Video walkthrough · captions checked · the time and success system
“Tick” means two things in Graveyard Keeper 2: the slice of real time a workbench spends per crafting step, and the success roll every attempt at an autopsy or a planting uses. Two testing videos pin both down — how long a tick is, how many a recipe needs, when time stops, and why ythe game’s data failed.
0:17–0:30 · video
The tutorial says only that some workbenches “automatically craft over time ticks using fuel” and never defines the unit. The video pins it down: at a furnace, one tick is 15 seconds of real time, and that length is per-workbench rather than global.
So a “9-tick recipe” is 9 × the bench’s tick length — the only conversion you need when planning production.
0:34–0:48 · video
Glass takes 6 ticks, the video shows: 6 × 15s = 1 minute 30. If you click craft you wait, and the tick bar climbs every 15 seconds.
in the recipe data the craft-time value is the tick count (glass = 6, whole table 0–16). Any recipe’s real time is therefore its tick count × the bench’s tick length.
0:52–1:12 · video
A bench takes several queued orders and keeps consuming fuel while you do something else, so the queue advances without you — and the zombies down the hill keep working too.
That is the base of the automation loop: queue, leave, come back to finished goods.
1:34–2:12 · video
The video’s most useful discovery: time does not tick while you are in an inventory or menu. The zombie in the frame freezes, and the queued orders do not advance either.
Its summary is blunt — “if you’re ever in an inventory, nothing ticks down” — so tidying your bags is not free, and standing in a menu waiting for production does nothing.
2:25–2:45 · video
Planting ticks are far slower than bench ticks: the video’s beet beds are 1 minute 45 per tick, so three remaining ticks mean roughly five more minutes.
The same tick × length maths applies in the field, but with a completely different base — check the plot, not the furnace.
2:44–3:35 · video
Sleeping accelerates the whole game: crafts under a minute finish (the video’s 9-tick bronze ingots complete), while the garden advances by about one tick. “Sleep and the crops are ready” is not how it works.
The explanation: sleep restores roughly one energy per second of sped-up time, so a full bar really takes about a minute of game time — the game just compresses that minute into one or two seconds of animation. You are watching compressed time, not real elapsed time.
0:09–0:30 · video
The companion video explains the second meaning of “tick”: any operation with a success roll (autopsy, planting) counts each attempt as a tick, and the chance that a tick goes green is your mastery ÷ the recipe’s requirement.
Measured: 3 against 5 gives 60%, 6 against 8 gives 75%, 6 against 10 gives 60%. The game prints that percentage in the interface.
1:36–1:56 · video
Extracting an organ is a ten-tick operation and it only counts as success when at least nine ticks are green — a single miss loses the attempt.
The loss is permanent: the organ is replaced by a Surgeon’s Error that adds +1 red and +1 white skull and cannot be removed, which is why the video says those bodies usually go to the crematorium. Below roughly 90% odds, do not gamble on an organ you actually need.
2:00–4:30 · video
Planting is judged identically: cabbage seed needs 8 and the video’s 6 mastery gives 75%; onion seed needs 10 and gives 60%.
The consequence matters more than the odds — one red tick stops silver or gold produce entirely. The bed in the video has a base of 4 plus 1 from fertilizer against a requirement of 10, so that planting was locked to bronze. Better beds *and* enough mastery are both required for quality crops.
Two videos from the same channel: How Do Ticks Actually Work (2026-09-19, 132 cues) covers bench and plot tick times, How Tick Chance Works (2026-09-20, 184 cues) covers the success roll and autopsy judgement. Both transcripts were read in full and checked cue by cue.
The tick number comes from the recipe data (456 recipes, range 0–16; glass = 6) and matches the video’s screen exactly. Surgeon’s Error and the food names are the game’s own names.
Watch the original on YouTube