Spike trap

For tips on how to use spike traps in general or in killboxes, see Defense structures#Spike traps and Defense structures#Entryways.

A spike trap is a single-use trap that deals heavy damage when triggered. The damage can be fatal to humans or large animals if it is made of good materials. The base damage varies according to the material it was built from. The damage type is sharp melee, which strikes mainly on the head and torso and usually causes bleeding. The spike trap should be built out of stone or metal, as wood has a low damage output. Although stone spike traps take large amounts of time to make, they can kill a raider in one trap. See Defense structures (Spike Traps) and Defense structures (Entryways) for more information.

It creates a cleanliness penalty of -5.

Placement

Deadfall traps cannot be placed directly next to each other or next to any other kind of trap.

Triggering and rearming

The base trigger chance is 100% for enemies. Colonists, friends, tame animals, and wild animals not affected by manhunter are aware of the location of traps and will avoid them if possible. If they do walk through one, they have a 0.4% (one in 250) chance of triggering it.

In both instances, the nimble trait reduces the trigger chance for that pawn to 10%, namely 10% chance for enemies or 0.04% for colonists and friendlies.

Manhunter animals lose their ability to sense and avoid traps, as well as Thrumbos, that don't seem to see them and go into trap-mazes.

When a colonist, prisoner, or tame animal triggers a trap, a yellow envelope alert appears to notify the player.

Once a spike trap is triggered, it is destroyed. The "auto rearm" option, enabled by default, produces a blueprint to replace the trap.

They take 45 Stuff (Metallic/Woody/Stony, 450 for SMVs) and 3,200 ticks (53.33 secs) to build (time to build varies depending on building material, see chart below).

Damage

Damage Per Attack = Trap Melee Damage * Material Sharp Damage Multiplier * rand(0.8, 1.2)/5

AP = Damage Per Attack * 0.015

Where:

Damage per Attack is the damage each attack does to the target. A spike trap performs 5 of these attacks when triggered. Each attack does Stab damage.
Trap Melee Damage is 100 for spike traps
Material Sharp Damage Multiplier is a material dependent factor.
rand(0.8,1.2) is a random factor between 0.8 and 1.2
AP is the armor penetration of each attack.

Note that both the damage and AP of the attack in the info screen are misleading. The damage listed is the the average sum of the damage inflicted, the AP is incorrectly calculated as if this damage is all dealt at once.

Stats

Note: Actual armor penetration is much lower since damage is applied multiple times rather than in one single instance.

Material	Cost	Damage	Armor Penetration	Flammability	Work to build	Beauty
Silver	450	85	128%	40%	54	-12
Gold	450	75	112%	40%	75	2
Steel	45	100	150%	40%	54	-18
Plasteel	45	110	165%	0%	118	-18
Wood	45	40	60%	100%	38	-18
Uranium	45	110	165%	0%	102	-18
Jade	45	100	150%	0%	267	-8
Sandstone	45	50	75%	0%	269	-18
Granite	45	65	98%	0%	323	-18
Limestone	45	60	90%	0%	323	-18
Slate	45	60	90%	0%	323	-18
Marble	45	60	90%	0%	296	-17

Version history

0.11.877 - Added as Deadfall Trap.
0.12.910 - Rebalanced, cannot be rearmed.
0.19.2009 - Renamed from Deadfall trap to Spike trap. Now much more powerful with a 100% chance to spring on targets, and has armor penetration depending on what it’s made of but requires resources to replace.