Jack in Graveyard Keeper 2

Jack is the Workshop Foreman, and his quest line is the gate between the Town’s defense system and the underground factory. One captured walkthrough and one creator video describe it; both are attributed below, and nothing outside them is filled in.

Facts checked September 18, 2026Reading time 7 min readEvidence cited per claim

What Jack’s quest line is, in four points

Four things decide whether this quest moves: who Jack is, which quest precedes his, the Defense Power number on the door, and the conveyors waiting on the other side.

Supplied walkthrough

Jack is the Workshop Foreman

Jack gives the quest “Jack’s Back in Business”, a single-step request to clear the zombies swarming his workshop. The same character later asks for the materials that restore it, which is where the conveyors come from.

Supplied walkthrough

Workshop Hours comes first

The quest is unlocked by finishing the previous quest, Workshop Hours, and then speaking to Jack, who is staying at the Town Warehouse. Until that conversation happens, the objective does not appear in the journal.

Supplied video

The door is Barracks Defense Power 22

The battle will not start below a reported Defense Power of 22. The supplied video arrives at a reading of 20/22, so the difference is built rather than found — reported, unconfirmed as of September 27, 2026.

Supplied video

The reward is conveyors, not loot

Clearing the Purge and then restoring the workshop unlocks conveyors, the belts that move items through the underground factory. That is what makes this a progression quest rather than a side fight.

The chain

Workshop Hours, then Jack’s Back in Business

The chain is short, and the difficulty is concentrated in its entry requirement rather than in the fight itself.

Supplied walkthrough

Step one: Workshop Hours

The prerequisite quest. The supplied walkthrough states only that finishing it is what makes Jack’s request available; it does not describe its contents, so this page does not either.

Supplied walkthrough

Step two: talk to Jack at the Town Warehouse

Jack is staying at the Town Warehouse when the objective becomes available, and the conversation with him is what adds it to the journal. Arriving at the battle before that does nothing.

Supplied walkthrough

Step three: the one objective

The quest itself is a single step — win the Market Square Purge defense fight and report back — which is why the walkthrough calls the Barracks gate the real obstacle rather than the quest structure.

The entry requirement

Raising Barracks Defense Power to 22

Defense Power is a Barracks number, not a character stat. It is raised by building barricades inside the Barracks build menu until the total reaches the gate.

Supplied video

Walk the Crossroads into the Barracks

The Barracks is reached through the Crossroads, and it is where both the current reading and the construction menu live. The video checks the score there rather than at the gate.

Supplied video

Build until the score reads 22/22

The construction menu offers Barricade I and II, Spiked Barricade I and II, Fortified Barricade I and II and the Reinforced Beam. Any combination that reaches the number opens the battle.

Supplied video

Two points short, on the video’s save

The supplied video arrives at 20/22 and crafts the difference. That arithmetic is one player’s run, so treat 20 as an example rather than as the starting value for every save — reported, unconfirmed as of September 27, 2026.

Reported gate: 22 Barracks Defense Power, written as 22/22 in the walkthrough — reported, unconfirmed as of September 27, 2026.
Reading on arrival: 20/22 in the supplied video, which is the two points it then builds — reported, unconfirmed as of September 27, 2026.
Where it is raised: The Barracks construction menu, reached through the Crossroads.
What raises it: Barricade I and II, Spiked Barricade I and II, Fortified Barricade I and II, Reinforced Beam. The material names the buildings and attaches no value to any of them.
Squad allowance: Up to two squads can be deployed; the walkthrough states that one is enough to win.
Suggested kit: A melee weapon such as the Iron Sword, used in sweeping attacks, plus enough stamina to finish the swings.

Every figure in this section comes from one fan walkthrough and one creator video: community-reported and unconfirmed as of September 27, 2026. Neither Lazy Bear Games nor tinyBuild publishes a defense reference, so the gate value, the starting reading and the barricade list are repeated as stated rather than presented as verified game data.

The fight

Winning the Market Square Purge

The Purge is a wave defense with a preparation phase, and the walkthrough’s advice is about where things stand rather than what to hit.

Find the gate

The battle is marked on the map with a red shield banner near the Square. Open the Map screen first, then head south from the Barracks toward the guarded gate.

Confirm the setup screen

Interacting with the guard opens the battle screen, where the squad allotment is confirmed and Start Battle is chosen. The walkthrough reads the requirements here before committing.

Place the barricades

At the Command post, put barricades and spiked barricades across the pathway choke points. Blocking the approaches funnels the zombies away from the centre.

Plant the squad banner in the middle

Pick up the squad banner and set it inside the central circular defense zone around the monument. The infantry then holds that ring while you fight.

Sweep, and watch stamina

Use sweeping melee attacks to hit clusters at once rather than picking off single zombies, and keep an eye on stamina so you are not caught mid-swing. Hold the centre until the timer runs out.

The walkthrough credits the battle with three Town Gratitude once the remaining zombies are cleared and the timer ends. Wave count, enemy composition and squad behaviour are not described by any supplied source — unconfirmed as of September 27, 2026.

Rewards, turn-in and the restoration that follows

Two hand-ins follow the fight: the quest itself, and then the workshop’s materials.

Supplied walkthrough

Turning the quest in

Return to town and enter Jack’s Workshop, then speak to Jack. The walkthrough says the turn-in awards reputation with Jack, additional Town Gratitude and a Story item, and that the journal entry closes with a line about the workshop being ready to be restored.

Supplied walkthrough

Give materials: five and five

The next step is “Give materials”, which the walkthrough prices at five Building Kit I and five Wooden Kit I. Either batch can be handed over first, but both are required — reported, unconfirmed as of September 27, 2026.

Supplied video

Apprenticeship, and the conveyors

After the second batch the workshop is restored, the walkthrough reports ten more reputation with Jack and two more Town Gratitude, and the video says conveyors become available. Conveyors are what the factory page is built on.

What is still unknown

Jack’s quest line is described by two sources that agree on the shape and stop before the details. These are the questions they leave open.

What Workshop Hours involves, and whether its ordering holds for every save. The walkthrough describes it only as the prerequisite — unconfirmed as of September 27, 2026.
Whether 22 is the exact Defense Power gate in the shipped build, or one guide’s reading of it. No developer or storefront source states the number — unconfirmed as of September 27, 2026.
What the starting Defense Power actually is. The 20/22 reading is one player’s save rather than a fixed baseline — unconfirmed as of September 27, 2026.
How much Defense Power each barricade contributes. The material names the buildings and gives no values.
What the second squad slot changes. The walkthrough says one squad wins and two are allowed, without saying whether the second is ever needed.
Which Story item the turn-in grants, and whether reputation with Jack does anything beyond this quest line.
Whether conveyors unlock at the turn-in or only after the workshop is restored, and what else arrives with them.

Where these facts come from

Every entry below is labelled by what it is: a developer or publisher source, a platform store listing, a press report, a video, or a fan-maintained page. Fan pages are used for terminology, and where one is the only record of a number, that number is written as community wiki data, unconfirmed, with the date it was last checked.

Fan page allthings.how — Graveyard Keeper 2: Jack's Back in Business Walkthrough — A guide-site walkthrough captured 2026-09-27. Source of the quest chain on /jack/: the Workshop Hours prerequisite, the Town Warehouse conversation, the 22 Defense Power gate, the squad allowance, the barricade list, the reported turn-in rewards and the five-plus-five workshop restoration. Its figures are one writer’s playthrough, so each is reproduced with "reported, unconfirmed as of September 27, 2026" attached.
Video Quick Tips — Graveyard Keeper 2 Market Square Purge video — A creator video captured 2026-09-27 whose timestamps are cited inline on /jack/: the map banner for the battle, the 20/22 Defense Power reading on arrival, the Barracks construction menu, the battle setup screen, the Command post barricades and the central squad-banner ring. It is one player’s save, and it is also the source of the claim that restoring the workshop unlocks conveyors.
Video Recreational Suffering — How to Make an Automatic Iron Factory for Commerce Orders — A 14:51 build-log video captured 2026-09-27 and the only source on /factory/: entering the underground factory from the top, clearing rubble to move and teleport, the Carrier perk for moving a zombie squad, the conveyor arrows, the smithy-to-assembly-bench line, the supply station and porter, the seven-factory-energy-per-station estimate, and the commerce order the build exists to fill. The transcript is truncated mid-run, so no throughput or cost figure is taken from it.

Questions

Jack questions

Who is Jack in Graveyard Keeper 2?

The Workshop Foreman. He gives the quest “Jack’s Back in Business”, which asks you to clear the zombies swarming his workshop, and he later asks for the materials that restore it. The conveyors described on the factory page come out of that same quest line, according to a creator video.

How do I start Jack’s Back in Business?

Finish the previous quest, Workshop Hours, and then speak to Jack, who is staying at the Town Warehouse. The supplied walkthrough states that the objective only appears after that conversation.

What Defense Power do I need for the Market Square Purge?

The walkthrough puts the gate at 22, written as 22/22, and the supplied video arrives at a reading of 20/22 and builds the difference. That is community-reported and unconfirmed as of September 27, 2026 — no developer source documents a defense score.

How do I raise Barracks Defense Power?

Craft barricades in the Barracks construction menu. The material names Barricade I and II, Spiked Barricade I and II, Fortified Barricade I and II and the Reinforced Beam, and says any combination that reaches the number opens the battle. It does not say what each one is worth.

How many squads do I need for the Purge?

Up to two can be deployed, and the walkthrough says one is enough. It also suggests bringing a melee weapon such as the Iron Sword and using sweeping attacks on clustered zombies while keeping an eye on stamina.

What do you get for completing the quest?

A reported Story item, reputation with Jack and additional Town Gratitude at the turn-in, then ten more reputation and two more Town Gratitude when the workshop is restored with five Building Kit I and five Wooden Kit I. The progression reward is the conveyors that unlock afterwards.

Can you skip the defense fight?

Not by the material’s account. The quest has a single step and the battle gate does not open below the required Defense Power, so the fight is the quest rather than an option beside it.