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Original Message
"Mantraps"
Posted by Radek on Apr-02-01 at 01:51 AM
I tried to complete the Samurai quest. Well, I should go west to the Shurugeon Temple. If I understand well, I must undergo a long way through the Shire to the west side of the lake.
Okay, I tried. Soon I met something called "Mantrap". The creature simply killed the whole party in a few seconds. Trying to heal or cure poison was naturally a futile. I found a mention of mantraps in one walkthrough: "... I run away and attacked with spells and ranged weapons with my SURVIVING party members...". This cannot be true. There must be a better way unless W&W is a Doom-like crap.

Q1: What preparation and what strategy is recommended for the encounter?
Q2: Is there a possibility to avoid mantraps when completing the Samurai quest?
Q3: Suppose it is not. If I understand well, the party must have a pretty high level and be able of powerful magic to fight mantraps. Does it mean that you can complete the Samurai quest somewhere at level 15?
Q4: Will the following work? a) Invisibility and sneak around. b) Invisibility + silence + good fighters.

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Messages in this discussion
"RE: Mantraps"
Posted by Lady_Adrexia on Apr-02-01 at 03:30 PM
I don't know about anyone else here...but I just stood back and had my Mage throw "Meteor" and "Flamestrike" until we killed all 4 of them. We were only about level 8 then.

I save frequently...and so I save after each encounter. I saved and then headed down a hill and came up to the back of the ManTraps. They didn't see me and I backed-up and ran back. I slowly crept back until I could see them (barely), but that they came up in my spell sight and I just cast spells from a distance and picked them off one by one. Drank a few bottles of Mana potion, which you get more than you need of.

Be patient...about your Samurai quest. These games require the use of outsmarting your foe...not walking up and bashing the heck out of them. This is what you would do in a pen/paper RPG.

If think that the ManTaps are bad...wait till you get to the Boogre Prison and run into the Jungle Lillies. I had to run and fire long distance spells and run again. I cornered them in doorways and picked them off one by one.


"RE: Mantraps"
Posted by rjsmith on Apr-03-01 at 08:57 AM
You can avoid the mantraps and complete the samurai quest. Run past the ratling attack all the way to the moat. When you exit, take the moat to the northern corner and go back on a more northerly route. Be aware that those mantraps will be following you, though and if you get caught in a battle they are likely to catch you and attack. I did the samurai quest without confronting them, but ended up going right back for the ninja quest.
I got past the mantraps at level 7 with mostly flamestrike and elemental blast. What I did was ran past the ratlings all the way to the moat (east side of the ruins) and jump in the moat and head south. The ratlings and mantraps will chase you. The ratlings get there first and you hopefully can deal with them. The mantraps will chase you but wait on the other side of the moat. You can sort of duck around a corner fire off your spells and duck back. I think there were three of them in my game. You can survive a single attack but not multiple simultaneous attacks so you do have to move quickly and don't get hung up on a corner or anything. If you have burning haze that is an even better spell for attacking the mantraps.
You will also find the Samurai quest in a clearing to the east of the eastern moat. You don't go all the way out into the shire.
I got killed a few times trying this
"Mantrap Strategy"
Posted by Todhunter -ur on Apr-12-01 at 01:49 PM
At this point in the game, the Mantraps are a Unique monster. In other words, they appear once and never again. They will spawn instantly when you pass a particular trigger point west and north of Scanthril's Hut. There are a couple of strategies I've heard and used that seem to work pretty well.

The first thing to do is run. Do not, however, under penalty of death -- literally -- run back to Ishad N'ha. The Mantraps will follow you everywhere they can reach on land, and if they follow you back to Ishad N'ha, yer fooked, because you'll never be able to get by them again. They cannot follow you on water, however, and this proves pretty effective. Running towards either the Northern Lake (which is the way to the Boogre Prison) or the Shurugeon Moat is a pretty good bet. Wait for the Mantraps to coalesce on the shore, hiding out of their range, then fire distance spells such as Incinerate, Burning Haze, etc. (Dragon and Takehatsu Arrows, Kiss of Death darts, etc, also are effective if you have them.)

Another possibility that I've heard of is using the horse as a blocker, though this is sort of cheating. Run down a narrow path in the forest and dismount from the horse (on the other side from the Mantraps). The Mantraps will be lured towards you, as they always are, but they cannot pass the horse, which will remain blissfully unaffected by spells, breath, etc. They cannot pass the horse, due to the narrow width of the path. Pick 'em off at your leisure.

Obviously, neither of these works in the Boogre Prison. I recommend finishing Shurugeon completely and getting as far as you can in the Stout Mines before trying the Boogre Prison. (I made the mistake of trying the BP too early, and I died every time. Minor Spoiler: once you're in the Prison, you can't leave without defeating the Jungle Lilies, which are the Big Brothers of the Mantraps.)

"RE: Mantraps"
Posted by DrSlop on Apr-12-01 at 02:23 PM
Other than several "tricks" to beathing them (the horse trick and the water trick mentioned elsewhere in this thread worked pretty well for me), I found that the best legit way to kill them was using the petrification spell. Seemed to work on the about 75% of the time, for me, though that depends on your character's skill.

OE