Meet Your Maker – Traps Guide

General Tips

Building your outpost has one primary goal: killing raiders.

So one may think bruteforcing your way by painting the area with Traps and Guards is the best way to achieve that, right?

Well yes and no…

Killboxes, in other words outposts and rooms created to throw so much at a raider they are gonna collaspe under the pressure or get stripped of most of their tools, are on paper gonna achieve many many kills.

But in practice, most people are just gonna leave after 2 or 3 tries at best.

Let’s explain a bit the two types of frustration at hand here:

  • The BAD frustration is gonna come from the feeling of unfairness mostly. Killboxes create this feeling a lot, which leads to people ragequiting
  • The GOOD frustration comes when someone feels that they are the one who messed up, either by making a wrong move, forgetting about something or not thinking about checking some place.

Good frustration usually give people more determination. Try to create this feeling by predicting and outsmarting raiders that are going to come.

Of course, you will always have some that go through your ouspost without breaking a sweat, or struggle and end up quitting even though nothing seems unfair. Don’t make too much of that and look at the majority.

A good thing to keep in mind also, is that raiding, while suppopsed to not be a mandatory part of building, will grant you better knowledge and experience, and allow you to think or witness better trap designs, and better predict raiders.

Traps

Let’s detail traps here

Boltshot

The boltshot is a very straightforward trap. It shoots a bunch of bolts in a direction upon activation. The trap has a limited trigger range but the bolts will fly until they hit something (in an arc).

  • Range: 8 (upgradeable)
  • Activations: 1 (2 with upgrade)
  • Damaging: YES
  • Type: Mounted

The boltshot has many many uses. You can use it as a bait, as a hidden trap, etc… Think of it as an impaler with more range. There is not much to say beyond this, as it is a very simple trap.

The Double Down mod can be a good surprise to people who are used to bait them once and then rush through, don’t use it too much however or the raider will quickly get used to it.

The Hunter mod is also useful since it will allow for hitting people who may bait the trap in specific Layouts. The homing isn’t strong though so don’t expect the bolts to 180 into the raider.

Bomb Ejector

The bomb ejector sends a bunch of bombs from its 4 openings. The bombs will bounce more or less (depending of your upgrades) before exploding. They are perfect to create some chaos in a given space.

  • Range: 5 (upgradeable)
  • Activations: 1
  • Damaging: YES
  • Type: Mounted

The bomb ejector excels at getting a raider out of a specific area through panic, either by making them backtrack or by making them go forward. This is very good to lure them into an other trap using the terrain layout.

Corrosive Cube

The corrosive cube, also called “Lava cube” is a trap causing damage to anything (including guards ) that comes into contact with it. Keep in mind you can grapple through one (not more) of these without dying. It takes the form of a bedrock block while dormant (Second Wave).

  • Range: 0
  • Activations: Passive
  • Damaging: YES
  • Type: Block

The corrosive cube requires being used with something else. Most of the time people won’t die to them, but they will put good pressure if cleverly scattered around an area. They also work well with the claw. Keep in mind that traps will not detect the raider through the cubes.

The Opaque mod can very much help keep things hidden, and prevent the raider to accurately shoot through them to disable something.

The Splatter mod can add some additional pressure, and can be triggered both by the raider’s ranged weapons, and by traps (not the boltshot).

I haven’t found any use for the Hardened Skin mod yet.

Death Piston

The death piston is, well, a piston that will activate periodically and kill anything that gets crushed, or touches its red part. It will also block the way while it’s extended.

  • Range: 1
  • Activations: Passive
  • Damaging: YES
  • Type: Mounted

The death piston is mostly useful to slow down speedrunners. It will force them to wait for the piston to retract. It can be coupled with a trap at the end of a corridor to make it more deadly and surprise players. Keep in mind most traps (like the boltshot) will destroy pistons and get their shots blocked.

Blockade can help slowing down people even more, but also leaves more room to destroy the trap easily. It can also be used to break the rythm when paired with pistons without the mod.

Unstable helps breaking the rythm even more by making their downtime random. This can surprise people.

Not sure what Burning Piston is good for tbh.

Holocube

The Holocube is very useful, and I mean very very useful. It takes the appearance of a bedrock block and disappears when the raider gets closed. It takes the form of a bedrock block while dormant (Second Wave).

Keep in mind the raider’s reticule will be red while in lunge-range of a holocube.

  • Range: 1 (upgradeable)
  • Activations: 1
  • Damaging: NO
  • Type: Block

While not doing any damage, the holocube will help camouflage and delay the activation of other traps. This can surprise many peple by plugging a hole that would otherwise signal the potential presence of a trap. It can also be used to create pits on the ground, but of course Harvey cannot walk on it.

Keep real bedrock blocks or camouflage cube traps using Second Wave so that raiders don’t know when to expect a holocube.

The Masquerade mode can help keep the cube up if you’re using guards around it.

The Picture Perfect mode is very useful for more cautious raiders expecting holocubes by making it harder to detect.

Impaler

The Impaler is pretty much just like a boltshot, but only in melee.

  • Range: 1
  • Activations: 1 (Unlimited with upgrade)
  • Damaging: YES
  • Type: Mounted

I use the impaler when I would use a boltshot in a situation where it doesn’t need extra range. Useful to surprise players when they lunge or grapple to something. They can be evaded easily though so keep the pressure up.

The Blockade mod doesn’t have use imo.

The Self Destruct mod can be good to force players out of an area and make them panic a bit.

The Unrelenting mod would be used kinda like the Double Down of the boltshot, but I’m not convinced of its usefulness.

Incinerator

The incinerator is a bit like a boltshot, but has a few tricks up its sleeves. It sprays fire when triggered for a couple seconds before stopping, and can be triggered until destroyed. It also does not destroy other traps (but will kill guards) and goes through pistons.

  • Range: 4 (upgradeable)
  • Activations: Unlimited
  • Damaging: YES
  • Type: Mounted

The incinerator is very handy to deny an area or when you don’t want to risk killing an other trap. It does have limited range unlike the boltshot. It pairs well with pistons for example.

Eruption can surprise a player that wants to melee it directly after it stops firing, but honestly it’s not gonna happen much.

Napalm is quite useful to keep some particles up, killing unfocused raiders and helping slowing things down.

Iron Claw

The iron claw grabs the player and pulls it to its base when triggered. It can trigger until destroy.

  • Range: 4 (but the claw will follow you further than this)
  • Activations: Unlimited
  • Damaging: NO
  • Type: Mounted

The claw is very useful to catch rushing people and pull them into a trap. It also works very well with the corrosive cubes, and can pull players through them. It won’t detect players through these though. The claw can be destroyed by whacking it mid-fly with a sword, so aim to surprise people by grabbing them from behind.

The Greased Chains and Quick Launch both speed up the claw travel time when pulling and when launching respectively. it DOES NOT speed up the activation time.

No clue what Double Down does since it already has unlimited activations.

Plasma Sphere

The plasma sphere is a turret block that can fire all around itself until destroyed.

  • Range: 6 (upgradeable)
  • Activations: Unlimited
  • Damaging: YES
  • Type: Block

You mostly see it in killboxes because it puts a permanent pressure on the raider until destroyed. In practice it won’t get many kills alone though unless the raider stands still or grapples directly into it.

It’s good to keep people in movement though.

Plasma Cloud helps punishing people creates area denial to slow thiings down or punish someone who doesn’t pay attention.

Self Destruct acts just like the impaler, serves to get people out of the area.

What Is The Best Trap?

Honestly? None. All of them are good and they should be used together. Some are more multi-purspose than others, some are a cheaper alternative of an other, some are better are killing, some better at pressuring. Create your combos and avoid using one hidden trap and expect people not to notice it.

Originally posted by Aapef

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