Tutorials/Traps

This list doesn't cover mob grinders, the killing mechanism in  mob farms.

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.

Wired 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.

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 arrow shot over a given time period.



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 puslar 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 pulsar.

Video Tutorial

The trap can be automated by attaching a pressure plate to the control torch. When the pressure plate is active, the pulsar is allowed to fire, presumably at the mob or player on the pressure plate.

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.

Crushing Trap
This trap uses pistons to crush skeletons, zombies or players to death. For every square meter you'll need a skticky 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 cobble just beneath all of the sticky pistons. The room should now appear to be 2 blocks high, with 2 empty blocks about 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.

Suffocating Piston Trap
The following piston trap suffocates the player slowly by filling the room with sand and keeping to fill it until he dies or the sand ends. The following video shows the trap "in motion" and how it's made:

Mined Block Trap
This type of trap uses a player mining a block as input when setting off the trap. A "NOT" gate is used so that when the player destroys a block with a redstone torch on it, the second phase of redstone is turned on, causing the TNT to be set off.

An advantage of this style of trigger is that the signal is created without the target activating a pressure plate or pulling a lever (in the case of a player). It is also easy to build, since you can wire multiple blocks all over the map. Based on the location, different blocks should be used, in the following video example, a tree is used. Caves may use ore, deserts may use exposed ore (as though sand had fallen to expose it), and player built cities may use rare blocks such as diamond or gold.

Roof TNT Trap
A 'Roof TNT Trap' can be made by putting a pressure plate next to a door then wiring that pressure plate to activate TNT hidden in the ceiling. This works best in a small area such as a mine. To limit the space the target can run, use an iron door and only place the pressure plate on the outside. To further limit the space the target can run, have the pressure plate also wired to an inverted piston that drop gravels, blocking the remainder of the tunnel.

Disguised TNT Trap
A disguised TNT trap uses the activation of TNT to remove the support for a block of gravel. The TNT cooks while the target is falling down a narrow hole. This can be expanded to cover a larger area by using signs or torches to support additional blocks. Wiring can be done most effectively by placing gravel on TNT with a pressure plate above the gravel.

Here is a Video of the trap in action.

Pitfall
Beware: the following pitfall traps don't necessarily kill the target by falling damage. Some players prefer to use fire, lava, or cactus to deal damage and use the pit as an area the target can't escape before fatal damage has been dealt.

TNT-based pitfall trap
Create a deep 3x3 pit (deep enough so mobs will die upon hitting the bottom). Two blocks down from the surface, place a layer of stone or cobblestone. On top of that, do the same, but make sure the center block is TNT. Finally, place a layer of any block type on top (except TNT, of course). An advantage to stone/cobblestone is that it takes less blocks, while an advantage to dirt is that upon the TNT's explosion, it creates a small ledge around the pit you can stand on to help rebuilding. After your top layer is done, put a pressure plate on the block above the TNT. When a mob - or player - walks on the plate, the TNT will trigger, damaging them and making them fall to their death in the pit below. To collect the items, create a maintainance hallway to the bottom of the pit.

Cactus-based pitfall trap
One way to dispatch a target is by filling the bottom of the shaft with cactus. Since cactus can't be placed adjacent to blocks, a checkerboard pattern must be used. Players and most mobs will fall between the cactus and be unable to escape. Spiders 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.

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. 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.

Current-based pitfall trap
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 centre. If necessary, water can be stopped by placing signs.

Wired pitfalls
Pistons and other redstone blocks are sometimes used to push the target into a nearby pit or, in the case of pistons, expose a covered pit.

Snowball-based pitfall trap
Load the dispenser with snowballs (or eggs if you find them easier to get), and aim the dispenser at a connected pressure plate next to the pit. When the target walks across the plate, the dispenser shoots a snowball to knock the target into the pit, where they can be dealt with however you like.

The Obscured Pit
The mechanism is a pressure plate attached to 5 pistons: 4 pistons that retract, and one that extends. Build this in a flat sandy area. Wire the pressure plate to an inverter then to 4 sticky pistons 1 layer underground. When the plate activates, the pistons should open a 2x2 hole. Replace the sand on top of the extended pistons on the ground. Then, under the sand manipulated by the pistons, make a hole as deep as you want. It can have water supported by signs, so as not to kill your victim, or they can plummet to certain doom. Then, add a normal piston wired into the plate so as to push the victim into the opened shaft. Then, you can replace the top layer of sand.

Pitfalls using pistons
Another kind of pit is the piston pit. In this pit trap a sand structure is build on an activated piston. The structure itself uses torches to keep the sand at the top. The structure is build like an upside down pyramid so that one sand block is holding the others. When the piston is toggled, the main sand block above the piston will fall triggering a cascade in the rest.

This trap is easy to reset if enough sand is available, you just have to put new sand on top of the piston and build a new sandfloor. If sand is scarce, you may want to build a maintance shaft to the bottom of the pit to retrieve the sand.

Water- and lava-based traps
Fluids are often used in traps. Water is generally used to slow players and to drag mobs, but can also be used to drown them. Lava works entirely differently by igniting the target. It is a very effective way of killing the target, but also destroys drops if they come in contact.

Drowning room
Make a small room preferably 5x5x2. Place a chest in the centre 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 trapping the player even more.

Automatic drowning trap w\ trapdoors
This trap is made by digging a 2x2x3 hole in the ground, filling the middle of the hole in water, and putting trapdoors at the top. Then pressure plates are placed a block away from the trap in a square pattern to open the trap doors, and between the pressure plates and the trap redstone wire is placed 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 down, living him to drown. At the lowest level of the trap you can make a 1x1 tunnel of water to retrieve the loot.

Retrieval Traps
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. The following video is a much earlier version of the game, but works on the same principle.

Water Whirlpool Trap (Water Tower)


This trap is used as a water barrier to keep the mob from swimming into an area. This requires that the floor of the body of water be easily accessible. However, the trap is extremely effective and rather large, sucking in a 6x6 area of water.

Dive down to the bottom of the pool of water. Build up a hollow tower of 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,
 * 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.

Lava ladder trap
This is designed for use on a SMP server. Make a 'dummy house' (A house that is not really a house, it is only to lure people). Put some ladders that go to the second floor of this house and at the top of the ladder, put some lava. The lava will not go down the ladders. Now when people go up the ladder they may climb into the lava, because some players don't look up when climbing. And usually falling off the ladder so their items won't burn. This trap will also work downwards but it is not as effective.

Vehicle lava trap
This is a very simple type of trap that relies on players riding either a Minecart or Boat into a pool of lava. The player generally won't be able to react in time to escape.

Emergency Lock Down Trap
An emergency lock down trap ensures players can't bypass a 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 to the right.

Place the iron door in the middle of a tunnel with adequate space. Connect the iron door 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.

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 seem to be attracted to light and will 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. 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.

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.

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. Doors can be quickly toggled making a lot of noise.

One Way Door
A one way door is made by placing a pressure plate in front of a iron door to a closed room with no way to open the door from the inside. The pressure plate briefly activates the door, but will close it immediately after. This technique is useful for capturing mobs for resource harvesting. This can be expanded to create rooms or large pens for trapping monsters.

Disarming Traps
When faced with a trap, the safest course of action is often to disarm the trigger by destroying the trap's components.


 * Destroy pressure plates. Pressure plates send the same message whether they are inactive or destroyed. Destroying a pressure plate will seldom trigger a trap.

You can dispatch active redstone wires with the use of two redstone torches: 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.
 * Be wary of active redstone. Inactive redstone is safe, but destroying active redstone dust can trigger traps, as it is usually connected to an inverter.


 * Never alter a clock generator! It may be connected to another one by a logic gate that checks if they tick together. This way the breaking or altering one may trigger a massive TNT charge or other anti-defuse mechanisms.


 * Consider the fact that the creator may be nearby. Often times, 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.


 * Remove the trap's dangerous components. If you can reach the dangerous bits of a trap, destroy them.  Take the arrows out of a dispenser, and pocket the dispenser while you're at it.  Take any cacti you see as well. TNT should not be a problem, since the 1.7 update TNT blocks can be broken and collected


 * 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.


 * If all else fails, try to safely trigger the trap. Either step on the trigger and run, or use redstone to trigger it from a distance.  It is best to have a good understanding of the nature of the trap before attempting to trigger it, as one can easily underestimate its size.


 * You can also trigger the trap, log off, and log back on after a moment has passed. However this may be dangerous as nearby TNT could have been detonated (even revealing a pit), so when you log back on, you may take damage from the hole the TNT made, possibly resulting in death.

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