Totem

Totem
Statistics
Type	Construction
Comfort	It measures the overall comfort of a shelter.
Disassemblable
Placeable
Price	1
Tech needed	Master Furnishing
Size	1x2

The totem is used to mark the area which is intended to become a shelter, to measure its overall comfort level, and to repel monsters.

Acquiring

Leveling up

A new totem will be gifted to the player at level 2, 7, 12 and 17.

Shop

An additional totem can be bought from the shop for 1 coin.

Crafting

Totem can be crafted once the player has reached the master furnishing tech. Totems cannot be disassembled.

Crafting station
None
Ingredient(s)	Qty.
Gold Ore	3
Silver Ore	1
Planks	3
Crafting grid
Result
Totem	1

Shelter

See the main article: Shelter.

The totem's area of effect can vary between 8 and 27 squares. The numbers in each cell indicate its range from the central totem.

Tiles will count as lying within a shelter if they meet both conditions below:

1. The tile is in an enclosed area containing a totem. Enclosed areas must have back walls or windows, and not be exposed to open air. Solid blocks, doors, or hatches, can all help enclose an area even if they are physically distant.
2. The tile is within range of the totem. The range of the totem varies between 8 and 27 squares depending on the experience level.

A streak of stars will outline the area the totem has made a shelter. If the shelter is incomplete, the totem will try and mark broken walls with stars but won't mark things like a stockpile or misplaced structures.

Totem's range

In single player, the range of the totem is 7 + experience level. This equates to a range of 8 with a level of 1 and a range of 27 with a level of 20.

In multiplayer, the range of the totem is fixed to 7, but begins to decrease by 20% for each totem placed after 5 totems. The range will not be less than 2. According to the developer, this mechanic "was added because some players built up all the level with totems, so monsters couldn't spawn there."

Number of totems	Totem range
1	7
2	7
3	7
4	7
5	7
6	6
7	5
8	3
9	2
10	2

Totem's mood

The totem's orb color and mood (facial expression) vary depending on the overall comfort level of the shelter. This affects a dwarf's recovery rate when sleeping on beds.

Mood	Comfort	Color	Face	Dwarf regen rate
Angry	No (0%)	red	brutally angry	every 24 seconds
Sad	Poor (1-14%)	red	angry	every ~7 seconds
Neutral	Moderate (15-29%)	dark yellow	content	every 5 seconds
	Average (30-49%)	yellow	satisfied	every 4 seconds
Smile	Good (50-69%)	yellowish green	happy	every 3 seconds
Happy	Excellent (70-100%)	green	bouncing and laughing	every 2 seconds

Repelling monsters

The totem will periodically drive away ghosts, preventing them from trashing your stockpile. This anti-ghost protection however has a very short range of only a couple of blocs.

The red portal from monster raids will spawn a certain distance (about 30 to 40 blocs) from totems.

Giant worms will not appear within a totem's range.

Pathfinding problems

Having more than one totem placed in the world may cause a few problems.

Extra totems placed completely outside of the (main) shelter (usually to protect remote stockpiles from ghosts) can create a disjunction where some dwarfs will venture above and beyond to simply reach that totem, getting themselves in trouble.

Also, under "siege mode", dwarfs will take longer chosing their way to retreat back home. This can get even worse if the path towards one of the totems is blocked by closed doors and hatches or by any other solid foreground blocs. That would cause dwarfs to be completely motionless, which could easily lead them to death, if nearby some strong monsters.

In single player, the workaround would be fully renouncing the use of additional stockpiles and totems. For working in very remote places, instead of using additional stocks, dwarfs could use some of the special shop items.

History

Version	Release	Changes
1.6.003	25 Jul 2019	Added protection against spawn worm-digger in the same radius from totems.
1.2.005	13 Jan 2016	Fixed: in Single game dwarves could hit the totem with arrows.
1.2.003	23 Dec 2015	Fixed: in single game monsters don't destroy a totem now.
1.1.007	21 May 2015	Changed recipe and price for totem.
0.9.029	5 June 2014	Fixed calculation of shelter borders when removing totem.
0.9.026	6 May 2014	Totem occupies 2 vertical blocks now.
0.9.022	3 Apr 2014	Forbidden to disassemble totems in campaign mode because player couldn’t craft them soon enough.
0.9.015	29 Jan 2014	When switching siege mode, dwarves without beds walk to the totem.