Quick answer: A zombie is raised on the Resurrection Table from a corpse that still has all six vital organs (skull, brain, heart, guts, bones, skin), plus 1 Reanimation Liquid and 1 Zombie Collar, on the green storm day (Envy). It then refuses to work until you give it a tool for that job: every zombie starts at 0 mastery, and the tool is what lifts it to the level the recipe needs.
This page covers everything players search as how to raise zombies, how to make zombies work, zombie howto, reanimate and zombie factory layout — it is one chain, and most people get stuck at one of the two halves: the resurrection or the job.
Your first zombies are free
You don't need to resurrect anyone at first. After you make Dream Dust for the Plague Doctor (see Dream Dust), talk to him again: he tests it and gives you two zombie workers. Gunter the astrologer at the port later offers three more for an errand (Astrologer). In the recorded 100% run the player took Gunter's deal because an earlier resurrection had failed.
Part 1: raise a zombie
Open the Resurrection Lab
It is a sealed room off the Morgue. The story sends you there; clearing the old door costs Bronze Detail and Melted Fat. Inside you find blueprints, some Reanimation Liquid and Bronze Zombie Collars. As the video puts it: "they used electricity to raise the zombies."
Build a Resurrection Table
Build it in the Morgue: 2 Oiled Planks, 4 Polished Stone, 3 Glass. A second table lets you raise two bodies on the same storm day.
Check the corpse has all six organs
Skull, brain, heart, guts, bones and skin must all be present. One missing organ — or a surgeon's error from a failed autopsy — blocks the resurrection. More red skulls is better: each red skull is one future perk slot.
Load liquid and collar, then Prepare
Put the corpse on the table, add 1 Reanimation Liquid and 1 Zombie Collar, press Prepare. The collar must cover the corpse's red skulls: Bronze up to 5, Golden up to 10, Steel up to 99.
Resurrect on the storm day
The lab only has power on Envy, the green day with the tower-and-lightning icon ("During green day, the room is powered"). Use the console, spend the Faith and pick up your new worker.
Part 2: make the zombie work
Give it the matching tool
Inspect the zombie and put a tool in its equipment slot. Each tool raises one kind of mastery: axe for woodcutting and crafting, hammer for smithing, pickaxe for building and mining, shovel for farming (kitchen work counts as farming), fishing rod for fishing. A rusty tool gives 1 mastery, a bronze one gives 2.
Carry it to a workstation
Pick the zombie up, walk to the station and put it down. The station decides the job.
Queue orders and supply the inputs
A zombie does nothing without a queued order and the materials for it in a reachable chest. Give it a long queue so it keeps going while you sleep.
Add a Zombie Supplier Station
Build one per work area (4 Wooden Planks, 4 Bronze Nails) and put a zombie on it. That zombie becomes a courier that carries inputs to the other workers and brings finished goods back. Couriers ignore mastery, so use your weakest body here.
Zombie made one item and stopped?
That is the most common report. Check in this order:
- Wrong tool. In the video, a bronze axe gave the wrong mastery; swapping it for a bronze hammer fixed the smithing job.
- Mastery too low for that recipe — a Wooden Plank at Woodworking Workbench I needs mastery 2, so a rusty axe is not enough.
- No materials in a chest the zombie or courier can reach.
- Output chest full or the courier's path is blocked.
- No queued order.
Kitchen zombie not cooking, or ingredients vanish?
Indoors, the cook needs its own Zombie Supplier Station and courier inside the house — the yard courier won't carry food in. Players also report a bug where the courier drops the ingredients (berries, water) into the oven and they vanish without a pie. Until it's patched, keep only a small batch in the kitchen chest and sleep before setting up a long queue.
How to get rid of a zombie
You can't burn a zombie or throw it in the river — that only works for corpses. Your options: swap its collar and organs at the autopsy table (Character tab) to upgrade it later, make it a courier (couriers ignore stats), or turn it into a fighter (Battles). A Plague Doctor quest takes one zombie with 8 red skulls off your hands.
Zombie limit
Your zombie limit equals the Resurrection Lab's quality. Go over it and you get the Excessive zombies debuff, which cuts your sermon faith. Gunter's PR machine raises the limit for a few weeks (it runs on Gluttony and needs newspapers or Hypno Devices). The PR board tier sets the cap: tier 1 covers 10 zombies, tier 2 covers 20, tier 3 covers 30 — upgrade the board on the next Gluttony if you're over.
Factory and conveyor layout
Late-game factory stations also need zombies, and they must be linked by conveyor belts; keep each chain inside one work area so its courier can reach every station. Factory power comes from zombies running the rotary mills: 7 energy per zombie whatever its skulls (10 with the Beltmaster inspiration).
Resurrection bugs fixed in 1.005
Update 1.005 (September 24) fixed a prepared body resetting when you leave the morgue, and cases where a zombie couldn't be resurrected even with every requirement met. If that happened to you, update and try again on the next Envy.
Related
- Where to burn bodies — what to do with corpses you won't raise
- Alchemy — Reanimation Liquid is an alchemy recipe
- Beginner guide
Sources: a recorded 100% playthrough and a 100-day playthrough on YouTube, wikily.gg, AllThings.How.