Trap Modifications

Overview

Explanation for making, upgrading, and choosing trap modifications.

What are modifications?

Trap modifications are crafted items that can be installed in and uninstalled from certain electrical melee traps to modify one of their defensive or offensive stats. There are 5 types of trap modifications. Each and every of them can be upgraded 5 times.

Five types from left to right in the picture:

These 9 traps, after being upgraded to electrical, gain a single slot for a trap modification.

Currently, only these 9 electrical melee traps can be modified – Spiked Floor, Cutter, Guillotine, Shredder, Compressor, Pendulum, Meat Mallet, Pusher, and Grinder.

How to make?

First of all, there are 3 associated perks for purchase at a Research Table.

Junior Chemist perk unlocks Plate and Armor.

Chemist perk unlocks Sting and Blade.

Senior Chemist perk unlocks Core. To purchase this perk, the book Encyclopaedia of Ammunition is needed, which is found in the police station.

Here is a guide for getting Encyclopaedia of Ammunition.
[link]

Trap modifications are made at the 2nd tab of a Mechanical Equipment Workbench. All of them have the same crafting costs.

The rare ingredient, Lubricant, is obtained from wooden boxes, loot boxes, and zombies in a horde event.

How to upgrade?

Trap modifications are upgraded at the 3rd tab of a Mechanical Equipment Workbench.

Requirements for upgrading to +1:
1 Lubricant
1 Rabbit Skin
1 Bones
5 Pieces of Iron

Requirements for upgrading to +2:
1 Lubricant
1 Fox Skin
1 Bones
1 Tape

Requirements for upgrading to +3:
1 Lubricant
1 Boar Skin
1 Bones
1 Sparrow Feathers
1 Bird Bones
1 Rubber Ring
1 Plastic

Requirements for upgrading to +4:
1 Lubricant
1 Deer Skin
1 Bones
1 Raven Feathers
1 Bird Bones
2 Rubber Ring
2 Plastic

Requirements for upgrading to +5:
1 Lubricant
1 Bones
1 Stag Skin
1 Pigeon Feathers
1 Bird Bones
1 Iron Ingot

How to install and uninstall?

Press F on the electrical melee trap to bring up the inventory UI.

To install a trap modification, left mouse drag the trap modification to the slot in the right panel of the inventory, or right click on the trap modification.

To uninstall the trap modification, left mouse drag or right click on the installed trap modification in the right panel.

Which one to install?

General rules:
Plate is for mitigating low damage sources such as light zombies or zombies in games with low damage settings.

Armor is for mitigating high damage sources such as heavy zombies or zombies in games with high damage settings.

Sting is for boosting traps of low base damage.

Blade is for boosting traps of high base damage.

Core is for boosting traps of high critical chance or high critical damage multiplier.
As of v1.1.0.3, Core is unfavored because there is no such a candidate.

Specific situations:
Plate and Armor are strategically applied to utility traps that either loop zombies’ pathings such as Pendulums, or create a choke point such as double Shredders, or slow down fast zombies such as Spiked Floors, to help loopers like Pendulums or Pushers. Since these traps are key components for specific strategies, durability for longevity is paramount.

Best damage:
For maximizing damage, top modification picks for each applicable trap are listed below along with their test data which conclusions are drawn from.

Testing method

Skip this whole section if you’re just looking for the test results.

Setup
Tests are done with an electrical trap, programmed by a Trap Controller with “non-hostile player” enabled to attack the player who has no damage reduction perks. Multiple 1080p screenshots of the player’s HP losses are taken.

Objectives
The 0th goal is to verify +5 Core’s item description of +35% critical chance.

The 1st goal is to find out these values of the trap in pixels:
– default damage value
– default critical chance
– default critical damage value

The 2nd goal is to find out these values of the trap in pixels:
– damage value that’s boosted by +5 Sting
– critical damage value that’s boosted by +5 Sting
– damage value that’s boosted by +5 Blade
– critical damage value that’s boosted by +5 Blade

The 3rd goal is to calculate these values of the trap in pixels:
– average player HP loss for +5 Sting
– average player HP loss for +5 Blade
– average player HP loss for +5 Core

For Sting and Blade:
Average p = average player HP loss in pixels =
( default critical chance * critical damage value in pixels )
+
( ( 100% – default critical chance ) )* damage value in pixels )

For Core:
Average p = average player HP loss in pixels =
( (35% + default critical chance) * default critical damage value in pixels )
+
( (65% – default critical chance) * default damage value in pixels )

Execution
Multiple 1080p screenshots of the player’s HP losses are compared to determine the default critical chance and the default damage value of the trap. If the trap has a non-zero default critical chance, then its default critical damage value in pixels is recorded.

After a test of 100 hits, it’s concluded that Cutter has a default critical chance of 0%.

Then +5 Core is installed in a Cutter to verify +5 Core’s item description of +35% critical chance increase. As a result of 200 hits, the modified Cutter has a critical chance of 37%, so I’d give it the benefit of doubt that the item description is telling the truth.

If a trap has 0% default critical chance, then +5 Core is installed to determine the default critical damage value of that trap in pixels.

+5 Sting is installed to determine the boosted damage value in pixels. If the trap has a non-zero default critical chance, the boosted critical damage value in pixels is also recorded for calculating the average player HP loss in pixels.

+5 Blade is installed to determine the boosted damage value in pixels. If the trap has a non-zero default critical chance, the boosted critical damage value in pixels is also recorded for calculating the average player HP loss in pixels.

Spiked Floor

Sting > Blade > Core

Spiked Floor Data
Default critical chance: 0% (sample size: 37 hits)

Average p = average player HP loss in pixels at 1080p. 1 pixel = 0.4 HP. 250 pixels = 100 HP.

Cutter

Sting > Blade > Core

Cutter Data
Default critical chance: 0% (sample size: 100 hits)

Guillotine

Blade = Core > Sting

Guillotine Data
Default critical chance: 0% (sample size: 77 hits)

Shredder

Sting > Blade > Core

Shredder Data
Default critical chance: 23% (sample size: 100 hits)

Compressor

Core > Blade > Sting

Compressor Data
Default critical chance: 0% (sample size: 36 hits)

Note: Since calculations are done in pixels at 1080p, the player HP losses end up in low fidelity of just a few pixels. With 0% default critical chance taken into consideration, I believe that if the screenshots were captured at a higher resolution, the Average p for +5 Core would theoretically be 31. Thus, I’m personally biased toward a different result of Blade = Core > Sting.

Pendulum

Sting > Core > Blade

Pendulum Data
Default critical chance: 0% (sample size: 36 hits)

Meat Mallet

Sting > Blade > Core

Meat Mallet Data
Default critical chance: 0% (sample size: 36 hits)

Pusher

Sting > Core > Blade

Pusher Data
Default critical chance: 0% (sample size: 36 hits)

Note: Since calculations are done in pixels at 1080p, the player HP losses end up in low fidelity of just a few pixels. With 0% default critical chance taken into consideration, I believe that if the screenshots were captured at a higher resolution, the Average p for +5 Core would theoretically be 9. Thus, I’m personally biased toward a different result of Sting > Blade = Core.

Grinder

Sting > Core > Blade

Grinder Data
Default critical chance: 0% (sample size: 36 hits)

Note: Since calculations are done in pixels at 1080p, the player HP losses end up in low fidelity of just a few pixels. With 0% default critical chance taken into consideration, I believe that if the screenshots were captured at a higher resolution, the Average p for +5 Core would theoretically be 6. Thus, I’m personally biased toward a different result of Sting > Blade = Core.

End

If anyone has different conclusions about those top modification picks, please leave a comment.