What Totems Cost in Runestones
The totems tool will tell you what a level costs and what stat it gives. What it will not tell you, because you would have to click through 2,760 rows to find out, is what the whole thing costs and where the cost actually sits.
So this is the same table, summed. Every figure is computed from the data that drives the tool.
The totals
Eight totems in three qualities. Within a quality, the cost is identical — not similar, identical to the stone:
| Quality | Totems | Max level | Runestones each |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue | Fertility, Hunting | 60 | 42,726 |
| Purple | Fire, Darkness, Order | 150 | 92,880 |
| Gold | Earth, Wrath, Guard | 150 | 302,940 |
All eight, fully maxed: 1,272,912 runestones.
Rarity costs more than it gives back
A gold totem costs 7.1x what a blue one costs, and 3.3x a purple.
That is the whole gold tier: three totems at 302,940 each is 908,820 runestones — 71% of the entire bill for three of the eight.
What you get for it is real but not proportional. The node stats are percentages of different things, so adding them into one number would be meaningless, but the shape is clear: a blue totem's nodes total 86.4 percentage points across 8 stat types, a purple 171.0 across 7, a gold 221.4 across 9. Roughly 2.6x the stat for 7.1x the stones.
The last fifth of the levels is 40% of the cost
This is the number worth planning around. Taking Earth, a gold totem, level by level:
| Reached level | Runestones spent | Share of total |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | 12,600 | 4% |
| 60 | 40,590 | 13% |
| 90 | 91,440 | 30% |
| 120 | 181,440 | 60% |
| 150 | 302,940 | 100% |
Levels 120 to 150 — the last 20% of the levels — cost 121,500 runestones, or 40% of the whole totem.
The pattern holds across qualities: the final fifth of the levels is 41% of a purple totem and 36% of a blue one.
Put differently: the stones that take one gold totem from 120 to 150 would take a blue totem from zero to maxed nearly three times over.
Where the milestone bonuses sit
Each totem has two milestone bonuses at fixed levels, and they arrive at different points depending on quality:
| Quality | First bonus | Second bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Blue | Level 24 — +2% | Level 48 — +2% |
| Purple | Level 48 — +0.5% | Level 96 — +0.5% |
| Gold | Level 48 — +0.5% | Level 96 — +0.5% |
On a blue totem the second milestone lands at level 48 of 60, which is 64% of the way through the cost. On a gold, level 96 of 150 is about 35% of the cost — so the second milestone on a gold arrives far earlier in spending terms than on a blue.
Within purple and gold, the node stats are identical
Fire, Darkness and Order have exactly the same node stat profile as each other. So do Earth, Wrath and Guard. Same cost, same stats per node.
The two blues are the exception, and they are genuine opposites:
| Totem | Leans |
|---|---|
| Fertility | Infantry HP 21.6% and Cavalry HP 21.6% — defensive |
| Hunting | Archer Attack 21.6% and Mage Attack 21.6% — offensive |
That is the one place in the totem table where the choice changes what you get rather than just what it is called.
Two things this guide does not claim
The stat totals are not comparable across totems. A percentage of Archer HP and a percentage of Critical Strike Rate are different things, and adding them gives a number with no meaning. The per-quality totals above are shape, not score. The runestone costs, by contrast, are one unit and fully comparable.
Totem skills are not covered. Each totem has an active skill, and the table on this site has it filled in for only one of the eight. Rather than guess at the other seven, they are left out. If you know the skill values, the contact page is the way to get them into the table.
Run the numbers on your own setup in the totems tool, and if you are planning spend across systems, the cost tables for buildings and research are added up here.