The Pig (Amanda Young): Essential Reverse Bear Trap (RBT) Buffs Thread
Reverse Bear Traps are the core of Pig's power and game-play identity and I'll ALWAYS stress this; the primary focus shouldn't be Ambush. Amanda's most unique and crucial tool for controlling the tempo of the trial? RBTs. I don't understand how this isn't talked about much. Her RBT kit isn't meant to be an insta-kill mechanic; no, that's not what we (The Pig community) want. They are supposed to be a vital gen slowdown tool that effectively has survivors scrambling and not hard focusing on generators with no sense of urgency to remove the RBT until AFTER their generator is completed. In the current state of the game, it's too easily managed by survivors, failing to provide reliable game slowdown.
Here's what we often talk about amongst ourselves in our Pig community:
Guaranteed Gen Slowdown
- Forced Secondary Objective: RBTs are what's supposed to force survivors off of gens and onto a different, specific task (searching boxes). This pressure is her fundamental source of map control.
- Wasted Time: Even if a survivor gets the trap off on the first attempt, the simple act of having to run to a box and perform the search animation buys Amanda invaluable time. The current balancing often minimizes this wasted time, making the payoff of the down/trap insignificant.
Map and Information Pressure
- Split Focus: Trapped survivors are generally supposed to force survivors to abandon gens until the trap is removed if active. This should split survivor's collective attention and allows Pig to focus on pressuring the remaining unprotected generators or Survivors.
- EG Threat: A survivor with an active trap cannot leave through an Exit Gate. This can force desperate plays, but in its current state, and with the update coming, recent changes will have made applying and activating traps in the late game unreliable, removing her endgame leverage.
The primary issue is that the RBTs are currently a "low ceiling, high variance" tool, meaning their effectiveness is highly dependent on luck (RNG) and they offer minimal guaranteed time-wasting against skilled teams. RNG mitigation is needed.
- Low Lethality & High RNG: When RBTs are removed quickly, they fail to apply meaningful pressure. A buff should aim to increase the average time it takes for survivors to remove the trap, reducing the punishing RNG of a "one-tap" removal.
- Add-On Reliance: There's specific RBT add-ons (like Tampered Timer or Crate of Gears) to make her traps a meaningful threat, limiting her build variety. A buff should bake some of this utility into her base kit.
Buffing RBTs and making them the primary focus instead of Ambush would directly address a lot of Pig's struggles with game-long gen slowdown and map presence, restoring her unique identity as a Jigsaw's Disciple who wins by forcing survivors to play her deadly game, rather than simply being the basic dash-focused killer (came with Ambush in 2018, but is miles behind killers who just do it much much better because that's not who Amanda inherently is) with a non-threatening side ability.
The goal of these suggested buffs is to reduce RNG and increase the minimum time invested by survivors to remove an RBT.
- Reduce RNG and Increase Search Time: Guarantee a minimum number of unsuccessful box searches before the correct key becomes available.
- Increase the Timer's Baseline Effectiveness: I've always suggested that the timer often feels too generous, especially noticeable on larger maps. Slightly reduce the base active timer length (2:30 to like 2:15) and/or increase the travel time between boxes (like hindered status movement speed impacted when wearing a RBT); A tighter timer makes the trap feel like a more immediate threat (Again, Amanda's lore is that she is a VERY HIGH threat with her traps) and forces survivors to prioritize removal, while increased travel time ensures the act of running to boxes consumes more overall trial time.
- Improve Late-Game and End-Game Leverage: RBTs lose significant value late in the game, specifically in the EGC, which still boggles my mind that her RBT effectiveness was REMOVED during that time-frame. Reverting changes made allows her traps to be placed and active on a survivor even when ALL gens are done, as it makes sense to be active considering they are reactive only when gens are being completed. Gens being ALL completed should auto set off the timer making EG much more thrilling and exhilarating. This is particularly crucial against skilled SWF, and still gives Amanda a useful tool to regain control.
These changes would make the RBTs more reliable for gen slowdown and map pressure, allowing Pig to compete more effectively in the current fast-paced meta while preserving the core "Jigsaw Killer" gameplay experience. Feel free to make any suggestions and feedback that could potentially be considered and implemented into the game itself (here's hoping).
Comments
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I'll read this more in detail later. Just skimming it sounds like an interesting rework concept.
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Looks very sound to me:
Reduced RNG for traps is an interesting one. Needs some very careful thought, because the dangerous traps are obviously her 4S traps, and getting 2 of those back to back is really good for business. If the average is 13 searches instead of 12, then 1S are only possible with 3 4S traps... that might actually be worth the 1 turn trap... 🤔
End game Pig 👉🐽
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Why RBT used to be very strong and now they are not?
→ Pig could spawn up to 6 boxes and saw their aura (now she has 5 boxes basekit, but 4 searches is max)
→ Tempered timer used to chunk down 30s (now it's 20s)
→ Add ons that increased search time both got nerfed to max +-15s (was 21s)
So overall with old RNG based traps, Pig if got lucky could force survivors up to 24 searches that each took 12s or she could force them up to 16 searches but they took 21s to complete. Now Pig has 12 searches guaranteed = no longer happens that less searches happens what used to be possible.
= Pig now has to down more to utilize her slowdown while she used to get less punished for slower downs and Ambush got buffed in like 2.5m cover range with 3 seperated buffs which also isn't enough. So I believe that current Pig is way weaker than old version (post-endgame Pig).
On the other hand, Onryo can spam teleport to give you 5 stacks before you make it to TV which is close to instant mori with not interaction with the killer at all. How is that fair? Fe. I played against Onryo on Midwich and before I ran down to shut down TV (2x per match) I got 4 stacks and it happens a lot that you are in radius of multiple TVs, even in outdoor maps.
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