Are tooth traps a waste of time and resources?

[Mencken]

I used them religiously then just stopped one day.   Instead I run the hounds by spiders, tentacles, pigs, beefalo, bees and lure plants.   As a bonus I get to harvest extra material afterwords.    On a side note I've been killing bearger and deerklops (when not using to cut trees) in the swamps many times, the tentacles never run out (do they respawn?

[Ninjanemo]

In my personal opinion, tooth traps are much more efficient to use and unlike spiders, they don't eat your meat drops And TBH 1 log, 1 rope and 1 hounds tooth isn't too pricey.

Also there's the hazard of taking damage yourself when running around in the swamp.

[Soulk]

9 minutes ago, Mencken said:

I used them religiously then just stopped one day.   Instead I run the hounds by spiders, tentacles, pigs, beefalo, bees and lure plants.   As a bonus I get to harvest extra material afterwords.    On a side note I've been killing bearger and deerklops (when not using to cut trees) in the swamps many times, the tentacles never run out (do they respawn?

the tentacles does not respawn but there are so many of them that will take a while until they all die

[PlatinumUmbreon]

While tooth traps do wear down over time, unlike the respawning spiders and other mobs, they're pretty much more worth it in the long run, especially when you get to the point where you have so much hounds comin' after you that not only are tooth traps beneficial, but you'll get a lot of teeth to replace the traps once they wear down.  Plus, it's not too much trouble to cut down a tree for a few logs and to harvest some grass, especially if you set up base near a savannah in the latter case.  Yeah, you can go as Webber and get some spider nests around your base, but it won't be happy fun times if you're on a RoG file and those Fire Hounds come after you.

 

EDIT:  Realized this was DST and not the singleplayer, but you get my point, right?

[Mencken]

Sure.   I get 8 hounds usually but it takes only 1-3 minutes for them to die and I rarely take a hit.   I pick up silk and monster meat (dart in/out) when using spiders.   Tooth traps are faster but you have to count the time doing resets and harvesting wood and grass.   That adds up to more time + you don't get silk, pig skins and or beefalo meat/fur etc.  I don't plant grass now, just use desert runs.

[CaptainChaotica]

Are tooth traps useless?

No.  Absolutely not.

There's my answer. 

Okay okay fine.  They're a reliable source of killing hounds that's always there, at your base, and while I CAN run hounds into other random mobs that happen to be around when I get caught out, I'd prefer not to--as that involves danger to yourself as well, usually at night when you can't fully see what's going on and/or loss of the dropped meat.  Is it feasible or desirable to make a whole lot of them at the beginning?  No, but keep at it at the rate of a couple new traps here and there, and over _time_ you'll have a nice big field that can take out even giants!  Make sure you eventually put both types of firepit in the middle(ish) of them and floor underneath so lureplants can't eat 'em, and you're good to go! 

Also, being able to lure hounds over to other mobs requires those other things to BE close enough by to be useable in time.  Which usually means they'll be close enough to bug you during _non_ hound-wave times...I mean, in the upper-number days?  The game does NOT give you much warning.

AND, by putting the traps in a chosen location, you can effectively control exactly where fire hounds die--i.e., away from anything and everything flammable you care about. Game, set, and MATCH!  (snaps fingers)  (Yes fling-o-matics but you don't always have those in the early days/remember to turn them on/happen to have some near random wildlife.)

...Notorious

[Mencken]

Sure.   I get 8 hounds usually but it takes only 1-3 minutes for them to die and I rarely take a hit.   I pick up silk and monster meat (dart in/out) when using spiders.   Tooth traps are faster but you have to count the time doing resets and harvesting wood and grass.   That adds up to more time + you don't get silk, pig skins and or beefalo meat/fur etc.  I don't plant grass now, just use desert runs.

[CaptainChaotica]

Heheh.  I tend to just LIVE near grass.  : P  It is one of the most-used raw materials in the entire game, after all. But having a desert not too far away _is_ awesome for winter and summer (and in general, because, yaknow, desert).

...Notorious

[Mencken]

All the mobs are about 15 seconds away and too far to hassle me at my base or set it on fire. Worst I've ever experienced is one bite and it's usually over pretty quickly.   Also, I use all the teeth for darts which are very effective with the toad in solo mode.   Traps aren't useless but I'll do an analysis, I'm pretty sure the cost is higher in terms of resources (gold for ax, twigs, wood, grass, stone), especially the time involved.   With 8 hounds you need about 40-50 traps...

[DVGMedia]

not even  make like 200 tooth traps and they last the whole server and using them for mostly the hounds you are getting your teeth back 10 fold  in these later servers you end up gathering scaled chests full of teeths

[ShadowDuelist]

• If you are Wickerbotom making a tentacle trap somewhere is cheaper and less time consuming. Once many of the tentacles died or are very hurt (they don't regenerate hp) just read a few more times a book. You'll get tentacle spots for free once and then to keep getting books.The problem with this is the permanent issue that you get accidentally killed by your tentacles, or teammates walk past it and die (this is the most common issue).
• If you are not wickerbottom, a large enough herd of beefalo will protect you from hound waves no matter how big it is.

Spider nests will get burned by fire hounds so unless you are webber and particuallary chose to protect your nests within a flingo range, I'd avoid that one.

The thing is, despite these solutions being cheaper, you'll eventually overflood with hounds teeth and/or sewing kits. In a long game I had with wickerbottom, tentacles always killed all my hound waves, so It got to a point that I had a chest full of teeth. So, to get rid of them I ended up making a large tooth trap field anyway

My point: you'll never use as many sewing kits at the rate you get teeth. Tooth traps are better in the long run, the game is kinda designed so you use them.

[brbrmensch]

all i can say is shown here

 

[artemiyME]

hate using tooth traps? wish everything burned in world except your base? Look no further and stack those hounds teeth in endless piles in 20 chests forever to make sewing kits and dapper vests for all 69 of your friends!

[Lumina]

I like sending hounds in monster, but fire hounds are really annoying sometimes. Tooth traps and some tentacles in the right place are a good combo. Also, tooth traps around mac tusk igloo are good too.

[Rellimarual]

Tooth traps are great for dealing with moslings, too. I have seen people set them all around a Goose Goose spawn to kill the mama. But my favorite use for them is monkeys. I love them, they're so fast and easy, but I don't think they are absolutely necessary, no.

[Josonic]

3 hours ago, Mencken said:

Sure.   I get 8 hounds usually but it takes only 1-3 minutes for them to die and I rarely take a hit.   I pick up silk and monster meat (dart in/out) when using spiders.   Tooth traps are faster but you have to count the time doing resets and harvesting wood and grass.   That adds up to more time + you don't get silk, pig skins and or beefalo meat/fur etc.  I don't plant grass now, just use desert runs.

It takes ten seconds to kill a hound wave with a tooth trap field. It takes 1 full day of gathering grass and wood to have enough for all tooth traps you will need for the next one thousand days. Resetting traps takes no longer than it would to gather all your loot if you had various mobs kill the hounds instead. There are easy passive methods of farming silk, skins, and fur/meat that are a million times more efficient than using hounds. If you have a tooth trap field it can be in/near your base, it doesn't move it's always there, there's no fear of spreading fires, you can make it so you always have light there too. In conclusion, absolutely tooth traps are efficient and worth it, especially if your alternative is just run around and hope the hounds get distracted before something bad happens (like night or hunger or anything)

[Mencken]

I'll do the math on it...

[TheKingofSquirrels]

5 hours ago, Mencken said:

I used them religiously then just stopped one day.   Instead I run the hounds by spiders, tentacles, pigs, beefalo, bees and lure plants.   As a bonus I get to harvest extra material afterwords.    On a side note I've been killing bearger and deerklops (when not using to cut trees) in the swamps many times, the tentacles never run out (do they respawn?

I've never actually used tooth traps effectively, but I've definitely seen people do it. The whole building a panic room is pretty cool. Although, I don't know how effective it is in later rounds

[Sinister_Fang]

15 minutes ago, TheKingofSquirrels said:

Although, I don't know how effective it is in later rounds

It's very effective. The longer you last, the more teeth you get. The more teeth you get, the more traps you can make. I've seen trap fields get so large that all you have to do is stand in the middle and the hounds will never reach you.

[TheKingofSquirrels]

9 minutes ago, Sinister_Fang said:

It's very effective. The longer you last, the more teeth you get. The more teeth you get, the more traps you can make. I've seen trap fields get so large that all you have to do is stand in the middle and the hounds will never reach you.

Well, there's the OPS answer I guess. 

I´ve always used Beefalo, because I suck.

[spiderdian]

No.

k

bye

[CaptainChaotica]

13 hours ago, Sinister_Fang said:

It's very effective. The longer you last, the more teeth you get. The more teeth you get, the more traps you can make. I've seen trap fields get so large that all you have to do is stand in the middle and the hounds will never reach you.

Yep. That's pretty much what I do, by the time the server is like, over 200 days old or so.  You start getting SO MANY TEETH after a while.  Mine isn't quite big enough to just stand there, but with a minimum of dancing around them mockingly, they're all dead.

Also don't go with the actual panic ROOM; it sounds like a nice idea and I used to use it, and it's disappointing that it doesn't work 'cos it so sounds like it SHOULD!  Attacking you from all directions at once is the problem?  Funnel 'em just one way!  Unfortunately, this isn't Nethack, and...they just eat the walls.    "There's only one entrance so I'll of course use that" isn't how their AI works, although it seems like it should...instead, since they're all MADDENED to get you ALL AT ONCE, the hounds that don't make it in the door _immediately_ get impatient and start MAKING new entrances.

God dammit.

I've seen people make awesome stone-wall _mazes_ on Youtube, too...and I've never had them last through even ONE big attack.  Sigh.  So now I just pick a big open area away from flammable things and there ya go.

...Notorious

[JohnWatson]

If you don't like using tooth traps, you could use your F key to kill mobs. I heard it's very efficient and it can kill most groups of mobs in mere seconds.

[Mencken]

I had a trap field so large I could just stand in the middle of it But it requires constant maintenance.   Every 5 days or so 2.5 traps have to be replaced.    100 days, 50 traps.   Gathering 150 grass and 50 logs takes at minimum 2 days.    You might have planted grass but that is more time and maintenance, I only need one flingo.

 

Just had a hound attack (8), and timed it.   70 seconds.   No traps to reset, nothing to replace.

[Palecwsmalec1]

13 minutes ago, JohnWatson said:

If you don't like using tooth traps, you could use your F key to kill mobs. I heard it's very efficient and it can kill most groups of mobs in mere seconds.

or mindlessly press ctrl+f to force attack the nearby walls/players if you're in PVP mode :^)