Letter triggers have special effects on specific forms under certain conditions. Unlike most triggers, they are found under the sixth tab of the level editor. These were introduced in 2.1.
Triggers: Difference between revisions
Copied from Official Wiki https://geometrydash.wiki.gg/index.php?title=Triggers&oldid=265172 ; contributors: https://geometrydash.wiki.gg/index.php?title=Triggers&action=history |
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<!-- ------------------------------------------COLOR TRIGGERS------------------------------------------ --> | |||
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Color triggers= | Color triggers= | ||
[[File:ColourTrigger.png|right|50px]] | [[File:ColourTrigger.png|right|50px]] | ||
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ColorTriggerPreview.gif | ColorTriggerPreview.gif | ||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
<!-- ------------------------------------------OBJECT TRIGGERS------------------------------------------ --> | |||
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Object triggers= | Object triggers= | ||
These triggers all directly affect objects or, optionally, other triggers. These were introduced in 2.0. | These triggers all directly affect objects or, optionally, other triggers. These were introduced in 2.0. | ||
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<!-- ------------------------------------------PAIRED TRIGGERS------------------------------------------ --> | |||
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Paired triggers= | Paired triggers= | ||
These triggers are object triggers whose functionality relies on other triggers. These were introduced in 2.0. | These triggers are object triggers whose functionality relies on other triggers. These were introduced in 2.0. | ||
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<!-- ------------------------------------------ITEM TRIGGERS------------------------------------------ --> | |||
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Item triggers= | Item triggers= | ||
These triggers are object triggers that require the use of ItemIDs and/or TimeIDs. They were introduced in 2.1. | These triggers are object triggers that require the use of ItemIDs and/or TimeIDs. They were introduced in 2.1. | ||
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<!-- ------------------------------------------AREA TRIGGERS------------------------------------------ --> | |||
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Area triggers= | Area triggers= | ||
These triggers affect objects in a specified area around a single object belonging to its own group, either player, or different places on the screen. This section is still in the works (better descriptions, setup menus, etc. all needed). These were introduced in 2.2. | These triggers affect objects in a specified area around a single object belonging to its own group, either player, or different places on the screen. This section is still in the works (better descriptions, setup menus, etc. all needed). These were introduced in 2.2. | ||
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<!-- ------------------------------------------MANIPULATION TRIGGERS------------------------------------------ --> | |||
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Manipulation triggers= | Manipulation triggers= | ||
These triggers directly affect (manipulate) gameplay in unique ways - and were designed to do so - they were introduced in 2.2. | These triggers directly affect (manipulate) gameplay in unique ways - and were designed to do so - they were introduced in 2.2. | ||
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<!-- ------------------------------------------COSMETIC TRIGGERS------------------------------------------ --> | |||
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Cosmetic triggers= | Cosmetic triggers= | ||
These triggers are merely cosmetic effects, and were introduced on the game's release. | These triggers are merely cosmetic effects, and were introduced on the game's release. | ||
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<!-- ------------------------------------------CAMERA TRIGGERS------------------------------------------ --> | |||
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Camera triggers= | Camera triggers= | ||
Camera triggers adjust the game's camera, which follows the player by default. These were supposed to be released in 2.1, but got held back to 2.2. | Camera triggers adjust the game's camera, which follows the player by default. These were supposed to be released in 2.1, but got held back to 2.2. | ||
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<!-- ------------------------------------------SHADER FX------------------------------------------ --> | |||
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Shader effect triggers= | Shader effect triggers= | ||
Shader effect triggers control visual post-processing effects. These were introduced in 2.2. This section is still in the works. | Shader effect triggers control visual post-processing effects. These were introduced in 2.2. This section is still in the works. | ||
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</div> | </div> | ||
<!-- ------------------------------------------AUDIO TRIGGERS------------------------------------------ --> | |||
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Audio triggers= | Audio triggers= | ||
Audio Triggers affect songs or sound effects in your level. These were introduced in 2.2. | Audio Triggers affect songs or sound effects in your level. These were introduced in 2.2. | ||
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<!-- ------------------------------------------TRANSITION TRIGGERS------------------------------------------ --> | |||
<!-- do not forget the Enter Effect ones, if y'all want to do a new category it is fine for me. ... i added them :) --> | <!-- do not forget the Enter Effect ones, if y'all want to do a new category it is fine for me. ... i added them :) --> | ||
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Transition triggers= | Transition triggers= | ||
Transition triggers affect how objects enter and exit the screen. This is cosmetic and does not affect physical gameplay (except the inaccessible in editor one). Custom enter effect triggers were also added in 2.2, allowing players to further customize how objects enter and exit the screen. These were introduced on the game's release. | Transition triggers affect how objects enter and exit the screen. This is cosmetic and does not affect physical gameplay (except the inaccessible in editor one). Custom enter effect triggers were also added in 2.2, allowing players to further customize how objects enter and exit the screen. These were introduced on the game's release. | ||
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<!-- ------------------------------------------MISC TRIGGERS------------------------------------------ --> | |||
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Miscellaneous= | Miscellaneous= | ||
These triggers indirectly affect gameplay, or do not fit in any other category. These were introduced on the game's release. | These triggers indirectly affect gameplay, or do not fit in any other category. These were introduced on the game's release. | ||
Latest revision as of 18:16, 12 October 2026
Triggers are features in the Geometry Dash level editor used to manipulate surrounding objects in levels. All triggers other than the Start Position trigger are used in levels as an effect trigger. Triggers can be selected on the 13th tab represented by the colour trigger in Update 2.1, apart from the Letter triggers and checkpoints.
While the feature of triggers has been existent since being introduced in game release, object triggers have been formally introduced in Update 2.0.
There are 133 different types of triggers (134 if you count the circular force block seperately), all of which can be found in the table below.
How to Use
[edit | edit source]We will use the move trigger as an example.
Step 1: Place an object
Step 2: Tap "Edit Group"
Step 3: Set Group ID to any number you want.
Step 4: Tap "Add" (This is crucial!)
Step 5: Place a move trigger and tap "Edit Object"
Step 6: Target the same group ID as your object
Step 7: Drag the X and/or Y slider and the duration slider.
Congrats, you know how to use triggers now!
Types
[edit | edit source]

Changes the colour of the specified group or channel. The transition time from the original colour to the new colour is set with the 'Fade time' bar. These were introduced on the game's release.
Setup menu gallery
Superseded triggers
Preview
These triggers all directly affect objects or, optionally, other triggers. These were introduced in 2.0.
These triggers are object triggers whose functionality relies on other triggers. These were introduced in 2.0.
| Trigger | Setup menu | Description | Preview | Introduced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spawn triggers activate a certain group of triggers that are marked "Spawn Triggered". When activated, the group to be activated will be triggered at the same time, regardless of horizontal placement. In Update 2.1 the trigger was updated with an option to delay the group's activation with a slider, with Update 2.2 adding increased precision to the delay. By default, the triggers activated by a spawn trigger can only be triggered once, even if the player passes by multiple spawn triggers activating the same triggers. This can be changed by checking the "Multi Activate" box in the triggers being spawn triggered.
In Update 2.2 a second page was added called the "Spawn Remap setup" where you can make other objects do the same actions without having to copy the same group of triggers useful for optimization, just change IDs by putting the first ID of the object you have an existing setup in "OriginalID" and the second ID of you new object on "NewID", then press the "+" button to add the modification and next time you active this trigger, the trigger will spawn the same trigger setup but affecting your new object, if you want to delete the added ID remap just press the box with the two IDs and after it turns pink press the "-" button to delete it, other thing you can do is when pressed the box then the "OriginalID" and "NewID" fields gets updated with the IDs the selected box has, you can use this to change one ID and prevent having to write both IDs. Here is an example of spawn remapping: A spawn trigger is set to spawn multiple triggers that change group 1, and you want the triggers to instead affect group 2. To do this, in "OriginalID" you put group 1 and in "NewID" you put group 2 (Have in mind if you want to spawn the same group of triggers with the remapped IDs then you have to activate the "Multi-Triggered" checkbox on the triggers with "Spawn Triggered" activated). The first page has 3 checkboxes, those being:
This trigger appears as teal green in the level editor. |
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|
Update 2.0 | ||
| The Stop trigger terminates the functions of all triggers within a selected group. To do this, the player must input the group ID of a trigger they wish to stop in the text box labelled "Group ID," and place the trigger in a convenient location.
In Update 2.2 three new features were added to the trigger. The first two are the "Resume" and "Pause" triggers. They can be placed by placing a stop trigger and clicking the checkboxes labeled "Resume" and "Pause" respectively. When a group is paused with a pause trigger, the group's actions are halted. Unlike a stop trigger, the player may spawn the group with a "Resume Trigger" to continue the group's actions. The third is a "UseControlID" checkbox, which if checked makes the stop trigger check for a Control ID rather than a Group ID. Control IDs can be added to triggers by selecting them, tapping the "Edit Group" button, then tapping the "Extra2" button, and finally setting your desired Control ID. This trigger incorporates the Spawn-Triggered and Touch-Triggered options and appears as maroon in the level editor. If the "Pause" or "Resume" checkboxes are activated, the trigger will appear as orange or green. |
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|
Update 2.1 | ||
| The collision trigger sets off an action upon two selected collision block's encounter. It uses a special block called "Collision block"
The player is to assign IDs to 2 blocks (block A/B), which are the blocks that are to collide. Keep in note that one of the said blocks must have the "Dynamic Block" box checked in order to work. The player may determine whether block A and B's collision shall make the target objects activate or deactivate. The player must also input the "Target ID," which is the Group ID of the object(s) the player wishes to (de)activate. If the "Trigger On Exit" tick box is checked, the trigger will function when both blocks were but are no longer within each other's hitbox. When the trigger functions, the target group will be (de)activated, and it will work as a Spawn trigger to the same group; every "Spawn-Triggered" trigger in the group will be activated (if the player chose to activate the target group). This trigger includes the Spawn-Triggered and Touch-Triggered options and appears as light blue in the level editor. |
|
Update 2.1 | ||
| The instant collision trigger is different than the collision trigger, only checking for collision when it is activated. It has the same "BlockA/B ID" boxes as the collision trigger, but instead spawns "TrueID" or "FalseID" depending on whether the collision is or is not happening (respectively). This also has 3 checkboxes present in the collision trigger, the P1/2/P checkboxes. Selecting "P1/2" sets "BlockA" to player 1/2 respectively, selecting both at once sets "BlockA" to either player (P), and selecting "PP" sets "BlockA" to player 1 and "BlockB" to player 2 along with deactivating the other 2 checkboxes. |
|
Update 2.2 | ||
The sequence trigger spawns a sequence of triggers each time it is activated. To use this trigger, put a group ID in the "GroupID" box, and the number of times you want it to activate in a row in the "Count" box; and then press the [+] button. You have just added a "Step" to the sequence trigger. These steps can be selected by tapping on/clicking them, the currently selected step (if any) is shown as pink. All steps, up to a max of 32, are put in the center of the trigger's menu in the order they are activated (except 22 of them do not appear). There are also options for ending modes and reset modes, those being:
There are 2 sliders for resetting the sequence, MinInt and Reset. MinInt is the minimum interval between steps (to quote the help menu), if the next step is not activated before [MinInt] seconds, then the sequence is reset. Reset resets the sequence after [Reset] seconds, regardless of if the trigger is activated again in that time.
|
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Update 2.2 | ||
| The random trigger spawns 1 of 2 groups of triggers randomly. The Chance slider is the chance group 1 will be activated as a %, the chance of group 2 being activated is (100-[Chance])%. For example, if Chance is 75%, group 1 has a 75% chance of activating and group 2 has a 25% chance of activating.
Note: It only spawns triggers, do not work as a Toggle trigger if you were wondering. |
|
Update 2.2 | ||
| The Advanced Random (AdvRand) trigger randomly spawns 1 of up to 20 groups (despite the fact that only 10 actually fit inside the box at the center of the screen). To use this trigger, put a group ID in the "GroupID" box, and the relative chance of the group being spawned in the "Chance" box; and then press the [+] button. The relative chance is converted into a % using the formula 100([Chance]/[All chances added together]).
Note: It only spawns triggers, do not work as a Toggle trigger if you were wondering. |
|
Update 2.2 | ||
Edits attributes of an object being affected by an advanced follow trigger, it has the same "+-" sliders as said trigger.
|
|
Update 2.2 | ||
| The re-target advanced follow trigger sets "Target GID" to follow a different group, using options from both the 2 previously listed triggers. It also has the longest name of any trigger. |
|
Update 2.2 | ||
| The keyframe trigger plays a keyframe animation made by the player. Animation Group ID is the groupID of every keyframe. Target ID can be a different group to use for the animation, rather than using the one set in the keyframes (see below). Parent ID can be a group parent to use for the center of rotation for the animation (useful if the animation consists of multiple objects). The modifiers on the second page speed up/slow down the animation (Time Mod), offset movement (Position X/Y Mod), amplify rotation (Rotation Mod, a multiplier), and amplify scaling (Scale X/Y Mod, also a multiplier). |
|
Update 2.2 | ||
|
Keyframes are used for building keyframe animations. They act as the different "steps" in an animation, where objects move (move the keyframes), rotate (to where the arrow faces), and scale (scale the keyframes) from one step to the next. Multiple are needed for an animation, and they ALL need to have the SAME groupID. You also need to copy + paste the previous keyframe to continue the animation. There are also tons of options in the trigger's menu, they are:
|
|
Update 2.2 |
These triggers are object triggers that require the use of ItemIDs and/or TimeIDs. They were introduced in 2.1.
These triggers affect objects in a specified area around a single object belonging to its own group, either player, or different places on the screen. This section is still in the works (better descriptions, setup menus, etc. all needed). These were introduced in 2.2.
These triggers directly affect (manipulate) gameplay in unique ways - and were designed to do so - they were introduced in 2.2.
These triggers are merely cosmetic effects, and were introduced on the game's release.
Camera triggers adjust the game's camera, which follows the player by default. These were supposed to be released in 2.1, but got held back to 2.2.
Shader effect triggers control visual post-processing effects. These were introduced in 2.2. This section is still in the works.
Audio Triggers affect songs or sound effects in your level. These were introduced in 2.2.
| Trigger | Setup menu | Description | Preview | Introduced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lets you change the song in the middle of a level. You can choose between your saved songs, a song ID on newgrounds, the music library and NCS. You cannot use the official songs from main levels. | Error creating thumbnail: File:SongTriggerPreviewLow.mp4 |
Update 2.2 | ||
| Let's you modify the song you previously chose. You can stop the song, change the speed, change the volume, or even make it only play in a certain area. | Error creating thumbnail: File:EditSongTriggerPreviewLow.mp4 |
Update 2.2 | ||
|
Lets you put a sound effect in your level to make it more realistic. There are over 23,000 to choose from! You can also put effects like reverb and looping on them. | Error creating thumbnail: File:SFXTriggerPreviewLow.mp4 |
Update 2.2 | |
|
Same as Edit Song but with SFX. | Error creating thumbnail: File:EditSFXTriggerPreviewLow.mp4 |
Update 2.2 |
Transition triggers affect how objects enter and exit the screen. This is cosmetic and does not affect physical gameplay (except the inaccessible in editor one). Custom enter effect triggers were also added in 2.2, allowing players to further customize how objects enter and exit the screen. These were introduced on the game's release.
These triggers indirectly affect gameplay, or do not fit in any other category. These were introduced on the game's release.
Move trigger expanded
To move a group of objects, get the Group ID to the objects, and fill it in the Target Group ID in the settings menu for the Move Trigger. Set the Move X and Move Y properties to however many steps the object should move. With default settings, 10 steps make up the length of a full block. For Move X, positive values move to the right and negative values to the left. For Move Y, positive values move upwards and negative values move downwards. To make a group move 2 blocks down, put in -20. Move Time controls how long the movement takes in seconds.
An object may be moved by two different move triggers at the same time, since movement is applied relatively each tick, not towards an absolute target. This is still true if the Dynamic Mode setting is used, but is a bit more nuanced (see below).
Move Triggers may be stopped in the middle of their movement by Stop Triggers. The movement is also allowed to be Paused and Resumed by the Stop Trigger's variants.
Objects that have been Toggled Off by the Toggle Trigger may still be targeted, and can still be moved by Move Triggers.
Some options in the Object Options menu (Edit Group > Extra) affect how Move Triggers interact with the player. DontBoostY and DontBoostX prevent the player from getting flung by faster-moving objects. In platformer levels, the NonStickX option will disable the player from inheriting the horizontal motion of the platform they are standing on; the platform will slide under the player. The NonStickY option does the same, for if the gameplay is rotated with the Rotate Gameplay Trigger. The ExtraSticky option controls what happens when the player stands on a platform that is moving down very quickly. If the setting is off, the player won't stick to the platform if it moves faster than the player's maximum fall speed. If the setting is on, the player will stick to the platform at higher speeds, but it is still possible for it to be too fast even for ExtraSticky.
Trigger options
Movement by X or Y
- Move X - The amount of horizontal movement. Negative means moving left, and positive means moving right.
- Move Y - The amount of vertical movement. Negative means moving down, and positive means moving up.
10 units is equal to 1 block on the grid. If Small Step is enabled, 30 units is equal to 1 block on the grid.
Lock X or Y
Optionally, the X and Y movement can be replaced with locking them to the player or to the camera. The lock setting can make it look like the object is stuck in place relative to the player or camera. It is not actually "stuck" anywhere, though. The way this works is that any movement from the player or camera in the X or Y directions between two ticks of the game is copied and also applied to the target.
If a lock setting is enabled, Move X or Move Y is replaced with is corresponding setting from these:
- Lock X: Player or Lock X: Camera
- Mod X - The movement of the player or camera along the X direction is copied onto the movement target, but is multiplied by Mod X. Negative values will make the target move in the opposite direction.
- Lock Y: Player or Lock Y: Camera
- Mod Y - The movement of the player or camera along the Y direction is copied onto the movement target, but is multiplied by Mod Y. Negative values will make the target move in the opposite direction.
X and Y may be locked or not locked independent of each other.

the camera with the Move Trigger (top)
versus the UI trigger (bottom).
Locking to the camera with a Move Trigger to create a HUD or UI may be better suited for the UI trigger. The UI trigger cannot, however, create an effect where something follows the camera but is still layered behind level elements.
Target Mode
If the Target Mode setting is enabled, the X and Y settings will be removed and replaced with the Target Mode settings.
- Target Mode
- Center Group ID - This defines which target object should be treated as the center if multiple objects are in the target group. The center object will move to the exact position of the target position, and all of the other moving objects will keep their relative position to the center object. If this is left undefined, the parent of the target group is the center object. If the target group has no parent object, then a center object is chosen randomly from the target group. (The center object does not technically have to be in the target group. If it isn't, then it will not move, but all of the target objects will move as if it did and was the center.) (There is weird behaviour if a center is provided AND the target group has a parent object)
- TargetPos Group ID - The target objects will move to the position of the object in this group. If the group contains multiple objects, one is selected randomly as the target position.
- P1 - Overrides TargetPos Group ID. Player 1 is the target position.
- P2 - Overrides TargetPos Group ID. Player 2 is the target position.
Direction Mode
As an alternative to Target mode, the Direction Mode setting can be enabled. This still removes the X and Y settings, replacing them with the Direction Mode settings. (Target Mode and Direction Mode are mutually exclusive.)
- Direction Mode
- Center Group Id - This works the same as it does for Target Mode (see above).
- TargetPos Group ID - The target object is selected similarly from this group as it is for Target mode.
- Distance - The movement will be in the direction from the center object to the target object, but the amount of movement in that direction will be this many units. 10 units is equal to 1 block on the grid. If Small Step is enabled, 30 units is equal to 1 block on the grid.
- P1 - Overrides TargetPos Group ID. Player 1 is the target position.
- P2 - Overrides TargetPos Group ID. Player 2 is the target position.
The movement in Direction Mode will not stop at the target position if it happens to move over it. The movement will always use the full Distance.
(For an object to move towards something, the center object should be in the target group. For an object to merely move a specific amount in a specific direction, like 30 degrees and 6 blocks, it can sometimes be handier to have the center object not be in the target group. In that case, the center and target position can just be defined anywhere and treated like an arrow.)
Dynamic Mode
The movement for Target Mode and Direction Mode is only calculated once, when the trigger first triggers, at which point it acts the same as if it had an X and Y position typed in, but computed instead. If the target group is moved by another move trigger, or the target position object moved to another location, the trigger will "miss" the target position by the end of the movement because it is not updated. This is often desirable, but if the desired behaviour is to use the target position even if it changes, then the Dynamic Mode option should be used.
- Dynamic Mode - If the Move Trigger is set to Target Mode or Direction Mode, then the target position is updated continuously over the course of the movement. This does not do anything in the normal mode.
Dynamic Mode can make it harder to combine the movements of multiple Move Triggers together. Take note when using Target Mode and Dynamic Mode together; by the end of the movement, the target group will be at the target position.
Dynamic Mode used with Target Mode can sometimes appear as if the target group is accelerating or decelerating when the target position is moving, even if the easing is set to None. This is because the easing is calculated based on the starting position of the movement. If the movement is 80% done, the target group will be positioned 80% of the way from the starting position towards wherever the target position is, but if the target position is changing, then the 80% that it would have been at the start of the movement (had the target position not moved) may be different from the 80% at 80% of the way through the movement.
Dynamic Mode used with Direction Mode will continuously update the direction based on the difference between the target position and the center object. The direction may turn at any speed. If a maximum turning speed is needed, then the Advanced Follow Trigger should be used instead.
Other options
- Move Time - How long the movement should take. A setting of -1 sets the movement to last forever. Other negative values will cause no movement at all.
- Easing - Applies an animation curve to speed up or slow down the movement over its course. A setting of None means it will move at a constant rate (excepting Target Mode + Dynamic Mode).
- Target Group ID - The group of objects to move.
- Silent - This changes what happens if the Move Time is set to 0 in platformer levels. Normally, a player standing on a moving platform will stick to it if it moves, even if the Move Time is 0. If this setting is enabled, the player will not stick to the platform when the Move Time is 0.
Limitations
Triggers and Speed portals are moveable, but may only move vertically in classic mode. Any attempted movement along the horizontal direction will not be applied.
Triggers that are set to be Touch Triggered cannot be moved horizontally by Move Triggers. To workaround this, a Collision Trigger and a Collision Block may be used instead, since the Collision Block may be moved.
Move Triggers with a Move Time of 0 are not applied instantly; if a Spawn Trigger spawns two Move Triggers, the first of which changes the position of an object, and the second moves another object to the position of the first object, the second object will be placed where the first object was before being moved, even though its Move Trigger came first.
Here is an animation of a Spawn Trigger setup showing how Move Triggers with Move Time of 0 do not get applied instantly. If the Move Trigger for Group 13 was applied instantly, both objects would have ended up at the same spot.
Trivia
- The game's code uses the system where 30 units = 1 block. If, in the editor, Show Object Info is enabled from the pause menu, selecting any trigger will show its position, and moving it one block will change its position by 30.
- Even though triggers may still be moved vertically, Move Triggers cannot be used to change the timing of triggers when using an Rotate Gameplay Trigger to execute triggers in a vertical order. The trigger will spawn at the same time as if it had not been moved.
Toggle trigger expanded
Groups can be toggled on by a Toggle Trigger with the Activate Group setting enabled. All groups are toggled on by default.
Toggle Triggers can disable almost all objects. Pads, orbs, portals, animated objects, pickups, beacons, text, user coins, each of the D, J, H, S, and F Blocks, Force Blocks, and Checkpoints for Platformer Mode. Particles emitted by pads, orbs, portals, and pickups will immediately disappear, but particles emitted by the particle object will stay (but no longer be emitted). It will not toggle off pickups or user coins that are already in their collecting animation. Effects from interacting with a portal are also allowed to finish, and the lightning from touching a checkpoint is not removed either.
Triggers that are toggled off will not be able to activate. However, triggers with an ongoing duration that were already started will continue their ongoing effect even if toggled off. This includes Color, Move, Pulse, Alpha, Rotate, Scale, Follow, Shake, Follow Player Y, Advanced Follow, Keyframe, Camera, and Shader Triggers, and the Spawn Trigger's delay. This also includes the constant checks that the Count and Collision triggers do. The Time, Time Event, and Event Triggers will still activate/spawn their target group if they are toggled off after already being triggered. To stop an ongoing effect, use the Stop Trigger.
Objects that are toggled off may still be the target of other triggers. An object that is toggled off can still be moved by a Move Trigger and have its alpha adjusted by an Alpha Trigger.
The Toggle Trigger updates its target group immediately. If it is spawned, all objects in its group will toggle before spawn execution resumes. This can change which triggers are eligible to be spawned within the execution of a Spawn Trigger.
In this image, Item Edit Triggers are being used with four Counter Labels to count how many times they are spawned. Since the spawning happens from left-to-right, Toggle Triggers are able to enable or disable Triggers that are still to be spawned.
Toggle Triggers cannot be used to change the position of the End Wall.
Trigger options
- Group ID - When activated, the toggle trigger will toggle off all objects in the group with this id.
- Activate Group - If this is set, the trigger will instead toggle on all objects in the group with this id. This also makes the trigger appear as a green color instead of red.
Trivia
- Unlike most triggers in the game, the graphic for the Toggle Trigger is actually composed of two sprites. One of them is a white-colored trigger circle, and the other is simply the text "Toggle". It was done this way so the circle could be recolored red or green, depending on the trigger's Activate Group setting.
- The Stop Trigger also functions like this.
- The texture rectangle for edit_eToggleBtn2_001.png cuts off a pixel on the left, bottom, and right sides.
- The first main level to have Toggle Triggers is Geometrical Dominator. It has 2 of them, and they are used to control whether or not the platform you ride in the Ball section should move down or not. They're set so it does not move down, except if the player touches the ringish Spawn Trigger that would cause it to be moved up.
Gallery
-
edit_eToggleBtn_001.png
-
edit_eToggleBtn2_001.png
-
What it looks like uncolored
Spawn trigger expanded
Spawn Triggered triggers will no longer activate normally as the player passes them, and will only activate when another trigger spawns the group it is in. When spawning a group of triggers, they will all activate at the same time no matter where they are positioned in the level.
Triggers are spawned in order from left to right, then in order based on when they were loaded. If a spawned trigger spawns more triggers, it will first spawn all of its triggers before resuming the initial spawn. If you are familiar with programming, it works like a function call.
The order the triggers are loaded in is based on the way the objects are ordered in a level's save data. Spawning breaks ties in x-position with load order, from newest object to oldest object. You can reorder this by using Copy+Paste on a trigger and deleting its original to make it the newest object. This order can differ between edit mode and play mode. Because this order is not visible, it's more difficult to use. It is recommended to use x-position for things that rely on spawning in the correct order.
The order that triggers are spawned is not changed by Rotate Gameplay Triggers that make normal triggers activate vertically. They will still spawn left-to-right.
Triggers can normally only ever be spawned once. If another trigger tries to spawn them for a second time, nothing will happen. If a trigger is marked as "Multi-Trigger", then it can be triggered any number of times.
Multi-triggered triggers can be spawned multiple times within the same tick. However, a trigger cannot spawn other triggers multiple times within the same tick.
The Item Edit triggers in this example count how many times they are triggered. The Spawn Trigger for group 10, despite being triggered twice, is only able to spawn other triggers once per tick.
Trace out and trace in
The Trace Out and Trace In tools are on the side of the Edit Group menu. Enabling Trace Out for a trigger will draw arrows pointing to everything this trigger spawns, and everything those triggers spawn, recursively. Enabling Trace In on a trigger will draw an arrow pointing from whatever spawns this trigger, and from whatever spawns that, recursively. These can only be used on one object at a time.
Trigger options
- Group ID - When activated, the spawn trigger will spawn all triggers in the group with this id.
- Delay - The spawn trigger will wait this many seconds before spawning.
- +- - Adds a random variance to the delay.
- Preview Disable - The editor normally computes which triggers will be spawned by the editor preview, if the trigger gets spawned in a deterministic way. Check this setting to disable previews of triggers spawned by this trigger.
- Spawn Ordered - This changes the way the spawned triggers are spawned. The leftmost triggers in the target group will be spawned instantly, but all other triggers in the group will be spawned with a delay based on their distance to the left side of the group. The rate that they are triggered at is the same as a 1x speed player.
- Reset Remap - Resets Spawn Remapping for subsequently spawned triggers (see below).
Spawn remapping
This allows you to define a mapping that reassigns group ids to other group ids. For example, if group id 17 is remapped to group id 18, then all triggers spawned by this trigger that would have targeted group id 17 will now target group id 18 instead.
The mapping applies to everything that logically follows from the Spawn Trigger. If one of the spawned triggers itself spawns more triggers, the mapping will also affect those triggers.
Spawn loops
A Spawn Trigger that spawns itself is called a spawn loop. Some examples of spawn loops would be a Spawn Trigger spawn another Spawn Trigger that spawns the first trigger, or a Spawn Trigger that spawns its own group.
To create a Spawn Loop, the triggers will need to be set to Multi-Trigger, and the delay must be higher than 0 somewhere in the loop.
Trivia
- The first RobTop level to have Spawn Triggers is Geometrical Dominator. It has 3 of them, as Touch Triggered, in the UFO and Ball section where the player needs to touch rings to open doors or bring up a platform.
The Particle Editor
[edit | edit source]This is not technically a trigger, but is instead the particle editor. Since it does not have its own section, this is probably a suitable place for it. It has many options (along with +- sliders), which are listed in the tabber below.
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Motion Section (Gravity)
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Motion Section (Radius)
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Visual Section
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Extra Section
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Texture Section
This section controls the motion of the particles.
- General:
- Max Particles - Max amount of particles coming from this object that can coexist (eg if it is 30, only 30 particles at a time may be emitted before any more can)
- Duration - The duration in seconds for which particles are emitted before they stop being emitted (until all the particles "die", at which point the cycle continues)
- Inf. - Sets the duration to -1 (which is an infinite duration)
- Lifetime - How long the particles last, in seconds, before "dying" (disappearing/despawning)
- Note that for start/end settings, particles transition from the start setting to the end setting gradually over [Lifetime] seconds
- Emission - How many particles are emitted per second
- Max - Sets the Emission to -1 (an endless stream of particles)
- Calc - Calculates what the emission should be based on different settings you have set
- Angle - This refers to the angle at which particles are emitted (in gravity mode negative 90 is up, and in radius mode positive 90 is up for some reason)
- Gravity Mode:
- Speed - Speed at which particles travel, make it negative for them to go in the other direction
- PosVarX/Y - Randomized offset where particles spawn on each axis
- GravityX/Y - Gravity on each axis (+x = right, -x = left, +y = up, -y = down)
- AccelRad/Tan - Boosted acceleration in both directions on the X and Y axes respectively
- Radius Mode:
- Start/EndRad - Distance from the object's center in every direction at which particles spawn and despawn respectively
- RotSec - Rotations per second, how many times per second particles rotate around the object's center from start to finish
These sections control visual attributes of the particles.
Visual:
- Start/End Size - Size of particles when they spawn and despawn respectively
- Start/End Spin - Rotation of particles when they spawn and despawn respectively
- Start/EndRGBA - Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha (opacity) values of particles when they spawn and despawn, respectively
Texture:
- (Images) - 213 different textures to change the particles to!
- PerfLog - Shows the following in the bottom right of the preveiw panel (in the bottom left)
- [Active ("Alive"/Currently Present) Particles]/[Max Particles]
- [Draw Cost] - Try to keep this as low as possible (do not set every setting and +- slider to max, do not abuse particles and settings)
Misc Buttons (Not in either section):
- C Button - Force-updates particle colors in the main editor
- P Button - Force-updates particle texture in the main editor and exits the particle editor
This section has the most options, and controls everything else about the particles that wasn't in the previous 2 sections.
Those options are:
- Free - Particles remain at the same relative position with the camera throughout their lifetimes, wherever they spawn relative to the camera is where they stay until they despawn
- Relative - Particles remain at the same relative position with the level throughout their lifetimes, the position at which they spawn at in the level is where they stay (this is useful for trails)
- Grouped - Particles remain at the same relative position with the object throughout their lifetimes, if the object moves, the particles do too (note: this would not create a trail effect)
- Fade In/Out - Duration in seconds at which particles fade in/out after spawning and before despawning respectively
- FrictionP/S/R - Friction P adds friction to particles on the both axes
- Respawn
- Additive - Toggles transparency of the particles (on = transparent particles)
- Start Size/Spin/Rad = End - Makes the start size, spin, and/or radius end values equal to their respective start values (this overrides settings you set)
- Start rot is dir - Makes particles rotate the direction they move towards, rotation can still be applied afterward
- This was probably meant to work the other way around
- Use/Uniform obj color - Makes particles use the object color, uniform object color also makes particles' color update with the object's color, along with for some reason hiding them in the editor
- Dynamic Rotation - Same as Start rot is dir, except rotation cannot be applied afterward
- Animate on Trigger - Can be toggled by an animate trigger (similar to the spawn particle trigger)
- Animate Active Only - Particles do not spawn unless activated by an animat or spawn particle trigger
- Order Sensitive - Makes the particles sensitive to order, see trivia section for more info (will put it in the editor page, too)
- Start/End RGB VarSync - Makes the start and end +- sliders next to Start/EndRGB equal respectively (ex Start RGB VarSync makes the +- sliders next to StartR/G/B equal)
- Quick Start - Makes the particles load faster
Touch Triggered, Spawn Triggered and Multi-Trigger
[edit | edit source]All triggers except letter triggers have a "Touch Triggered" option. Enabling this will give the trigger a hitbox; the trigger will be activated only if the player enters the hitbox.
Every trigger mentioned before here (except the letter triggers) also has a "Spawn Triggered" option. Enabling this will make the trigger not activate at all (not even if the player goes past it) until it is spawned using the spawn mechanic found in spawn, touch, count, instant count, collision, instant collision, state, time, time event, end, and on death triggers, and the toggle block.
After enabling any of this checks a third option appears named Multi-Trigger, when checked it allows the trigger to be activated multiple times by just re-entering the hitbox if "Touch Triggered" or activated by a Spawn Trigger if "Spawn Triggered" instead of just once, this can come handy if you want a certain group of triggers do the same action multiple times, if you want to do a loop action with triggers, or if you want to use spawn remapping.
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Trigger without "Spawn or Touch Triggered" checks activated
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Trigger with "Spawn Triggered" check activated
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Trigger with "Touch Triggered" check activated
Trivia
[edit | edit source]- Before Update 2.2, almost every trigger added in Update 2.1 had either unfinished or placeholder help text such as "X trigger help" or "X trigger command help."

- To compensate for the unfinished help text, RobTop created two levels named "Editor Examples 002" and "Editor Examples 003", which demonstrate the functions of the new 2.1 triggers.
- On the filtred editor of Update 2.2 taken from the updated spin off games, if you press the help button on the 2.2 triggers you will find funny messages RobTop left as a placeholder and in case someone hack the game.
- In Update 2.0, infinite colour channels were introduced, allowing players to now use far more colors in various background objects and tiles, unlike before in 1.9, when players are limited to only four colour channels. As of Update 2.2, the max amount of colour channels is 999.
- The square-shaped custom ring in the editor serves as a toggle trigger: it can activate or deactivate a group upon tapping.
- The item pickups may also serve as touch toggle triggers: it can activate or deactivate a group upon being touched.
- The player may disable the effects of shake triggers in Options, where they may select "Disable Shake Effects."
- In Update 2.1, the triggers that changed the line, ground 1, ground 2, background, object colour, and 3DL were merged into a new trigger, the colour trigger.
- The player can navigate to the "+" symbol in the Colour trigger, thereby opening the "Special Colour Select" to acquire the ability to change a special colour.
- The "Tint Ground" option is exclusive to the background colour trigger. It would change the ground 1 colour to the same colour as the background.
- This does not work in the editor's play test mode.
- The original special colour triggers (BG, G, G2, LINE, OBJ, 3DL) can be used by copying one of them as a special object or adding them to the player’s custom objects in/from a level made before Update 2.1 was released.

- There is an unused counter trigger texture accessible by selecting it on custom delete.
- The solid start position was a "level end" object that did nothing in 1.0.
- In Update 2.2, an end trigger was added, acting how the unused trigger is suspected to have worked, ending the level upon activation.
- If a Spawn trigger is configured to spawn a Stop trigger with more than 0 delay and the Stop trigger is configured to stop the Spawn trigger, the game crashes.
- SPAWN Group 2 (in Group 1) --> STOP Group 1 (in Group 2)
- Fixed in Geometry Dash World 2.2.11.
- Spawning a trigger that is spawn triggered, touch triggered and multi activate (obtainable by editing level data) makes it no longer touch triggerable.
- But not in Geometry Dash World 2.2.11.
- There is another editor feature similar to gameplay channel called "Order". All triggers in order 1 must be activated before ANY triggers in order 2 can be activated, same for order 2, 3, etc. Triggers in order 0 are unaffected (since order 0 is just null).
- The game defaults both order and channel to 0, the difference is that channel 0 actually exists.
- Special color channels, like the background, ground and others have colour channels too, being (since 2.2):

- 1000 - BG
- 1001 - G1
- 1002 - Line(L)
- 1003 - 3DL
- 1004 - Object
- 1005 - P-Col 1
- 1006 - P-Col 2
- 1007 - Light BG
- 1009 - G2
- 1010 - Black
- 1011 - White
- 1012 - Lighter
- 1013 - MG
- 1014 - MG2
Any more than 1014 will only return "N/A".
Also some color channels (such as 1200, 2000 etc,) are corrupted meaning they *often* crash the game
- The Gameplay Rotation Trigger can mess with Camera Triggers if those are activated from start and if the Gameplay Rotation Trigger do not have "Spawn Triggered" or "Touch Triggered" activated.
- If using the Item Counter with "Attempts" option checked on classic mode, the counter will not count your total attempts, it is a weird bug because this needs to count in either classic and platformer mode but this will count only on platformer but with a little delay starting from "0" and then your current attempt.
- When you make the Item Counter show "Points" you see the game is taking 1000 points by each second it passes, it is because for default this condition is enabled and the only way to make it stop is by going to the extra options from the editor's option menu (Not the ones inside the editor's pause menu) and check "No time penalty" option.
- Secret coins have a similar functionality to triggers, they can spawn a groupID when collected. Although, this isn't something you can see unless you have a way to see unlisted objects in the editor.
- Also secret coins are auto-deleted after you exit the editor, so even if you get one in your level it's pretty useless because it'll be gone very soon.
- This also applies to User Coins and the best way to see it in action is if you have a copy of one of any of the official platformer levels, copy the coin from there, place it on a new level from the editor label and use the ID "279" ("281" for The Tower) on any Trigger, when taken it will activate the trigger with the same ID, even if you turn on the option "Trace In" on one of the SFX trigger with the ID "279" ("281" for The Tower) you'll see the effect is activated directly from the coins and not from a hidden trigger.[1]

- Keyframe Object has a bug where if after giving an ID of an object and check "Preview art" when you want to see the keyframe you see it's gone but you can select it, to prevent this you need to put an object with the same ID as Parent (Parent ID works as a center for your group of objects) and when you select all the line of keyframes with "Select all" and "Update art" if you already checked "Preview art" or just uncheck and check said option again and you will see the preview again.
- The second bug is when you uncheck "Preview art" on your Keyframe Object, you'll see that the keyframe arrow is moved away from the center and it's hitbox to click gets a little bigger, this bug gets fixed when you exit and re-enter to the editor.


- If selected two Toggle Blocks and check "Edit Object" instead of the normal options you see in a normal Toggle Block, you will see trigger options meaning the setup menu turned instead to be for a Toggle Box it changed to be for the Toggle Trigger, messing with the options does nothing and doesn't affect the funtionality of the Toggle Blocks.
- While the timewarp trigger's help menu does tell you how the trigger works, Robtop also left another message in the help menu. It reads:
- "I need to add more options before you can do Za Warudo..."
- "Za Warudo" means "The World" in Japanese (You know, a Jojo reference).

- There is a template trigger within the games files, that (as of 2.2) uses the texture for the state block. Within its menu, it's referred to as the "Object Control" trigger, despite doing nothing. It's another unlisted object, except it's not auto-deleted when you exit the level.


- On the initial release of the game there was a old texture for the end trigger but you cannot place it or use it because the game used that trigger as a position to create the end wall, even though if you hack the 1.0 version of the game to put that trigger on a level it won't do anything at all than work as a block.
- After 1.6 the texture was deleted from the game leaving an empty space but the fuction is still the same making the texture to be scrapped until we had the actual end trigger.
- After 2.0 the game uses the default block texture for this trigger, the fuction is still the same.
2.1 trigger help text
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Follow player Y help in 2.1 showing nothing.
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Collision Block help in 2.1 just showing a template message.
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Pickup help in 2.1, you get the idea.
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Move Enter Effect trigger help from the leaked editor of the spin off games with the early 2.2 code.
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Enter Effect help for noisy people.
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Stop Area help on the leaked editor for the new players of 2.2
Particles from the files in-game
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Most of the particle fx
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Most of the remaining particle fx
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Speed particle fx
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Particle fx for the end portal and bg particles in flying modes
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What all the colors mean































































































































































































































