Fallout 4 Settlement Traps: How To Safely Place Them (& Where)
Fallout 4 is incredibly immersive and packed with action, as players have to defend their settlements from plenty of enemies and threats. There are many amazing ways to increase your settlement’s defense stats, but many players are still eager to know how to place traps in Fallout 4 safely.
How do traps work in Fallout 4?
Players can craft numerous traps in order to defend their settlers, territory, crops, supplies, and more, and each trap comes with pros and cons. Craftable and Wasteland Workshop Traps require the Workshop and are often used around player bases, each with varying stats and necessary materials as detailed below.
| Fallout 4 Trap | Description | Materials | Power |
| Tesla Trap | A large metal smoke alarm with protruding electrodes. The trap emits lightning bolts in random directions, causing energy damage. | Circuitry(1) Copper(3) Steel(2) | Yes |
| Flamethrower Trap | Shoots flame for a short duration upon activation. | Aluminum(4) Oil(6) Rubber(4) Screw(2) | Yes |
| Trap Door | It automatically opens up under an NPC’s weight, causing them to fall through the hole. | Wood(6) Steel(2) Steel(4) | No |
| Spring Trap | When the pressure plate is activated by an NPC, the blade jumps forward, stabbing whoever activates it before resetting itself. | Aluminum(5) Screw(3) Spring(2) Wood(2) | No |
| Powered Spring Trap | It can be activated by connecting it to a switch of any kind, and it must be manually reset after it’s activated. | Aluminum(5) Circuitry(1) Screw(3) Spring(2) Wood(2) | Yes |
| Sawblade Trap | Six circular sawblades stacked on a seven-foot-tall metal pole, held upright and running along a set of rails on the ground, spin and slowly run along the rail, slicing up anyone who gets too close. | Aluminum(10) Circuitry(2) Gears(4) Spring(2) Wood(2) | Yes |
| Spike Trap | When this pressure-sensitive platform is activated, large spikes shoot up from holes in the platform, stabbing any NPCs that walk on it. | Concrete(6) Gears(3) Spring(3) Steel(9) | No |
Traps in Fallout 4 can be used to protect the player’s settlement from enemy attacks, and other traps can be found all over the Island, the Commonwealth, and the Nuka-World in-game. There are numerous trap types in Fallout 4, including Environmental Traps, Manmade Traps, and Noise-making Traps, and traps requiring Circuitry or Oil generally require a power source.
How do you set up traps in Fallout 4?
Like most systems and mechanisms in Fallout 4, the most effective traps need to be linked to a power source for them to function. The trap will activate automatically as long as it has an energy supply.
Controlling traps in Fallout 4
Players enjoy using traps as they can offer additional support during enemy attacks. Generally speaking, traps would be activated whenever an enemy walks over a pressure plate or through a tripwire, initiating the trap’s defense.
However, the traps in Fallout 4 can still damage settlers in-game, meaning that they need careful consideration and strategy during the initial setup. This poses many issues for players, regardless of their chosen settlement area or their Fallout 4 settlement’s size.
While traps do increase the settlement’s defense rating, many players find that traps will be set off by their wandering settlers – made more frustrating by the fact that traps have to be reloaded and repaired. In many cases, guards that are meant to be patrolling the area will activate traps during the process, and there is no way to manually control the pathing of settlers either.
Fencing or enclosing the traps will prevent them from going off without an actual in-game threat and harming settlers as a result, but these approaches also mean that traps become useless apart from increasing the settlement’s defense rating. One of the best ways to ensure that you have more control over your Fallout 4 traps is using a Siren.
Sirens will not allow any power to pass through them unless they are turned on, so they should be used as a medium between the power source and the player’s traps. When enemies attack the player’s settlement, Sirens are automatically turned on – automatically supplying traps with power and activating their defense responses, while settlers seek shelter and enemies roll in.
Another popular approach is using switches, which can be connected to the player’s power source and then to the player’s traps, allowing far more control over when traps can go off. According to Fallout 4 fans on Reddit, players can also connect traps to Terminals and use these terminals to set the traps’ targets to hostile only.
Where should players place traps in Fallout 4?
Due to the sheer number of issues surrounding traps in Fallout 4, many players find that they are more problematic than useful. Some players find that traps can be useful at the Covenant settlement, as traps should ideally be placed at the settlement’s entrances, and the Covenant settlement only has one entrance.
The Castle is a better area for using traps as well since enemies generally spawn outside of the castle walls, allowing players to cause trap damage ‘outside’ of the settlement. However, the most ideal, efficient, and ‘practical’ trap setup would still likely involve issues during an enemy attack.
Are traps worth it in Fallout 4?
Even with the use of mechanisms like Sirens, relays, or switches, players may still struggle to make sure their traps land hits on enemies during attacks – irrespective of where these traps are placed. This is because enemies in Fallout 4 have a habit of spawning just about anywhere they’d like, rather than spawning outside of a certain perimeter and being forced through a specific route.
Players would ideally be able to create trap-filled gauntlets that defend the settlement’s entrance – but, in Fallout 4, the mechanics simply don’t allow such an approach. Based on this disappointing use of traps in Fallout 4, and the fact that traps don’t award XP, many Fallout 4 players prefer the use of turret towers and walls or even a combination of defensive mechanisms for settlements.
With that being said, some players still find traps can be somewhat ‘entertaining’ in arena scenarios, and quite a few players have created trap-filled mazes such as the one seen in the video below by hamdrew.
That’s everything there is to know about placing traps safely in Fallout 4, as well as how to ensure they’re set up in fairly good locations. Although using traps can be finicky, and there are better ways to keep your Fallout 4 settlement safe, they can still be useful in certain areas with the addition of Sirens.
What do you think about traps in Fallout 4? Let us know in the comments below!