Tutorials/Traps

Traps are a common mechanism in Survival Multiplayer (SMP) built by players to kill other players or mobs automatically. The following is a list of basic traps with a short tutorial that often assumes the reader has a working understanding of the basic concepts required to build the trap. Traps are considered a subset of mechanisms.

The art of trapping
Traps are devices designed to automatically slay or capture an entity or players, either instantaneously or over time.

Most traps on this page can be created without too much hassle, but some require MCedit or cheats for speed.

Fundamental traps
All traps in here only catch newer players, but are fundamental ideas that capture the essence of branches of trap creation.

Anti-Totem Trap
Most trap effects can be negated with a Totem of Undying, which will save the player if a fatal hit is taken. This design takes into account the possibility of the player thinking it's a trap and bringing strong armor and a totem of undying.

Self Operating Pitfall
This trap is simplicity itself. No redstone, no commands, no manual activation, just good old fall damage!

Materials: 1 Chest, 25 Gravel, 24 Carpet (Optional), and 25 2 block high Flowers. Tips:
 * 1) Dig a 5x5 hole to a desired depth, leaving one layer of dirt 3 blocks from the surface.
 * 2) Place the flowers on the layer of dirt, and the gravel/sand on top of the flowers.
 * 3) Place a chest in the center, and the carpet around the chest.
 * 4) Remove the dirt holding up the flowers. The gravel should not fall.
 * 5) Wait until a careless player opens the chest, and watch them fall to their doom!
 * Consider building a decoy house around the trap to fool players into thinking they're raiding a base, this makes the carpet much more inconspicuous.
 * Consider adding hoppers at the bottom of the trap to collect the loot.

Trick Trap-The concept of confidence
This trap may include loss of precious items, such as golden apples, so only use this if you are very rich.
 * 1) Set a chest (not trapped) and put diamonds or other valuable stuff in it.
 * 2) Then put TNT on the walls, making your raiders think it will blow up in certain situations.
 * 3) Then put another room with a iron door, but don't put a pressure plate behind it, and put two spawners or more (with any hostile mob) and hide them. However, spawners are only available in creative mode, so if you want to make this in survival, you must find a naturally generated dungeon and build your trap around it.
 * 4) Put another chest (again not trapped) and put more valuable stuff in it.
 * 5) The raider will think they are safe and go for the chest but the mobs spawned by spawner will very likely kill them.

Noob + Pro Chest drop trap
The player may try to sneak to the edge of the chest to look down the hole. Because the chest is smaller than a regular block, the sneak function will not prevent you falling. They will die of fall damage and their items will fall into the hoppers and chests, where you can collect them.
 * 1) Dig a 2x2 hole until you reach bedrock, or a reasonable drop.
 * 2) Place 4 hoppers, one per block on the 2x2 hole, pointing into chests.
 * 3) At the top of the hole, place 4 double chests (so 8 chests in total) around the hole.

Fake chunk error
Dig a 16 by 16 hole (preferably in line with real chunks) at least 23 blocks deep. Some inexperienced players may think it is a chunk error and walk in, but they will fall to the hole and very likely die from fall damage. If they for some reason don't die from fall damage (maybe they use feather falling boots or strong armor), you can be waiting in the bottom equipped with at least iron sword and armor so you can kill everybody who falls to the hole.

Digging your own grave - tricking with trust
Ask someone if they could dig down at a spot because you lost many diamonds there and they could take half. When they get far enough, you can cover them with gravel or sand. You can also use lava for a more dramatic death, however, this will destroy their drops as well. Please note that only very inexperienced players will be fooled by this trap.

Falling Sand Trap
Materials: Falling blocks (Sand, Gravel, Concrete powder), Signs, Sticky Piston (Optional), Lever (Optional) Make sure you aren't underneath the sand or have cover when it falls.
 * 1) Make a pit with a depth of your liking.
 * 2) Hide the pit with sand, supported by signs, like in the diagram.
 * 3) (Optional) Make a house around the Sand. If you do this, you will probably want to put in carpet.
 * 4) (Optional) Attach a Piston to the bottom block of sand. You can use this to automate the trap. If you want to retract the piston when a Pressure Plate is pressed, use a not gate.
 * 5) Wait for an unsuspecting player and break the bottom block.

Exploding Door Trap - Camouflage Concept
Materials: A lure(Chest, Diamond Block, etc.), TNT, Door, 2 Pressure Plates, (Optional) Falling block(Sand, Gravel). A player will eventually see the lure and think the Pressure Plate is for the Door. If they go in without special caution, KABOOM!
 * 1) Make a house or tunnel with a Door in front of it. If you are using an Iron Door, make a way to open from the outside.
 * 2) Dig a hole at least two blocks down right inside the Door.
 * 3) Place TNT two blocks down and cover it up with your floor(or falling block), followed by a Pressure Plate.
 * 4) (Optional) Add more TNT where it will be ignited by the first.
 * 5) Place the lure inside the house/tunnel so that it is visible through the Door.
 * 6) Carefully go somewhere else without setting off the trap.

"Harmless" Trap
Materials: Falling blocks(Sand, Gravel), a Piston, and a Lever. When a unsuspecting player sees the Sand and Piston, they may think it looks cool and try it out. The Sand will fall and press the Pressure Plate/Trip Wire blowing up the TNT. Just pulling the lever without the Pressure Plate will not ignite the TNT under the Piston because the Piston counts as a transparent block.
 * 1) Dig a hole down to a certain depth and place a Pressure Plate at the bottom. If you want to be trickier, use a Tripwire and people will be more likely to fall for it.
 * 2) Fill the area around the pit with TNT. Make sure none of it is visible.
 * 3) Either wire the TNT to the Pressure Plate, or place TNT next to the block it is on so that all the TNT blows up.
 * 4) Place a block of sand on one side of the hole.
 * 5) Place the Piston and Lever so it will push the sand into the hole.

Don't pull the lever! (or push the button, etc...)
First, build a room with a chest in it. Place a block on the top of the chest so it can't be opened. Then place a lever on a wall and put a sign next to it saying "Pull the lever to move the block". Connect the lever to a TNT or a dispenser filled with lava, so if somebody pulls it, the block over the chest doesn't actually move, but the player who pulls the lever will die.

Basic Tree Trap
Materials: A trigger(Wooden Pressure Plate, Observer), TNT Notes:
 * 1) Find a tree, and place your trigger under the bottom Log.
 * 2) Place TNT around the block underneath the trigger
 * 3) * If you are using an Observer be sure not to trigger it after placing the TNT.
 * 4) Wait for a unsuspecting player to go KABOOM!
 * Using an Observer is more reliable, as sometimes the player may pick up the Log before it hits the Pressure Plate.
 * You can alternatively try using a Lever, by placing it on the bottom of the tree, and using a Redstone Torch to activate the TNT when it breaks.

Basic Hallway Trap
Materials: 1 Pressure Plate, 1 Piston(Not sticky), and Redstone. When an unsuspecting player or mob hits the Pressure Plate, the Piston will push the floor up trapping the player. This trap will not work on players, as they can easily just break the floor or dig out, but it can act as a delay when in combination with another trap.
 * 1) Make a 2 block high hallway that is a length of your choice.
 * 2) Place the Pressure Plate somewhere in the middle. (Optional) You could use a Tripwire instead.
 * 3) Place a Piston underneath the floor, so that when it extends, it will trap the player.
 * 4) Run Redstone Dust underneath the floor so it will turn on the Piston when the Pressure Plate is touched.
 * 5) (Optional) Place signs or other lures to try to get a player to go into the tunnel.

Basic Pit Trap
Materials(All are optional): Hopper, Chest, Lava, Cacti, and/or Sign(s) The pit trap is a very generic and basic type of trap. It is best combined with other elements, such those as suggested.
 * 1) Dig a pit to a reasonable depth. The further the better.
 * 2) At the bottom place any of:
 * 3) * Hoppers and Chests to collect items.
 * 4) * Cacti to kill off surviving players. The Cacti may destroy some items.
 * 5) * Lava to kill off surviving players. The Lava will probably destroy most items.
 * 6) * Other things to finish off damaged players, eg. Mobs, falling Anvils, yourself, TNT.
 * 7) At the top, you will need a way to get the player/mobs into the pit:
 * 8) * Water to wash the player in.
 * 9) * A sign, tempting the player to, jump in, dig straight down, etc.

Basic Minecart Trap
Materials: Minecart, Rails, Detector Rail, TNT, Redstone
 * 1) Create a Minecart track and place a Minecart on it.
 * 2) Somewhere on the track, place the Detector Rail.
 * 3) * It might help to diguise the detector as doing something else, like switching tracks, opening a Door, etc.
 * 4) Underneath the rail, place either TNT or run Redstone to another trap, eg. Pit Trap.
 * 5) Somehow get players to ride the Minecart:
 * 6) * Place a sign saying something like, "Village this way -->", or "Private Mine Entrance; DO NOT ENTER!"
 * 7) * Make it look like a fun roller coaster.

TNT minecart bomb
If you want to add some more power to a TNT trap, try replacing the TNT with a lot of TNT Minecarts. Since you can easily condense them down into a small space, it can be good when you need to make a design more compact. You can either choose to put them on an activator rail, or to put a piston beside the rail. The second option is more effective, because it will cause the minecarts to detonate instantly.

A sticky situation - the concept of quirks as trap mechanics
You will need (for 1 trap, you might want more for better results): First, make a 1x3 hole in the ground. On the edge, build 3 blocks high (later you will destroy these). Now make an outline of it, but on the level you just created. If you are on a flying server, you might want to add a roof, which is an extra 3 to 12 blocks of Soul Sand. When your trap is complete, human-sized mobs - such as zombies and skeletons - or other people will walk into your trap and can't walk out. Also, if you place ice under the soul sand, mobs and people will move even slower due to the properties of ice.
 * Soul Sand- 15 blocks

Griefer Bait Trap - Temptation Concept
Materials: Wood Planks, a Sign, a Pressure Plate, a Wooden Door, TNT This trap works best on PVP/griefing servers. Using trapped chests are also good, especially if the griefers can't tell it is one.
 * 1) Make a box home from planks, with a door and a pressure plate outside.
 * 2) Under the pressure plate, put as much TNT as you wish, just like in the exploding door.
 * 3) Place a sign outside that says something like "please don't grief my home thx."
 * 4) * Griefers or robbers can't stand not griefing a house like this. They will likely walk through the door, trigger the TNT, and blow themselves to the moon!

Painting Trap
Materials: A Painting, 2 Signs, (Optional) Hopper, (Optional) Chest This is a very easy to make trap which plays on the old secret passage behind the painting trick. Instead of a fall, you could use lava or some other form of death.
 * 1) Make a pit off of the side of your house.
 * 2) Place the two signs at the end of the hallway leading to the hole.
 * 3) Place paintings on the signs, so when someone walks through the painting, they fall to their death.
 * 4) At the bottom you could have some means of collecting items.

Evil Clay
This is one of the simplest traps. Materials: Bait(Clay, Ore, etc.), Wooden Pressure Plate, Dispenser, Redstone, Projectile(s)(TNT, Arrows, etc.) This trap is placed inside the bottom of a wall. Clay works best for the bait as it drops 4 items and is easy to obtain. This is a useful trap on adventure maps, especially when clay is a chosen breakable block. (An example of this trap on an adventure map would be in the Tunnels of Insane Trickery in the map Eitharpius.) This trap is activated when the clay is broken. Instead of a pressure plate, you could use an observer, such as in the exploding tree.
 * 1) Dig back 2 blocks into a wall.
 * 2) Dig out the floor under where the wall was and 1 block further.
 * 3) Place a wooden pressure plate under where the wall was.
 * 4) Place a Dispenser facing towards the hole. Load it with a projectile:
 * 5) * Potion Of Harming (II), Spawn Egg(the inventor of this trap uses Blazes), etc.
 * 6) Connect the pressure plate and the block under the Dispenser with Redstone.
 * 7) Finally, the time comes for the bait! Place the bait in the last remaining spot in the hole, on top of the pressure plate.

Facebreaker trap - the concept of obscure damage
What you need: Five blocks of any kind, and as many gravel blocks as possible.

This is one of the most simple traps in Minecraft history, although it would be easily noticed by intelligent players. Works more effectively on new players. First, make a tower that is five blocks high. It doesn't matter which kind of block you use. Then, on the very surrounding area on the tower you made, dig holes three blocks deep and three blocks wide to make a pit surrounding your tower. Dig another hole close to your tower, just one block deep for you to hide in. When an unsuspecting target comes too close to the tower, he would fall in the pit. After that place several Gravel blocks beside the 5th block on your tower, aiming downwards on the target. If done correctly, the gravel blocks should fall on your target's head, thus trapping or killing him. Hence the name facebreaker.

Note: You will need to use atleast two blocks of gravel to kill a player, and this can actually be used as a convenient elevator. Placing more gravel blocks is advised, and it is also advised that you place them quickly. Otherwise, if you take too long, the player may jump up from the first gravel block (their feet will be in it), and not be suffocated by the second.

Burning tree trap - the concept of desperation
This is a simple trap that can be made without too much work.


 * 1) Build a large wooden rectangle resting on its side. The rectangle must be at least 10 blocks tall or the trap will not be effective.


 * 1) At the top of the rectangle build a large cobblestone box.


 * 1) Break a hole in the bottom of box.


 * 1) Fill this hole with gravel and then build the gravel down to the floor of the wooden box.


 * 1) Place a chest under the gravel.


 * 1) Fill the cobblestone box completely with lava.


 * 1) Add some leaves. make sure it looks just enough like a tree to blend with the forest, but not so much that people will not notice it.

The person will be fascinated with the tree and will enter. The person will see the chest, and, thinking there is loot in it, will break the gravel blocks in order to open the chest. As he breaks the gravel blocks, the hole in the box of lava is unplugged, causing lava to flow onto the victim. This will definitely NOT work on experienced players. A diagram of this would be helpful, as it is rather poorly explained.

Obvious "defuse me" landmine - the concept of hiding in plain sight
You need: A desert and cheats/McEdit To build, place a pressure plate on a large area of sand. Then, edit away a good bit of the stuff under it. On the bottom, place your weapon of choice (such as lava, the Void, an array of standard landmines as shown below, a Charged Creeper dungeon, an End Portal, a jail cell, some other trap, or just a plain floor if the pit is deep enough) and remember where you put it.

This trap is obviously quite impossible to create without help. A player wandering around will see a random pressure plate. If they realize that it's a landmine, they'll destroy the plate or a block near it and trigger the pitfall. If not, they might step on it and trigger the pitfall. Or maybe somebody will decide to build a house on your trap, once again setting it off.

NOTE: This trap can be done without World Edit If you know the right method- the fact that lilypads can help place sand/gravel in midair if you know how. Also, you could use torches and multiple layers of sand and wooden pressure plates to cause a 'sinkhole' effect that is similar (although much slower).

Spring trap
Requires: 1 pressure plate 1 slime block 1 piston

This trap relies on fall damage to damage the enemy. and must be remade every use. NOTE. does not work on Chickens Ocelots or Magma cubes.

P=Piston S= Slime Block PP=Pressure plate

PP

S

P

Don't run - The concept of curiosity killing the cat
This is a very easy trap to build. Go into a cave and dig at least 36 blocks down. Dig a 4 block deep pit and put water in its second topmost layer. Have blue wool, signs/ladders, a pickaxe and a chest ready. Also build what looks like an entrance to a base at the bottom of the trap. Now get a player and tell him that he's found someone's secret base. Jump into the water and quickly submerge yourself in the pit. Put the signs/ladders to give you air bubbles to breathe. Tell the player on top that you'll put water on top of the pit so he and you can escape. Instead of water, use the blue wool to cover up the pit. Signal the player to jump and when you see his death-message, dig your way out and collect all the loot.

Greed
Traps that exploit a player's natural desire for riches in order to lead him or her to their downfall.

"Villagers giving you the Finger"

Find a blacksmith villager house. Replace the chest with a trapped chest. Put lots of tnt underneath so that they cannot outrun the explosion. When they open the chest, the sound of TNT will make them run. The TNT will completely destroy the blacksmith house, and mostly everything around it for at least 20 more blocks. This will either kill or greatly injure them. '''If you want to sacrifice most or some of a village for this, then do it. Take all items out of the chest first.'''

DIAMONDS!!
(May not work on experienced players; they might know the difference between trapped chests and chests) Make a wood house, and put 2 signs outside saying DIAMONDS INSIDE! COME IN! Then put water 4 blocks deep. Make chest full of diamonds if you make this on creative. If you make this on survival, and make a door that leads to another room with a chest. Put a sign above the first chest saying MORE AHEAD! Then put a trapped chest down in the other room and place a few TNT in the corner of the room. Make sure it is not too far away so the victim still blows up. Dig 1 block underneath the trapped chest and make a 1 block high path to the TNT(you might need to dig some more blocks to do this). Put another sign saying: DONT TOUCH THE TNT JUST GET THE DIAMONDS AND LEAVE. When they open the chest, they'll blow up! A single sign that says "Don't touch my diamonds!" above a trapped chest or comparator trap works too. Note: You can vary with other expensive items.

A better way to get them to open the chest would be to NOT imply the TNT as this gives them the idea of a trap. Use a simpler way by stating that nothing valuable is in the chest igniting their curiosity.

The house of death
This is a very simple trap, but is very effective. It requires redstone dust, redstone torches, glass, redstone repeaters, a trapped chest, lots of cobblestone, and lava. First dig a 5x5, 4 block hole in the ground and fill it with lava. Cover the next layer with glass. Put pressure plates everywhere connected to dispensers filled with lava buckets. on the top layer, cover it in cobblestone. Build a cobblestone house around it. In the middle, put a trapped chest. Put some pistons under the floor and wire them to pull back the floor when the chest is opened. Put a sign above the chest saying "Diamonds/Emeralds in there-if you take them I will kill you!!!!". Make an entrance with an iron door with a pressure plate outside, and ONLY on the outside. Then the trap is set. How it works: the players will see the chest and get curious. They walk in the one way entrance and open the chest. The chest makes them fall into the underground lava area. They fall on the pressure plates and cause the dispensers to unload the lava-they'll be dead in the snap of a finger. Note: You will not be able to collect your loot as it will incinerate in the lava. EDIT: If you place signs under the lava. then they will fall through the lava, but unless they are quick thinking and have a water bucket, they'll still burn to death, but you can keep their stuff.

Greedy man's grave
Requires: Diamond Armor (all), Diamond Block, Shovel (any), Pickaxe (any), Diamond Sword, Netherrack, Flint and Steel, Torches, Gravel, Pressure plate Optional: More Diamond Blocks

Build a 3 block deep hole. Surround it with burning netherrack on all but one side. Put a block of diamond on top WHILE INSIDE. Continue digging downwards until you are at least 24 blocks deep to ensure death. Make a square room with torches and wait inside. When someone steps onto the diamond and breaks it, he will fall. If he dies when he hits the ground, the trap is a success. Collect the loot and leave. If not, the hole isn't deep enough. In this case, quickly kill the surprised player and claim their loot.

However, one may see the ruse and disarm the trap, possibly by filling your trap with lava, water, gravel, or sand, or by covering the hole with obsidian. They may also return with a friend to help attack you when you come out.

Optional: Put more diamond blocks below the visible diamond block, so your victims think it is not a trap.

This trap depends on people's natural greed, and the fact that sometimes people just don't think.

Another way is to put the diamond block over one and put down two. On the bottom one, put a torch and put a block of gravel on top of the torch. On the bottom of the hole, put a pressure plate so the gravel gets destroyed.

Greedy man's latch
Requires: Optional: Use blocks instead of rare ore, because ore looks natural. Build a straight line and put TNT behind glass and some redstone so people think they've activated the TNT. They'll see a redstone repeater and go activate it, so it locks and stops it. The trick is to put a fake redstone line and make a new line behind stone before the redstone repeater so it actually doesn't go off. It sets off without them knowing and the whole cavern blows up! If you want to keep it, I suggest hiding it under the redstone repeater latch activation switch so a bit blows up, but the contraption is safe.
 * pressure plate or tripwire
 * Redstone Repeaters
 * TNT
 * Redstone
 * Glass
 * rare ore like Diamond Ore or Emerald Ore
 * Torches

Fake mine
You need: Lots of TNT, a structure that looks convincingly like a mine or an abandoned mine, a trigger, an iron door, and some redstone.

Preparation: 1. Put your TNT below the layer on which the victim will be standing. 2. Place an iron door for players to "enter" the mine. 3. Wire the trigger to the TNT, but make sure the trigger is near the door. 4. Place a sign near your "mine" saying "Diamond Mine". 5. Wait for your first unfortunate victim.

Execution of trap 1. Victim notices your "mine" and thinks you might have diamonds or other valuables stored inside. 2. Victim sees trigger and assumes that it's for the door. 3. Victim activates trigger and gets blown sky-high.

Inexpensive greed trap
Materials needed: Chest, TNT, Pressure Plate and redstone(optional).

Place a chest at the end of a long, 2 block tall hole made of stone or dirt. In front of the chest, dig a hole 1 block wide and two blocks deep. Place a TNT block at the bottom, a normal looking block on top of that, and finally a pressure plate on top. You can place more TNT underground along the length of the passageway ( but make sure to cover them all inconspicuously because when the player hears the TNT igniting they will probably run back).Whoever steps in front of the empty chest will ignite the TNT. You will need to rebuild the entire trap after each ignition. To ensure death at the cost of more resources, place redstone wire under all of the TNT so that it all ignites at once.

Curiosity trap
Make a chamber that has one entrance and an iron door that is opened only by a pressure plate on the outside, so that once the player is in, they are trapped. This trap can be escaped in three ways, and all of them can be anticipated. To prevent the victim from digging out, put lava behind the walls and beneath the floor. To prevent him from using their own lever or pressure plate to escape, place TNT underneath him or behind the walls or use glass on the wall. To stop him from destroying the iron door, place lava above that too.

Advanced Version: Since it is somewhat obvious if you can see through the door or if you look in through the open door before entering the chamber (say chamber instead of room so it's more ominous sounding), there is a better version. Build the trap, but with another iron door. When you place the second door, make sure you place it with the alignment so the door is naturally open and the pressure plate or button visible. Then, place a lever outside next to the door and flip it so that the door closes. If a powered door receives a second signal, it has no effect. This will trick even the smartest players, thinking the other door openable and that if TNT lies under the floor linked to the "exit" door, they can run out and if they step on the entry door plate and don't enter to test if it links to that one. Optionally, you can make a "Blast Chamber" version by placing one or more TNT blocks beneath the floor that would be set off by the "exit" door's plate.

Dispensers in disguise
This is a very fun trap. It will require: Build a long hallway, preferably 20 blocks long. Replace the sides of the wall with dispensers, and fill them up ( should be done in creative mode ). Then, make a curtain of lava to hide the dispensers. Add a chest with valuables. Then, place obvious tripwire hooks. The enemy player should disable the tripwires, but forget that the floor is pressure-plated. Arrows, set afire by the lava, should start impaling the player. Even if they turn back, they'd get hit by flaming arrows and burned to death.
 * Dispensers
 * Arrows
 * Tripwire hooks
 * Stone pressure plate
 * Lava

Greedy rails
Make a long Powered Rail, powering all but the first rail. Put a Minecart on the first rail and a switch to make the cart move. Put a sign nearby that says "(your name)'s diamond cave, do not enter".

Building the track Make a long track uphill with a drop-off at the top. Where the minecart drops, make a 4x4 hole 2 blocks deep and fill it with lava, so that the player will fall suddenly into lava and lose all of their fortunes. You may use a bucket of water to get rid of the lava.

Note: Make sure the lava isn't visible prior to the drop-off to prevent the player from jumping off. Also, because of the lava, you won't be able to collect the victim's drops.

Another way is to make a long tunnel down, with regular rails, and when the rails turn a corner, put lava. Best if you have torches all along the tunnel so the person doesn't get wind of what is about to happen. You could also have a vertical tunnel straight down and have the minecart drop the victim there. That way, you could be able to collect the drops.

Failed mine
This simple yet effective trap requires an ore (any kind will do), and at least 2 blocks of sand or a stream of lava above it. You may want stone around the ore for a natural look. Just hide the sand. Now set the ore where you want it above the victim. It HAS to be above the victim. Otherwise this is useless. Now climb up above the ore and put your sand or lava. Cover it with dirt, or even better, stone. Now remember to NEVER mine the ore. This also has to be on a server (mobs don't mine). Beware! Creepers can blow it up! This also works on any version of Minecraft. An alternate version would be to use anvils rather than sand to deal massive amounts of damage to the player before suffocating him.

Simple ore trap
A very easy, cheap, but effective trap. Put iron or other ore anywhere. Place a redstone torch on back. Now, place another redstone torch, on the side of a block. Put wires connecting the torch to the top of that block. Make it activate any kind of killing mechanism, such as retracting pistons.

There is another trap that you put water 4x4 three blocks down then lilypads on top ,place sand on the lilypads and string on the sand then place any block where the water is so it is being replaced by the block then break the replaced block and vōila when a player walks on the string or breaks the string they fall end of story.

Fiery floor trap
This is a somewhat expensive trap with varying success rates. The larger the trap, the higher the success rate. First, dig a hole two blocks deep (size doesn't matter but does affect price). Next, cover the bottom of the hole with Dispensers, leaving a one block area on each edge to be filled with two blocks of your choice. Place a chest or Diamond Block on top of one of these stacks. This will serve as bait. Leave the other space filled, but do nothing else to it. Fill each Dispenser with Fire Charges and cover with Wood Planks or Stone and then cover the solid block with a Wood or Stone Pressure Plate depending on which block you used. Next, build a wall around the now-covered hole and place an Iron Door opposite from the bait with a Wooden Pressure Plate in front of it. Leave the block behind the door uncovered. A roof is recommended but not required. When an enemy enters the trap, they will go for the bait and walk on the Pressure Plates, activating the dispensers underneath, which will launch Fire Charges at them. The victim will be unable to leave due to the absence of a pressure plate to open the door from inside. You can also, with this same concept, create an extremely effective mob trap. place a 3 by 3 square of pressure plates. Connect these via redstone to three dispensers filled with fire charges. Then all you have to do is build a shelter and watch the fun. Note: this trap relies on huge amounts of luck and is very expensive. Also, take care when retrieving the mob drops, as it is easy to fall victim to your own trap.

Pond of death
You will need: wood pressure plates, water buckets and TNT.

First, dig a 9x9 hole (size varies) that is 4 blocks deep. Then, place TNT on the bottom, place some blocks on top of the TNT, place the pressure plates and apply water. Voila!

Execution of trap: 1. Victim will see trap. 2. Victim will fish, causing the plates to be triggered. 3. Victim will be blown up.

The exploding diamond
Yes, this trap is the mother lode. Once they break the diamond, it will explode almost instantly, unlike any other TNT trap (when TNT ignites, it will have a 4 second cooldown timer). This will guaranteed it will grief players and see their bloody guts splattered on the walls of the crater. You will need:
 * A lever
 * 9 Minecarts with TNT
 * A piece of redstone
 * A diamond block
 * A Dispenser
 * Flint and steel
 * A redstone torch
 * A rail

Here's what the trap will look like on the side:

First, dig a hole three blocks deep and 6x1 blocks wide. Look at the picture above to help you see what it is look like. Place a diamond block on top of the hole so it is covering it, but sticking out. You must place the lever underneath the diamond block and switch it on. Place a block 1 block below the lever and place redstone on top of the block. Place a redstone torch on the side of the block. It should turn off when placed. After that, place a dispenser facing the direction of the torch and put flint and steel inside it. Then, place a rail next to the face of the dispenser and place 9 Minecarts with TNT onto the rail. Carefully break the rail and your trap is done! When someone tries to mine the diamond block, they will get an explosive surprise!

Explosive traps

 * A good idea when testing Explosive Traps is to use a block such as a Redstone Lamp, which, like TNT, triggers with Redstone Power, but has less explosive results, so you don't lose an intricate trap due to careless TNT ignition.

The landmine
The landmine by itself is very inefficient and non-lethal. It damages the landscape and deals little if any damage to players. To make it more efficient, there are several variations you can use:
 * If you want to protect the landscape, you can place water at the bottom of the hole. It will reduce the dealt damage, however.
 * By digging a pit underneath this, the player might fall into it.
 * Try to camouflage the landmine by making it less noticeable, e.g. grow tall grass around it.

Instant landmine
If you are getting annoyed of wasted TNT because people run away from your landmine filled with tons of TNT, you should build a landmine that explodes instantly. First, dig a 3x3x3 hole in the ground, jump in then stand on a corner. On the bottom center, place a block of dirt then place a rail on top of it. On the rail, place a minecart with TNT (Be careful not to accidentally push the minecart!). Destroy the block under the rail to derail the minecart. The minecart will fall one block lower, this won't really cause any damage unless you accidentally pushed the minecart. Dig the block below you then place a dispenser facing downwards which makes it face the minecart, load the dispenser with flint and steel. Surround the minecart with 8 TNT blocks, after this, surround the dispenser with 8 TNT blocks, too. You should be above ground by now, cover the TNT-filled hole with dirt, remember where the dispenser is. Finally, place a pressure plate on top of the block above the dispenser.

Redstone mine

 * 1) Dig down 2 blocks
 * 2) Place down a redstone ore (silk touch pickaxe required)
 * 3) Then place a daylight sensor or BUD under the redstone ore
 * 4) Place as much TNT as you want under the redstone ore connect it using redstone dust
 * 5) Wait for someone or something to step on the redstone and boom watch what ever set it off explode in to nothing but bone and rotten flesh.

TNT cannon trap
This trap requires careful setup and adjustment, so it is somewhat impractical. Hopefully if properly done, an unsuspecting player will trip the trip wire and get blasted by the TNT.
 * 1) Create a large tripwire, preferably in a forest.
 * 2) Connect the trip wire to two TNT cannons

SCR trap
This trap blows to bits any griefer who tries to destroy your house. It works by detecting when a redstone circuit is broken, igniting TNT. If a griefer walks up to your house, he/she may destroy the SCR, turning on the torch and igniting the TNT.
 * 1) Create an SCR.
 * 2) Make a line of redstone dust from it to the wall of a room.
 * 3) On the other side of the wall from the redstone, put a redstone torch, which should turn off.
 * 4) Pack the other side of the wall full of TNT, and make sure at least one block of that TNT is touching the torch from the side or top.

Furnace trap
Normally people would expect chests to explode, so this trap will surprise them as soon as they loot your furnace. If a griefer loots the furnace the comparator will deactivate and the torch will turn on, blowing the victim to bits!
 * 1) Fill a furnace with coal, iron and food (you decide).
 * 2) Put a comparator leading away from the furnace. It should turn on.
 * 3) Place a block in front of the comparator.
 * 4) Place a redstone torch on the block, it should turn off.
 * 5) Create a redstone line from the torch to TNT.

Ore trap
When someone mines the ore the TNT will explode! Be sure to place the torches before the TNT and to not place any TNT next to a lit torch.

Door trap
This is a very simple and rather obvious trap that is made by putting a pressure plate in the middle of 4 open doors so that the victim is trapped inside when they enter. You may also decide to put a roof to prevent the victim jumping out. This is a very quick and easy to set up trap, making it ideal if you are new to Minecraft or simply in a hurry. This trap more useful against mobs, such as zombie villagers, so you don’t always have to use iron doors.

C4 trap
Dubbed so by Bannablarg, the first to use this with success, this "C4" is a vertical or horizontal stack of TNT with a dispenser wired to a button with a fire charge in it. The dispenser is placed one block above or below the stack (vertical) or one block next to the stack (horizontal). This usually works better for demolition than for a trap, if you want that, you can wire a pressure plate to the dispenser. This works like a flaming arrow hitting a stack of TNT from above. This is another way to remotely detonate the TNT, via flaming arrow. This works better than a dispenser shooting TNT, because the "C4" stays in one place. Also, if only two TNT blocks are used, it works well as a disposable cannon, even better on obsidian blocks, but not in a tube. All evidence of the trap is usually destroyed. Note: C4 trap from below does not work very well.

The hidden house
This trap is the opposite of a TNT door trap: The TNT is obvious, while the house is hidden. Make a field of TNT extending about 5 blocks into the ground. Place signs all over the field saying: "Find my hidden house." It lures people in twice: the TNT danger, and the hidden house challenge. The problem is that there is no house! Beneath the field are pressure plates which ignite the TNT, leaving no time to escape, as you are in a field of TNT 6 blocks under.

TNT house
This trap is obvious... too obvious. It's a house of TNT. It obliterates everything near it: blocks, buildings, mobs, players, you name it. People will go around it and within it because they think it's only activated when someone goes in. The more layers, the more obliteration and the larger range. Now follow one of these versions:
 * Suicide: You activate manually from inside.
 * Murder: Activate it from a distance with a redstone trail.
 * Genocide: Make the house very thick and activate it from a distance.
 * The Man: Build a Player-Sized copy of the character. Surround it in TNT armor.
 * Automatic variations:
 * Try putting a metal door on the TNT house. If the player is new or just distracted they'll hit the button to open the metal door, igniting the house.
 * Make a house with a table using a pressure plate by the wall as the top. If the player starts to confidently loot it, they likely will forget about the table.

Exploding bed
VERY simple trap: place a bed next to a BUD, connect the output to some TNT, and cover the whole thing in cobblestone, or something like that. then just wait for the player to sleep in it and get blasted sky-high!

Fishing trap
It is possible to detonate TNT that has a pressure plate on it using a fishing rod. This method is undetectable; however, it is unstable and prone to premature detonation if you don't have patience.

Note that this trap seldom works on players, as they will most likely avoid the pressure plate. For maximum effect, it is suggested that you place the trap in front of an iron door, as they are usually paired with pressure plates for easy opening.

Blow and burn
Griefers love blowing and burning people's houses up. To prevent it from happening to you, make a decoy house out of wood or wool (preferably wool) and fill the chests with wood, cobble, or dirt, maybe even coal to make it look less mechanical. Don't fill them to the top. Fill the area under it with TNT and make some "rays" of TNT extend from the house. If a griefer happens to burn the house down, they might get more destruction then they planned for!

Underwater shelter
Build an underwater shelter. Put many valuable items in it. Dig an escape tunnel for yourself that leads to a shelter, the surface, or another safe zone. Hide under it and cry out saying that you've lost your way back and that anyone can have it. When someone walks in, ignite a block of TNT under the shelter and escape through the tunnel you dug earlier.

The ideal trap should be able to function without external stimuli (Someone igniting TNT or flicking a switch manually) using redstone or pressure plates, as these would make the existence of this trap somewhat pointless because someone could easily wait for you to go offline before stealing your well-earned loot.

Burning trap
Build a small shelter that has exterior walls made of stone but has wood on the interior (However, do not put stone on the roof as you'll be hiding here). Use an iron door for the entrance to the shelter and wire it to be close-able from the roof. Load the roof with TNT (the more the merrier, right?). When a player walks in, close the door with the switch on the roof. Light the roof on fire, and then ignite the TNT. Run away and enjoy the carnage.

Mined block rap
Use a piston to push a TNT block into an active circuit when a block is mined. The advantage of this method is, that the trapped block does not need to be wired itself.

Piston trap
Build what is shown in the schematic and make sure a roof over it so that when your target hits the pressure plate it cannot escape. This trap is best for small 1x2 passage-ways, perhaps inside a friend’s mine. When the pressure plate is stepped two pistons push up, blocking the "happy" miners escape and ignites TNT. This trap can alternatively be used as an above ground mob trap, just make sure to remove the TNT.

Chest bomb
Place chest on any surface. Place a hopper underneath and a comparator right next to it so if you put something in the chest the comparator emits a redstone signal. Place TNT in front of the comparator. If someone puts something inside, they blow up.

Semi-Advanced Traps
Many traps require some redstone wiring, but these take a significant amount and require a basic understanding of redstone circuitry. Explosive traps, those that use TNT, may destroy sections of redstone wire if the explosion occurs too close.

Chunk load trap - the concept of obscure trigger traps
Requires: Redstone, Mobs, Minecarts, and/or other mechanisms that only work when a player loads their chunk.

Note: This may not work as you would expect it to. You can use things that only work when a chunk is loaded, you can hide a bunch of TNT in a house that only blows up when a player loads the chunks!

One time use
This is good if you want to escape a house and make sure nothing follows you. First, make a hidden passage with Redstone. Second, connect the Redstone to a delay circuit and a RS latch's Set input. Third, connect the delayed repeater to the RS latch Reset and connect the RS latch Output to another RS latch or a vertical (optional, for reset) repeater clock that will stay on, also connect the output of the first latch to an And gate. Fourth, connect the Clock or second latch to the and gate with a delay to prevent the And gate from triggering a large TNT charge that is worthy of a self-destruct button (optional ;). Finally, you can add a reset button connected to a piston or Reset input for the Vertical clock or RS latch, respectively. The TNT charge connected to the AND gate output may be as large as you like. For a delayed explosion, make the secret entrance trigger a BUD connected to a furnace.

Water Drop Trap
A trap, designed to trick the victims into thinking that jumping down into water is safe. Kills the victim using fall damage by removing the water source using a dispenser right before the player lands. Not guaranteed to kill if victim has feather falling boots. You can, however, combine this with other traps to guarantee the kill.

Fake Water Drop Trap
A variation of this idea is to have a 1-block drop with "water" at the bottom and a narrow corridor leading off of it, to make it less suspicious. How does it work? Well, a player sees the drop hole and thinks 'Hey, looks like someone's mine!' They fall down the pit and die, because the 'water' at the bottom is actually a lapis block. You are sneaking in the corridor, waiting for the victim to fall! (You might want to have a sword, in case they don't die)

-Written by the author of Don't Pull the Lever!- s

Carpet Trap
With the addition of carpets, it is now possible to create seamless hidden traps. You can place carpets on top of dispensers to mask them.

You can also place carpets on signs, this can be used to create an instant disappearing floor trap.

Trapped Chest Trap
Using the Trapped Chest, a BUD & a clock, it is possible to create a fully seamless chest trap to prevent nosy visitors looking in your chests!

Tripwire Jump Trap
This trap relies on the fact that like end portal, trip wire is invisible from the bottom. Make a room or hallway at least 3 blocks high, and put trip wire in a layer on the third layer up. If the victim jumps, they will trigger the trap. How they are captured or killed is up to the player.

Mob Proof Dispenser Trap (SMP)
This is a fake entrance, and place an iron door with a stone pressure plate on one side, and a button on the inside. Then place dispensers (1-4, make sure nonfatal) in a very obvious location aiming at the door. Then dig a fatal hole on the other side. When the player walks onto the pressure plate, the dispensers should fire. This will push mobs back. In addition, any mobs walking on the pressure plate will attempt to go around as their AI prevents them from falling into the hole. Upon the door closing, they will try to go through the door again, resulting in death. This trap is excellent for SMP servers. Upon seeing the obvious dispensers players will attempt to charge through and end up falling through the hole, where they die.

Arrow Dispenser


This trap is created by attaching a dispenser filled with arrows to a clock generator. When the clock triggers the dispenser, an arrow will fire. The rate of fire is limited by the clock; slower clocks means fewer arrows shot over a given time period. With a rapid pulser, the dispenser will fire roughly 5 APS (arrows per second).



Since dispensers don't 'burn out' like torches, it is possible to greatly increase the rate of fire of the dispenser by attaching it to a rapid pulsar. To wire this, connect the rapid pulsar to the dispenser, give the dispenser another power source (such as an adjacent redstone torch). By connecting the rapid pulsar to a stable input (such as a torch controlled by a lever seen to the right), the dispenser can be controlled by turning off the torches in the pulser.

The trap can be automated by attaching a pressure plate to the control torch. When the pressure plate is active, the pulsar is allowed. Arrows shot will roughly reach from 16-24 blocks away from the dispenser.

One way to improve this trap is to place it at the end of a long thin corridor with an iron door entrance. The iron door is opened only from the outside via pressure plate. Have the pressure plate wired to an RS NOR latch so that once activated it will remain active, but can be deactivated by a hidden button.

Sticky Piston and Fire Arrow Trap
This trap uses concepts that are described in the "sticky piston and arrow trap," but is only suitable for killing other players, rather than mobs. This trap works by taking advantage of the fact that when a block is mined, and a Redstone torch is attached to the other side, the Redstone torch breaks off. This creates a change in input in order to activate three piston walls, and two rows of dispensers (which are hidden behind two of the walls). The walls that move in this trap serve two functions; two of them reveal rows of dispensers (containing arrows) that may have lava flowing down the front to create fire arrows. The other wall moves in the way that the player came in from to prevent them from running out of the line of fire from the arrows. When the block is mined, the Redstone torch releases a signal that activates these doors. Then, using a logic gate* that is attached to some pulsars (or any other form of clock), the dispensers are activated, firing arrows at the player that activated the trap until dispensers run out of arrows. If the player that activated the trap is wearing projectile protected armor, they will most likely be able to escape the trap. This is why the fire is important for making it more likely they will sustain fatal damage. They may be able to down a fire resistance potion in time, but this is unlikely.

There is a variation of this trap; instead of having three piston walls moving to reveal dispensers and trap the player, you could have the floor open up to a room with dispensers on all four walls, making a much more efficient trap to kill the player. This version of the trap is much simpler to build; however, the former trap is much cooler to see, and may disorient the player more, so that they can't decide what to do to get out.**
 * It doesn't seem that there exists a name for the logic gate that I used, as I couldn't find it anywhere on the basic Redstone help page.
 * Standardized diagrams dictating how this works will be available soon!

Piston Suffocation Trap
Tutorial for making a piston suffocation trap:

Requirements: 2x Sticky Piston 2x Piston At least 11 Stone Full stack of stone (for hidden version) 2x Painting (for hidden version) Stone Pressure Plate 4x Redstone Torch 2x Redstone Dust Chest or Ender Chest (for greed version) 3 full stacks of stone (for greed version) Torches (for greed version) 1x TNT (for Double Whammy version) Iron Door and another pressure plate (for Double Whammy version)

Standard Version: Create 2 stone pillars (3x1x1) 2 blocks away from each other. Then connect the pillars with another stone block so the player can just barely walk through. Dig down 2 blocks while inside the gate, and then complete a 5x2x1 hole perpendicular to the walk-in direction. Place stone 3 blocks under the block at the top of the gate and place redstone torches on both sides of it. Place redstone dust so the torches power them (on both sides of the stone block with the redstone torches) and then place 2 more stone blocks next to each redstone dust. Next, place redstone torches on these stone blocks and cover them up with 1 stone block each. You can now place a sticky piston on each of these stone blocks so they face the gate. Now, place a pressure plate right in the gate. Dig 1 block down on each side of the pressure plate not occupied by stone and place an upward-facing piston in the open slots. If this is too complex, my video explains this version, but none of the others!

Hidden Version: Start with the Standard Version trap. Duplicate the stone gate (twice) so that there are gates covering both of the pistons, not just the pressure plate. You can now place paintings over the pistons to disguise them (and the trap!)

Greed version: Start with the Hidden Version trap. Duplicate the gates even more to form a long hallway and place your Chest or Ender Chest at the end (contains no loot). Place torches along the sides of the hallway to finish the trap. This can be useful in Multiplayer to trap players.

Double Whammy version: Start with the Hidden Version trap. Duplicate the gates like in the Greed version and light it up with torches. Place an Iron Door and hook up a pressure plate. Place TNT under the pressure plate (people can't see it, trust me!) Place a Chest or Ender Chest (also contains no loot) at the end, so if players manage to escape the TNT, they may be drawn to the Chest/Ender Chest and get suffocated by the pistons!

Rapid Pulsar Arrow Dispenser


While a standard pulsar will flicker on and off quickly allowing the dispenser to fire rapidly without the manual addition and removal of power, it is often too fast and will cause delays in firing due to the dispenser not being able to keep up. The design on the above diagram compensates for this by slightly slowing the interval between pulses.

It is important to note that in order for the trap to work, the input (I) to the rapid pulsar must be turned ON when the operator does not want the dispenser to be firing. When the power is turned off the circuit will begin pulsing at a steady rapid rate. This allows the arrows to be fired at the quickest rate without delays between shots. A constant power source must also be applied to the dispenser in such a way that it will not conflict with the input of the pulsar to the dispenser. A single redstone torch one block above the dispenser will accomplish this.

This trap works best as a player controlled mob-counter-measure through the use of a switch, as a pressure plate would only send power through the pulsar when a mob is standing on the plate (although a NOT Gate wired to the input before the pulsar could be used to compensate for this).

A subdivision of the rapid pulsar is the Arrow Machine Gun.

First, on a flat surface, mine 1 block down and place a redstone torch. Above it put 2 dispensers. to the left and right of the 1st dispenser, put stone. Then put redstone torches behind (away from the front of the dispensers) the two stone blocks. They must be ON the blocks, not next to them. Put two more stone blocks on the redstone torches, and put redstone torches behind those. After that put two more stone blocks on those redstone torches. Put 2 redstone torches on top of those, and a stone block behind the top dispenser. Finally, put redstone on top of all the uncovered stone blocks. The thing should start to flash. Put arrows in the dispenser, and to turn it off hook up a lever and turn it on.

Undetectable Trap
A trap that is based on the fact that you can pick up dropped items through the corner of 2 blocks, which makes the trap undetectable without xray. The dropped item sits on a wooden pressure plate, which is connected to an inverter that holds open a line of sticky pistons that hold the floor. A simple tutorial for this kind of trap can be found here: or here:

Lava And Collection Trap
You need one sign, one bucket of lava and two buckets of water.

Make a trench two blocks wide and put the water flowing down it. Then put the sign at the end on a wall. Put the lava over the sign. Make a glass hut at the end of the trench and wait for the monsters to start rolling in.

Crushing Trap
This trap uses pistons to crush skeletons, zombies or players to death. For every square meter you'll need a sticky piston, two cobblestone, and one piece of redstone dust. A lever is also needed to trigger the trap, plus some extra redstone dust.

Dig the room so the ceiling is 6 blocks high. Place sticky pistons all around so they are facing down at you on the 4th block up. There should be enough space above the piston to walk on it, and enough room on the floor to jump. Replace the ceiling using cobblestone just beneath all of the sticky pistons. The room should now appear to be 2 blocks high, with 2 empty blocks above the pistons (unseen). Using a maintenance shaft, get in the area just above the pistons. Place cobble to cover all the pistons. Cover the top cobble layer with redstone dust. Then, make a trail with redstone dust to a lever. From here you can trigger the ceiling.

Upon activating the lever, the pistons will push the blocks down and start damaging tall mobs and players. This design can be converted to use pressure plates on the ground to activate the trap rather than a lever. To be effective against spiders and short mobs, lower the entire trap by 1 block, or cover the floor with sticky pistons facing upwards and wire them as well.

Small Crushing Trap
Dig a 3x1 pit 2 blocks deep. Put a pressure plate in one end, redstone in the middle, and any block in the end. On top of the block opposite to the pressure plate, put a sticky piston facing the plate, and then put some dirt on the piston to hide it.

Mobs will fall in the hole. If they're 2 blocks tall they'll get crushed, and if they're 1 block tall they'll get trapped!

Side view

Pit of Doom
Dig a hole that is 2x3. Place two sticky pistons at the end and cover them. Meanwhile, put a pressure plate which is connected to redstone to the pistons. Next, use the /gamemode command to go in creative, place a monster spawner at the bottom of the pit. While you're at it, spawn at least 10 zombies. Once you get out, go back to survival. Target should step on pressure plate, fall into hole, and be mobbed to death by zombies. Cheers!!

Corridor trap
The following Trap uses pistons to suffocate and trap the player. Once the player dies, he cannot get his items back, and if the player does set the trap off, but doesn't get killed by it, he still can't make it past.

An advantage of this trap is that it can be reset with the press of a button, or completely disabled, if needs be. It is not very obvious - and can simply be disguised as an iron door.

Cave Spider Trap
Actually fairly simple and requires no redstone, but requires a cave spider spawner and iron, coal, or gold.(Diamond could work, but there's no assuring they'll have an iron pickaxe.) Find a cave spider spawner, or hack one in. Surround it in valuables such as coal. Tell others you've found a mine shaft, then "accidentally" give away directions to it. Pretend to feel stupid for giving away directions. Another player will come, then dig the blocks. By then make sure you're not there. The enemy will then get poisoned and bitten until they're dead. An alternate version of this trap would be to either hack in a cave spider spawner or build your house around one, and then to make a dark area where they can spawn but cannot get out. You could then have a piston move a block below the area for them to spawn, and have a pressure plate or button connected that seemingly opens the door to your house. Upon pressing the button/pressure plate, the piston will retract and a cave spider will drop on the player. For added efficiency, it could be placed behind the door in a corridor, making it harder for the player to escape the venomous bite of your arachnid friends.

Suffocating Piston Trap
The following piston trap suffocates the player slowly by filling the room with sand and continuing to fill it until they die or there is no sand left. The player trapped could mine out, or maybe replace the redstone torch(?) Lastly, they could mine enough of the fallen sand that they do not suffocate. Just things a creative player who doesn't panic might try. The following video shows the trap "in motion" and how it's made:

Water-Ceiling Shulker Trap
The following trap is based on the new shulker mobs introduced in 1.9. Shulkers make you levitate when they hit you with their projectiles. That mechanic is what this trap relies on. The way you make this trap is that you build a large but nooby-looking house. Then, place a hidden shulker turret inside the wall(a shulker that gets pushed out of the wall when it is triggered by something such as tripwire). After that, place water on the ceiling and place signs below so that the house doesn't flood. Finally, put a tempting sign at the entrance so that players will walk in. If a player walks in, the player will be hit by the shulker, levitate into the ceiling and eventually drown. It is better to use lava instead of water if you are trying to defend a factions base. NOTE: If you use lava, you may risk burning the roof.

Pitfall traps
Pitfall traps usually use fall damage to harm the target. Sometimes the pitfall is used as an area the target can't escape before fatal damage has been dealt. Different players prefer to use fire, lava, and/or cactus to deal damage.

General improvements
Some minor variation can make a simple pit much more deadly. Here are some of them.

Cactus pitfall
One way to dispatch a target is by filling the bottom of the pit with cacti. Since a cactus can't be placed adjacent to any other blocks, a checkerboard pattern must be used. Players and most mobs will fall between the cactus and be unable to escape. Spiders, however, won't be able to fall between the cactus and, depending on the design of the shaft, may be able to escape before taking fatal damage. remember that cacti destroy items.

Water improvement
To effectively improve the size of your pit without digging a larger area, dig a shallow ring around the top layer of your pit. Fill this area with water so that mobs will be dragged to the center. If necessary, water can be stopped by placing signs or Stone Pressure Plate. Note that this will reduce fall damage.

Fence trap
Construct a hallway with a sand, or gravel, floor for an unsuspecting player to walk through. A diagonal hallway works best. Place fence posts underneath the path and drop the material for the floor on the fences. Below the fences, you can have a pit.

This works because when a gravity-affected block falls on a fence post, the block stays as an entity. As a result, a player walking between the fence posts will fall through the sand entities, causing them to plummet. Diagonal hallways make it more likely to fall through the sand without landing safely on a fence post. Keep in mind that the sand is going to look half a block higher than a normal block, but this can easily be covered up. The best part: it does not need to be reset!

TNT pitfall
Build the basic landmine and dig a pit under it. When the TNT ignites, the sand or gravel will fall and the target will be trapped until the TNT explodes.

Shallow pitfall
Dig a pit 1-block deep hole at least 5x5 blocks. Place fences on the inside edge. Since fences count as one and one half blocks in height, mobs can walk in but can not jump out. Alternatively, line the outside with half-slabs.This can also be combined with a mob grinder, via water currents leading to it. Zombies and Skeletons will take damage from sunlight during the day if the pit is uncovered, making this an effective way to sort out creepers. This design does not capture spiders.

Fake water pitfall
Dig a hole (2x2 works best) at least 30 blocks deep, the deeper the better. At the bottom place lapis lazuli or other blue blocks. Add a false corridor at the bottom to make it look like it goes somewhere. When an unsuspecting player comes across the hole, they may think that there is water at the bottom, jump down and die. Experienced players are less likely to fall for this particular trap but it generally works quite well.

Snowball knock back
Load a dispenser with snowballs (or other knockback item), and connect it to a pressure plate. When the target walks across the plate, the dispenser, if aimed correctly, shoots a snowball and knocks the target into the pit.

Piston pit
Place the piston so it pushes the block the signs are on. You can make up to twelve rows using one piston. Make sure there is a block of empty space at the end of where the piston pushes. Connect the piston to a trigger, such a pressure plate or lever, and when the piston moves it should break the signs and cause the sand to fall along with the target!

Block pitfall
Beside the classic pressure plate activated pit fall trap, you can also trigger the mechanism with a block - when removed the block will cause the pit to collapse.

Hallway pitfall
A compact & fast design, can kill the target by any type of damage. Cheap & fast to build, yet does the job right and is almost undetectable. The victim is walking in a tunnel, there are no pressure plates, just a tripwire hanging at the target's head level. Once the victim touches the tripwire, a block is pushed up preventing the target from escaping and the pistons below quickly open up a hole and the target falls down in a pitfall. From there, you can do anything with the target.

Fake elevator
Make what is shown in the schematic, like an water elevator with water only at the top. Make sure the hole is 30-40 blocks deep, which is enough to kill the player. It could help to place a lure sign near the 'elevator' saying something like "Do not enter!" You can also make the signs' text something like a floor countdown like "35", "34", "33", etc. so players are more likely to fall for the trap. If you want, you can place hoppers and with chests so you can gather the loot from the victims, but if you really want the drops, you need a secret passage to the bottom of the pit for collection.

Floating sand pitfall
If you make the shown pitfall, when you break the grass, the sand should remain floating. If you touch the string, it will cause a block update which causes the sand to fall.

Proximity Trap
A proximity trap is a player detector paired with an output.

False-floor trap
A false-floor trap is a variation of a pitfall trap. It works by creating a concealed safe route through the pitfall (which is usually very big) to allow authorized players to pass, while catching unauthorized players or mobs and killing them. It generally works best when there is no way around, forcing the player to pass through the trap. If anyone steps on one of the pressure plates with TNT under it, the TNT will explode causing the whole bridge to collapse! Note: You will need to have something under the TNT, perhaps more TNT or something easily destructible to make sure the TNT doesn't fall and fail to ignite the rest of the TNT.
 * 1) Dig a pit. The deeper and longer the better.
 * 2) Place use TNT to build a bridge across the pit. It should be at least 2 blocks wide, preferably more as someone could cheat otherwise.
 * 3) Replace some of the TNT with torches. Read the next step to understand which ones to replace.
 * 4) On top of the torches, place sand or gravel. Try to get across the bridge now by only stepping on the sand. Make sure you can do it, because it will be even harder at the end as you must stay off the edges of the sand.
 * 5) Once you have picked a satisfactory path, cover up the TNT.
 * 6) Place pressure plates over all the sand/gravel.

Water traps
Water traps generally use water to slow, drag, or drown the target. They sometimes also use water to prevent TNT from damaging the landscape. The traps here use water as the main component to trap or harm the target.

Fake water elevator
You need: 1.13+, water, a hard block, and soul sand (pistons optional)

Step 1: Create a 4x3 outline of your block of choice on the ground, preferably tough blocks (hay bales work well on op factions due to being unaffected by efficiency). Put fill in the middle with soul sand (you need 2 water spaces to work the bubble column). Now build the rest as if it were a normal 1x2 water elevator, BUT you cap off the top (no exit). A locked iron door can be added at the top if you want the loot.

Step 2: Add in water at the top. When it reaches the bottom, it will trigger the upwards bubble column of the soul sand blocks. The way this trap kills is the player steps in, believing it is a path to the top of your base, and is drowned since they can't escape the current. Obviously, a lone water tower is suspicious. You will need to add a fake skybase up in the air, high enough that the player will not attempt to pillar up.

Step 3 (optional): To make it possible to kill high-end players, or do something on an op factions server, you need to hook up pistons to the top 5 blocks of the system (1 air block between a piston and a block), excepting the cap blocks right above the water sources, and provide a fast pulsing current. This resets the block's damage, so players cannot bust out without very high levels of efficiency. Add a lever to stop the current so you can loot your trap.

Pros: Cons:
 * Hard to spot until it is too late
 * Silent until the top
 * Requires a player who wised up to break it, doesn't need resetting
 * Medium investment to kill early-mid game players
 * Fast set-up
 * Takes a long time to kill
 * Hard to loot
 * Can be like a high-tier version of landmines (being treated like a pressure plate in the middle of a desert).
 * Players may tower up to skybase anyway

Whirlpool trap
You need: 1.13+, deep water, magma blocks, and a lot of kelp

Step 1: Choose a watery area which has reasonable player/mob traffic

Step 2: Dig out a 2 deep hole where you want your trap, put hopper collection system on bottom layer. The space where the magma blocks will be should be at least 7 blocks below sea level.

Step 3: Put magma blocks at least 7 blocks below sea level (depends on your capability to swim up and down). There is no known maximum distance (tested with deep ocean ravines), however there is a sweet spot around 10-15 since you can get enough kelp to hide it well while also preventing them from swimming out.

Step 4: Place a border made of blocks that blend in with the seafloor (you can go for something like stone or something you can put kelp on). Make it at least 2 blocks high, as there is a bug allowing the player to jump while on bubble columns (tested in creative), 3 if you have enough space. These are to trap the player/squid/fish in the trap while the magma blocks kill them. If you have the capability to do so, store an Elder Guardian nearby to prevent players with good gear from breaking out.

Step 5: Now blend in the trap. Make your walls look slightly more natural (like a small incline underwater) first. Then, smother the area with kelp. I mean choke the life out of it. There shouldn't be a space within 7 blocks that doesn't have a kelp seedling. Then disguise the area temporarily while you wait for the kelp to grow.

Pros: Cons:
 * More or less silent
 * Minimal resources
 * Automatic killing and collection, gathers food
 * Larger sized traps can kill boats
 * Players without water equipment can't see it easily until they are over it
 * Requires a lot of time
 * Needs to be deep and well-cloaked to hide well, night vision can still spot it easily
 * Doesn't work well on most op faction servers, unless you are in a deep ocean, due to high quality pickaxes
 * Takes long enough to kill for people to obtain coordinates
 * Relies on target being somewhat unaware
 * Accidental self-harm

Slime trap
This simple trap targets slimes. All you need is some water buckets. Dig a 4x4 hole three blocks deep. Fill the bottom layer with water, so that it is all still water on the bottom. When any sized slime wanders around, it may fall into the hole. Since slimes cannot jump in water, it will not be able to escape. You can come by later and kill all the slimes, however, you must jump in then get the drops. If you are not interested in the drops, just leave them in to lower slime population. This trap is recommended on Superflat survival worlds where you can get water from village farms and easily make the hole and slimes spawn a lot.

Drowning room
Make a small room, preferably 5x5x2. Place a chest in the center of the back wall. Then put 2 blocks of sand above the chest with water behind it. As soon as they break the sand to enter the chest, the water will pour out. If you want, you could have an airlock instead of the one-way door. Have torches supporting sand in the hallway to the trap. As soon as the water comes out it will flood the hallway and burn out the torches, causing the sand to fall and trap the player even more.

Trapdoor drowning
This trap is made by digging a 2x2x3 hole in the ground, filling the middle of the hole in with water, and putting trapdoors at the top. Place pressure plates a block away from the trap in a square pattern so that, at the moment, they can't open the trap doors. Between the pressure plates and the trap, place redstone wire to open all the doors at once. When a mob walks over the pressure plates he can fall down the water, and the trapdoors will shut, forcing him to drown. At the lowest level of the trap you can make a 1x1 tunnel of water to retrieve the loot. Generally these are the most efficient types of traps because there is no lava involved to burn any loot.

Retrieval trap
Create a water current that drags the mobs down under a solid block. The current will hold the mobs under until they drown. The loot from the mobs will sink, which can be collected below.

Water pit


This trap is used as a water barrier to keep the mobs from swimming into another area. This requires that the floor of the body of water be easily accessible. The trap is extremely effective, but it's rather large, sucking in a 6x6 area of water.

Dive down to the bottom of the pool of water. Build up a hollow tower out of a weak material, ideally sand. The basic template is a square hole, at least 2x2. The air gap will be this size.
 * x = sand O = empty
 * O X X O
 * X O O X
 * X O O X
 * O X X O


 * Make the top flush with the surface, then empty the tower of water using a bucket. Set four TNT blocks as low as possible, then light the TNT and run.
 * T = TNT X = sand O = empty waterTower3.png
 * O X X O
 * X T T X
 * X T T X
 * O X X O

The TNT does not have to be on the bottom. The result will be a 2x2 tower of air going from the surface to the bottom with waterfalls on all sides.

Trapping pool
This trap is designed to trap skeletons and zombies, not to kill them!
 * 1) Dig out a 5x5 square.
 * 2) Dig a 3x3 square 2 layer deep in the center.
 * 3) Place water in each of the corners and in the middle of each side on the top, where the water isn't flowing along the top.

Lava traps
Lava traps use lava to slow, trap, or burn the target. Usually they use lava for the later, as not many mobs are fire proof. The traps here use lava as the primary component to harm the target.

Trapped Chest Lava Pitfall Trap

 * 1) Build the 2 rows sticky pistons such that are facing each other and the rows are 4 blocks apart.
 * 2) Attach solid blocks to the rows of sticky pistons.
 * 3) Link the rows of pistons to redstone torches.
 * 4) Attach the trapped chest to the redstone torches.
 * 5) Dig a hole below the sticky pistons and fill it with lava.
 * 6) Decorate the area around the trapped chest to attract players!

Lava pit

 * 1) Make a 3x3 pit at least 4 block deep.
 * 2) Place lava at the top, ladders in the middle, and water at the bottom.
 * 3) If you get mobs to go into the trap, they will burn in the lava and there drops should go into the water.

Lava ladder
This trap is most effective against unaware players. If an unaware player doesn't look before climbing, they will go into the lava and burn.
 * 1) Build a fake house, not out of wood.
 * 2) Make a ladder up to the second story.
 * 3) Put lava at the top of the ladder.

Door lockdown
An emergency lock down trap ensures players can't bypass the trap redstone lock system by breaking the door. It uses an iron door as support for the initial sand block. A diagram for the completed section of the corridor can be found below.



Side View

Place the iron door in the middle of a tunnel with adequate space. Connect the iron door to a redstone lock system. Dig above the door until the area above the hall is a hollow 5x3 area. Place sand on top of the door, then place torches on the side of the sand. Repeat until the sand touches the wall. Place lava in the empty space above the sand. The only way to get through would be to unlock the redstone lock system. If someone destroyed the door, the sand would be unsupported allowing the lava to fall on them. To stop players from simply mining around the device, place lava behind the walls.

Since lava spreads slowly, it may be possible for the thief to destroy the door then quickly run to safety on the far side. To counteract this, include an airlock style sand pillar to block the path. If the thief tries to break it down, the lava will have enough time to spread and ignite him. Also, lava spreads more quickly in the Nether.

Lava door
Make a house, and right inside the front door make a pit with lava. A careless player may wander in and, whoops, lava trap.

Dangerous ledge
If the target happens to wander onto the pressure plate, the piston will come out of nowhere and push them into the lava. It is recommended to place iron bars or glass panes so the drops will be saved.
 * 1) Underground somewhere, make a 1 block wide ledge.
 * 2) At the bottom of the ledge place lava.
 * 3) Somewhere on the ledge, place a stone pressure plate
 * 4) Place a piston so it will push the target off the ledge.
 * 5) Connect the piston to the pressure plate.

Lava bed
Possibly the most evil trap ever made is a bed based one. After sleeping in a bed you appear in one of the blocks immediately next to the bed (including diagonal). Sometimes though it's through a wall. If you can't imagine how that would happen, imagine a bed in the corner of a simple 3x3 house in which the corners of the exterior of the house are missing. The blocks beside the left of the bed and top of the bed are blocked because of the walls but the corner one (to the left and up at the same time) isn't blocked it's just outside. Someone sleeping here could find themselves standing in that missing outside corner in the morning. Now imagine an underground house with a lava chamber hidden behind the corner of the room like that and half slabs everywhere beside the bed on the safe side. Lava doesn't count as an obstruction but slabs do, so as far as the game is concerned that lava block is the only spot available. It looks harmless enough since you can't see the lava hidden behind the corner of the room. But after their sleep finishes they wake up in flames. The worst part is that upon dying they will respawn back at this bed...in the only block beside the bed that is open. Yes, the lava again. They're stuck. They need either water, creative mode, op's help, or to go find another server to play on.

Trapdoor lava pit
IF the target should wander onto the pressure plate, good luck getting off!

Lava filler

 * 1) Make a stone room.
 * 2) Place a pressure plate in the room.
 * 3) Connect the plate to a dispenser with lava in it on the ceiling.

Noob Traps
These traps work best on noobs. This is because they stand out the most.

4 Doors
This noob trap has 2 forms, basic and advanced. All you need is 4 iron doors, a pressure plate, and bedrock. If you choose the advanced form, also use a command block. To make the basic form, put a pressure plate down in the center, put iron doors on the rim (make sure they close when powered), and place bedrock above the pressure plate, high enough so the victim can go in, but not high enough for the victim to jump. When the victim goes in, he will trigger the pressure plate, which closes the doors. The bedrock is there to stop the victim from jumping. If the victim jumps, the pressure plate will deactivate. For the advanced form, do the same as above, but place a command block under the pressure plate, far enough to be unseen, but close enough to be triggered. Set the command to "/gamemode 2 @p[r=4]", which will change the game mode of the closest player that is within 4 blocks to adventure. The player is always the victim, unless the trap is triggered by a mob. If a mob triggers the trap, then the game mode of the closest player within 4 blocks is still changed. You can also use a redstone repeater to set off another command block. The second command block should have this command: "/effect @p[r=4] minecraft:slowness 60 100000", which will give the victim the "Slowness" status effect at level 60, which will completely immobilize the victim, for 100000 ticks, which will give the effect permanently, unless the victim has some milk, or has access to the "/effect" or "/gamemode" command. Also, the victim will need access to the "/gamemode" command to escape the trap, because the victim's game mode will be set to "Adventure", which will stop the victim from placing or breaking blocks. This will stop the victim from ever escaping, unless he has access to the "/gamemode", "/give", or "/tp", and "/kill", "/effect", or, if the server has the mod, "/punish". The punishment must be a one which moves the player. (Note: If the victim sprints, he can escape this trap, unless you use the advanced form with the slowness effect)

The Cake Is A Lie
You need pressure plates, a cake you are willing to lose, sticky pistons, stone, obsidian, and redstone. Dig 2 blocks down in a flat area, place a sticky piston facing up, put a stone block on the sticky piston, put a ring of pressure plates around it, dig 2 blocks down and put sticky pistons facing up in a ring just outside the pressure plates, connect the pressure plates to the sticky pistons, put obsidian on the third block above the ground over the outer sticky pistons, put cake in the center, and cover the sticky pistons with obsidian. If someone tries to get the cake, the sticky pistons trap them and destroy the cake.

House of Horror (useful for griefers)
Make a fake base with walls and an attractive outside to attract potential griefers. Trap the door so through attempted exit, the victim might die through lava. If the victim tries to get out of the house early, he will realize that a dispenser revealed by a sticky piston compartment with a released lava bucket has blocked his escape through the iron door.

If the victim blunders up the stairs, he hears a small but foreboding sound and realizes that he's standing on a pressure plate hidden from his view which sets off a TNT trap. He is forced to go further up and realizes that the stairs are very long. From here on continue torturing the victim in this manner. As soon as your test subject goes in, they will get the terror of their lives!

Note: Any person entering this trap can simply break out of the house if it is made of weak materials(dirt etc.). Use materials such as obsidian or find some other way to prevent the griefer from exiting. It is best to find some way to keep him going higher and higher up and not trying to leave.

The KILL land mine
Sick of rebuilding land mines? Not any more as the land mine NEVER explodes. Plus, it can kill a player when he/she steps on the pressure plate. You will need: Always set the command to. Dig 2 blocks down and 3x3 blocks wide. Place the command block in the middle of the hole like this:
 * 1 wooden pressure plate
 * 1 command block.
 * 17 cobblestone.

Cover the hole with cobblestone. Place the wooden pressure plate in the middle of the cobblestone square. So when a player lands on it, it will kill them!

Pros (Advantages)

 * They can kill a player in ONE hit.
 * You don't have to build a landmine again.

Cons (Disadvantages)

 * You may get killed when you are near (not on) the landmine by items flying down onto the pressure plate. (This can be avoided by using a stone pressure plate.)
 * Some servers may change the command from  to.
 * Alternately you can use the code  which teleports them into the void.

Command Block Traps
These are quite effective traps that use command blocks. 1. Proximity Mine Place a command block connected to a redstone clock, faster the better, and use this command /kill @e[r=10] ~ ~ ~ Any entity within 10 blocks will be destroyed. This is also good for preventing primed TNT from getting near or arrows from flying at you.

Entry Alarm
This is not so much as a trap but an alarm. If a person or entity walks over a pressure plate or tripwire which activates turns on a redstone wire which triggers a note block. You could use different sounding note block for different entries/exits if you have more than one.

Proximity Detector
There is a way to detect if someone is within a certain proximity (17-20 blocks) in Minecraft. This is extremely useful for traps. Here is a video tutorial on how to do that:

Mob-spawning-based: This player sensor is the smallest stable silent player detector that isn't glitch based.

This video shows another way to create a stable player detector, this time based on redstone.

Diamond Block of DOOM
Put down a BUD switch made out of a sticky piston, slime block and redstone block. Next to the piston, put a diamond block, and above where the Noob will be standing and next to,(but on the same side as the diamond block) but above the redstone block, put a redstone line leading up to about 5 dispensers full of TNT. When the Noob tries to break the block with his iron pickaxe(silly Noob!) the BUD switch will activate, and you can come back to see a room full of broken gadgetry, dirt, and wool dye. Specifically, rose red. Please note that this will only work on the most inexperienced of people. We're talking first day levels of ignorance.

Netherrack and cacti wall


In the ground, alternate netherrack and sand. Ignite the netherrack and plant cactus on the sand. This very simple trap acts as a wall against hostile mobs. Passive mobs only spawn in light (They are NOT attracted to light in any way and will often despawn in the dark) and will sometimes wander into the fire. Generally the mob will then ricochet off the cactus preventing any drops from being destroyed by the fire.

Soul Sand Live Capture
Soul sand slightly sinks the player or mobs. Using this unique property, it is possible to capture a tall mob or player. The corridor to the right will trap a player that moves onto the soul sand. The top half shows the floor setup and the bottom half shows the ceiling. Note the open block above the soul sand. Players are caught until they place a block above them or destroy a block around them. Generally the rest of the trap will have triggered by the time they react. Pressure plates can be placed on soul sand to help hide them and to provide a redstone signal. '''NOTE:For a kill during this process, place lava by the soul sand. May not always work if placed incorrectly.'''

Repeater-based One Way Hallway
If a repeater is in a 2 block high space, like a tunnel, you will crouch automatically as you walk over it. However, you will not crouch if the repeater is blocking the entrance of a tunnel.

Make a 1x2 tunnel. On the floor of the entrance place a repeater. To punish players for destroying the repeater, have it as part of an inverter connected to TNT, such that when the repeater is destroyed, it activates nearby TNT.

Minecart Fall Damage Trap
There is a way to 'store' fall damage in a minecart and later have someone take that damage even though they don't actually fall a distance that would make them take damage. Here is a video explaining how to set the trap up and showing it in use:

Noise machine
In certain cases it may be helpful to mask the sound of TNT* or hostile mobs by creating a noisy machine. The function of the machine itself isn't important. Pistons create a fair amount of noise that doesn't travel far, however it should look like it is doing something useful. Doors can be quickly toggled making a lot of noise. You can also group many animals together to make noise. A simple BUD that uses Redstone blocks, a repeater and a sticky piston, when the normal piston is built and then removed will also constantly trigger after being updated (be warned about the lag caused by a piston that moves every 2 Redstone ticks.)

Forcefield Trap
This trap is based on the forcefield, that the mine carts create when stacked together in a small amount of space. It is possible to hide this design behind walls to push players off and kill them from fall damage / lava damage. However, this trap is very iron-costly, for it to be efficient you will need around 250 iron, and the number increases, depending on how powerful you want the forcefield to be. This does NOT work with Modloader in Minecraft or Bukkit MP servers.

Anvil Player Trap
Simply set up two pressure plates in front of two large iron doors. Make this entrance as ornate as possible, to fool the victim into thinking this is the entrance to your house. Place the doors sideways and place torches under them so they appear closed but are actually locked open. By doing this the pressure plates won't work. Run redstone lines from underneath the plates onto the roof of your porch to trigger two pistons. The redstone lines should have an inverter in so the pistons are extended by default. Put an anvil on each extended piston arm, and make sure there is a hole through the porch roof down to the entrance where the player stands. When the player stands on the pressure plates, the doors won't open and while they are confused the anvils will fall on them. They will either be killed or if the anvils don't fall from high enough they get injured. This trap is useful to stop thieves from staling valuable goods, and exploits the fact that people don't look up.

Arrow fall trap
Have an underground tunnel built with another tunnel coming straight down midway to intersect it

Key: t=tunnel, d=dirt, r=room, x=TNT t t t t ttttttttttttt

At the top of the intersecting tunnel build a room like so:

rrrrrrrr rrrrrrrr rrrrrrrr t t t t tttttttttttt

At the top of this, just in-between the tunnel and room, build a dirt patch to block it up and then place one tnt block over the center piece of dirt.

rrrrrrrrrr r r r x r rrdddddrrr ttttttt ttttttt ttttttt ttttttt ttttttt tttttttttttt tttttttttttt tttttttttttt

Next fire a ton of arrows at the dirt and tnt and build a staircase from the room to the tunnel hide the stairwell with plain stone but dig one space below the hidden doorway and one behind that into the starwell. place a pressure plate next to the hidden door and run redstone from it to the tnt in the top room. Now, when a player sets off this plate it causes the tnt to explode with the dirt, (not blasting the arrows away because of a patch) with the dirt no longer there to hold the arrows they will free-fall down at the intruder at the same power as a fully charged arrow. P.S. It helps to have the intersecting tunnel wider then the hole itself as to reduce chance of arrows sticking into walls.

Fire Arrow Trap
This trap will rain down flaming arrows on an unfortunate player. First, make a long hallway with lava walls which look like decoration (Leave the lava open to the hallway). Next put a pressure plate, button, lever, or whatever activation device you want. Connect it to a pulser, then to a line of dispensers filled with arrows. When the player activates the trap, they will be showered with flaming arrows coming out of the walls!

Perfect Player/Mob Trap
Dig four 1x1 holes (as shown below) into the ground and in the holes place a piston and in the middle place a pressure plate. Now all you have to do is occasionally check the trap for players and or mobs.

Key: S=piston P=pressure plate

S SPS S

The Trap of Eternal Imprisoning
If your mate activates this trap successfully, he is as good as banned, unless he has ender pearls. The trap consists of any switch (pressure plate is probably the best one) and two sticky pistons. Upon activation the pistons start to repeatedly move after one another with the victim being between them. This causes the player to move so fast that even with a diamond pickaxe he/she won't be able to break free. Make sure that the space is closed. The harder the material you use is, the better, but do note that pistons can't move obsidian.

NOTE: It is not confirmed if you can break free from a stone made trap with a diamond pickaxe enchanted with efficiency, however with 3 ender pearls, you can spam two, glitching you halfway through the block and using the last one, escape far away.

NOTE: The player will eventually starve to death, and if not, the trap may create extreme lag.

Tripwire Traps
This video is an example of several traps you could make with tripwires. There are many more ways you could sneak tripwire in to kill your victim, just think of the basic actions you would do in Minecraft, and try to sneak a tripwire somewhere in it.

Gravel Suffocation Trap
Probably the simplest trap in Minecraft. Dig 1x1 holes 2 blocks deep; wait for a player or mob to fall in, and then suffocate him with gravel. Get their items out of the hole. Or, make an entire redstone contraption with pistons that release to drop the gravel!

Murder Holes
Note: This trap is designed for player sized mobs like zombies. It also does not work well on other players. Nevertheless, when done en masse in a ring around the structure being protected, it works relatively well. Dig many 1x1 holes four blocks into the ground.. Then, make a two block high tunnel along one of the edges of the holes that runs ONE BLOCK DEEPER than the bottom of the holes. Then, put signs on the top of the holes to fool mobs into falling in. Go into your tunnel and kill the mobs by yourself while they stand in the hole helplessly.

T= tunnel H= hole B= block

BBHB BBHB BBHB BTHB BTBB BBBB

Suffocation Tower
(Note: Only suitable for 1 block wide mob. However, a two block variant can also be created)

Requirements: Cobblestone (as much as possible),Sand or Gravel (2),Pressure Plate (1),Iron Door (2) ,Trapdoor (1), Any redstone trigger, Ladder (at least three)

Make a 3 by 3 by 5 tower out of cobblestone. It should have a 1 block space inside, with walls that are 5 blocks high. Make a trapdoor floor for getting out of the tower later. You need to place an iron door in a doorway. Then place a pressure plate in front of the iron door. The mob will step on the pressure plate and will open the door for a time, long enough to let him in, but not long enough to let him out. Get to the top of the tower and suffocate the mob inside with your gravity-affected blocks. Make a tunnel outside with a staircase. Remember to close the trapdoor floor! You should be able to get up to the top of the tower, and drop sand or gravel on the mobs. Then dig the sand or gravel out, and go through your tunnel to the outside.

Diagram: > C = Cobblestone G = Gravity-affected block P = Pressure plate D = Door T = Trapdoor L = Ladder G       G      C   C      C   C      C   C      C   C      C   C      D   C  P D    C      C T C      C    C      C    C      C    C C C C C C C C    LC     C                                    LC      C                                    LC      C C C C C C C C C C C C

The Top of Hell
Warning: This trap works ONLY in the nether.

For noobs
Get a noob to go with you to the nether. Explode the nether portal. Go to the top of the nether (one block below void). Find an opening to the void and tell him the only way out is to use enderpearls. Give him a stack and make him teleport there. He will never be able to get back down.

For non-noobs
Dig underneath your nether portal and put a command block there. Place a pressure plate next to it. Type the command "tp @p[name=! ] ~ 130 ~". Now wait for someone to enter!

Capture Trap
This trap can be used to capture mobs like zombies, skeletons, endermen, creepers, cows, sheep, pigs, horses and other players without completely killing them. You can then hit them without getting hurt yourself. This is how it works: Dig a 5 block deep hole in the ground, then use a sticky piston and a dirt block to close the top of your trap so nobody suspects you. The sticky piston will be very visible, so place one dirt block, and grow a tree on top of it. At the base of your hole, dig a ten block long corridor. Exit your hole. Then dig a 5 block deep trench that is parallel to your corridor, and fill in the walls and floor with obsidian or bedrock (in creative). Then, place an extra layer of obsidian/bedrock so that your corridor's wall has one block missing on the top layer. When mobs or players fall into the trench, they won't be able to escape. If you want, you can put ladders on one side, to make it look like it isn't a trap, and then once a player climbs down the ladder, you can use a sticky piston to bush one block with the ladders on it out of the wall, to that nobody can come out again, or you could use a row of sticky pistons to close off the top of the hole. Once a player/mob is trapped in the trench, you can hit their feet with a sword, a bow or your fists. You may want to include a chest with a tempting reward inside the trench, or a sign saying 'Diamonds/Emeralds Below!. You could even convince a player to trap themselves, by making a redstone switch that expels the ladder, and pushes/destroys the switch so that the player cannot flick it a second time. WARNING! THIS TRAP WILL NOT WORK ON MOBS THAT ARE 1 BLOCK HIGH, for example, spiders, chickens and small slimes.

Disarming Traps
When faced with a trap, the safest course of action is often to leave the way you came, or disarm the trigger by destroying the trap's components. Note that disarming a trap could be griefing, but if they are trying to kill you, you should defend yourself. X = torch Y = redstone wire B= Any block Front view: XYX BBB Top view: Layer 1: B B BBB Layer 2: X X YYY And then destroy the center redstone: X X Y Y It will keep the positive input for both ends, but cutting the two ends off, keeping the current on forever. '''Note: Some traps make use of the 15-block redstone signal limit. Trying to dispatch active redstone wire this way may trigger traps that use this concept.'''
 * You can dispatch active redstone wires with the use of two redstone torches:
 * Consider the fact that the creator may be nearby. Oftentimes, the builder of a trap will be near the trap, waiting to collect his victim's possessions. If you encounter a trap, be ready for a fight.
 * Some texture packs may make traps easier to disarm than others. While you might accidentally walk across a pressure plate and activate a trap while using one texture pack, you may spot it instantly with a different one. It may also help to use an x-ray texture pack to spot parts of the trap that you may not have been able to see before, which should help you better understand how the trap works.
 * To fool the person who laid the trap in SMP, try subtle sabotage, but make sure you know the wiring absolutely. Therefore, if you want revenge unto the person who tricked you into the trap, you can leave a trace and then the person will want to fix it. Kill him once that happens.
 * Signs, Pressure Plates, Diamond Blocks, and Chests usually mean traps. Avoid these things in the open, in houses(Except your own) and in caves.

Aside from those tips, here are the most important rules of trap disarming survival, assuming you know where the trigger is. If you follow these rules, you may not break the trap, but in your reaction to it, you will not die.


 * 1) Do not ever trigger the trap the expected way and attempt to outrun it. If that was possible, then the trap would be useless to begin with. Do not trigger it, log out and come back! You may fall in a pit or other measures designed to prevent logging out and surviving.
 * 2) In the event of suspecting a trap or finding one, the first priority is to retreat the way you came. Although efficient traps just wrap around the kill zone, some traps take huge amounts of space and so are very hard to escape.
 * 3) Never attempt to dig around a trap. There are many ways to wire redstone and any path you choose may or may not trigger fail-safes.
 * 4) Destroying pressure plates cannot trigger a trap unless there is an update block in an inactive state next to it. This is the correct way to disarm Mojang's desert temple trap (more than a few youtubers don't seem to know about this and will creep about the chamber looting the boxes without disarming the bomb first).
 * 5) Only destroy redstone that is inactive and that you safely find if you are sure there is not some kind of occasional pulse that flashes through to check that the line is functioning.
 * 6) Destroy the components of the trap designed to kill you, if they are reachable and safe to destroy.
 * 7) Most traps will not be simple pure redstone, instead having a complicated array of redstone or an obscure minecraft feature as a component. These have the downside of causing delay generally, but are hard to disarm.
 * 8) Do not mess around with anything you are not completely sure about. This basically means that unless you have found the entire trap, do not attempt to jinx it or sabotage it.
 * 9) Never attempt disarming while you are within "Danger Zone(s)" of the trap.

Lastly, keep in mind that in the real world if you were walking thru the park and you found a tripwire attached to a pipe bomb set up by some maniac you wouldn't try to disarm it yourself. You'd tell someone in authority, who would then send in a specialist wearing explosive resistant armor to disarm it. The minecraft equivalent would be informing the ops so they can send someone in full Blast Protection IV armor to deal with it. But then...where's the fun in that?...

Villager trap
A villager trap is a way to move villagers. Once they get far enough they can't go back. The villagers should walk from the right to the left:

This trap takes advantage of the feature where you can't walk through a two-high archway with soulsand in front of it.

Death on Impact
You will need these: Staple blocks, sand, cactus, signs, and a valuable block. First create a 1-block thin wall, then make a small tunnel on the wall one block higher than the ground, this is where the valuable block goes. Then create a 3x3x24 pit right in front of the wall. Then on the opposite side, dig down 3 blocks so there is enough space for a cactus to be placed inside. Then place sand and cactus in the hole you dug, and place a sign on the top of the cactus. After that, dig another tunnel directly leading to the 3x3x24 pit and place signs on the sign on the cactus so that it goes through the tunnel leading to the pit. And then place signs so that they cover the pit. Then place sand on top of the signs so that it is level with the ground. Then behind the wall, place the valuable block in the small tunnel in the wall. Then place signs on the valuable block. Then place sand on a sign, so that its shadow is beside the cactus. then cover the behind of the wall. The result is a small building with a patch of sand in front of it, the victim will see the valuable block, break it, then is surprised that sand fell in front of him, and then falls on the ground and dies of fall damage, allowing you to take the loot.

House of mobs
This is a really simple trap to make. This can work on PE LITE, or for more danger, PE (not lite, but instead the paid version). All you need to do is make a fairly large house (doesn't matter how high), and then make a pit 3 blocks deep. Now, just block up the top with the material around on the ground (or wool, if you prefer), and when someone goes to your house, it is likely that due to the dark pit below, they won't be able to sleep in their bed, or will be blown sky high by creepers.

Diamond death tower
This is another easy trap to make. Create a 3x3 tower at least 24 blocks high out of cobblestone. At the top, grab loads of diamond ore, block or it could just be some other rare and valuable material. You need to make this a 4x4 area, so that there is a little ledge for you to stand on. Then, at the bottom, make a pit 3 blocks deep and about 5 blocks from the tower. You now need to put out a chest and fill it with the dirt you just got from the pit. Then get yourself some sand/gravel and wait at the top.

The result:

Now, when your victim sees your precious diamond, he can't help but run into the pit, finding himself stuck, and will see a sign, next to the chest saying: use these blocks to get to the top. He will grab the blocks and go in, starting to hop up, and up, and up. At the top, you will then start dropping your sand/gravel down the chute, and then it will fall on him, and they will suffocate.

An alternative is to fill the chest with sand, and you stand at the bottom, and when they hop up, you destroy the sand and the pile comes down, preventing him from reaching the top, and when he runs out of material, kill him with a sword.

Simple Hole Trap: The Pocket Edition concept of imprisonment
This is the simplest trap of all time: Dig a hole 2-3 blocks down. Mobs or players will fall into the hole. Players might dig out, but you can detain and kill them while they are trying to kill them. Mobs cannot dig at all, so you can hit them from above and kill them.

Feet Hitter: Kill your enemies with impunity!
Build a structure, but with NO BOTTOM BLOCKS!! That way, when mobs try to get to you, their feet are exposed, and you can feet-hit them to death. Easy peasy. Players are more difficult, but you can still deal significant damage.

Dungeon Death
Locate a dungeon. Then stay there. when your friend finds you, they will find an empty dungeon- filled with zombies !! Your friend's death, 100% accurate.

What the [expletive]?
This is a weird trap. Build a house of TNT, and make a TNT line to some unseen distance. Put a wood block, light it on fire. ( Wood substitute redstone )> After a while, the TNT ignites, and BOOM!! TNT ignites. The person inside the house should think "____" and die. Even if they escape, the amount of TNT blows them sky-high.

Death Temple
First,make a 5x5 area made with some kind of sandstone,chiseled works well. Then,add a 3 block high wall. In the wall that is opposite to the entrance,put a diamond block. Then put a sign behind that diamond block and stack a bunch of other signs up to the top of the wall to hold up sand. (Make sure to cover most of the signs behind the Diamond Block so nobody sees it!) When the player mines the block,they will suffocate and die. This way you can get their loot AND your diamond block. Pretty good,huh? You could always use Gold or Lapis Lazuli blocks.

Tower o' Ore
ATTENTION! VALUABLE ORES WILL BE LOST. THIS IS GOOD FOR RICH PEOPLE!! First make a tower about 3 by 3 about 20 blocks high with a watchtower at the top and TNT in the middle and ladders on the side. Then you put a block of any ore at the top and say,"Go get it, I'll be up there watching you." Then you watch him go up the tower and right when he is about to mine it you light the TNT and run.