Warp Totem
| Warp Totem | |
|---|---|
| Type | Crafted Item |
Warp Totems are the carved travel charms that make the valley feel small. Raising one in the inventory plants it in the ground, and the farmer is somewhere else a moment later, with the totem used up in the bargain. Five of them exist, one each for the Farm, The Mountain, The Beach, Calico Desert and Ginger Island, and each one lands on the little stone warp shrine that marks its destination. Three of the recipes are taught by the Foraging skill and two are bought from traders a long way from home, but totems arrive as gifts, prizes and pond produce far more often than most farms bother to craft them. Later in the game the Obelisks do the same trips for ever without being consumed, which turns the totems from a lifeline into a convenience.
Recipe
The three homely destinations come from Foraging. The Beach recipe arrives first, the Mountains recipe next and the Farm recipe last, which is a fair reflection of how useful each one turns out to be. All three ask for Hardwood, so the real limit on making totems in bulk is the supply of Large Stumps and Mahogany Trees rather than anything exotic. The rest of what they want is ordinary: Fiber from weeds, Stone from rocks, Coral from the sand, an Iron Bar from the Furnace, and a jar of Honey from a Bee House.
The other two recipes are bought abroad. The Desert Trader in her tent out on the sand sells the Desert recipe for a stack of Iridium Bars, and she will also sell finished totems a few Omni Geodes at a time for anyone who would rather not craft them. The Island recipe belongs to the Dwarf who lives inside the volcano on Ginger Island, and he charges gold for it, but he will not trade at all until the four Dwarf Scrolls have gone into the Museum and his language can be understood.
Ready-made totems turn up almost everywhere. The Casino out in the desert sells Farm totems for tokens, the Museum pays out a handful for reaching eighty donations, and Skull Cavern treasure rooms hide packs of them. Mystery Boxes hold one or two, and from the first day of Summer in the first year an Artifact Spot can turn up a totem instead of the usual Clay. A Fish Pond with enough residents produces them as a daily chance, with the ocean creatures making Beach totems, the small freshwater ones making Mountains totems and a Blobfish pond making Farm totems. Willy hands over a large stack if he draws the farmer's name at the Feast of the Winter Star, the Ocean Fish Bundle pays in Beach totems, the Trout Derby gives Farm totems as a prize, and repairing the Farm Obelisk on Ginger Island comes with an Island totem attached.
Use
A totem is used from the inventory rather than placed like a building, and it works from almost anywhere: the bottom of the Mines, a far corner of Ginger Island, the middle of the desert. That is the quality that keeps totems relevant for the whole game, because they travel from wherever the farmer is standing, while an Obelisk only ever sends someone out from the farm.
Each destination earns its keep differently. The Farm totem is the emergency exit, pulling a farmer out of a deep dive before two in the morning turns into a blackout, a fee and a wasted next day. The Desert totem is about the clock rather than the distance, since the bus does not pull out until mid-morning and a Skull Cavern run wants every hour it can get. The Beach totem buys an early start on ocean fishing and drops the farmer beside Willy's shop and the Ginger Island boat, which makes it a stand-in for the Island totem long before the Dwarf will talk. The Mountains totem is the quietest of the five, handy for lake fishing, for deliveries to the residents up there and for reaching the Mines before the minecarts are running. The Island totem saves both the walk to the harbour and the fare, and it is the one that most changes a late-game routine.
One day in the calendar catches people out. On the mornings of the Luau and the Dance of the Moonlight Jellies, a Beach totem used before the festival opens is spent without going anywhere, so those two days are better walked.
Variants
The other warp totems in the game, with what each one takes and where the recipe comes from.
| Name | Image | Ingredients | Recipe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warp Totem: Beach | 
|
Hardwood (1), Coral (2), Fiber (10) | Foraging Level 6 |
| Warp Totem: Desert | 
|
Hardwood (2), Coconut (1), Iridium Ore (4) | Desert Trader for Iridium Bar (10) |
| Warp Totem: Farm | 
|
Hardwood (1), Honey (1), Fiber (20) | Foraging Level 8 |
| Warp Totem: Island | 
|
Hardwood (5), Dragon Tooth (1), Ginger (1) | Volcano Dwarf for 10,000g |
| Warp Totem: Mountains | 
|
Hardwood (1), Iron Bar (1), Stone (25) | Foraging Level 7 |
Notes
The permanent versions are farm buildings rather than items. The Wizard sells the Earth, Water, Desert and Island Obelisks from the magic book in his tower, each one warping to the same shrine as the matching totem and each one taking a small rectangle of farmland that can be shifted later. They only appear in his catalogue after the Goblin Problem has been settled, and that quest in turn waits on the town projects being finished, by either the Junimos or Joja. All four count towards Perfection, so a completionist ends up with the whole set whether or not every trip gets used.
Two more permanent warps sit outside that catalogue. The Farm Obelisk is bought from the island parrots with Golden Walnuts and stands on the Ginger Island farm, sending the farmer home from the far side of the ocean rather than the other way about. Mini-Obelisks work as a pair inside the farm itself, shortening the walk from the house to the fields instead of carrying anyone off the property.
The Return Scepter is the odd one out and the closest thing to a permanent Farm totem. Krobus keeps it in the Sewers at a price that only a mature farm can look at, and it is never consumed, so a farmer who warps home every evening eventually stops crafting totems altogether. It also lands at the farmhouse door rather than at the warp shrine, which saves a few more steps.
Even with the full set of Obelisks standing on the farm, a drawer of totems stays useful. The Obelisks send a farmer out; the totems bring a farmer back, or sideways, from wherever the day has taken them.
All Crafting
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
