Rating Traps

[Mal Malenkirk]

I finished the game. Great fun! I want more.

I thought I'd rate the traps in my opinion, tell me what you think.

1 - The Wolf Trap.

Pro: low AP cost. Extremely easy to use.

Con: Very expensive for what it does. First time I played I used them a lot but I restarted around day 9 and on my second go I figured it was almost never worth the .10$. I saved for better weapons instead.

It was truly useful only once; the mission where you want to save the soul of a werewolf and need to immobilize him. BTW: I ended up taking the first wolf trap perk to finish that mission. Anyone suceeded without it?

rate: 2/10 (better if upgraded), except on that one mission, you know which, where it is 10/10.

2 - The Hanging Net.

Pro: It's free. Good damage on a single target.

Con: You have to be nearby to activate, useless against group.

I never used it unless the tutorial required it. If fully upraded it does decent damage but by that time you mostly deal with big groups and you have better single target options. Pretty much useless.

1/10

3 - Bonfire

Pro: Free AND low AP cost. Enhance greatly your investment in firearms.

Con: It takes a lot of time to use a bonfire to kill a pack so it better be against the last monsters of the wave.

5/10, but you need to be a good shot (perks in quick reload + good gun) to make it worthwhile.

4 - Bait

Pro: Free and lowest AP cost. Great way to control the beasts.

Con: Unless used for delay, you always need to package it with something less.

7/10

I used tons of these, they go with spike trap and mortar like salt and pepper with steak.

5 - Spike Trap

Pro: Great bang for your buck; 0.15$ may seem steep but it is in fact half as much as a wolf trap per killed wolves. Once upgraded, it one shots everything but Windigo and Great Werewolves (Who are left with almost nothing). Great damage. Easy to use. Doesn't need any operation.

Con: High AP. Needs 3 monsters on it to activate, yet rarely catch more than 3. Needs to be used in combination with other traps to be truly effective.

9/10

Seriously, I used those all the time. It got to the point where my first instinct was always to wonder how I could lead 3 monsters on my traps. My meat and potatoes.

6 - Fire Wall

Pro: Very Low AP (usually cost only 5-10 AP or so to block a path), Free! Redirecting monsters is basically essential.

10/10

I rate it perfect simply because it is (nearly) essential to success. Finishing this game without using the Fire Walls would be a heck of a challenge and perhaps impossible.

7 - Watch Towers

Let's cut to the crap here; if the Fire Wall might be essential, the Watctowers abolutely are. I'd bet anything that the game is impossible without them. I had 7 pairs up by the end of the game (they are persistant).

But they also have value as hunting tools.

As sniper nests, if you have the right perks and the right tools (long range firearm) they are cool. The best weapon to use is the Enfield because of the reasonable discretion rating; you can easily shoot a creature at long range and he won't detect you, allowing another shot.

Plus, once you have mortar, it can be fun to set up a mortar at Tower A and aim it at Tower B. Then you go at tower B, snipe monsters until the they attack your tower, then you zipline to tower A and use the mortar to take out the monster.

Highly inneficient (will probably cost you your tower) but very fun!

4/10 as a hunting tool (8/10 for fun factor).

8 - Explosive Barrels:

Pros: Potentially big damage, good area of effect, low AP cost

Con: Damn expensive! Potentially low damage. Needs to be operated (Shot at long range from a watchtower would be best).

3/10

Just too expensive. There's always a better method. I only used them in the last mission when I no longer cared about money. Oh, and once more to get the achievement. Second least used traps.

9 - Wayside Cross

Pro: Free. Easy to use.

Con: Is only truly useful against Will o Wisp, a weak monster you can handle with no help. As the game advance, you need to use AP wisely and the wayside cross fell by the wayside (har, har!).

For example, the last mission involved 6 wave. You don't have enough AP to cover everything so for the first I just killed the Will'O'Wisps without trap assistance, saving the AP for tougher monsters.

4/10: It works well but it's not necessary.

10 - Ballista

Pro: High damage. If upgraded it can even one-shot Wendigo. Very easy to use.

Con: 0.20$ is borderline expensive to (usually) attack only one monster, you need to be on site to use them and there is a mild reliance on the aiming talent of the player.

7/10

I only used it to shoot at wendigos, but even if only for that, it's damn useful.

11 - Sacred Trees

Pro: Free! Good damage vs Maikan, low maintenance; no timer

Con: Limited charges, not very useful against anything but the Maikan

Only useful against Maikan but... VERY useful against the Maikans, What's nice is you can just plant them near the building you want defended, activate the tree (even before the appropriate wave) and forget about them. It's great.

8/10

12 - Mortar

Pro: Very high damage, easy to use

Con: Very high cost, high AP cost, needs to be operated

Very fun. With mortars or the egg you can set up kill zone and kill monsters from accross the map. There is one mission where I used 4 mortars.

9 (more like 7 because of cost but bumped to 9 because of the fun factor!)/10

[LiketheShore&theSea]

I agree with the OP about explosive barrels. They seem awfully expensive especially for the large random dmg range they put out. I made a chain series of traps: 2 hanging nets with a bait each underneath and then another bait with a barrel parked in front. Took a few replays to get it to work because:

#1 Sometimes when you have 2 hanging nets in front of you even though you aim and get a blue circle on the first one when you fire it hits the one closest to you instead, wasting the trap and deleting the bait. I swear I had that happen once. I was more careful to try to edge to the side of them both without being close enough to detect after that and it seemed to work then. Maybe make them 40 cents, droppable to 25 with the skill point?

#2 Another couple of times the barrel would leave one alive because it wasn't quite enough dmg to finish it even though his other 2 buddies died. When it says the barrel does random dmg, is that the same random dmg to each enemy effected by the blast or is it random for each enemy too? Does the AOE dmg taper off with distance? Most of the time the set-up worked and the rest of the night was spoiled by something else along the line. I'm pretty picky now about tweaking my plan through a few retries to get it to execute the way I want it to, without any hitches along the way.

On that note, could you add a third faster option to jump right back into retrying the night without loading the map up at twilight? There were times I knew my trap placements would work and didn't want to change them; I just had to tweak my timing and execution. It feels like it takes so long to load from Twilight still and I hate when I'm getting tired and I accidentally click on Dawn. I must be doing that and not even realizing because I've had it load back to a fresh start several times when I hadn't wanted it to, and groaned when I realized I had to carefully set up my elaborate fire wall placements and run around buying the same goodies I needed all over again. *sigh*

[Duomtl]

If something smells you, then it will stop attacking the building and come after you. Although if something is distracted by bait, it will not come if it hears or smells you.

For the explosive barrel it is random for each enemy (think of it kind of like shrapnel, if a big part of the barrel hits you through the chest, it'll do a lot of damage to you, but if it grazes your leg... not so much!)

You just gotta pay attention to the blue dot on the net trap. I've shot the wrong net trap before on a 2 trap set up, you just have to be carefull or try shooting off to the side, don't forget to run right away or else they wil start attacking you!

The last one, It's only 1 extra menu, and even if we did make a third option to make it faster, if you were that tired you might still restart at dawn anyways ;)

Adam

[Mal Malenkirk]

Originally posted by Cougarific:

This is really useful, thanks for posting.

Question about the Egg - I just got it last night and don't really understand how it works, specifically: If something smells you, will they abandon the building they were supposedly targeting to chase after you instead?

Yes, they will chase you. Their priority is always to kill you if they know where you are. The key to using the egg is usually to stand right over a trap then activate the power. First move the the wind until you are detected then move it away so they can no longer smell you. Then go hide. The monster will go to the last place you were when he detected you; right on the trap.

It's of particular interest with Maikans because they can't be baited, making the egg one of the easiest way to lure them on a trap.

The shout ca be used too, but the egg usually is the better option; It often has a much longer range when the wind is strong, it recharges faster, it can be directed better instead of warning in a 360 circle and finally the shout can be of use in a fight so you may want to save it.

Aside from that, you want to use the egg simply when you need to move the wind in a direction that will allow you to remain undetected; do that between waves.

[LiketheShore&theSea]

@Duomti: Ok that's what it seemed like to me (random dmg to each enemy) and is perfectly fine, I just had no way to know for sure what was what there; thx for the info.

As for the next trap... while I was hesistant to mention it I thought I'd toss it in there because I swear I had the blue dot on the net trap farther than me but it hit the closer when I fired anyway, so was super confusing. I don't have proof though so I'll keep an eye on it and maybe try to replicate it later. Yes I noticed the bait grabs their attention more than I do which I appreciate because it lets those kind of chains work; otherwise once you fired your musket to bring down the first net your goose would be cooked for further net use.

As for the last one... at least Duomti, it would save me at least 30 seconds if not more of my time to get right back into the combat and try again, for all those times I was alert enough to pick the Twilight option and not the Dawn (which was every time minus 2 or 3 lol). I can end up repeating the same night quite a few times in a row, on purpose. Right now you have to wait for the map to load, click start night, go to the inventory screen, and start night again. The button clicks can feel slow to respond sometimes and u can get unnecessarily distracted by random stuff along the way or press the wrong button; it'd just be so much smoother for me to be able to jump right back into the loading the night combat with the press of one button.

Perhaps you could do all of us gaming-impaired ppl a favour and separate the option buttons farther apart and distinguish them from each other more? They are only like a cm apart and it is easy for me to make the mistake sometimes, in my rush to get back into the thick of things, anyway. Thx for your consideration. :)

[Duomtl]

We'll look at it, we probably won't be able to move them further apart, but maybe colour them in a way to distinguish them a bit more.

[LiketheShore&theSea]

Merci beaucoup!

[shthouserat]

i found the sacred trees to be one of the most useful items, if you use some firewall strategy to funnel all the hordes to one place, you can easily take care of them all with a few sacred trees backing you up(especially with the skill improvements) with relatively low ap cost and no money. even when you're simultaneously dealing with wendigos, maikans and werewolves. drink some stamina beer and strength booze and your good to go 10/10

firewalls: i've made enemies who spawned at the nothwest corner run all the way down to the se corner to the sw corner and up past the chicken coop then over to just above the mill, to get to the treehouse just a stone's throw away from their original spawn point. ridiculously useful on certain levels 10/10

as for the spike traps; if you place a bait right on the outside edge of a spike trap's target circle, there's a good chance to kill more than 3 enemies with it. as soon as they finish eating the bait, they'll pretty much all run onto the trap at the same time. i've damaged/killed as many as 6 enemies this way. also 10/10

[Honeymaple]

@LiketheShore&theSea - If you want to restart a night press Esc to pause the game then click Restart.

[Duomtl]

You still have to restart at twilight, unless it's the first tutorial.

[Liro Raériyo]

Originally posted by Duomtl:

If they hit you it stops the use of your item, gotta use a bonfire to help with the FF.

nope, just threw it in his face and it worked

[Liro Raériyo]

Anyways heres my take on traps

So lets start with the net trap, i found myself using this trap alot, simply because of its very cheap 1 cent cost to activate and it deals very impressive damage against single targets, and even managable damage against smaller groups of 2 or maybe 3 at highest level, the real flaw of the net trap is the damage calculation makes it so bad against a large group, and its next to useless against regular wolves.

I built 37 of these through the whole game, i had mostly used these against werewolves and maikans.

good but i wouldent rely on it if i was given a choice.


And now the Wolf Trap

The stupidly high money and AP cost that is the wolf trap feels very... disproportionate... while it may kill a wolf in one hit, wolves are only worth 6 cents compared to the 10 required to build it, granted alpha wolves may be worth 10 but were using spike traps for guys that strong anyway.
The ability to lock individual enemies in place for a very extended period of time feels like it falls short compared to the various free methods to distract enemies in place for a very extended period of time, the damage it also happens to deal even at the highest level does not make up for it.

I built none of these during my first play through (with Jack) not counting the ones i am forced to in the tutorial

during my second play through i tried to really use these things and found that i was making far less money every day because of them

in the end these traps cost too much for just what exactly they do, even after being fully upgraded other traps or trap combos took less money and AP without using skill points and got the job done better.

With just a small bit of though you can make a defence that make these traps worthless...


Spike trap

I built about... 5 of these the whole game, they were all used on a very dangerous group of enemies such as windigos or grand werewolves... and once on a group of 5 alpha wolves

I didnt really care for these traps too often simply because the delay between activation and the lethal result was absolutly too short, if it had a real delay like 5 seconds then i would have used this trap abit more often because i could much more readily get more then 3 enemies on it, even when going for the achievment it bugged, i killed 4 enemies but the game simply detected 5 enemies on it when it was done, the timing for beyond 3 is too short to even consider so i planed them all for specificly 3 and never more.


Watch Tower

I only ended up building 2 pairs of these and that was because the path between the 2 locations was too long (first night with the hermits place rings a bell) but they did offer their advantage of getting from one place to another and because they are permanent unless destroyed they made themselves worth it for their staying power on the map, the sniping perk felt rather worthless though since bullets dont have near the killing power you want.

Useful but i built these ahead of time typically on maps when i was doing very well on money and had plenty of spare AP for the night, on my second playthrough i had images of what comes what wave so i had literally planted them ahead of time in the perfect spots.


Bonfire

i think i built over 50 of these things... and i still didnt fire my damn gun at them, these were my melee shrines of chaotic destruction, i got the first 2 upgrades for the bonfire and i was most certainly impressed, though i never got any rage upgrades so the last one was worthless for me. These things only cost 20 AP and can be anything for you from precious seconds to recover to just an easy place to brawl with the damn alpha wolves

For only 20 AP? these things are absolutly worth it if you upgrade your character, even then simply lighting one near a ballistae if you see a windigo coming before your done is a godsend, these are the deffinition of perfect.


Wayside cross

i tried to build these then gave up after 6 consecutive nights failed trying to incorporate these.. i even tried again with both faith skills... total built with a victorious night stands at a whoping ZERO

... these things suck so badly i thought these where put into the game to let us know specificly that traps are not balanced... i tried using these things and i only got killed trying to, if they had more effects that justified their existance (slowing or possibly denying any will o the wisps who enter its effect to retreat underground to heal for an extended period of time) then i would most certainly consider it, but they dont do piss against werewolves or grand werewolves who have massive health levels, and will o the wisps can RETREAT UNDERGROUND IN THEIR INFLUENCE FOR CHRIST SAKES...

Complete waste of my time...


Firewalls

Holy crap these things ARE the most useful thing in the game. ive tried to do maps without them to see if its possible, and oh HELL if they are possible i certainly have no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clue how to beat them, alot of places can be walled off with as few as 4 peices and bridges can be done with just 2, and for anyone who doesnt know, you can dodge roll over firewalls to get past them without damaging yourself or destroying the firewall (dont do it when your being chased because enemies will follow you through it and destroy it)


Sacred tree

i think i built like... lemme see i put like 5-6 around each building with spare AP at the end of the night.. and maybe 5 more outside of that?

Well these are probably one of the single most useful things to place when you dont NEED anything else for that particular nights defence, just throw afew extra worth beside building because their permanent if you dont activate them that night... but in the end i only activated like 10 of them. (they did have 7 charges though so that might have been why)
the most noticable downside to these things are the rediculous activation times... you need to activate these WELL in advance to avoid being attacked.


Bait

I threw out i think about 15-25 bait the whole game and it was very useful

The poison seems to be a very useless idea, honestly i would have prefered if the bait had better time gains with skill points over silly poisoning, not that it mattered because 1 was more then often enough, i usually placed these in the middle of spike or hanging net traps, but i also used them for general stalling or breaking up wolves and maikans.

Your game would be alot harder without these.


Ballistae

I built 1 for every windigo the game had except maybe for one or 2... and 3 for the invisible beast

it one shots windigos... what else is their to say? its probably one of the most useful devices in the game, it seems very uhm... misplaces outside of using them on windigos, the damage is very overkill against werewolves and maikans, even grand werewolves it seems abit out of place, and yet the low damage against additional targets after the first one make it rather... well the same problem as the net trap really with large groups... but windigos are no joke and are a real ♥♥♥♥♥ to deal with so they work perfectly for them.


Mortar

God called... he wants the 7 smitings i stole from him back... i told him they were all used on the devil... he still wants them back...

These things for their price are so stupidly powerful that the only things that dont have to fear it are wolves and windigos, wolves dont have to fear it because then we would always lose money, and windigos dont have to fear it because the would still survive it (so lets just use ballistaes on em anyways)

These things are god teir traps if there has to be one...


Explosive Barrel

i didnt build a single one of these because the price of 65 cents was so rediculous for its randomized damage...

the very nature of the explosive barrel defies what your defences have been all based on up until now... and that is consistant, the random damage that the barrel can do makes it very risky and unreliable, to further offset any bright ideas of using it is the price point, the thing costs more then a mortar and deals less then a mortar.

while acouple traps above i said i didnt use much or at all... its because i found a way that made other traps out do them by a large number... when i talk of these things? its too varied... if the damage was based on proximity to the center of the blast with say 10 additonal points of varried damage then YES i would use these... but thats not how it works at all..


in the end some traps are bad and some... are so good that not using them doesnt make sense...

[Duomtl]

Nice read! I always like to see how people play.

[Ǵ̶͓̂͑lí̴̤̀̄́tcĥ̸]

I basically agree with everything, other than a few.

I had only 3 ziplines by the end of the game. Every time I beat it, and in the same spots. I put two next to the house which leads to the mill, and to the church. Third one I put near the crossroad slightly northeast of the house (right next to the entrance to the church area) and the exit for this one near the Treehouse when I unlocked it. That was it - I rarely used them as sniper nests, just to travel when need be.

Wolf Trap - Upgraded once or twice, when combined with Bait (poisoned), and a spike trap, this will make sure grand werewolves die. It will damage them and keep them on the spike trap, alongside poisoned bait, which will kill them. Also, when I get a spawn of like 5 wolves or so, I'll lay down a spike trap and then 2 more wolf traps along their path to ensure all 5 die, just so I can ignore that group completely. It adds security. Also, the hold time on them is just awesome for giving you time - this is one of my most used "setup" or "finisher" traps.
7/10 (it would be higher but it's slightly more situational)

Barrel - other than the Spike trap this is my most useful trap bar none. I can lead every enemy on the map to one area by doing a 360 with my wind talisman active so they all smell me, and then they all get owned by two barrels. I simply let them chase me, I run up and activate one by hand, then keep running and they all blow up behind me. Amazing traps and very fun. I used 3 of them to own the last boss. If you upgrade them they cost I believe .45 instead of .60. Still expensive but very useful by themselves (they don't depend on another trap to use them at all if you lead enemies to them and hand-activate it while they chase you, and are capable of killing almost anything in the game in 1 hit).
8/10

Ballista - I rarely use it. I didn't know it 1 shots Wendigos when upgraded since I never really paid attention to this weapon. I can see how that makes it good so I'll toss on a point or two for that, but for my own sake I rate this:
5/10 (3/10 + 2 for the upgrade)

Wayside Cross - Totally useless, even upgraded. Overlapping ones are ok for killing Wisps I suppose but truthfully the AP cost isn't worth it. 1 Caribou drink lets me melee a group of 5 wisps in 3 hits each wisp and I can hit 3-5 at a time, and this is with the starting axe even as Jack. Way more effective.
0/10 (Literally tried it once, and once more upgraded, then forgot about them)

Tree - This is also, aside from the barrel and spike trap, my absolute favorite. It is extremely useful against every creature not for the sake of damage (though the damage is awesome and it is capable of annihilating a couple Maikans), but the fact that every hit knocks your enemy down no matter what enemy it is is absolutely amazing. Run around, let it knock down an enemy, run up, smash it a few times, repeat. Put one next to your most endangered buildings (or 2) and it'll keep that building much safer until they run out.
9/10

[Duomtl]

Why all the hate for wayside crosses lol, I will admit I never use 1 at a time, but stacking 4 is incredibly satisfying and effective!

[Ǵ̶͓̂͑lí̴̤̀̄́tcĥ̸]

Mainly due to effectiveness vs other methods vs cost. They could use a slight damage buff, OR maybe a "slow" effect added to monsters inside them (or maybe they remove enraged)...or something. They could use a bit more incentive I think.