# Special materials As described in the Alchemy section, materials belong to one of the following states: liquid, solid, or essence. However, some miners recently discovered a very strange material on Terragrid: the Underwater Totem. This entity is the most powerful element in alchemy.

Overview of the Underwater totem.

The totem was discovered in the center of the lake area (S16), below the strange ring located on the water's surface. After a few hours, the water was drawn into the ring, and the totem disappeared. Some miners speculated that other totems could appear on Terragrid. So far, the origin of this strange artifact remains unexplained. Initial miners believed it could be a hoax set up by the first Arcadian pioneers, but scientific analysis revealed that the totem exhibits the thermodynamic properties of a liquid, a solid, and an essence. It is certain that humans do not currently possess the technology to create such items. Since then, other totems have been collected, and the Alchemist has learned how to harness the power of this unique material. **When used, the totem follows the rules below:** * A totem can be played as a liquid, solid, or essence. * Only one totem can be used per recipe. It is not possible to use two totems in the same recipe. * When it is used in a slot, the totem will take the shape of 25% of the materials belonging to the category it is played on. The final value is lowered to the closest multiple of 5. * **Currently, with between 85-89 materials in each category, the totem takes the shape of 20 different materials.** * The totem can take the shape of any material of any rarity within the category it is played on. The player doesn't need to own or even have discovered the materials. * When used, a given totem will not take the same shape twice, meaning that each totem will successively transform into unique materials without duplicates. * However, a totem doesn't check for recipes previously cooked by a player. This means that if multiple totems are being used, different totems can lead to duplicate recipes. * The Alchemist will successively cook all the recipes, and the player can keep the result of each recipe. * The cost in Minium and Constructium for using the totem is the same as for any other materials. The totem is not more expensive to use. * Every cook is recorded in the history section. * Using a totem grants 1 XP point, despite several recipes being cooked. **Example:** If a player has unlocked 3 slots and he decides to play the totem as a liquid, and 100 liquids have been released so far, the totem will take the shape of 25 random liquids (25% of 100 = 25) of any rarity (from Common to Ultimate). Therefore. the player will cook 25 recipes in one go:
If a player has more than 3 slots available, the Totem will then explore all possible options:
Therefore, the Underwater totem is the perfect material to brute-force Alchemy and try a large number of recipes at minimal cost. {% hint style="info" %} Before playing the Underwater totem, think carefully about the category (Liquid, Solid, Essence) that you want to explore. Depending on your inventory, some categories might be more worthwhile to explore! Moreover, remember that using the Totem as an essence will result **in fewer attempts** if you have unlocked additional slots, since these slots are also treated as essences! {% endhint %} --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://nbmofficialwiki.gitbook.io/nbm-shadow-depths/overview/nft-battle-miners-official-wiki/viii-alchemy/materials/special-materials.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.