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This is a list of traps for creatures or players. Add your own, if you have created a different one. Traps are a subset of Mechanisms.

Wired Traps

Place a TNT and Redstone to a lever/button/pressure plate.
  • Wired Explosive Arrow
Same as Wired TNT but with another block of TNT on top of the first one, covered with fired arrows.
  • One Way Door
Put a pressure plate in front of a metal door to a small closed room. Anything can enter, but once the door shuts the monster will remain trapped. This is good for capturing mobs for resources.
  • Roof TNT Trap
Put a pressure plate below a TNT (in the ceiling) then wire (with Redstone) the pressure plate to the TNT and when someone or something triggers the pressure plate, the TNT will fall in front of them and explode.
  • One Way Roof TNT Trap
Use the One Way Door technique and put a pressure plate two block after the door (Make a hallway to make sure they step on the pressure plate) and then make a Roof TNT Trap. With this, everyone who goes through that door will have to step on the pressure plate and the TNT will fall and kill them. You can even wire a new steel door at the end of the hallway that closes (with inverter/red torch) after you step on the TNT pressure plate, making this trap a powerful and inescapable one.
This trap can also be wired off to a single pressure plate (outside the door) with some intelligent wiring.
  • Decoy TNT House
Build the frame of a house of any size out of TNT, minus roof, and with a three space wide opening (this is extremely expensive, and you can not make any mistakes), then cover it with stone or another material, except for two blocks connecting the TNT at the entrance. Make the floor out of solid stone and connect red stuff to the two holes. Connect a stone pressure plate to the Redstone, and have an empty chest in the decoy house to attract thieves. When they walk in, they step on the pressure plate,and the only thing to do then is play 007 music as you watch the failed thief and house blow sky high.
  • Wired TNT Pitfall
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 go off, damaging them and making them fall to their death in the pit below.
You might want to try creating a hallway or corridor of some sort that links the bottom of the pit to your base so that you can pick up any items dropped by mobs afterwards, along with the blocks left behind.
  • Wired Self-Destruct
There are two methods to do this,
True Self-Destruct destroys everything in your base, while Water Self-Destruct floods your base, forcing out if not killing any occupants:
1.True Self-Destruct
For True Self-Destruct, place blocks of TNT with 1 block in-between them, behind your walls. You must wire them all together to one switch. Place the switch in a secret location outside of your base, that only you know. This is to prevent you from killing yourself, and also to prevent other people for destroying your base.
2. Salvageable(Water) Self-Destruct
For Salvageable Self-Destruct, you need a metal door, a switch, and a water source. First, wire the switch to the door, again hiding it in a secret location. You may also want to create a drainage switch.You must be inside the water room in order to build it. Seal off the room in every direction except for the roof. Place the water block from a bucket, or dig a channel from a lake/ocean/spring so you can fill the room with water. When you want to flood your base, hit the switch, wait a while for the water to flood and drown everything, then drain your base so you can go back and reset the trap, loot the corpses, etc.


Pitfall

This trap has several variants:

  • Simple pit
The walls are two blocks or more tall to prevent NPCs from escaping(If you want to trap spiders, walls must be at least three blocks high).
  • Deep pit
Kills victims with falling damage (Dangerous to the player).
  • Lava pit
Lava at bottom kills victims quickly at the cost of losing the loot gained from the victim.
  • Fire pit
A pit three blocks deep lined at the bottom with Logs, which are then ignited with a Flint and Steel. Some may need to be replaced if they burn away, but eventually they should reach a state of permanent burn. It should be noted that loot will also be lost in the fire.
  • Player-triggered Sand-hatch pit
A sand floor held up by torches falls when a player removes a block or torch.
Used in conjunction with a Simple or Deep pit. Place a TNT at the beginning of the hole, and with the use of an adjacent wall to the hole, place a pressure plate on top of the TNT (Attempting to place the plate on the TNT itself will only trigger the TNT. Anything stepping on the plate will trigger the TNT, causing it to fall and destroy the plate, but it also causes whatever stepped on it to fall down the pit with it, trapping it with a lit box of explosives.
Essentially a normal pitfall trap, which has a floor of cacti, causing any creature (or player) damage as they step on it.


This trap is essentially a hole. Enemies can only jump as high as you do, so a simple 1x1x2 (1 block area, 2 blocks deep) will capture any enemies who walk over it. However, spiders can jump over pits as wide as two or three blocks.

By strategically placing these pits at the entrances to your base, you can ensure entire areas are off-limits to monsters while retaining your ability to access them (via small jumping puzzles)


Video example with a way to deal with NPCs stuck in the trap.

Explosive Arrow

This trap consists of a TNT Box covered in arrows, then set off to pepper the surrounding landscape with deadly projectiles

Video example


Drowning

This trap uses the removal of a block as a trigger to release sand doors, and open a water pipe, causing a room to become closed off and filled with water. The Water can now be placed using buckets.

A problem with this trap is that the sand doors have to be either very tall, or very many, in order to prevent the player from simply digging his way out. The use of sand wires instead of water channels would make the doors closing instantaneous.

Video example (slow, escapable)

Land mines

This simple trap is great for randomly killing sheep, pigs, or other mobs, and perhaps players too if placed well.

Randomly dig holes that are three blocks deep and place a block of TNT in the top of the hole. Place a stone pressure plate on top of the TNT, or a wooden one if you're cheap or expect people to throw blocks around (Wood plates are set off by thrown items).

When an unfortunate player or mob stands on the TNT, they will be trapped in the hole and killed by the TNT under their feet.

Retrieval Traps

Make water perfect by using a bucket, creating a current that drags the mobs under, with blocks now above their heads so they cant resurface. The mobs drown in this 'prison' and their loot sinks to the floor, where it can flow through a hole in the end wall and into your house/dwelling. All the loot, none of the effort getting it! For reference, and suggestion on how to do it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6v1UM8yNNU

Water Suction Traps

Use a bucket to remove a block under the spot in a lake or ocean you want mobs to be stuck (is they swim to close) Note: Not very effective


(only confirmed to work with sheep, pigs and cows)

Pit Fall 2.0

Dig a pit 3x3x3, then cover it with doors that close into the pit. Wire all the doors to a row of pressure plates, when they trip the pressure plate, the doors open, they walk forward and fall in. You may want to fill the pit with water or lava. Water is better, it drowns them and you don't lose your drops.

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