Disclosure: I’m a fairly new player to Dead by Daylight. The purpose of this post is to share what I have learned thus far.
What Are Totems
Totems look like three skulls being held up by a triangular formation of sticks. When dull, they seem fairly innocuous, but when blessed, they burn blue and become Boon Totems. Boon Totems give benefits to survivors in their vicinity. How they help the survivors effected by them depends on the perk used to bless them. These perks are called Boon Perks and allow survivors to heal quicker, hide scratch marks, gain speed, etc… If you’re close enough to a Boon Totem to be under its influence, you’ll see a triangle with a star inside on the right side of the screen.
If a totem is burning red, it’s called a Hex Totem. Hex Totems are made by the killer and operate similar to Boon Totems. If you’re under the influence of a Hex Totem, a triangle with a skull will appear on the right side of your screen.
To bless a totem, all you need to do is walk up to it and hit your action button. It takes 14 seconds to fully bless a totem. Once the totem is blessed, all survivors will hear a thunder sound effect.
Totem Perks
Below is a list Boon Perks and the character who has it. You can unlock these perks for all your characters by playing the one with the perk and leveling them up once via the Bloodweb.
- Boon: Circle of Healing (Mikaela Reid)
- An increase in altruistic healing speeds and the auras of injured players are revealed.
- Boon: Dark Theory (Yoichi Asakawa)
- Players get an added 2% haste.
- Boon: Exponential (Jonah Vasquez)
- Recovery speed gets a bonus, and a player can fully self-recover from the dying state.
- Boon: Illumination (Alan Wake)
- The auras from chests and generators are revealed in blue.
- Boon: Shadow Step (Detective Tapp)
- Suppresses scratch marks and auras from the killer.
Perks to Run to Help Find Totems
I use either Small Game (available to everyone in the Bloodweb) or Detective’s Hunch (Detective Tapp) to find totems. I’m not yet sure which one I prefer. Small Game uses a sound to indicate when you look in the direction of a totem while Detective’s Hunch shows the aura of totems for 10 seconds when a generator is repaired. For me, Small Game becomes a distraction because I often hear the chime and spend too much time searching for the totem. Detective’s Hunch shows the aura of the totem, so you can go directly to it.
I’ve also been using Overzealous (Haddie Kauer), which increases generator repairs by 10% for a blessed or cleansed Dull Totem and 20% for a cleansed Hex Totem. The benefits for Overzealous go away once the player is injured. I’m not sure if Prove Thyself (Dwight Fairfield) would be a better choice. Prove Thyself doesn’t rely on a totem being blessed or cleansed, nor does it go away if the player loses a health state.
There are a number of perk combinations a player can run to help their game, so read through the perks available to you and give them some thought.
In the video below I’m using Small Game, so listen for the chime indicating that a totem is close by. Also listen for the sounds made after the totem is blessed.
Feel free to reach out to me on social media with questions or thoughts on Dead by Daylight.
