Disarming traps

[Julie Ward]

Hi everyone, when I mouse over my houndmaster's abilities, it states 90% ability to disarm traps. So I'm walking along with him selected, came across three traps slowly, he failed to disarm each one and was so badly injured that he was immediately killed in the next battle. What am I doing wrong please? Thanks in advance

[bad]

When you scout traps and when you walk near it, you'll see an icon pop up over your heroes' health bars that looks like a purple spider-web. Mousing over these icons shows the hero's trap disarm chance.
Select the hero you wish to disarm the trap with and then click on the trap on the floor to attempt to disarm it. If they succeed, the trap will disappear and the hero will get a small stress heal. If they fail, they'll trigger the trap and take more stress.

[RopeDrink]

As above said, if you scout a trap, you can use any hero to try and disarm it -- some having a higher chance than others, with Grave Robber having the highest. Note that it can only work on traps you've scouted. It has no bearing on the invisible traps you walk on.

[Gilmoy]

And therefore, you learn to Walk Anxiously, always scanning the floor tile just ahead of your party for traps crawling into view. Stop, select, click to disarm.

Blithely walk into an invisible trap not on Map, shame on trapmaker.
Blithely walk into a visible trap not on Map, shame on mouse-clicker.

[Cake for Mumm-Ra]

Curious is the trapmaker's art - his efficacy unwitnessed by his own eyes.

[Zorlond]

Originally posted by Julie Ward:

Hi everyone, when I mouse over my houndmaster's abilities, it states 90% ability to disarm traps. So I'm walking along with him selected, came across three traps slowly, he failed to disarm each one and was so badly injured that he was immediately killed in the next battle. What am I doing wrong please? Thanks in advance

You only get the chance to disarm traps if you've happened to had a good scout roll and discovered them. Every time you walk into a room, the game rolls to see if you successfully scout out the area. If you fail, nothing is revealed, and you have to walk in blindly, traps and all. Successful scout rolls come in three flavors. One room away, two rooms away, and two rooms plus Secret Room (bring a key for big money!). So if you've got a good scout roll, all the traps (in the chosen range) are marked on the map, and that is the only time you get the chance to Disarm them.

If you didn't scout the area, well, any traps that happen to be there are going to go off when you step on them, no roll required. If you did scout them, you'll actually see them on the floor ahead of you when you approach. That's when you pick your character, creep in carefully until the trap gets a red outline, then press Up to attempt to disarm. Might not work, it might go off in the character's face (unless the disarm is 100%+), but that's RNG for ya.

[JessRivers]

When you scout a trap (as in it actually appears on the minimap), you need to stop right before the trap, select the hero you want to disarm it, and interact with the trap as if it were a curio. If you just walk into it, it's an automatic failure and the trap springs.

Furthermore, you can't disarm traps that you haven't scouted.

[RopeDrink]

Blithely walk into a visible trap not on Map, shame on mouse-clicker.

Traps and battles can only be visible to players if scouted -- which puts them on the map. If you decide to walk through an unscouted corridor, there's really no reason to stutter-walk.

[Julie Ward]

Thank you for your replies everyone, much appreciated.