Geometry Dash lets you do more with objects than just place and rermove them. There are many powerful and complex tools you can use as well. This guide explains the basics of Z Layer, Z Order, Edit Group, Edit Object, Copy Values, and Paste State.
Made by illusion2, Komatic5, and Sparktwee
Required Guide: Placing Objects
Easy Difficulty
Short (8-10 Minutes)
Z Layer and Z Order change how objects render on top of each other.
If you wish to change an object’s Z layer, select an object, and go to Edit Group. At the bottom you’ll see a section called “Z Layer”. Click on any of the buttons to set an object’s Z layer.
T Layers (T1, T2, etc) render above the player’s icon. B Layers render below T Layers and the player’s icon.
Z Order can be found in the Edit Group menu as well, just at the top right. You can either click the buttons or type a specific number to set an object’s Z Order. This is a more “specialized” version of Z Layer; objects with a higher Z Order number will render in front of the ones with a lower Z Order.
Z Layer takes priority over Z Order, so an object on layer T1 and order -5 will render above an object on layer B1 with order 10. Feel free to try this out yourself!
Tilesets are a new layering value introduced in Update 2.2. Objects with a lower tileset will always be above objects with a higher tileset, as long as the objects share the same Z layer. This overrides Z Order as it only affects objects in the same tileset.
You can check an object’s tileset by checking the value inside the parentheses next to “Z Layer.” If you select many objects with differing tileset numbers, it will show (-) in the parentheses.
If you ordered and layered everything correctly and still see something off, your problem might come from the tileset number, in which case you need to change the Z Layer or use different objects.
Groups allow triggers to target specific objects. We'll show you how to add them to triggers here; an explanation of what they really do is in the Groups guide.
Here's how to manage groups:
Open the Edit Group interface, and you'll see a counter with an "Add Group ID" button in the center.
Type or select an ID, then click Add to add the object to the group.
If you want a brand new group that hasn’t been used before, click Next Free and then click Add.
If you have exactly one object selected, click P to make it the Parent Group, which will once again be covered in the Groups guide.
To delete a group, click its number in the Group Box. To remove an object from Parent Group, click its number once.
The two Extra buttons give you more options to customize your objects. We'll explain each of the options in this section.
This button can be found in Edit Group, to the right of the Group interface. It lets you customize many object properties.
Don’t Fade and Don’t Enter: Stops the object from having an effect at the edge of the screen.
No Effects: Stops pads and portals from having effects as you interact with them, like the background flashes on size portals.
Group Parent: When rotating or scaling several objects, the objects will transform relative to the group parent; in other words, the group parent acts as the center point. This is not to be confused with Parent Group.
Area Parent: Functions as a group parent, but for area triggers. Make sure you link a set of objects together before making one object the area parent.
Don’t BoostY and Don’t BoostX: Stops the player from being boosted by moving blocks.
High Detail: When enabling “Low Detail Mode” outside the editor and playing the level, objects with High Detail will disappear, making the level less laggy.
NoTouch: Removes collisions from objects with a hitbox (e.g Static Objects), converting them to Detail Objects.
Passable: Allows the player to go through the block from the bottom or side, making for passable platforms.
Hide: Makes the object completely invisible. Toggling off "Hide Invisible" in the editor pause menu allows you to see the hidden objects.
NonStickX and NonStickY: When moving objects in platformer mode, the player will not stick to the object if they’re on top of it.
ExtraStickY: When moving objects downward fast with the player on it, this keeps the player on the object rather than having the player fall as if walking off a platform.
Extended Collision: Makes the hitboxes of objects match correctly when scaled up by a lot.
IceBlock: Makes objects extremely slippery, like an ice block. Useful in Platformer mode.
GripSlope: Stops the player from sliding off a slope. Useful in Platformer mode.
NoGlow: Static Objects have an inherent glow on their outlines only visible in normal mode; this option removes the glow.
NoParticle: Removes particles from objects like portals and pads.
ScaleStick: When using a scale trigger on an object with the player on it, the player will only move up. However, with this option, the player will move to the side as well relative to the center of the scaling.
NoAudioScale: Disables the scaling/pulsing on objects that pulse relative to the song, like the big pulsing circles.
In addition, some objects can have more options, which include the following:
Reverse: Reverses the gameplay direction as soon as you hit an orb or a pad. Orbs and Pads Only.
Single P Touch: If one player touches an Arrow Trigger while in Dual Mode, the trigger will only activate for the player that touches it. This feature is currently bugged as of Update 2.205.
Center Effect: Touch Triggered triggers will only activate once the player touches the center of the trigger.
Smooth Ease: Moves the camera smoothly rather than instantly when using any kind of teleport.
This tab is somewhat self-explanatory. There are various counters which you to change the IDs shown in the Using IDs guide. For more information on each of the counters, read that guide.
Keep in mind that not all objects are able to have certain IDs, meaning that some objects will not have some counters that others have.
The Anim button right under the Extra2 button serves as a shortcut to creating keyframes.
If you give some objects a group and have only one object as the parent group, you can click the Anim button and it will spawn a keyframe object on top of the parent group. You can then use the keyframe object as normal.
Keep in mind that this ONLY WORKS if you have a parent group. Check out the Keyframes guide for more information.
The Playtest and Playback checkboxes underneath the Anim button provide some options for music playtesting when using certain objects.
When Playtest is enabled, selected objects will impact how the music line works. For example, speed portals will change the line's speed and Arrow triggers will change its direction.
When Playback is enabled, music playtesting will start from the location of that object.
This only applies to specific gameplay objects, such as the following:
Orbs and portals
Arrow, Teleport, and Timewarp triggers
This is where you can set object colors. You can also set what text objects say in this menu.
Objects will either have a “Base” color, a “Detail” color, or both. This doesn’t mean much at this stage; just know that some objects can have two color channels and some cannot. There's more info on this in the Using Channels guide.
To change an object's color, choose its "Base" or "Detail" tab, then click on one of the buttons. Each numbered button, along with the "P-Col 1", "P-Col 2", "Light BG", and "Default" buttons, are color channels. You can change their color by clicking on the color square in the bottom right.
You can use the Next Free button to select the next unused color channel, the HSV button to modify an object's colors independent of its color channel, and the RGB button to adjust a color channel in real-time. Clicking the RGB button a second time adjusts an object's HSV in real-time.
To copy an object’s properties, such as Z Layer and color, press the Copy Values button.
To paste Z layer to another object, press the Paste State button. This button will also paste groups from one object to another unless "Disable Paste State Groups" is enabled in editor settings. You can also do this by going to Edit Object and clicking the Copy and Paste buttons inside it.
You can use Paste Color to paste an object’s colors to another object. As with Paste State, you can also do this by going to Edit Object and clicking the Copy and Paste buttons inside it.