Hi Sly. Spoilers ahoy!
Where are you in the game? The builder does disappear very much later on, but only when you have visited the Iron mine, coal mine and sulphur mine, have the alien ship and are collecting alien alloy, and by that point you shouldn't need the traps.
You only lose your equipment if you die in the wilderness, either killed in battle or by hunger an thirst, or if you leave it on the ground in a loot scenario. Hardmode is! hard there is no doubts about it, though to make life easier I did write this guide:
http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?id=13639 which hopefully should be helpful. Hth. All the best, Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
