Inscryption is a unique take on the horror genre as it blends its dark atmosphere with a card game. The player can collect cards and battle the mysterious figure who has them imprisoned. They can also gather different items to assist them in these matches. One of these items is totems.

There are two types of totems in Inscryption—those that Leshy uses and those that the player uses. The player won’t get the ability to use totems until they encounter the woman who carves them. This encounter is marked by the raven head and knife symbol on the game board.

When the player meets the woman, she will offer the player a choice of three pieces. They can be either a head or the body. To construct a totem, a player will need one of each piece. The player can get multiple pieces and swap them out when they encounter the woman again. The player can earn a squirrel head totem piece by completing the fourth puzzle in the cabinet.

The headpieces represent the family the totem effects, such as canines, hoofed creatures, birds, or insects. The body piece represents a type of sigil. Once a totem has been constructed, all cards of that family will gain the sigil displayed by the body piece. By collecting cards of a specific family and imbuing them with sigils, players can create powerful decks.

Leshy also uses totems in matches against the player. These special encounters act almost like mini-boss fights and see Leshy using powerful decks where most of his cards are imbued with sigils. These battles can be extremely tough.

For more information on Inscryption, check out How to solve the Caged Wolf Puzzle in Inscryption and All items in Inscryption on Pro Game Guides.