Mobile Strike Trap Bases – How To Build a Trap Base

Mastering Mobile Strike:

Trap Bases

Want a simple way to get major points in state vs. state events without building a massive base? Then building a trap base may be for you!

The essence of a good trap base is deception. You look powerless and, if possible, a little disengaged. Your enemies swoop down on you, expecting easy kills. And then… surprise… a full army and strong traps await their visit…. Such carnage. Much Whining. Must Troll. So wow….

On a related note, learning how to spot trap bases is a key part of surviving as a marauding raider…

Trap accounts can be built throughout the game. The details will vary depending on what buildings, troops, and equipment / materials are available to you. However, the core concepts remain the same:

  • Ensure your force of troops is as strong as possible, particularly on defense
  • Built out a full set of the best wall traps you can afford
  • Ensure your own power remains as low as possible
  • Ensure you troops survive via excessive hospital capacity
  • Maintain a low profile to avoid signalling your strength to an attacker

Well designed trap accounts can be amazingly powerful, delivering an impressive score during state vs. state kill events. Properly handled, they can frequently deliver more points than a large account (one of the 100MM+ goliaths). They do, however, have a finite life against experienced foes. Always pay very close attention to the “kills” statistic for the player you’re attacking – if they are low power but high kills, they are most likely a trap! Similarly, be very cautious attacking anyone with “anti-scout” active – this often indicates the presence of a surprise lurking inside their base.

New: Check out our guide doing maximum damage with a trap account!

Trap Account Power Levels

While trap accounts can be any power level, there are several ranges that make excellent sense.

  • Unsinkable Trap Account (Level 8 – 9): This is a basic trap account but takes full advantage of several quirks in the game’s leveling system. You get access to Tier 2 troops with a level 8 research lab; this is enough to sting an opponent. Wall traps aren’t great (you don’t get Tier 2 until level 10). However… your commander cannot be captured! Occupy something the other side cares about and start trolling….
  • Basic Trap Account (Level 10): A modest step up, with access to Tier 2 wall traps. Your commander can be captured but not executed, which can be used to your advantage. They cannot shield while they hold your commander, leaving your attacker open to a well timed attack from someone else in your alliance (set an ambush, have heavy players teleport in).
  • Standard Trap Account (Level 15): A solid T3 trap account – you’ve got T3 troops and traps; hospital capacity is usually pretty strong and you’ve often got decent research to back it up.
  • Advanced Trap Account (Level 21+): End Game account; access to T4 troops & traps.

Trap Account Design

  • Minimize visible power – this means limiting investment in non-essential buildings and research. If possible, build a farm or use a bank to generate resources.
  • Lots of Hospitals: Invest in building up your hospitals inside the wall; this is a key means of preserving your troops in the event of an attack.
  • Focused Research: Mobile strike gives you a large variety of topics to research. Well designed trap accounts can ignore many of them. For example, economic research – you shouldn’t be investing heavily in this (use your farm to generate resources). Unlike many buildings, it is impossible to “unlearn” research to reduce your power later.
  • Remove Buildings? You may consider building high level resource buildings (and others) to accelerate your progress towards high level troops and then destroying them to reduce your overall power. This is a good option for research labs and resource buildings.
  • Good Warehouse: I’ve found this useful, particular when playing a lower level trap account. It allows you to protect a certain quantity of resources from the attacker. If you’re expecting a fight (eg. state vs state event), dump excess resources to the bank.

Gear Selection

Specific gear will depend on the materials and mods available, but emphasis the following in your decisions….

  • Troop Health – this helps keep your troops alive for defense or counter-attacking. This basically allows you to soak up damage better (both sides get hit during battles).
  • Troop Defense – increases the effectiveness of your troops when defending.
  • Trap Performance – anything that improves the way traps function

Don’t neglect the role of your combat troops in a trap account; traps have their own special role (they do more damage and can take more damage) but regular troops will be handing out most of your kills. Anything you can do to improve troop performance is a good thing (see our combat strategy guide).

Commander Tree

This can be optimized right before the event, but look to include the following skills in your tree:

  • Troop Health
  • Troop Defense
  • Troop Specific Attack (top troop types)
  • Trap Attack
  • Trap Defense

Next, we will talk about how to play a trap account….

Check out our guide doing maximum damage with a trap account!