| “ | Boost your next Paragon's powers with this mystical artifact... | ” |
| ~ Description for "Paragon Power Totem" |
The Paragon Tower Totem is an item available in Geraldo's Shop starting at Level 20. After being placed on the map, it will contribute 2,000 power to the next Paragon created. Upon creating a Paragon, all currently placed Paragon Power Totems become absorbed into the newly formed Paragon. Currently, Paragon Power Totems are the only way to get a Degree 100 Paragon in single-player mode, which earns the Perfect Paragon achievement. Up to 2 Paragon Power Totems are kept in stock at once, but an unlimited amount can be placed on the map. Each one restocks every round. When first unlocked, Geraldo will have 2 Paragon Power Totems in stock.
Starting from Version 39.0, all Paragon Power Totems will have a buff icon that represents the number of Paragon Power Totems currently on the map; this is to aid the calculation of Paragon degree boosting.
It costs $22,100 on Easy, $26,000 on Medium, $28,080 on Hard, and $31,200 on Impoppable.
Strategy[]
Summary[]
The Paragon Power Totem allows players to stockpile Paragon power by spending a large sum of in-game cash. As this circumvents the need for more than 3 Tier 5 Upgrades, it allows Single-Players to get max degree Paragons for the Perfect Paragon achievement. However, beyond this use case, using the Power Totem to max out Paragons may not be an economical choice. The low amount of Power given per totem, coupled with the plateauing damage returns of Paragon degree scaling mean that this item gives relatively little damage for its price. Put simply, other towers provide more "bang for your buck". This is especially true in Boss Runs, where limited cash is better spent on other low-tier Paragons, and High Late Game where Paragons are generally outclassed. However, in situations where there is nothing to afford but gluts of money, it can still be worth investing Paragon Power Totems if Geraldo is the selected hero.
If degree boosting is tight, or investing on a very high DPS Paragon such as Goliath Doomship or rushing a higher-level Paragon pre-prepped (such as Master Builder's per-round self-ultraboost and maximum Mega Sentries on the field) for a T4+ Elite Boss, investing in Paragon Power Totems may be worth the effort, especially if the increased degree increments surpass groups of 20 degrees. Ideally, start Paragon Power Totems as soon as possible but only if income generation per round surpasses about $60k+ per round to safely afford both a Paragon Power Totem and extra defenses if necessary, in addition to further developing the conventional way of maximizing degrees.
Tips[]
- In general, the Paragon Power Totems contribute a poor amount of Paragon damage output to cost. Players can spend upwards of $1 million on Totems just to max out a Paragon. This money is better spent on the actual Paragon sacrifices or other Tier-5 towers.
- If going for the Perfect Paragon achievement, begin stockpiling totems as soon as possible. However, since the totems contribute comparatively little power to the Paragon degree, max out the other requirements such as pops, number of upgrades, etc. More information can be found on each Paragon's page.
- If these max requirements are met, a minimum of 20 Paragon Power Totems (50 if pre-39.0) are needed to level a Paragon to Degree 100, that value obtainable by using the totems as supplements to the Degree 91 Paragon (or 76 for XBox).
- Necessary totems is decreased to a minimum of 7 (40 if pre-39.0) if given to Apex Plasma Master with Master Double Cross MK active. Such MK would require 6,000 less Power (10,000 less Power pre-39.0) to fill up due to the one extra Crossbow Master.
- Use a map with significant open space to achieve this. Although individual Paragon Power Totems each take up a tiny footprint, placing a large quantity of them can consume significant space.
- Buy the Paragon in the middle of a round. If the Paragon does not reach Degree 100, quickly back out of the match and buy more totems/other sacrifices.
- Investing Paragon Power Totems on the expensive but high-DPS Paragons such as Goliath Doomship or Navarch of the Seas may be a better idea than onto the cheapest Paragons, which typically have lower DPS than the others.
- For Boss Bloon Events, Paragon Power Totems are best used to aim for specific increments of degree 20 Paragons, as every 20 degrees greatly increases boss damage. It is best to buy these when the player has a stable income flow, as Paragons are best for later tiers, when space is tight but money is plentiful.
- Only one totem is needed to reach a degree 40 Apex Plasma Master when combined with the extra Crossbow Master's 10,000 power from being a T5, which provides a further 10,000 power from capping out the 250k cash sacrifices, and 25 0-2-2 darts for 100 power from the 100 upgrade tiers. [pre-39.0]
- For Tier 4 Bosses, only a few totems are needed to obtain a degree 40 Master Builder when farming pops with a XXXL Trap. However, much more totems are necessary to achieve a Degree 60 Master Builder before Round 97, depending on how much pops and income Engineers have made up to this point.
- For Tier 5 Bosses, only a few totems are needed for the Goliath Doomship to reach degree 60 if farming pops with a Flying Fortress after popping the Tier 4 boss.
- In the worst case scenario, if a player cannot farm pops or income with a tower and is only restricted to 3 towers to create a paragon, then 6 totems are required for a Degree 20.
- If purely relying on totems for a max degree Paragon, 100 totems are required. However, this is impractical outside of Sandbox Mode, as Freeplay scaling will surely outscale the rate of purely accumulating totems.
- All Paragons except Apex Plasma Master have more expensive costs per power in manual cash sacrifices than Paragon Power Totems. If the Paragon upgrade cost is greater than $260,000 on Medium, and hence $13/power, Paragon Power Totems net more value per power purely by cash sacrifices, excluding tier benefits that manually placing towers would offer.
Version History[]
Balance Changes[]
- 31.0
- Released
- 31.1
Geraldo’s Lv20 paragon totem reworked to give +33% more paragon power but at an increased price
- Paragon Power Totem cost increased ($20,000 → $26,000)
- Paragon Power Totem now gives more power (1,500 → 2,000)
- Ninja Kiwi erroneously claimed the gain was +25%; testing shows it was actually +33% increase, giving 2,000 from 1,500. Also, the price increase isn't "equal" to the gain of totem power; it would be a +30% price increase. Ninja Kiwi corrected the gain to "33%".
- Rohan from Ninja Kiwi admitted that he incorrectly calculated the costs and value increase of the totem. He corrected that the increase of Paragon Power Totem power is actually +33%. The cost is increased by +30% in actuality, not "an equally increased price" as claimed by the patch notes
- [bug fix] Paragon Power Totem now correctly use Impoppable prices on Impoppable.
- 38.0
- Paragon Power Totem no longer takes one more round to refresh stock if bought from full stock
- Paragon Power Totems no longer can be targeted by Overclock
- 39.0
| “ | To make things a little clearer for players attempting to be precise with their Paragon Totem farming, the number of totems placed will now be tallied up and listed whenever one is selected. | ” |
| ~ Ninja Kiwi |
- Each Paragon Totem placed now displays a buff icon with a stack count that displays how many are placed.
Bug Fixes and General Changes[]
- 31.1
- All Geraldo items now correctly use Impoppable prices on Impoppable.
Sounds[]
Placing a Paragon Power Totem:
- [Assembling, and gadgets spinning and whirling]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The totem has a hitbox smaller than its appearance.
- Paragon Power Totems spin around counter-clockwise for the purple tiers and clockwise for the blue tiers.
- These buff Paragons by exactly 2000 paragon power which stack additively. There has been some confusion where people have thought they give 5000 paragon power, due to an incorrect statement by NK in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfGD6MNIVrc, correction in pinned comment also by NK to state 1,500 Power at the time of Version 31.0.
- It is possible to get four Degree 100 Paragons in a single game without Double Cash, Powers, or Continues. Prior to version 31.1 players could sell and rebuy Geraldo to accomplish this quickly. After version 31.1 players can only buy Geraldo's single restocked totem once per round meaning it will take around 180 rounds to accomplish this.
Ninja Kiwi Blogs[]
- According to Ninja Kiwi's 29th April 2022 blog, Ninja Kiwi suggests that Paragon Power Totems are likely secrets that only Geraldo knows.
- According to Ninja Kiwi's 3rd June 2022 blog, it is implied that Geraldo gets his Paragon Power Totems from the creator of Paragon Power Totems, who is also his supplier for those items.
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