In this article, I’d like to discuss how to stay current and competitive as a trap account amidst constant new releases. Regardless of the type of trap account, I’m certain you’ll find the following information great advice and help in all cases.
A Short Overview Of Three Types Of Traps
Here is some information on the three most popular types of traps in this game.
The first one is what I’ve seen referred to as a “Shell Account ”.
It’s low on research, a low-level Stronghold, and low-level with most other buildings. Typically, at the time of this article, that would be well below 1280. The boost hall is usually maxed on defense and health but otherwise not fully complete. There are large quantities of mainly lower levels of troops. This type of trap revolves around troop count and is probably the least expensive to build but, normally, is the least effective.
The second type we can call “The Max Trap”.
This trap account is high in research, has a completed or close to completed Boost Hall, their main buildings are leveled up to the same as Stronghold and have mainly all hospitals with only one of all other buildings. This trap type will often have a low VIP and has all high-tier troops to maintain low power. The gear usually has 1 or 2 that are maxed while the other gear pieces are less upgraded or even from a previous gear release. This trap is not recommended for a low-budget player as research and high-tier troops are fairly costly.
The final type is usually referred to as “The Points Trap”.
This account will have the lowest Stronghold they possibly can. I’ve seen these as low as 1240 or on rare occasions lower. They will keep a very low power by again using mainly all high-tier troops with just as many T4 – T6 troops as needed to not lose points in kill events. A low VIP will always be maintained and the hero is often a 550 hero or older Demi hero. Heroes are usually equipped with older gear but the best possible gems and runes. This trap is most often used during events.
Event points for t6 and lower are usually 1 point, so while you may be burning with this trap, there’s a good chance you’re winning a lot of event points from an attacker. Usually, these traps are reined with high-tier troops and mythic, as well as enough Trap Destroyers to kill all the traps that are in the attackers’ march. The Rally Lead will be killing low-tier troops and feeding the players that rein these accounts with higher amounts of points. Often the points scored will be in the billions or even trillions at times. Both the trap account player and the attacker need to look at your reports and do the math.
When it comes to costs, this is usually the mid-range of the three described here.
As far as the perfect trap, they all get the job done if well built. It’s more about what you’re comfortable in spending and how much help your alliance can provide. These two factors will help decide what kind of trap is perfect for you.
What Makes a Great Trap Account?
A great trap is an account despite looking weak, outdated, or small can still kill more of an opponent’s march and win almost every rally. The best traps look like great burnable targets with small stronghold levels, low VIP, outdated gear, low hero levels, and low power.
Having high research levels will add to needed and unseen stats like Defense, Empire Defender Attack, and Empire Defender Defense. Having great research allows you to remain at lower Stronghold levels, use lower-level heroes, keep your VIP lower and even use less than the best gear.
You will be able to keep your power low by using high-tier troops, T13 Witch Doctors for health, Mage troops to boost regular troops attack power, and of course, Trap Destroyers to take care of those incoming Traps. All of these add little to your power. Larger amounts of the higher level troops usually work far better than double or triple the amounts of a lower tier.
Showing less than great stats like your Demi troops killed, wins versus losses, or how many Demi kills you have and can also tempt a lead.
With some careful planning and calculations, you will be able to win your battles and score tons of points in events.
Looking at New Releases
New releases in GOW continue to drop at a consistent rate. As a result of this, you will see traps that were previously unburnable, start to take multi-billion power hits within the first hour or two of a new release. So how do you know if your trap still works? What needs to be done to keep it current? How to stay ahead of the game? Let’s take a closer look at the different types of releases and how you can stay sharp as a trap account.
Type of New Release
There are a few different types of new releases and each one can dictate very different adjustments required. The type of release can also set the pace at which you will need to adjust.
1. If it’s a new Buildings release, you can expect many rallies leads to complete and maximize pretty quickly. This means you will also need to adjust quickly. With these releases, we usually see larger March and Rally Sizes and added Attack.
It’s imperative that you have a close look at your setup and how you can best counter these newer bigger rallies and higher attack stats to defend against. This could be done in several ways depending upon how you are built. You may want to add more of your lowest tier troops; you could increase your higher tier troops and reduce an entire lower tier; increase your stronghold level; or increase your VIP as a few examples.
Upgrading your buildings and special buildings that deliver the most defense and Empire Defender Defense and Attack is also important.
The main buildings that will add these stats for traps are Hospitals which give a lot of defense.
The top 4 Special buildings you’ll need to upgrade are:
- Black Market not only provides defense but also adds attack and health to all troops, traps, mythic, and mercenaries.
- Archaeology Hall will give empire defender defense stats and fire type attack and defense.
- Speed Up Treasury adds to your traps defense.
- Gear Workshop will add mercenary attack and empire defender attack as well as thunder type attack, defense, and health.
Activate defense, attack, attack debuff, and health boosts in your Boost Hall to add much-needed and also unseen strength.
2. New Research has, as of late, been quite costly and can take players longer to fully complete but you can expect some rally leaders to have the first 3 or 4 levels done within the first hour or two. New Research releases can require a bit more digging before you can be exactly sure how to adjust. Having high research is probably one of the most important things in all cases and all accounts.
Many new research releases can add several things like attack, defense debuffs, and the new Empire Rally Attack that a trap will need to counter. New research will always also provide defending stats like defense, health, and attack debuffs.
Keeping up with new research is as important for the defenders in the game as for the offensive-sided accounts. Adding stats from research can be essential to a trap account and give a great advantage.
Unlike increasing VIP or Stronghold levels, research stats are unseen to an attacker provided you are using Anti-Scout. Anti-Scout will prevent your research from being seen in a report. So, with your research as complete as possible your account may appear weak or not upgraded but could be stronger than it looks.
Doing the research that is most important to your account is something that will make a difference in costs as well. Try to focus when possible on research areas that boost up your Defense, Empire Defending Attack, Empire Defender Defense, Health, Attack, etc. Skip areas like Wonder stats or rally stats if you never lead rallies.
Tap this link for more helpful tips on Research.
3. VIP and Hero Level releases are also typically achieved and maxed very quickly. As a trap, we generally don’t want to max these features out. We want to keep them as low as possible. Keep in mind though that for your opponents this means added Attack, Empire Rally Attack, and Rally Attack.
Therefore, you need to offset these stats a little differently than you would with research releases. Adding troop counts, completing more research, making sure your gear is equipped with the best gems for your account. Some players like to use attack gems while others use defense. You can add some of the stats you’ll need by completing the areas in your boost hall that are pertinent and again, remain unseen and do not add power.
Crafting a newly upgraded potion can also help.
4. New Gems, Banners, and Runes can be purchased and in place minutes after their release. This is something that will be a benefit to you as much as an opponent. As I explained above, gems are unseen so having the best you can is advantageous. The same rule applies to runes. Look at these new features carefully and compare the stats in the new release to what you currently have, and you will quickly be able to determine if the increase is substantial enough.
Always look at what the leads will be using and the additional attack they are gaining from the new items. Doing so will help you to choose gems and make adjustments to stay as current as you can.
5. New Gear Sets will take a little bit of time to acquire complete sets. New gear pieces to sets aren’t released altogether and have been spread out over a few weeks. Some releases will mean that a trap may have to make considerable changes to builds or be as quick to also get that new gear. A great example would be the new Vengeful gear release. This new set has stats that until now, haven’t been very important like Empire Defender Attack, Empire Defender Defense, and Empire Defender Health. Acquiring the gear for your hero would provide those defending qualities you’ll need to counter the Empire Rally Attack stats that are also in the attack pieces that you will have to defend against.
Gear is another one of those features that can be used very differently by many defenders and traps. You may need to have one or several pieces of the higher quality and powered-up gear or you may want the complete new gear set. Gear can be hidden from anyone outside of your alliance using Hades gems. You can hide one or all gear pieces. Keep in mind that using these will take the spot of your fourth gem and therefore you’ll be giving up the added stats from that gem.
Weapons then helms usually offer the biggest boosts followed by chest then feet. When it comes to accessories, it often takes all three to equal a similar boost to the weapon or helm.
6. New Monsters and Monster levels are as important to you as a trap as they are for a Rally Lead. Keeping the monsters in your wall as updated as possible will add to those stats you want to add to your setups. Choosing the monsters that offer the highest levels of defense stats and attack debuffs play a very important role in your success.
Best monsters at the time of this article to have in your wall are:
- Demigod Cerberus
- Demigod Yeti
- Demigod Turkey
- Demigod Celestial
- Demigod Minautor
- Demigod Golem
Remember when assigning a monster to your wall it will not be available to also use in attack marches.
7. Pantheon upgrades will play a big part in your trap by activating the deities that provide you with the added defense, debuffs, and or attack you’ll need. Active Deities consume tributes each time you are attacked. Watch that you always have a good supply of these available. You may even choose to only activate these as needed. You’ll need the following Deity boosts:
Hera’s Vengence – Empire Defender Attack
Tyche’s Protection – Empire Defender Defense
Persephone’s Sorrow – Empire Defender Health
To recap, some of the things we’ve discussed that you should be taking into consideration are:
- What types of boosts are being added with new releases.
- Increases to Rally Attack, Attack, Heath, Defense, Defense Debuff or Empire Rally Attack
- At what level of the new research tree starts showing the largest increase in stat percentages.
- What are the new stats and increased stat percentages of the new building levels?
- New march and rally march sizes you’ll need to defend against.
- Cost of completing the new research tree and what stats will increase.
As you’ve already discovered the best first place to find the information here on the RealTips website, your next stop is probably to speak with your alliance teammates that can also help you in navigating new releases, staying current, and on the winning side of rallies.
To get a pretty good idea of what is to come and how fast, you should ask your rally leaders about what the release is giving them, you will likely know quickly how expensive the new release is, how quickly it will be acquired, and the magnitude of the release. Knowing this will also help you in determining your course of action. Talk to other trap accounts in your alliance to compare successes and strategies. Engage with the Gow community to get their thoughts and strategies. Join our Line, Discord, and Facebook rooms to meet more players and share more tips and strategies.
Once you’ve done your upgrades, adjusted the areas you think will best benefit you and received as much feedback and information as you think you need it’s time to test.
Testing After a New Release
When you are ready to test, do everything the same as you would if it were a regular rally. If you normally boost, make sure you are using the same ones. Some of the things you should test with. Try with and without some of the listed items below. If you are offline you wouldn’t be able to boost or activate a fifth banner so it’s good to know those results as well.
- Potions (tap to open a guide on potion crafting)
- Gear – try different combinations or sets
- Boosts – test with and without
- Banners – experiment with the fifth banner and without it activated
- Blessings
- Reinforced vs no reinforcements
It’s best to be tested by someone who has agreed to do so and is willing to share how much of the new release they have completed. Compare the results from your testing and the information should give you a pretty good idea of where you are at and if more work needs to be done.
Reviewing and Adjusting After Testing
If you did burn or need a bigger boost than what you normally use, it’s time to make some changes. Some things to look at:
- Were the reports close? Compare losses versus kills.
- Did you lose a great deal more than normal?
If your wins vs losses in reports were close, the adjustment may be just as simple, as adding a few more troops, adding some attack stats to your setup, or perhaps it’s time to go up a stronghold, VIP, or hero level. Improving gear, acquiring the newest gems, runes, and banners and replacing them for older ones you may have, craft a newer potion, activate more boost hall boosts, check your pantheon deities, and if you still have enough tributes for them.
If your losses were high with a large spread between kills and losses, your stats are most likely being debuffed or need to be improved. Often when research is the new release, the first two or three levels are good enough to counter the higher stats from rally leaders, for a short time. You will want to maximize your research as much as you can most especially with the focus on Empire Defender Attack, Empire Defender Defense, Defense and Attack Debuffs available. Perhaps at this point, you will need to consider if dropping your lowest tier of troops could be an appropriate answer.
Another possibility is to add a small number of traps at the same level as your lowest-tier troops. Adding 500 million to 900 million traps can often buffer enough to save you millions of losses.
Be cautious not to add more than just the minimum required traps as you will add substantial power and then become a target for an attack from Trap Destroyers.
In Conclusion
Look at your Stronghold as a complete system and fill in the gaps where it could be weak. With trap accounts, EVERY unseen stat counts and matters. Review every aspect of your account that could house additional stats. Review this Checklist for a quick guide to follow.
Every Trap account is slightly or vastly built differently. You are the only one able to be the expert on your account. You are the one who has built it, so no one can tell you exactly what to do or exactly how to adjust. Others can offer advice or tips based on their experiences but keep in mind their builds will vary. Build your account to fit your play style, so that new releases do not stop you from having fun. Trap accounts must be constantly adjusting and testing.
For more tips on defending check out this Defense article
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