Grave quality and skull penalties

A grave’s score is the lower of its white skulls and its decoration total minus red skulls. Better decorations stop helping when the corpse’s white-skull ceiling is already reached.

Compare the same decorations

With a 2-quality Wooden Cross and 1-quality Wooden Fence, the decoration total is 3.

Body	Result with those decorations
0 red, 2 white	2; the body caps the third decoration point
0 red, 4 white	3; the decoration total is the limit
4 red, 4 white	−1; red skulls subtract from the 3 decoration points

This is why buying a more elaborate cross for the first body may do less than improving or replacing the corpse. It is also why a high-tier untreated body with more white skulls can still score poorly if it brings many red skulls.

Pockets and organs affect different plans

Early Fat and Blood carry red skulls; removing them can improve a burial without the surgery risk of organ extraction. Flesh carries a white skull, so stripping every pocket indiscriminately can lower the useful ceiling.

Each removed organ takes its skull contribution with it. A successful extraction that removes white skulls can lower the grave’s ceiling even when the operation itself had no error. Choose the burial or worker destination before altering the body.

Endgame decorations still need a suitable body

The extracted reference lists Marble Cross II plus Marble Fence II as 14 decoration quality. Realizing that full score needs at least 14 white skulls and no red-skull deduction. A 6-white body cannot become a 14-quality grave merely by adding both marble pieces.

Organ treatment and embalming can change the body, but check their material and mastery conditions rather than assuming decoration research solves the entire job.

Donation income and Faith

Graveyard Quality helps the money bonus from a successful sermon. Church capacity and Town Gratitude govern attendance, which in turn supports Faith rewards. If the immediate shortage is Faith, compare sermon attendance before spending every material on graves.