Why Traps
Placed traps are cheap area denial and early warning that work whether you're online or off, and -- unlike turrets and the shotgun/flame traps in the Base Defense guide -- they need NO power, so they protect approaches a wire can't reach. The three non-electrical ones to know are the Snap (Bear) Trap, the Homemade Landmine, and the Tin Can Alarm.
Use them in LAYERS: an alarm on the perimeter to warn you, snap traps to punish careless footwork, and landmines to kill at the chokepoints that matter. Just mark or memorise where you place them -- the one player most likely to step on your own trap is you.
Snap Trap (Bear Trap)
The Snap Trap (also called the Bear Trap) is a cheap early-game ground trap. Step on it and it deals 51 damage plus 30 bleed, with a high chance of instantly WOUNDING you -- enough to ruin a fresh spawn or a careless roamer. It doesn't harm animals, and the bleed can be cleared with a Bandage.
The sneaky part: its trigger range is BIGGER than its model, so you can tuck one behind a rock, doorway, or bush and it'll still catch anyone who walks near. It must be re-armed after each trigger, but re-arming is FREE -- no resources. Counter-play: a snap trap can be disarmed from a safe distance by hitting its central X plate with an arrow, bullet, or melee swing, so a careful raider can clear them.
Homemade Landmine
The Homemade Landmine is a lethal anti-personnel explosive -- craft it at a Workbench Level 2 for 50 Metal Fragments + 30 Gun Powder.
Its defining quirk: it triggers on step-OFF, not step-on. The victim plants their foot fine -- it only detonates when they LIFT it, instantly killing anyone short of full heavy plate armour plus dealing splash damage to others nearby. Important limits: it does NOT damage structures (it's anti-personnel only), needs building privilege to place, and can't go in monuments.
Hide them in bushes and lush grass -- the same cover raiders use to scout your base. Two cautions: it's indiscriminate (it'll kill YOU or allies too, so mark your placements), and a teammate CAN save a victim -- if they stand still, a friend holding E on the mine has a chance to disarm and pick it up.
Tin Can Alarm
The Tin Can Alarm (added August 2024) is a primitive tripwire early-warning system -- no damage, just noise. You place a small stick base and run a short cord (about 6-10 m) to the ground, a tree, or another fixed surface; anything that crosses the wire (players OR animals) sets off a loud clattering bell.
Why it's useful: the wire is very hard to see once placed, it needs no power or Rust+, and it stays up and working after each trigger. Limits: the base can be hidden in a bush but the wire can't pass through solid objects, and BREAKING the trap makes a loud wood-crash -- which is itself a tell that someone's tampering with your perimeter. It's the cheapest "someone's here" warning in the game.
Layered Trap Defence
The traps are strongest combined, each doing the job it's best at:
- Tin Can Alarms on the OUTER perimeter and approaches -- your tripwire warning net, so you hear an intruder before they reach the walls.
- Snap Traps hidden behind cover at the next layer -- cheap punishment for anyone pushing in, especially effective against under-geared roamers and during a raid when attackers aren't watching their feet.
- Landmines at the chokepoints and in the grass around high-value approaches -- the lethal layer that turns a careless step into a kill.
Pair all of this with the electrical defences (auto turrets, shotgun and flame traps, SAM sites) from the Base Defense guide for a compound that punishes attackers at every range -- and ALWAYS keep a mental map of your own traps so you're not the one who gets wounded at your own front door.