Put Your Strategy to the Test
Play Totemancer for free — capture land, chain bonus turns,
use Burst abilities, and climb the ranked ladder.
What are the game rules?
Totemancer is a turn-based PvP strategy board game where you place Totems, capture land, chain bonus turns, and outplay your opponent. These are the core rules every player should know.
1. Turns
Each turn lasts 30 seconds. On your turn, you can place one Totem on a valid empty tile.
You cannot place a Totem:
- on obstacles
- on another Totem
- inside captured land
2. Capturing land
Land is captured when empty tiles are fully surrounded by your Totems on the four main sides: up, down, left, and right.
Map borders do not count as walls. To capture land, you must close the shape with your own Totems.
The player who places the final connecting Totem captures the land immediately. If multiple areas are captured by one move, they are scored together.
3. Scoring and bonus turns
Captured land gives points. If your move increases your score by at least +1, you get a bonus turn.
Bonus turns can chain if each new move captures more land. This makes planning sequences one of the most important parts of Totemancer.
4. Burst ability
Each player starts with 2 Bursts per game. Burst can only be used when placing a Totem.
Burst affects the 8 surrounding tiles around the placed Totem. It can destroy opponent Totems and obstacles, opening space or breaking enemy plans.
Your own Totems are not destroyed by your Burst, but changing the board can still affect captured land if an enclosure is broken.
If your Burst move increases your score, you get a bonus turn. If it does not increase your score, your turn ends.
5. Skipping, surrender, and disqualification
If you skip a turn or run out of time, your opponent gains +1 Burst.
After 2 skips, the Skip button is replaced with Surrender. Surrender ends the match as a loss with reduced rewards.
If you surrender or skip 3 times in one match, you lose the game. Repeated disqualifications may temporarily prevent you from starting new matches.
6. Playing with friends
Friend matches still give normal progression rewards. They can affect your Rating, but they do not affect your leaderboard Ranking.
Want to invite someone? Read: How to play with a friend.
7. Regions
You can normally play in regions you have unlocked. If another player hosts a match in a locked region, you may still join and earn progression rewards there.
Winning in a locked region can give rewards such as Mana and XP, but it does not automatically unlock that region.
Learn more here: How to unlock regions.
8. How the game ends
The game ends when the board is full, when a player surrenders, or when a player is disqualified after repeated skips.
The player with more captured land wins. If both players have the same score, the match ends in a draw.
Draws give small progression rewards, but no special win bonuses.
Useful next guides
These rules keep Totemancer fair, competitive, and easy to learn while leaving room for deep strategy.
