This page is one of several inter-related articles on the broader topic of defending your fortress and your dwarves. This page will focus on the theory and design of complex traps, mechanical systems and other automation for defending your fortress, and also on unusual uses of simple mechanic's traps.

See the Defense guide for a general overview of threats and considerations for fortress defense.

For suggestions on training, organizing and deploying soldiers and militia, see Military design.

Many defenses rely on complex traps as a central component, that are, essentially, the defense themselves. For designs that could be adapted to use any complex trap, see Defense design.

Editors & Contributors - Please see top of discussion page before posting.

Introduction

Complex traps and automation rely on linking doors, hatches, floodgates, bridges and mechanic's traps to levers or pressure plates. When the trigger is activated, it sends a signal to the linked device. That signal is not "toggle", but it's specifically either to "open" or to "close". By manipulating what does what and when, impressive results can be achieved.

To fully understand how these component objects work individually (before combining them into diabolical and complex combinations), see those articles.

Basic traps

These are the simple traps that are placed by a mechanic. They require one mechanism but do not require levers or triggers. They can be a "first defense" for a fledgling fortress, but they can also be combined into key parts of more complex set ups.

Note that, in combat situations, Mechanics (and others) have a nasty habit of wanting to clean or reload traps when they are triggered, regardless of who or what might be out there as well. Forbidding traps after they are built will keep Urist McGoblinBait from deciding to reload a stone trap in the middle of a siege. Just remember to unforbid them when things calm down, so the traps are all ready for next time. Or keep all traps unreachable with drawbridges or orders.

Simple traps will also be triggered if your own dwarves or pets fall unconscious on them.

Stone fall trap

This is the easiest trap to build, so you can easily build them in large numbers. Building lots of them is an easy way to earn experience for your mechanic, and add to the depth of your fort's defenses at the same time. Surround every intersection and stairway.

Cage trap

A very powerful type of trap. Maybe even too powerful - currently, even a wooden or glass cage can hold indefinitely any creature, even trolls and megabeasts. Also, a cage trap never fails. A large creature can shrug off damage from a stone or weapon trap, but nothing can escape from a cage. Use cage traps as your outermost traps to catch the occasional wandering animal, or angry wounded elephant or unicorn, or even zombies.

By connecting a trapped animal in a cage to a lever, you can remotely release that animal. (Note - not all wild beasts will attack goblins.)

Weapon trap

The gold standard of lethal traps. This is the only simple trap that works repeatedly without reloading. They do get jammed, however. View the trap with the items in room t mode, and if there's a corpse inside the trap, it's jammed. None of the weapons on a jammed trap will function. It may be wiser to have several weapon traps with fewer weapons, rather than a smaller number of ten-weapon traps.

Using crossbows in weapon traps avoids the problem of jamming, but they must be kept loaded with ammo. Hammers seem to jam less than swords or axes, and spears seem to jam the most. Your dwarves will attempt to unjam traps unless otherwise forbidden.

Linked traps

These traps require a trigger such as a pressure plate or lever pull. They will require at least three mechanisms, one for the trigger and two to create the link. The trigger can be located any distance from the trap, typically close for a pressure plate or far away for a lever.

Menacing Spikes

Menacing spikes or upright spears can be activated remotely to pop out of the ground and impale anyone standing on that tile. Vast forests of these can make any area a killing field.

They will not jam. They are very deadly to everything including your dwarves and animals. Steel ones are fireproof.

Try planting a bunch of Upright Spear/Spikes in your main hallway, and link them all up to one lever. When invaders come near, give the order to pull the lever, but set it to Repeat. The lever will continuously be pulled and the spikes come up and down repeatedly, perforating most enemies in seconds. Note that this takes a lot of time and mechanisms to build.

Dropping the Hammer

Lowering drawbridges on invaders will crush them.

Try replacing the side wall of a part of your main entranceway with a drawbridge, big enough so it spans the whole hallway. To prevent enemies from wrecking it, you could dig a channel in front of it so its protected while its raised. Link the drawbridge up to a pressure plate or lever, whatever you prefer. Whenever you feel like it, activate the trap, and watch the drawbridge fall directly into the hall, utterly squashing anything beneath it. This can be done with minimal effort and used to smash invaders, unwanted immigrants, nobles, or simply to destroy your garbage. This is based on the 'Dwarven Atom Smasher' device mentioned elsewhere in the wiki.

Intentional Cave-in

Supports can be linked to triggers. Building a section of floor that is deliberately held up only by a trapped support allows for an intentional cave-in.

Invaders dropped into a pit can be wounded or killed. Or, in the case of a chasm, vanished entirely.
Dropping a rock floor on invaders will likewise do harm.
The cave-in will also knock nearby invaders unconscious. This will stun them, and also make them susceptible to simple traps (even if normally immune).

Trap strategies

Bait animals

Enemies will hunt down and kill friendly tame animals wandering outside if they have nothing better to do. Put a puppy on a chain in some random spot outside, build a few columns around it to reduce the chance of them shooting it, and trap that area to hell and back. Also known as the "Tar Baby" strategy.

Obstacle Course

Combining some intentional cave-ins, lots of cage traps, some weapon and stone fall traps, channels, and pressure plates is a sure-fire way to fend off an invading goblin army.

Circular path trap

Create a small area preferably 1 tile wide, and channel it out leaving one support under it. This MUST be connected to your base by a bridge so enemies will take it. Place a pressure plate at the end, linked to the support and another bridge into your fortress. line this area with weapon traps and line the exits of the subterranean area underneath this with cage traps. The area underneath must also lead to your base so the enemies will walk into the cages. then build another area just like this except have the entrance bridge be retracted/raised and have the first pressure plate link to it, so it is an endless game of cat and mouse (sort of)

Scattered traps

Another options for outside defenses is scattered traps. Most hostile forces will flee if they take enough casualties, and stone-fall traps can be quite damaging to goblins and are easy to set up. Cage traps work even on Bronze Colossi and Dragons. You just have to make sure your dwarves working outside actually stay near your traps - a fisherdwarf who goes wandering screens away from the nearest trap is not protected. A wall of traps is a passive threat to injure, kill or capture enemies who will happily walk right into them.

Damage traps

These complex traps are designed to kill or maim.

Water traps

These traps drown or wash targets away. Carelessness can cause an entire fortress to flood and be lost. Use with caution.

a water trap

Level 0

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Level -1

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Level -2

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= - Wall
. - Floor
_ - open Space
\ - ramp (direction should be clear)
X - Inflow
x - Outflow

If enemies are in the middle of Level -1, open the inflow, then the water will first trap, and then drown them. If the pit is full, close the in- and open the outflow. You can automate this by using pressure plates, or if you want to have more fun, replace the water with magma (pressure plates and floodgates have to be magma-save then).

Magma traps

These traps incinerate targets, or possibly encase them in obsidian. Magma does not play favorites - read up (again) on magma, and use with extreme caution.

Sealed Fate

Create an airlock using two bridges, two doors or whatever. Make it a medium sized chamber, perhaps 10x10 or so. Channel out the floors around the rim, and rig up a system to pump magma into the room, or drop it from the roof. Enemies will quickly be destroyed, and with the magma in the channels, you can pump it out for future use or just leave it. The idea here is a re-useable magma trap; you can use this with a pressure plate, too. It also leaves behind any magma-proof items the invaders might have been carrying.

Automation & misc trap designs

Chasm trap

The easiest chasm trap is just a retractable bridge, very high up or over a very deep hole; instead of flinging invaders when raised, it just drops them.

A more complicated collapsing spiral trap can take out ten goblins at a time. When finished, it looks like this:

------------
-++++++++#++
-+=======-
-+=++++++-
-+=+====+-
-+=+=D+=+-
-+=+==+=+-
-+=++^+=+-
-+======+-
-++++++++-
------------

The goblins are lured in by a bait animal (here, a chained donkey), and can't shoot it due to the surrounding walls. Just before they reach the donkey, they trigger a pressure plate that retracts the bridge and collapses the support holding up the whole spiral. Goblins, donkey, walls, and all plummet into the chasm.

When building, you will need to build a span of floor underneath, for the support. You will also need to have a floor tile between your floor and solid ground, as the bridge alone will not work as a base, but you can remove it once the support is in place.

Bridge Land Mines

Although this takes quite a few mechanisms and a lot of carpenters to pull of, you might be able to create a minefield on a bridge, create a very long moat and a bridge crossing it, make sure this bridge is not your outermost bridge, this bridge should be at least 20 squares long, but make sure it is no more than 4 squares wide. then set up a ton of pressure plates in a checkered pattern, build a floor above the bridge, and make supports next to the pressure plates, then remove the floor tiles not on the supports, destroy the up-stairs on to the floor, and link all your pressure plates to a support, as soon as a goblin walks on them, the floor caves in and makes an explosion knocking him and the friends he has near him off the bridge drowning them.

This should not be used as the only defense, make sure you have other traps at the ready in case of large sieges

NOTE: This is a very expensive creation and should only be used late in the game when you can spare lots of stone/wood/mechanisms. the bigger the bridge the more effective the trap

Retract bridge 2 to force invaders to take the long way, first running along the wall (to the west in this diagram) and then zig-zagging back for maximum exposure to your ranged units on the walls above them. The pits at the base of the walls are necessary to target down one z-level at enemy units.

(Note - Traders will NOT stop at your fortress unless there is a clear, 3-wide path to a Trade Depot when they arrive. Bridge 2 should be kept down if you want/expect Traders.)

Bridges 1 and 3 can be put down to allow enemies into this pit entrance, then retracted again to trap them in the kill zone. Note - Attackers must have a complete "path" to where they want to go, so bridge 3 must be down to lure them in.

40d:Trap design

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