Forget long, 20 step procedures and hunting for very specific body parts. If you’ve got the required tech just a few simple guidelines will get you to 26 skulls for every corpse you keep.
 
 

Preface

This guide a*sumes a few prerequisites.
 

• You have the DLCs. Better Save Soul lets you modify body parts, and one of the others (I forget which) provides grave decorations that let you get up to 26 . While not strictly necessary the extra are handy.
• You have access to all the embalming injections. You’ll only use 5 of them, but they’re spread across all 3 techs.
• You have the Cultist perk, or can use the Soul Healer to inspect Important Parts. You’ll need to know what skulls each part can contribute.
• You have no moral qualms about tearing through corpses like a bear through salmon. Filling your graveyard with perfect 26 corpses, plus any free labor you might want, is going to take a lot of sin shards; at least 3 corpses per 26er just to modify the skin, fat, etc.
• You have lots of patience, and like the prayer for Souls’ Thorough Cleansing (see the previous point)

TLDR PLS There’s Corpses to Gut, Ain’t Nobody Got Time

4 Simple Heuristics:
 

• Gut and burn mountains of corpses for sin shards and spare parts (at least 3 corpses for each 26 corpse you make)
• Use an Important Part with 2 , and the other 2 with no .
• Modify everything to 3 . Literally everything except the bone and skull. Weep as your stock of sin shards dwindles to nothing.
• Embalm with glue, lye, silver and gold. Do the silver and gold last.

 
That’s it. Everything under here just rehashes the above with some additional detail and color. Hit the thumbsup and the star, and get to gutting corpses. You’ve got a lot of work ahead of you Keeper.
 
 
 

The Important Part

It’s in the name really. The only important part of corpse preparation is the Important Parts.
 

• Only use Important Parts with no , or 2 .

That’s it. That’s the rule. You can optimize your sin shard use a lot by looking for parts with more as well and I like to keep those fabulous -2 parts until I stop making surgical mistakes, but they’re entirely not necessary.
 
 
Why is the rule so simple? Because 2 is all it takes to balance out your corpse equation (see the corpse equation section) and you don’t need anything more complicated because you’re going to tear through corpses like a piranha (see the Preface). You should find plenty of parts that meet the requirements.
 
 
Wait, what about all these complicated corpse selection guides?
 
Starting corpse condition is completely irrelevant. A corpse is just a bag for parts; they have no inherent score. Test it if you don’t believe me. Take all the parts out, gut one completely. It’ll be 0, 0.
 
 
Wait, what about collecting parts with lots of and negative ?
 
Why? Why would you add more red skulls that you have to offset somehow? The negative parts are nice for fixing up a surgical mistake a little, but even in that case the -1 from the mistake is sub-optimal and bodies are cheap. So frankly just chuck it in the furnace, you needed the sin shards anyway. There is never a reason to add to a part you’re going to put in a corpse.
 
 
 

Procedure

First you should know that you’ll have 2 kinds of corpses to deal with: grist for your flesh mill, and corpses you’re going to dress up nice and pretty. If you make a surgical error on a corpse I suggest just writing it off as grist and pulling out any prepared parts you’ve already added to it. Corpses are cheap and you need a lot of them. This is also why we do the embalming last.
 
 
For your grist corpses:
 

• Pull out anything you want to stockpile, and keep a few each of blood, skin, flesh, and fat in a chest in the Souls Room for modification.
• Then inspect the Important Parts. Keep anything that fits the rule: Only use Important Parts with no , or 2 .

I recommend looking for parts that already have 2 or 3 in order to save sin shards. You’ll nearly always be overflowing with parts and running out of shards.
 
 
For your pretty corpses:
 
Start by preparing the following ingredients in the Souls Room (feel free to take them from the current corpse or wherever you can find them)
 

• Modify 3 onto the flesh, blood, skin, and fat. This is the most expensive part of the process.
• One Important Part (any kind) with 2 . Modify 3 onto it if it doesn’t already have 3.
• Two Important Parts (the two kinds you haven’t already prepared) with 0 . Modify 3 onto them if they don’t already have 3.
• The embalming injections: glue, lye, silver, and gold.

 
Once you’ve gathered everything:
 

1. Take everything out of the corpse except the bone and skull. You can take the bone out if you like but it’s a waste of time unless you need it for alchemy.
2. Throw in all the body parts you prepared earlier.
3. Embalm with all the injections, doing silver and gold last.

 
That’s it. They key point? Adding Important Parts with a total of 2 . You could use two 1 parts instead but It takes at least 3 corpses worth of sin shards just to modify the non-Important Parts up to 3 . You’re going to go through so many corpses, armies of them, to get the sin shards you need that it isn’t worth worrying about every single heart or intestine. If it makes the process more complicated it’s a waste of time. Turn them into alchemy or just burn them with the rest of the body.
 
 
Obviously this is slightly wasteful of corpses and parts, and 26 bodies isn’t what I’d call a speedrun tactic, but it’s also fun to hack and slash your way through and leave behind a mountain of useless ash.
 
 
 

The Corpse Equation

	Part
Can’t Modify	Bone	0	0
	Skull	-1	0
Always the Same	Flesh	0	3
	Fat	1	3
	Blood	1	3
	Skin	-1	3
	SubTotal	0	12
Important Parts	Part 1	2	3
	Part 2	0	3
	Part 3	0	3
	SubTotal	2	21
Embalming Injections	Glue	0	1
	Lye	1	1
	Silver	-1	1
	Gold	-2	2
	Total	0	26

 
 
Here we come to an end for the Simple Corpse Preparation – Graveyard Keeper guide. I hope this guide has helped you with your gameplay. If you have something to add to this guide or believe we forgot some information to add, please let us know via comment! We check each comment manually by approving them!