Locked doors[]
Basics[]
Locked doors are closed doors that do not open via the "o"pen command, and require some other means to make them passable. They also have the potential to be trapped.
Opening locked doors[]
The safest way of opening a locked door is zapping an uncursed or blessed wand of knocking in their direction; this can be done from a few squares' distance, reducing the danger of creatures behind the door closing on and attacking the PC before s/he can fight back.
Other safe ways include:
- casting the Knock spell on the door
- unlocking with the proper blessed key
- throwing an anvil or huge rock from some distance. Unluckily, this destroys the door (as opposed to simply opening it) and, in the case of the door being trapped, also destroys the anvil/huge rock
- using the Mindcrafter power Telekinetic Blast; this always destroys trapped doors, but has no effect on untrapped ones
- bypassing via digging/teleportation
- ordering a pet that can smash doors to walk through it
- using the Silver key, which is an artifact tool that can open all doors.
Non-safe ways:
- Kicking it down. Some players recommend trying to open doors multiple times before kicking it, so as to set off any traps, to avoid becoming blind, stunned and surrounded by multiple opponents.
- Note that if an unsuccessful attempt to kick the door in produces the message "it does not budge at all", the door is trapped.
- Using uncursed and especially cursed keys. These might set off traps and break in the process
- Using the Pick locks skill, as this always sets off a trap if one is present
Locking doors[]
Under some conditions, it can be useful to lock doors to isolate part of the level or to stop monsters from pursuing the PC.
General ways of doing so: (most work on open doors, so there is no direct need to close the door unless the monster is directly next to door and the method used has a chance to fail)
- wand of door creation sometimes creates locked doors, which usually are trapped. Very unreliable.
- wand of trap creation, if zapped on "doorway" square will create trapped and locked door instead of a conventional trap. Additionally, zapping a trap creation wand on an existing door will close and trap it.
- cursed wand of knocking will lock the door
- casting Magic Lock
- applying the Pick locks skill on unlocked door. This method has a chance to fail.
- using the Silver key
- using a regular key of the correct type. Non-blessed ones might break in the process.
Door traps[]
| Number | Trap | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Collapsing door | Door drops straight in front of the doorway. There is a chance to dodge it by jumping backwards (if there is space available); the trap can be entirely avoided by not standing directly in front of the door. Might cause some item destruction. |
| 2 | Booby trap | Causes a fireball centered at the door's location. Will damage monsters, including cats and pets. Pets will turn hostile if caught in this fireball, even for Bards. Might cause some item destruction as a normal fireball would. |
| 3 | Stone block | Drops a stone block straight in front of the doorway, damaging the square in front of the door. There is a chance to dodge by jumping backwards (if there is space available); the trap can be entirely avoided by not standing directly in front of the door. |
| 4 | Explosive rune | Causes damage and can destroy items. Can be partially evaded; it is speculated that it is easier to evade by not being in front of the door. Explosions can sometimes also deafen the PC. |
| 5 | Stunning rune | Stuns, and may also blind. Both effects can be avoided by having stun resistance, in which case the PC instead receives "a minor electric shock". |
| 6 | Blinding trap | Might blind the PC. |
Clearly, standing diagonally to the door is advised as this allows the PC to totally avoid 1/3 of the trap types. In addition, having a source of stun resistance such as a ring of stun resistance is recommended to negate stun traps. Similarly to floor traps, If a PC at non-critical health triggers a damaging door trap that would have killed them, they are instead reduced to 1 HP, stunned and/or confused for a short time, and suffer an increased chance of item destruction from the trap. Doomed PCs do not receive this protection.
Note that if a monster is able to open a trapped door, they will set off the trap. One possible consequence is that a monster standing diagonally to a trick door can cause the door to fall on the PC (or another monster) instead.
Keys[]
There are six types of keys (and, obviously, corresponding door locks):
- Round
- Triangular
- Hexagonal
- Small
- Tiny
- Square.
A set of blessed keys is a nearly foolproof means of dealing with doors and door traps. Keys can be bought from Skriek; for female characters, the prices are rather reasonable. When applied, uncursed keys have a chance to break or disappear completely, and/or set off traps. Cursed keys are even worse in this aspect (though it is not clear to what degree).
Pattern drift (v. 1.1.1 and earlier)[]
While traps are generated at random in later versions, in version 1.1.1 and earlier both traps and lock types follow a particular pattern. Trap types follow the Trap table, and door lock types correspond with the trap patterns in many dungeons. The CoC is one exception: round-keyed doors on D:1 always have only trick door traps on this level (while others can be calculated by the tables); then, key-trap connection is shifted down by one, so round keys represent booby traps on CoC2 and so on.
For ID:
round — stunning charge triangular — flash trap hexagonal — trick door small — booby trap (fireball) tiny — stone blocks square — explosive rune
is always true.
Monsters breaking doors[]
Some monsters are able to break down locked doors. A full list of these monsters can be found here.