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23a:Trap
| This article is about an older version of DF. |
- 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 only be built indoors.
Stone-fall, weapon and cage traps will be triggered by (most) any hostile entity entering their tile, with the exception of Template:Ls, Template:Ls[Verify], and various Template:Ls. Additionally, any Template:L creature, including your own Template:L, Template:Ls and Template:Ls, will also set off such a trap.
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, so locking the trap-filled area may be necessary to prevent your mechanics from marching to their horrible deaths.
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. As stonefall traps do not alert you of ambushes when triggered by hidden invaders, this can frequently lead your mechanics into peril.
- Shortcut: b T s
- Components used: Template:L and a gray 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:L spring out and strike the poor sap. 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 chance that the trap will become jammed with a corpse each time it kills a creature. Any nearby adult civilian dwarf (including Template:Ls) will automatically clean a jammed trap.
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 out of your dwarf's hands, 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.
- Shortcut: b T w
- Components used: Template:L and whatever Template:Ls you want, no limit.
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.
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, you'll want to remove the thief from the cage and kill it, though it may also be possible to mark the bag for Template:Ling from the Stocks screen[Verify].
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. 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.
- Shortcut: b T c
- 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.
Other Traps
You can create even more elaborate traps with imaginative use of 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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