In World of Van Helsing: Deathtrap there are a total of 25 different traps for the player to unlock and use. You initially start of with 4 traps: Lava grill, Acid geyser, Lightning pillar and Gun sentry.  You can unlock the others by fulfilling certain requirements like poison 600 enemies or inflict 15,000 fire damage and by completing a certain amount of levels. There are more traps though in the game known as special traps which only appear on certain levels. You cannot create them yourself. Many of these are truly traps of Death.

X35 Earthwalker has unlocked all the traps in the game and used them all and said, “Only 15 of the 25 traps are useful.” This is a big statement and while it is primarily due to his style of play, it’s also because of how they stack up against other traps, which is something we will talk about later. At the end of the day it is up to the player to figure which traps are good and useful to them and their style. Some of the traps just give out damage, while some cause effect damage while others are do no damage but just there to assist you in some way, some summon creatures to help you and some help you not mainly in damage but due to it’s unique effects.

As you should know the traps are split into five groups: Mystical ground, Mechanical ground, Mystical tower, Mechanical tower and Summoning. Let’s start with Mystical ground. The lava grill is a splash type trap that that deals continuous fire damage but once upgraded can set enemies on fire and even disorientate your enemies. Icicle field causes ice damage and slows the enemy down for 5 seconds but once upgraded, has a chance to freeze enemies for 5 seconds and make them more vulnerable to ice attacks. Stasis trap uses three stasis bubbles to trap and hold enemies in place for 5 seconds and deal good physical damage but once upgraded can hold them for longer and deal bigger damage. Abyss crater has a chance of instantly killing ‘horde’ and ‘normal’ enemies but those not killed instead just take damage but once upgraded can deal area of effect damage. The portal glyph is unique as it has a chance to send an enemy back some distance along the path they came from but once upgraded can deal damage also and make them more vulnerable to lightning attacks.

Now for Mechanical traps. Acid geyser is a piercing type trap that deals poison damage while making the enemies more vulnerable to physical attacks but once upgraded can afflict enemies with the poison status. Spear trap is a piercing type trap that simply impales enemies with spears dealing heavy physical damage but once upgraded able to poison enemies also. Essence trap is unique as it does no damage but enemies killed within its range generate more essence more normal and when upgraded they have a chance to stun enemies that step on it. Spring trap knocks enemies down, harming them and slowing them down but if an enemy is knocked of a ledge then it instantly dies but once upgraded can make enemies more vulnerable to fire attacks. Tick mine Dispenser has a small chance to attach a bomb to an enemy and when that enemy dies the bomb explodes with heavy area of effect damage but once upgraded can set a space on fire. 

Now for Mystical towers. Lightning pillar is a piercing type trap that creates charges every 3 seconds which it uses to attack enemies at double the normal rate of fire but once upgraded can hit multiple enemies at once. Frost pillar is a concentrated type trap that shoots a beam at a single enemy continuously damaging them and slowing them down but when upgraded can freeze enemies it hits. Phoenix pillar is a splash type trap that launches a fireball to deal area of effect fire damage and capable of knocking enemies down if deals 25% of enemies health worth of damage but once upgraded can ignite enemies. Enthropic pillar is a concentrated trap that shoots a beam at a single enemy continuously harming them. 20% of the damage is returned to player or ally creatures as health but when upgraded has a chance to hit multiple enemies at once. Olympus pillar strikes an enemy with a thunderbolt that deals area of effect lightning damage after a 2 second delay of original place of target but once upgraded can reduce the delay.

Now for Mechanical towers. Gun sentry is a concentrated trap that fires at a enemy continually until it is out of range or dead but once upgraded can do area of effect damage and slow down enemies too. Razor launcher is a piercing trap that fires razor sharp discs through enemies hitting others behind them but when upgraded has a chance to fire multiple discs and increase the damage dealt to enemies behind original target. Blast furnace is a splash trap that shoots jets of flames in all four directions which also ignites enemies so they take damage over time but when upgraded can make enemies more vulnerable to fire damage and increase burn damage. Voltaron coil electrocutes all enemies within range and the shock can jump to other targets, dishing out more damage but once upgraded can make the electric arcs jump more times. Cannon sentry is a splash trap that fires explosive shells and has high area of effect but once upgraded can have a faster rate of fire and faster shell speed.

Now for Summoning. Monster cage summons a werewolf (we think) that runs at near enemies and starts swinging at them. They have high health meaning they are good for stalling for time but once upgraded you can have 4 of them with a chance that a rare more powerful wolf will show up. Reanimator pit has a chance to summon a ghoulin when an enemy dies near or in the pit. This is good for areas where lots die there as you could get continuous monster summons, slowing down and stalling the enemy like no other but once upgraded the ghoulins can be stronger and stay around longer. Archer post summons up to 3 archers one by one who have great range and fire high damage arrows but once upgraded they have a chance to dodge none area of effect attacks, have more archers and their arrows do area of effect damage. Suicide swarm nest summons suicide spawns who run at enemies and attack them and when they die they explode dealing 1000 poison damage but once upgraded there is a chance of an instant respawn and greater range of explosion. Winter queen sigil summons a winter queen spirit that uses blizzard spells to deal ice damage to enemies at great range but once upgraded has reduced cool down for blizzard spell and increased damage.

X35 Earthwalker himself only seems to use: Lava grill, Acid geyser, Lightning pillar, Gun Sentry, Monster cage, Spear trap, Razor launcher, Stasis trap, Essence trap, Phoenix pillar, Blast furnace, Archer post, Enthropic pillar,Olympus pillar and Cannon sentry. Gun Sentry traps are best used in groups as when together they can shred anything to bits. If you have 3 Gun sentry traps that have maxed area of effect and damage, even horde type enemies will get owned. These are the traps that are good for almost any situation. The Acid geyser is best used in front of other traps that deal physical damage like Razor launcher or spear trap as the acid increases their vulnerability to physical damage. Matter of fact have a mercenary keep the enemy busy on top of a Acid geyser trap while Gun sentry traps continue to deliver the pain with increase physical vulnerability. When almost every time you see a spot for a Summoning trap, always build archers as they deliver fantastic damage from a good distance and once enemies get close they can stall for time buying you precious seconds. Olympus pillar has the largest range in the whole game and therefore can strike enemies from different paths and lanes with heavy area of effect damage meaning it’s good against boss enemies and horde. 

He doesn’t use the Icicle field because it delivers the lowest amount of damage of all towers and it doesn’t look like its slowing enemies down at all. The Stasis trap is superior in every way as it doesn’t slow down but keeps them in place and deals way more damage. Stasis > Icicle field. He doesn’t use the Frost pillar as it is inferior to the Enthropic pillar in most situations. It does less damage than Enthropic and it’s effect is not as useful as it doesn’t slow the enemy down by much visibly but the Enthropic actually heals the players and their allied units if nearby keeping you in the fight and able to bounce the beam unto multiple targets for more damage. Once upgraded though, the frost pillar becomes quite powerful and essential on one some levels. Enthropic pillar > Frost pillar (most of the time). He doesn’t use the Reanimator pit as it relies on others killing for it to activate and even then the activation is by chance and not guaranteed; furthermore the summoned monster after the chance is the weakest of all summoned monsters and deal the least damage. So not worth it. Any other summon monster would be useful almost all the time except the Winter queen sigil. He doesn’t use the Abyss crater as it has a low chance of instantly killing enemies with investing so much points in upgrading it. If it doesn’t kill, the damage it gives is really low. On top of that any enemies instantly killed do not give you any essence which you need in this game to build other traps. He doesn’t use spring trap as there are other traps that do better damage and at times the trap (depending on the location of the enemy) launches enemies forward a bit. It should only be used on narrow paths for a chance of knocking them off the edge. It’s not worth it. He doesn’t use Tick mine Dispenser as it has a really low chance of attaching a bomb to an enemy and that bomb is only useful if the enemy with the bomb is killed near others and the damage is not all that impressive when an upgraded Spear trap deals more damage and even poisons them. He doesn’t use the ‘Voltaron coil’ because it is either outclassed in damage or usefulness. It’s best against groups of enemies but the ‘blast furnace’ works better. Even with upgrades it seems like a waste of essence. The winter queen sigil trap is the worst thing ever. It does so little damage and takes too long to attack. Why is this even one of the last traps to unlock like it’s something special. Maybe he is using it wrong, we don’t know. Literally anything is better than this. Any summoning trap will do. Now ‘suicide swarm nest’ and ‘portal glyph’ aren’t bad, it’s that their use is so rare and limited that he hardly uses them. Mostly to show off or rarely, they are actually needed.

In this game you are truly dependent on your traps and so you must know them very well. Check out each trap and try out each trap. Who knows, you may find a trap that X35 Earthwalker never uses to be one of the best in the game. 25 is a lot to work with and we haven’t even mentioned the ones that are specially placed on certain maps. Maybe next time. Now you can see whay some are truly traps of death. Have fun and off course… do not forget to do the ‘Earth Walk’!

If you haven’t been playing world of Van Helsing: Deathtrap yet, then shame on you. Seriously, this is a great game and wonderfully done. Now one thing that is for certain is that this game is built quite heavily around strategies and timing. That’s what you would expect from a tower defense action RPG but this game does it exceptionally well. We decided to share some information, tips and strategies from X35 Earthwalker, the master strategist himself.

Firstly the main thing is what character class did you select, as this does effect almost everything. If you selected ‘Sorceress’ then know that you have the ability to attack multiple lanes at once and hit enemies hard from a distance with powerful magic attacks. If you selected ‘Mercenary’ then you can literally get up and personal with the hordes themselves and slow them down with brute force. If you selected ‘Marksman’ then you can get everywhere very easily with high mobility and gun down hordes at a distance keeping you safe. Now all three are powerful and useful in there own way. 

The Sorceress hits hard with the lightning attack and starts of with a cool icebolt ability that allows the player to freeze a certain enemy in place, a ice global ability (Icy wind) which inflicts ice damage on everything and a ability (Transmutation charm) to select a trap and whenever it kills, you get increased essence. The Sorceress is a major multi tasker. You can be lightning zapping multiple enemies at once, as your main attack has a spread and chain effect, while keeping one enemy temporarily in place with your ice projectile, gaining increased mana thanks to a well placed trap and attacking everything on the map at the same time with her global ability. That’s awesome. Never forget that the main fighters is the traps. You are just the deciding factor in these battles but you must rely on your traps. Keep your distance at all times as the Sorceress literally bruises easily. A few slaps and you have to get out of there but make sure to leave a lightning attack to their face as you do. Since she is 100% dependent on her mana, make sure to firstly, spend some upgrade points in ‘Meditation’ which increase maximum mana. Second make sure to upgrade her lightning ability, especially in ‘Surge of power’ and ‘Thunderbolt’ to reduce cost of attack, increase how long enemies are stun for, increase range of attack and increase the chance of an instant kill. ‘Frost mastery’ upgrade for Icy wind is essential as you can then keep hitting everything around the map more frequently meaning you are everywhere at once. The best defense you can have it to upgrade the ‘Chaos armour’ ability which has a chance of forming a bubble of invulnerability for 2 seconds whenever you have been hit but as a Sorceress you are practicing to not get up close at all so this is optional. Basically your job is hurt enemies from everywhere and multi task as much as possible.

The Marksman is a long range fighter thanks to his two cross bows. He excels at effect damage, especially poison damage over time. Being a long range fighter and having low health (not as low as sorceress), means you have no reason to be near a monster. His main attack is ‘Shoot’ and you must spam this as much as possible. Do as much damage when you can. The ‘Poison streak’ ability which uses focus and allows you to launch a projectile that deals poison damage and poisons those enemies. ‘Essence trap sigil’ is the trap skill that makes all traps within 10 meters of the player generate more essence when they kill. Lastly ‘Domain of entropy’ is the world skill that causes all damage over time effects to deal increased damage. Straight away you can see that this character specialises in damage over time and poison. The Marksman relies heavily on traps at all times. He is more of a support role all the way. The very first thing to upgrade is your main means of attack, those cross bows. Invest some points in ‘Shoot’, ‘Splintering bolt’ and ‘poison bolt’. This will allow your Shoot attack to have AOE (area of effect) and poison damage which when upgraded makes a big difference. The marksman has a huge advantage over the other two classes. He has access to the ‘Mark of the craftsman’ passive ability straight away which reduces the construction cost of all traps. Make this one of your top priorities with upgrades. ‘Entropy Expertise’ is another top priority passive skill has it increases all damage over time effects of traps which is something this class specialises in. The game plan is to poison as much as you can with the ‘shoot’ and ‘poison streak’ and build traps that do damage over time effects and then activate ‘Domain of Entropy’ to bring intense suffering and death to everything that rises against you.

The ‘Mercenary’ is the big guy who ate all of his mum’s cooked foods to get strong. He battles it out it up close with the ‘Strike’ ability which is his main means of attack. It delivers heavy damage and grants rage with each hit. ‘Ghostly shape’ is an active ability that allows you to dash forwards at blinding speed, charging through all enemies dealing physical/ice damage. His trap boost active ability allows you to select a trap which then does significantly more damage for 8 seconds. ‘Touch of death’ is the world skill that afflicts all enemies with physical vulnerability for a short period of time. The ‘Mercenary’ has a huge advantage over the others, his health. He is a tank and therefore can use yourself to force your enemies to stand on certain traps, this is because when you are near enemies mostly stop moving and fight you. With that amount of health you won’t be dying any time soon and so they must stay on continuous damage traps. Firstly you must invest upgrade points in your main attack, so ‘Strike’ and ‘Paralyzing assault’ which makes your strikes have area of effect and a chance to stun enemies. You may next need to focus on ‘Touch of death’ to increase the damage that all physical attacks from both you and traps do to all enemies everywhere. Don’t invest upgrade points in ‘Ghastly shape’ as it tends to take you away from enemies which isn’t what the Mercenary is about, although it is very useful to use until replaced as you can use it to increase your mobility. Use it to catch up to certain monster who are trying to make a run for it or traverse the map like no other (keep an eye on your rage meter though. The strategy with the Mercenary is simple. Get up in everythings face and beat it in with ‘Strike’ but when things get activate ‘Touch of death’ and then select a physical damaging trap with ‘Trap boost’. It’s a devastating combination. Therefore it is rise to invest upgrade points in ‘Mechanical mayhem analysis’ which increases the amount of experience points you get from each mechanical trap kill.

Now the traps are the main thing about this game indeed. There are so many traps, we heard there are 25. Now knowing where to put these traps and when is so important. Never forget that no trap is completely useless but some traps are definitely better than others. Check out your traps map selection screen. You will notice that the traps have to be unlocked by fulfilling certain conditions. Traps are split into 5 categories: Mystical ground, Mechanical ground, Mystical tower, Mechanical tower and summoning. Throughout the level are spots, marked, showing what type of tower can be built there so it pays to look at the map first before building to know where to put certain traps. Mechanical traps tend to do mostly physical damage but some do both physical and other element damage like the ‘Razor launcher’. Traps also have types of enemies that they are stronger or weaker against. For example the ‘Spear trap’ is effective against armoured enemies but weak versus horde enemies, this is because of the type of tower. That’s right the traps also have types. The towers are also split into types like: Concentrated, Piercing, Splash and nothing. Concentrated are good against ‘Giant’ enemies but weak against ‘armoured’. Piercing is good against ‘Armoured’ but weak against ‘Horde’. Splash is good against ‘Horde’ but weak against ”Giant’. Type-less traps are just general and work equally with all enemies. So you literally should check out and know each trap, what they are good against, when to use them and the upgrades they can get.

Regardless of what character you are, the ‘Gun sentry’ should be your all round traps that you can always rely on. They hit everything and deal great damage with very good range. Once upgraded they have area of effect and can slow down enemies. Best to use these in groups as that’s when they start to really shred enemies. This trap however can be truly power with the mercenary because if you build multiple in an area, they can deal focused physical damage on a certain enemy then the player can use trap boost to enhance the damage of one of them and also activate ‘Touch of death’ making the enemies receive more damage from physical attacks then lastly combine with your ‘Strike ability’. Trust us, nothing survives that. Not even bosses. The ‘Lightning pillar’ has terrible first impression as initially you would think it’s rubbish but once upgraded, it becomes a very effective trap. Always invest upgrade points in ‘Multi jolt’ and ‘Extra charge’ allowing the trap to have more charges to fire and the chance to hit multiple enemies at once. The ‘Acid geyser’ excellent with both the ‘Mercenary and ‘Marksman’ but better with the latter due to special abilities. The ‘Acid geyser’ deals poison damage to whatever enemy stands on it but once upgraded it can also poison enemies and deal damage over time. Best of all this trap also afflicts enemies with 30% vulnerability against physical attacks. This means that enemies struck by the ‘Mercenary’ and hot by the ‘Marksman’ will receive increased damage but since it does poison and damage over time the active abilities of the Marksman like ‘Domain of Entropy’ will increase the damage to it’s full potential. 

The enemies don’t require that much detailed talk because if you know your traps well and strategically place them, then regardless of the enemy you will most of the time come out on top. Enemies are also split into factions, types and classes (Not sure if those are the right names though). The factions are: undead, mechanical and mythical. what faction you will face is only dependent on the location of the level. No in game differences. The types are: Normal, giant, armoured and horde. The types you should be aware of already because of the traps and what their strengths and weaknesses are. If you remember the traps well then enemy types aren’t a problem. Giants are weak against concentrated because concentrated traps never leave their target until out of range and they are normally slow moving. Piercing traps are good against armoured because they have the ability to do regular damage through armour while others are reduced damage. Splash damage are good against horde because they can harm multiple enemies at once. Makes sense. Off course all enemies will be harmed and killed by any trap but some are effect only due to logical reasons. The classes are (first two aren’t official names): regular, champions and bosses. For example the ‘Lesovik’ is a simple enemy with 1100 health, damage is 145 and has the simple fire bolt ability which launches a bolt of fire at you. The ‘Lesovik champion’ has 14000 health, damage is 200 and does more damage to your gate. The ‘Forest demon’ is a bigger step up from the champion version and is a boss with 28000 health, damage is 250, does more damage to your gate and has the ability to summon other smaller monsters to rush for your gate. There are more powerful monsters like these.

The simple recipe for this game is to know your style and how to adapt it to the many situations you will find yourself in. Before you start a level check the map to see what enemies are coming and where they are coming from as that might just save your life. Wisely upgrade your character and focus more on skills that you need and suit what your character can really do. While playing keep your other eye on the mini map to keep track of what’s going on as some enemies will try to sneak past you into your gate. Don’t try to upgrade all traps. Only upgrade what you use and what you need. Better to have some powerful traps then many weak traps that can’t keep up with the enemies. Don’t worry if you upgraded wrong as there is an awesome feature to get back your upgrade points. Buy and craft the best items for your character. If you are playing with a friend then communicate at all times and use your abilities to the best. Last of all, it’s just a game so take it easy and have some fun while slaughtering monsters. Now get out there are save the world.