A Thorough, Comprehensive Set Of Trapper Changes

I made a post like this about Skull Merchant a little while back, and @Spare_Them_Mori_Me suggested I do one for Trapper. I do like dear old Evan and think about him a lot, so I figured that'd be an appropriate next target for this format!

First, I'll lay out my goals here. I'd like Trapper to fill his role and identity as best he possibly can, by addressing his key problem areas without moving him away from the power fantasy of being a strategic, plan-ahead killer. I'm also going to be sticking to changes I think are feasible, which in this context means sticking to BHVR's stated preference to avoid huge fundamental reworks for him.

Honestly, I can empathise with BHVR's reasoning on that so I probably would've done so anyway, but it's worth mentioning.

Like last time, I'll list the change itself in bold and then provide some reasoning beneath. There's not as much need to break this up into sections, just basekit and addon changes, so we'll be looking at things in those two major chunks.

The Basekit Changes

• Traps spawn pre-set at pallets and windows near generators

A little while ago, the Trapper received a change that had his traps spawn near generators instead of placed randomly all across the map. This helped, but I don't think it went far enough; if his traps still spawned near generators, but were already placed such that arming them would properly shut down a pallet or a window, it'd cut down on his early game setup tremendously because the player would always have the option to go "eh, good enough" and simply drive-by arm a trap before moving on, instead of having to pick it up and place it at the nearest spot.

These individual placements may not be the most optimal, but they'd be something.

• Trap setting speed increased by 30%

This is the same number as the brown Trapper Gloves addon, which would be reworked, more on that later in the post.

This change has the same aim as the first one: Help his early game setup. This would also allow him to capitalise on his post-setting Haste effect more consistently, as setting traps in chase or nearby survivors would feel less sluggish without addons.

• Trap disarm speed reduced by 33%

This change, too, is the same as an addon. The yellow 4-Coil Spring Set would be reworked as it's being made basekit.

One of Trapper's big issues is how easy it can be to counter his power, and this would help it feel a little more like survivors are actually investing something into countering you.

• Traps are no longer revealed by the "Red Twine" Map addon

It's my opinion that Maps need a big overhaul anyway, and the Red Twine should have some of its effects made baseline while others are removed entirely, but if Trapper gets changes before Maps do then this should definitely be a part of it. It's silly that a single survivor item can counter his entire power this hard.

• Traps are recoloured to fit the map you load in on

The idea here is very simple. There are some maps where Trapper's traps stick out like a sore thumb against the colour of the ground, a problem that is now exacerbated by his trap-hiding addon (Tar Bottle) instead of alleviated. With a slight recolour to make traps more sandy on Eyrie of Crows or coloured a little paler to match the floor on Gideon's or Hawkins, the traps would still be easily visible to observant players if not hidden but won't be extremely difficult to get value from.

This, I feel, is a better change than arbitrarily forcing every map to have thick grass. Change his power to fit modern map design, not modern map design to fit his power.

• Grabbing survivors caught in traps causes that trap to re-arm after a few seconds

The intent here is to make using the "Grab" prompt useful for something other than a couple more bloodpoints, and give the killer a choice to make as they round on a trapper survivor: Hit them to apply any basic attack perks, or grab them to save time on re-arming the trap afterwards.

If a trap isn't even one you WANT to re-arm, you can also just hit them out like normal and pick it up afterwards.

• A survivor being unhooked now disarms all traps within X metres of the hook

This is the one nerf I wanted to give Trapper, and I deliberated over exactly how to handle it. The goal is simple: Weaken "Basement Trapper" while still maintaining hooking near traps as a useful strategy. The reason I decided on the unhook action being what disarms traps is that it means traps near a hook are supposed to catch people on the way TO the hook, but will no longer be a presence for helping to tunnel someone as they run AWAY from the hook. They're also just disarmed, meaning the killer can re-set them if they end up being super useful outside of having someone on the hook.

I don't have a defined pitch for what the radius should be, but it should be enough to catch the two doorways + window to the killer shack if the basement's down there and someone was hooked in it. The one concern here would be vertical radius on maps like Midwich and The Game, but I'm confident a solution can be found there with testing.

The Addon Changes.

Note: If an addon isn't listed here, I think it's fine and I'm not pitching changes for it.

Bear Oil

• Was: Setting Bear Traps is silent
• Now: Setting Bear Traps is silent, but for real this time (also silences the sound of Trapper bending down, to be clear)

Small buff. I like this addon but it doesn't quite fill its actual role, and even genuinely silent trap setting really isn't THAT useful overall. It's a gimmick addon, let it perform its gimmick easier.

Trapper Gloves

• Was: Increases the setting speed of Bear Traps by 30%
• Now: Survivors who disarm a Bear Trap are inflicted with Blindness for 30 seconds

Since we made the Trapper Gloves basekit, giving it a new effect is necessary. Looking through Trapper's addon set, I was surprised to realise he doesn't actually have a Blindness addon, considering how universal those seem to be.

Personally, I don't like them that much, but they do have their niche and Common is a fair rarity for them. This also begins the trend of shifting status effects from STEPPING in traps to DISARMING them, to give Trapper more ability to answer realistic gameplay.

As an aside, it'll need a new name and flavour text. Maybe something like "Repugnant Oil", with flavour text about how coating traps with this leaves a distracting odour or something?

4-Coil Spring Kit

• Was: Increases the Disarm time of the Bear Trap by 33%
• Now: Survivors who disarm a Bear Trap are inflicted with a 5% Hindered effect for 5 seconds

A simple addon for making disarming in the killer's face slightly more risky. It's an Uncommon addon so this shouldn't be too strong, but noticeable enough to be spooky if the killer's approaching while you're disarming one.

Serrated Jaws

• Was: Survivors injured by a Bear Trap suffer from the Haemorrhage Status Effect until fully healed
• Now: Survivors injured by a Bear Trap suffer from the Haemorrhage and Mangled Status Effects for 90 seconds

Trapper having these two addons be separated has never made sense, even with older versions of the status effects. This change merges them while slightly buffing the Mangled duration to compensate for the Haemorrhage effect being on a timer now instead of until healed.

This maintains the rarity of the Serrated Jaws, not the Rusted Jaws- as in, it'll be an Uncommon addon, not a Rare one.

Rusted Jaws

• Was: Survivors injured by a Bear Trap suffer from the Mangled Status Effect for 70 seconds
• Now: Survivors who disarm a Bear Trap suffer from the Oblivious status effect for 25 seconds

Trapper doesn't currently have much in the way of stealth options, and as mentioned above, part of the design principles behind these rework suggestions aim to give him answers to realistic gameplay. So, being able to sneak up on people disarming your traps if they're not paying quite close attention would be a useful effect.

This would also be an addon that needs a new name and flavour text, but I don't have a suggestion for this one.

Tar Bottle

• Was: Darkens the Bear Traps
• Now: Setting a Bear Trap grants the Undetectable Status Effect for 8 seconds

Same as the above, I think giving Trapper stealth options would be an interesting angle, and this addon would be an alternative to the Rusted Jaws (or whatever they end up being called). The tradeoff would be that this addon gives you more generous stealth that isn't tied to one survivor, but for much less time and with more ammo-juggling, so to speak.

As for why this addon in particular is getting a rework here, darker traps has become kind of a gamble these days. It used to be a pretty universally useful option (as long as you used the Tar Bottle and not the much less useful Logwood Dye addon, anyways), but nowadays chances are good a darker trap will stand out MORE against the ground than before. That combined with the visual overhaul traps would be getting anyways here means this addon needs a rework.

Oily Coil

• Was: Resetting a Bear Trap reveals the aura of the last survivor to have disarmed it for 5 seconds
• Now: Survivors who disarm a Bear Trap have their aura revealed for 5 seconds

Same effect, without the pointless middleman making it considerably harder to use. Since answering survivors disarming traps becomes more of a focus with these addon changes, an aura would help out especially when paired with any of the other post-disarm addons.

Conclusions.

Trapper is a killer that struggles in the modern age. He's just slow - slow to get the ball rolling on his power, sluggish in using that power at all, and generally feeling like he's a step behind whenever a competent team are proactive about countering his power.

With these changes, my hope is that he'd feel a lot smoother to play, and his addon spread would more adequately help him answer the kind of gameplay he can actually expect to encounter, without either being overbearing for new or lesser skilled players.

These would all, of course, have to be tested. Some of these things might end up being too much, or not helping as much as they might seem like they should. It's also completely possible these changes would spark more addon changes being necessary - it's easily possible for the Iridescent Stone or Fastening Tools addons to end up overtuned in combination with other changes made here. I'm fairly confident that wouldn't be the case, but there's only so sure you can be without testing.

What do we think?