected more about the previous keepers and the great blast. Others say the effort buys only a few minutes of cutscenes.

A tavern that pays for everythingHigh

Money is what 47 reviews praise the tavern for. You build it between the village and the lighthouse, hire a bartender and stock it with wine and beer, plus food for events. An underground tunnel links it to your cellar, so zombies working the vineyard and brewery can keep it supplied with little effort, and 17 reviews describe running it that way. One player calls it "a money printing machine if you set it up right". Several say it fixes the base game's money grind by making point books, aristocrat papers and the late-game money requirements affordable, and one reviewer went as far as "Without this DLC, the main game of Graveyard Keeper would have gotten a negative review." It also gives the kitchen and winery a purpose: "Finally the brewed goods are used instead of moldering in a chest."

Often called the best of the three DLCMedium

Stranger Sins is the best of Graveyard Keeper's DLC according to 15 reviews, all written in 2022 or later and often pointing to the story. One says "If you had to choose only 1 of the 3 DLC to get, this is easily the one to grab without a second thought." Another calls it "The only one that feels like it was planned from the begining". Four reviewers disagree. Two prefer Game of Crone, one calls this "the weakest of the 3 DLCs", and another finds it the most generic of the three, with no new mechanic beyond another way to make money.

Fits into the base game seamlesslyLow

A handful of players say the DLC slots into Graveyard Keeper so naturally that it does not feel bolted on; one "couldn't tell the DLC from the base game" for some time. One reviewer of the full bundle felt the opposite and found the DLC content attached rather than well embedded.

Where players are split

Worth it, but on saleHigh

Of the 37 reviews that call the DLC overpriced or say to wait for a sale, 20 still recommend it and simply tell readers to wait for a discount. The other 17 vote against it, and for several of those the price is the main reason. One begins "Okay this is a thumb-down mostly about the price." Another puts a fair price at $5 to $7.50 because "$10 is pushing it a bit". Suggested sale prices run from a third off down to "1$ or less", and a recommending review carries the heading "Worthy addition for unworthy price". Only six reviews say it is worth the money at full price.

The tavern as something to runMedium

Running the tavern divides players more than its income does. 36 reviews speak well of running it, from building and upgrading tables and hosting events to competing with Horadric's tavern and having somewhere for the zombies' output to go. 24 find it thin or clunky. One wrote "you just give it alcoholic beverages and it gives you money, nothing more". Others point to a short list of upgrades, and one noticed that "all patrons suddenly start moving at the same time, like on a schedule". Events draw specific complaints. Which food suits which event comes down to trial and error ("no tutorial, no reason for certain foods and drinks doing better than other"), and a few say events are not worth hosting outside quests and achievements. Automation also stops short, since the tunnel carries only alcohol and "There is no way to bring up 2/3rds of the ingredients for beer, and no way to automate mead." Getting the tavern going takes money and production first, so some players found it sat unused until they no longer needed it. One complains "You cannot play the DLC unless you are a RICH guy in the main story."

Fresh save or finished saveMedium

Of 21 reviews that discuss when to play it, ten played it on a save where they had already finished or completed the game, and they found it thinner, with no use for the tavern's money and a questline that turned into walking and waiting. "Having already beat the game long before the DLC was introduced, the new content wound up being a cakewalk." Seven of those ten wrote in the first year after launch. Fourteen reviews advise starting it with a new game or running it alongside the main story, so its waits fill gaps between other quests. One detailed review warns that the window is narrow either way: "Start too early, and it's just dead weight you can't utilize. Start too late, and you wont need anything the tavern has to offer." One player had the opposite experience and found it the easiest DLC to play through in the endgame, with little waiting between quests.

What frustrates players

Fetch quests and waiting on weekly visitorsHigh

Each relic sits at the end of a chain: one villager wants an item from another, who will only talk once the tavern is upgraded, or who only comes to town on one day of the week. Players meditate to skip days and cross the map again and again. No complaint comes up more often: 47 reviews raise it, including more than half of the negative ones (25 of 46). "It's one fetch quest after another sometimes gated by having to wait for a certain day to get help from a certain NPC." Two reviewers, one recommending the DLC and one not, ended up thinking "please just let me see the end". Others weigh the effort against the payoff: "It took me probably 10-15 hours post beating the game to get like 5 minutes of story." Nearly half of these complaints (22) come from players who still recommend the DLC, and one says the errands at least "help to give a bit of direction in a game that can often feel rudderless".

Story that feels cut from the base gameMedium

Selling this story separately bothers 16 reviewers, 10 of them negative. One says "Seems like these story elements were designed since the inception of the game but were mostly removed or set aside to sell as this DLC." Some recommenders agree; one recommends it reluctantly because "The game is incomplete without it." The ending is part of this. Nine reviews note that finishing the DLC adds to or changes Graveyard Keeper's ending (one tip: "play the ending again, it changes it"). Some welcome that as the game's real conclusion, and others resent paying for it.

Money piles up with nothing to spend it onMedium

Once the tavern runs, the graveyard, the morgue, church sermons and merchant crates stop mattering and there is little left to buy, according to 16 reviews, nine of which still recommend the DLC. One player who finished a fresh game with it wrote "50 gold is just comically more than you could ever need." Another wrote "It was almost like easy mode switch turned on when I had built the tavern and had a few zombies making wine." A few players see the easier economy as a plus, especially on a first run.

Quest-breaking bugsLow

Five reviews report bugs, and the serious ones stop the DLC. One is a quest item bug around the Belt Buckle where cutscenes never trigger and no dig spots appear; a player writing in 2026 calls it six years old and says the only ways out are a working save from someone else or starting over. Another leaves the tavern unable to take events or new furniture after a party, so "Can't finish the quest line or upgrade the tavern anymore." Others report achievements that did not unlock and a frame rate drop on Linux. Two more reviews complain that the cutscenes cannot be skipped.

Another set of achievements to grindLow

Six reviews dislike the achievements. The tavern event achievements need huge amounts of food and drink ("extremely grindy if you want to get every achievement"), and a couple of completionists resent that each DLC's new achievements break their 100% record.

3. The player conversation

Many positive reviews are a line or two ("Adds a lot of lore.", "Backstory for characters"), while the negative ones tend to be longer and specific about the walking, the waiting and the price. Both sides describe much the same DLC: 13 of the 46 negative reviews still praise the story, and recommending reviews carry nearly half of the fetch-quest complaints and more than half of the price complaints. Among the negative reviews, the errands and the price are the reasons given most often.

A third of the reviews, and nearly half of the negative ones, were written in the first year after launch. 69% of those 70 reviews were positive, against 82% of the 137 written afterwards, and half of all fetch-quest complaints (24 of 47) date from that year. Several of those early reviewers say they had finished Graveyard Keeper long before the DLC came out, and they describe the content as waiting and walking with no use for the money.

4. What the developers could do

Shorten the relic quest chains and cut the weekly waits. Fetch quests and waiting for once-a-week visitors are the most common complaint, in recommending reviews as well as negative ones, and one player suggested letting core villagers drink at the tavern "on the opposite day to their own" so quests can be turned in without waiting a week.
Price it closer to what players say it is worth. 37 reviews call it too high or say to wait for a sale, and for several negative votes the price is the main reason.
Fix the Belt Buckle and tavern event bugs. Players report saves where cutscenes never trigger or the tavern stops taking events, which blocks the questline with no way out in the game.
Give late-game money somewhere to go. Reviewers say the tavern's income makes the graveyard, church and merchant income irrelevant and leaves them with far more gold than anything left to buy.
Finish the tavern's supply chain. Players want the tunnel to carry food as well as alcohol, a shorter tunnel, and a way to automate water, wheat and mead, since beer still needs hauling by hand.
Explain which food and drink suit each event. Reviewers say they had to use trial and error or a guide to cater events, with no hint in the game about why some dishes sell better.
Keep Gerry's clues in the quest log. One player notes that if you miss what Gerry said "there is no way to check it again in game", and others found the chained requests hard to keep track of.