Trappers: Poking with Impunity (Patreon)

Now we are here at the final class that the current selection of fighting arts and gear allows for the repeatable creation of. These guys are known as Trappers, and they're the second class that I pioneered. Trappers are survivors who specialise in 'disarming' the trap, that is they trigger it and then try to avoid the impact of the trap by canceling it. This will then refresh the hit location deck without the survivors experiencing the punishment that the trap normally charges for this reshuffle.

I originally designed this class as a method of easing my way into beating the L3 DBK because of how devastating that trap can be, and as such I got the first confirmed L3 DBK and pre-nerf TOM kill in the community. Though it cost me 2 survivors doing it. It's a lot easier these days because we've got a nerfed, balanced TOM and the strategies have both refined a lot more and become more powerful. 

That snippet aside, the aim of a trapper is to provide consistent DPS without getting hit much and then specifically hit the trap card in order to refresh the deck. This role is essentially hybridised with either DPS or Support. DPS versions can just go wild with as much speed as they can possibly stack (this is why Spears are the weapon of choice for survivors with +speed) while support versions will only go in for an attack when the trap is coming up.

Additionally there are actually two different forms of trapper which I have refined, the first kind is the one that everyone knows, and we will sub-categorise this type as the 'passive trapper' because they just look to hit the trap once it turns up and allow their trigger(s) to deal with it, the second kind is the 'active trappers' and they seek to stop the trap from being hit at all. More on them later.

Passive Trappers

So passive trappers are built entirely around one of two gear cards, both of which use the same mechanic. This is the Spears (for the specialisation) and the Blue Charm. To exemplify what this looks like, this is the loadout (and optional flex items) one of my first Trappers used.

This build uses Spear Specialisation, Axe Mastery and the Blue Charm all together in order to create a build that has both reshuffle actions together in the same semi-tanky DPS character. A survivor like this looks to hack away at the monster hard and fast and just soak up the reactions. Relying on Cycloid Armor's Shadow Walk and Scale Shoes to provide additional protection.

The way that this works is when you hit the trap is as follows:

• Both the Spear Specialisation and the Blue Charm trigger together.

• Choose which order to resolve them in (best is normally blue then spear, because blue's reshuffle is better for everyone).

• Roll for Blue Charm on a 6+ the Trap is canceled and everything in the HL Deck and Discard Pile (which will now contain the trap) is reshuffled back into the HL deck. Then Resolve the drawn Hit Locations normally.

• If this fails, roll for spear specialisation. On a 7+ shuffle the trap and discard back into the hit location deck. Leaving the drawn HLs 'as is' and then draw a new hit location and hope it isn't the trap. If it isn't, then you get to wound the remaining hit locations as normal.

Blue Charm

The Blue Charm is very, very powerful as it provides a full refresh of the hit location deck, including all discards and it just leaves you with the non-trap hit locations you have drawn. 

So when building for the Blue Charm there are two objectives, the first is getting an additional 4 Blue Affinities out of the rest of your gear, and the second one is getting a decent amount of speed.

Simplest way of hitting the affinities is by using Cycloid Armor (or  Warriors of the Sun), and I would absolutely recommend doing that for the first time you try and use this item, simply because it makes the objectives easier. However you can manage it with other builds, but a lot of the time you're going to need to access expansions, have Leyline Walker, Crystal Skin or use 'mongrel' sets (sets with no armor bonus). 

Now I've been through this, and at the moment there are very few satisfying builds that have a decent layout that provides good protection and utility from armor. So for the most part I think you are going to be looking to achieve this with the help of Crystal Skin or Leyline Walker. Seriously, the best build I could find using armor required gear from the Screaming Antelope, Spidicules and the Dragon King and it still kinda sucked. 

Spears

Spears are a lot easier to get your hands on, and I've written in the past a lot about how much I value spears. The main objective here is to start training spear early, hit mastery and then use any new survivor with spear specialization to work as your trapper. They essentially become a disposable red shirt (even more so if you can get the new Hope Stealer item from the Halloween promo).

You do not really want to use your spear master for this kind of job, because spear mastery is ridiculously powerful and shouldn't be risked on trapping.

Active Trappers

So, this is the category I've been testing and working on, I wanted to be sure that they are reliable and effective, especially because actively avoiding the trap card is something that has benefits that are hard to measure. You can see when a passive trapping cancels the trap card, but you can't see when an active trapper moves it away as easily (CEC, TC and WP help with scouting though, so it's not completely hidden - also can you guess those acronyms?)

Just like Passive Trappers, active ones are (at the moment) tied to a single gear card and a weapon proficiency specialization. They are; the Crest Crown (L3 Phoenix specific gear) and Scythes! Super rare and attached to two of the less popular monsters. Wow! We'll take a look a them now.

Crest Crown

Outside of the requirement for the L3 specific resource, this item is super cheap for when you get it. 1 Phoenix Crest + 6 Organs is a very low cost when you're onto hunting L3 monsters.

Now the puzzle ability is a nice bonus, but we're not interested in it at all outside of using it to help us remain insane. What we care about is that reshuffle, it's the same shuffling mechanic as the Blue Charm, except that it always works on an activation. Now, I want to be clear here, when the game instructs you to 'reshuffle the hit location deck' it always means the discard pile as well (look at the Blue Charm wording above, it wouldn't work otherwise). So this gives us a full refresh of the HL Deck, on tap, as long as we're insane and have an activation.

Essentially, with good management and controlled attacking, you can avoid the trap forever and even replenish important hit locations back into the deck to draw them again faster! 

It's super powerful and it's honestly my favorite Phoenix item (ahead of the Placart, Helm, Hollowpoint arrow and Arc Bow).

Scythes

This one will feel very similar to Spear, however it's tied to a ridiculously rare weapon type (there is only one weapon in the game with the Scythe keyword at the moment). But we're interested in the specialization ability of the weapon.

(The Mastery gives you a free activation of the scythe each turn)

As I am sure you can see, this one works in that it shuffles the HL Deck and the discard pile (again, to stress, as the cards in this article demonstrate, when you shuffle the HL deck, the discard pile goes back into it at the same time). So you get to refresh the deck without hitting the trap at all. Essentially 50% of the time when you critically wound, you get the benefits of the trap (reshuffle & refresh) without the downsides (pain).

Naturally the aim here is to increase your chances of critically wounding with the Nuclear Scythe as much as possible.  The Blue Power Core helps with this, but you need to fell an L3 Dragon King to get one of those, so you can also lean on the Lucky Charm (core) and the Sleeping Virus Flower (Flower Knight) to increase the odds of getting a critical hit.

To be honest, building your Nuclear Scythe user for critical hits is one of the best routes to take (the other route is is getting sharp on it with the Red Power Core, but you might as well use Cycloid Armor if you want to do that) and you can set this up on pretty much any offensive armor set you want - Phoenix, Antelope, Dragon, Leather etc etc.

And that's both types of way you can employ a trapper, either you have someone who leaps in and pokes the trap away (or spams attacks and recycles the trap as part of their normal DPS) or you can have someone who actively seeks to stop the trap being drawn at all. It's really your choice on which playstyle you want to go for!