Difference between revisions of "Alarm trap"

From CrawlWiki
Jump to: navigation, search
(Still up to date)
(Expanded Strategy)
Line 12: Line 12:
  
 
==Strategy==
 
==Strategy==
If you're travelling through an early floor you've already cleared, find an alarm trap, and need a quick bite, stepping on it is not a bad way to summon any potentially edible opponents to you.
+
If you're travelling through an early floor you've already cleared, find an alarm trap, and need a quick bite, stepping on it is not a bad way to summon any potentially edible opponents to you. In most other cases, however, acquiring a Sentinel's Mark can be quite dangerous. If you absolutely need to step on an alarm trap, being silenced will reduce the number of creatures you lure to you significantly; most enemies you haven't seen yet are usually asleep, and only the few wandering opponents on the floor will come to you. Of course, if you then proceed to fight them all near unexplored territory, it's possible you'll wake up more.
 +
 
 +
Failing that, if you can step on it and then quickly rush upstairs to a cleared floor, you'll still likely awaken several opponents, but they won't be able to swarm you en masse nearly so easily. Quaffing a [[potion of cancellation]] will remove the effect immediately, and the awakened opponents will mostly lose their ability to track you immediately, though these items are somewhat rare. If all else fails and you need to make a last stand, you'll usually have a few turns free before the hoard arrives; consider using that time to create a [[killhole]], and don't be afraid to [[teleport]] if it's clearly going badly for you; all those enemies clustered around your old location will need a lot of time to catch up with you, during which you might be able to escape the floor or lose the status effect naturally.
  
 
==History==
 
==History==

Revision as of 13:53, 16 March 2015

Version 0.16: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.


While this trap does no damage by itself, its loud sound may bring someone to do damage to you. Of course, you have the option to do damage to those someones yourself.

Alarm trap.png An alarm trap is a trap which produces a loud noise (intensity 40, louder than Shatter) when stepped on by either you or a monster, alerting anything nearby. If you step on one, it also afflicts you with the Sentinel's Mark status effect (ignores magic resistance). Like all traps, alarm traps can be set off even by flying beings. After triggering once, they disappear.

Alarm traps cannot be disarmed, but can be silenced. Silence does not prevent the Sentinel's Mark, though.

If an alarm trap is triggered by a being in the distance, you see this message:

"You hear a distant blaring wail to the [direction]."

Strategy

If you're travelling through an early floor you've already cleared, find an alarm trap, and need a quick bite, stepping on it is not a bad way to summon any potentially edible opponents to you. In most other cases, however, acquiring a Sentinel's Mark can be quite dangerous. If you absolutely need to step on an alarm trap, being silenced will reduce the number of creatures you lure to you significantly; most enemies you haven't seen yet are usually asleep, and only the few wandering opponents on the floor will come to you. Of course, if you then proceed to fight them all near unexplored territory, it's possible you'll wake up more.

Failing that, if you can step on it and then quickly rush upstairs to a cleared floor, you'll still likely awaken several opponents, but they won't be able to swarm you en masse nearly so easily. Quaffing a potion of cancellation will remove the effect immediately, and the awakened opponents will mostly lose their ability to track you immediately, though these items are somewhat rare. If all else fails and you need to make a last stand, you'll usually have a few turns free before the hoard arrives; consider using that time to create a killhole, and don't be afraid to teleport if it's clearly going badly for you; all those enemies clustered around your old location will need a lot of time to catch up with you, during which you might be able to escape the floor or lose the status effect naturally.

History

Prior to 0.12, alarm traps could activate multiple times before breaking, but they were not quite as loud and did not afflict you with the Sentinel's Mark.