Smash Trap

Verified against the spelunky.ai port v0.1.10 on 27 October 2026.

A Smash Trap is a block of stone ringed with spikes that sits on the floor of the Temple. When the player comes within 90 pixels of it and lines up with it, in its row or its column, it slides at him, speeding up, until it hits a wall. Touching it takes 10 hearts a step. On a dark level it's lit, and the lit kind kills only by crushing.

While it's on screen and resting, a Smash Trap watches the player. If he's within 90 pixels of it and level with its middle (within 8 pixels), or straight above or below it, it slides toward him, unless a block is right next to it on that side: right first, then down, left and up ^[3]. It speeds up by 0.5 pixels a step each step, to 4 pixels per step (120 per second), and goes straight on until it hits a block or a Tomb Lord ^[4]. Then it stops, and once it has backed off the wall it rests for 50 steps before it can slide again ^[5].

It moves itself rather than being moved as a platform, so it doesn't push the player: it slides into him. The clip shows the player walking into a Smash Trap's row: it slides at him, crushes him against the wall, and stops there.

Each step the player touches a Smash Trap, he loses 10 hearts, is thrown toward it (and down, if it was sliding down) and drops whatever he holds ^[1]. Nothing spaces out the hits, so a player who stays against it is hit on every step, and each hit he survives is counted in the end-of-game statistics' smash trap row as well as the one that kills him ^[6]. If the trap slides on over him, so that his middle is inside it, he's crushed: every heart, as anything solid crushes him ^[7].

The lit kind, on a dark level, is a separate object that the player's check doesn't count as a Smash Trap. It never takes the 10 hearts: it slides into him until he's inside it, and kills him by crushing, counted in the crushed row rather than the smash trap row ^{[8] [9]}. The second clip shows one sliding at the player and crushing him.

Level generation puts Smash Traps only in the Temple, on the ground: on each block with open space above it, outside the starting room, a 1 in 60 chance, once the rolls for a Tomb Lord (1 in 40, where one may be made), a Caveman (1 in 40) and a Hawkman (1 in 40) have failed ^[10]. On a dark level it makes the lit kind ^[11].

Smash Traps are also in the Sun challenge room, a bonus room ^[12], and in custom levels as the level editor's tile + ^[13].

• Stay out of line. A Smash Trap only slides along its row or its column, and only at a player within 90 pixels, so crossing its line farther off, or above or below its row out of its column, is safe.
• Let it go by. Set off from farther along its line, it slides past a player who has stepped out of the line, and rests for 50 steps once it stops.
• Block it. It won't slide toward a block right next to it.
• Destroy it. A Bomb's blast destroys it like a block.

• Lava. A Smash Trap that touches lava stops, sinks into it and is destroyed when the lava closes over it ^[14].
• Tomb Lords stop a sliding Smash Trap as a wall does ^[15].
• Light. The lit kind glows and counts as a light source on a dark level ^[16].

• The trap picks a random direction when it's made, which only matters if the player touches it before its first slide sets one: the hit throws him down if the random direction was down ^{[17] [18]}.
• The player's code kept the trap's direction names as a comment beside the check that reads them ^[19].
• A similar trap, oThwompTrap, a block that drops on a player passing under it and rises again, is in the game's code but never made ^[6].