40d:Trap

v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31 · v0.28.181.40d · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

For traps used to catch Template:L, see Template:L.

Traps are a reliable and cost-effective method for defending any fortress. Unlike Template:Ls, they're always on duty, and don't need to be carefully managed. On the other hand, they are immobile and can only lie in wait for foes to walk over them. To build a trap, go to the build->Traps/Levers menu. You'll generally need one Template:L, a dwarf with the Template:L labor designated (ranks in this Template:L reduce the time to place a trap), and at least one other component depending on the type of trap - a stone, a cage, or one or more weapons. They can be built indoors or outdoors, and require a level ground square with no other constructions in them.

Stone-fall, weapon and cage traps will be triggered by (most) any hostile entity entering their tile, with the exception of Template:L Template:L. Additionally, any Template:L creature, including your own Template:L, Template:Ls and Template:Ls, will also set off such a trap. (Kobold Template:L have the ability to avoid traps, though it seems to have a small amount of randomness built in.)

Note that, in combat situations, Template:Ls (and others) have a nasty habit of wanting to reload (or clean) traps when they are triggered, regardless of who or what might be out there as well. Template:Lding traps after they are built will keep Template:L from deciding to reload a stone trap in the middle of a Template:L. Just remember to unforbid them when things calm down, so the traps are all ready for next time.

Stone-fall Trap

The simplest trap to construct, a stone-fall trap is essentially a Template:L suspended up in the air which is dropped on intruders when the trap is triggered. These are a popular defensive measure early on, as the components needed are readily available as soon as you start mining. A single stone trap will kill or severely maim most Template:L enemies although Template:Ls, Template:L and hardier creatures may take two or three to drop. Mythical creatures such as Template:Ls, Template:Ls and Template:Ls will take upwards of five or six. After being used they need to be reloaded with another stone by any Template:L with Template:L Template:L enabled, a task which your dwarves will see to automatically. Being that stonefall traps do not alert you of ambushes when triggered by hidden invaders, this can frequently lead your mechanics into peril.

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Components used: Template:L and an ordinary Template:L

Weapon Trap

Weapon traps consist of any number of deadly instruments rigged to a mechanism. When an intruder sets off the trap, the Template:Ls spring out and strike the poor sap. You can add up to 10 weapons to a weapon trap, and they will all attack together when set off. This gives the potential for dealing significant amounts of damage at once. There are also special giant weapons such as the Template:L that are specially designed for use in weapon traps. Unlike stone-fall traps, weapon traps automatically reset after being triggered, ready to splatter the intruder's friends. But there is a (20%?)chance that the trap will become jammed with a corpse each time it kills a creature. A nearby dwarf will automatically clean a jammed trap; this does not require the Template:L labor or the Template:Ls labor.

If there are weapons that require ammunition (Template:Ls, Template:Ls, etc) in the trap, each such weapon requires appropriate ammo (Template:Ls for bows, Template:Ls for Template:Ls, etc), and will have to be reloaded occasionally. Weapon traps using only ranged weapons will not require cleaning, but once all the ammo runs out, that weapon is done until reloaded. If a ranged weapon runs out of ammo, other trap weapons will still trigger. If non-ranged weapons are included in the same trap and jam, the entire trap jams until cleared. Ranged weapons in traps only target the creature triggering the trap, just as any other weapon - if the creature steps onto that trap, the trap targets that creature, once per triggering, until all ammo is gone. (This means "Range = 0".)

Unlike other traps, weapon traps benefit from being constructed with high quality mechanisms. Weapon traps are more accurate the better their mechanism. Since weapon traps can be constructed with multiple weapons, and each weapon's attack is calculated separately, traps with multiple weapons benefit more from high-quality mechanisms than do traps with only one weapon. If you manage to get an artifact Template:L, stuff it with as many weapons as possible!

Weapon traps are a nice way of getting rid of any cheap, mediocre captured weapons, Template:Len weapons you don't need for sparring and weapons your dwarves can't use. Due to the bundling of weapons you don't have to worry much about the minor damage they would cause separately. There is no difference between low quality crossbows (wood, bone, copper) and high quality steel and adamantine crossbows—the metal only changes their effectiveness in melee. Thus wooden crossbows at the bowyer make for easy-to-produce trap weapons.

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Components used: Template:L and whatever Template:Ls you want, up to ten.

Cage Trap

Cage traps capture creatures that set them off in Template:Ls. After a creature is captured, it's stored, cage and all, in an animal Template:L. Then the trap is reloaded with another cage. You can do all sorts of fun things with Template:L. Creatures in cages will not be fed, they will survive indefinitely without nourishment. Cage traps will alert you to ambushes when triggered by hidden invaders, making a useful forward defense mechanism.

It is possible that dwarves bring Template:L to cages, but that means that you have someone friendly also locked in the cage - like a dwarf Template:L snatched by a Template:L babysnatcher. In this case remove the poor fellow using the goblin's inventory screen. A cage trap is one of the most effective ways to defeat powerful beasts, as even a Template:L cage (aquarium/terrarium) can imprison a Template:L. This was expected to change. Also, the creature captured in the cage will have no effect on the cage itself (a caged Template:L will not burn down a wooden cage, for example).

Cage traps are also useful for catching animals for use in the Template:L.

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• Components used: Template:L and a Template:L.
• If the trap is a Dark Green, then it does not have a cage in it.
• If the trap is a Light Green, Then it does have a cage in it.

NOTE: This trap will not catch Template:L. For that, you need an Template:L.

Berserk dwarves

Cage traps will capture berserk dwarves, so it might be wise to keep them stored instead of killing them (for happiness purposes), since relationships they have with other dwarves are maintained. However, unlike other caged creatures, dwarves will starve to death over time inside a cage.

Upright Spear/Spike

These traps can only be utilized by attaching them to Template:Ls or Template:Ls, which when triggered will cause the Template:Ls to extend from the ground and, when triggered again, to retract back into the ground. They don't slow or hurt any creature walking through them if they are not currently triggered by a lever/plate, neither when up nor when retracted.

The lever task can be set to repeat which makes the spikes go up and down, but there is a high chance a creature will pass the spike trap before or after they shoot up, so you may want to build a row of at least 5 traps.

The damage done depends, like with weapon traps, on the number and quality of the Template:Ls and spikes used. One trap can be loaded with up to 10 spikes or spears. The fact that they do piercing damage makes them useful against more powerful foes which are most easily killed by damaging their organs. Using a single, no-Template:L spike made from Template:L can be useful in attempting to cripple Template:Ls when killing them outright is not desired, but much luck is in involved in the outcome.

Spikes will, when triggered, damage creatures unaffected by other traps (kobold thieves and demons, but also dwarves, Template:Ls and allied creatures). The traps' friendly fire means they make effective anti-Template:L traps. There are also reports that the spikes are effective against Template:Ls, although spikes which are not made of Template:L may melt.

Contrary to what one might think, the spikes appear to do no (additional) damage if a creature falls on them. There is therefore no advantage to putting the spikes at the bottom of a pit trap and you still have to connect them to a lever or pressure plate to cause injury -- not that you shouldn't do that anyway.

Stuff does get stuck in spikes when they are triggered. Any Template:Ls will appear as an item inside a spike's 'building' when they are out (the same way Template:Ls and whatnot appear inside Template:Ls when you first make them). Retracting the spikes lets the corpse out. If a corpse is in a square when the trap is triggered, it will be skewered again on the spike.

Testing has shown that there is no obvious limit to the number of creatures a single spike can strike and impale-testing with recruits ordered to stand on a retracted spike resulted in all six recruits getting killed instantaneously and stuck on the spike. Use with extreme caution.

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Components used: A Template:L for the Template:L or Template:L and Template:Ls or Template:Ls.

Other Traps

You can create even more elaborate traps with imaginative use of pits, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:L, and/or Template:L, creating sacrificial altars (blood for the Blood God!) and whatever else you can think of. Watching those goblins try to find a way out of your drowning chamber as it begins to fill is really quite satisfying. These are best made in a large, repeatable mass killing, way. If you make a trap that kills 10 or so goblins, that only works once and you have to rebuild it, wasting time you don't have during a Template:L, you're not trying hard enough.

See Template:L

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